Developer: Rockstar Games
Release Date: Out Now
RRP: $54.99, £34.99

Going from GTA 2 to GTA III was quite a jump, turning one of the worlds most rebellious games into 3D. They did this fairly well, and besides the odd graphical glitch, it can be said to be the best GTA yet. In Vice City, Rockstar have added an extra twist to the whole idea. As you are probably well aware, in the last 3 games you play the hands on guy, the guy who does all the dirty work, well not any more. Tommy Vercetti (you) has had enough of being the messenger boy, and he has now decided to take control for himself!
 

Once again Vice City was originally brought out on the PS2, and because of this the graphics aren’t as good as they should be. Admittedly though, they are pretty good,  and it’s obvious that extra work graphically has gone into the PC version of VC. The one advantage of not having top notch graphics are the loading times, VC loads very quickly, and this is essential for the time of gameplay.

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This time round I have found no problems with the graphics engine, and I have played it on a few machines. Graphically you could say Vice City is a little dated, but when you see how much detail has gone into the game, slightly dated graphics doesn’t matter in the slightest. All the little extra’s, little sounds which just make you laugh, things people say, this game seems to have had a lot of time spent on it.

System Tested On	Verdict
P4 2.4 533FSB 1024Mb DDR RAM Geforce 4 Ti 4400 128Mb	Runs like a dream at 1280x1024 with all features enabled and draw distance to almost full
Pentium 3 933MHz 384MB PC133 Geforce 2 GTS 32MB	Graphics no higher then 800x600 otherwise unplayable, even then some loss of frame rates, but still very playable.
P4 3.06 Laptop 512Mb DRR RAM Ati Mobility Radion 9000 64Mb	Runs well at 800x600, still a little glitchy, but the v1.1 patch fixes that.

So what is the big difference between VC and GTA III? Well the main thing is the mission structure, but don’t worry, it’s no too different. You still have missions to do for different people, but you often have to do them for yourself. You start out with a drug deal going wrong and you have to investigate the problem You then start double crossing, betraying your bosses and taking over the town. There are lots of different places to buy, from a car dealership to an ice cream company controversially called “Cherry Poppers”. There are other little additions to the game such as the ability to ride motor bikes, fly planes (really fly planes, not like in GTA III) and helicopters! You can also blow out tyres, which annoyingly the police take advantage of with their stingers!

And again Rockstar have invented some very controversial and incredibly funny radio stations and adverts. This time they have added a rock station, called VRock which plays some classic rock tunes DJ’d by a Laszlo, a big headed rock loving rebellious madman who likes hitting phones with his head. They have taken the typical radio stations, pirate radio, chat shows, discussions, rock stations, pop stations, and the rest and blown up the presenters’ ego. This with mimicking the stereotypical US commercials makes your choice of in car entertainment never ending, and “if” you get board you can play your own MP3’s.

All the controls are the same as GTAIII accept for the addition of pitch control for the helicopters, which is a little tricky to get used to but once you get the hang of it it's childs play. Sadly though, Rockstar haven’t added a multiplayer mode to the game, I only hope that in the next incarnation of Grand Theft Auto, they decide to add a multiplayer option

All in all Vice City is almost perfect! The only thing that is still very annoying is that you can’t swim, and you seem to be severely allergic to water. Beyond that though all the little things that have gone into VC (the hidden packages, the Voodoo with the hydraulic suspension, being able to dive out of a moving car and more) make VC a game that you just cannot put down. This is a must have for any over 18 year old!