I will be the first to admit that I haven't always been hanging with the popular kids when it comes to gaming. When people where falling all over the NES I was still on a Commodore 64. When people were destroying their eyesight on that blurry mess called a Gameboy, I was happily playing with the Atari Lynx. And yes... I was one of the 3 people who didn't have a PSX, my Saturn was treating me quite well since I discovered importing. So it will not come as any surprise that I didn't play Grand Theft Auto III since I did not own a PS2.

I finally did manage to snag a PS2 but I actually opted out of getting GTAIII since Vice City was only a couple months away. Instead, I caught up on a lot of new classics for dirt cheap prices, along with some other assorted gems before that last week in October. I'm actually happy I did that since I got to play a lot of different great games in the meantime while not burning out on GTA before playing the new one. Basically, my review is a fresh take on the series which is probably a rare thing since I think a few people bought GTAIII.

Why did Grand Theft Auto: Vice City appeal to me? First of all, I did play a few minutes of GTAIII and I did realize it was a fun game. The open endedness of the gameplay and havoc your can wreak is just appealing for a video game. Add in the mix of gameplay styles like driving around in cars and collecting firepower just works by itself, why wouldn't it be better with all of the additional added features? Easily the biggest appeal of Vice City, however, was the 80's theme. Like many others out there, I have a lot of fond memories of the 80's. I'm an 80's music junkie, etc etc. I'm not going to lie and say that the 80's were the coolest of times... but I just love the hokey decade.

Enter Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Modeled after Miami, Vice City is a town where the 80's explodes all over your PS2. From the neon night club signs to the awful floral print shirts, Vice City isn't so much of an accurate depiction of the decade as it is a caricature, which really isn't a bad thing. Let's face it, there is a lot of fun to be had by goofing on the 80's. You take control of Tommy Vercetti, who is expertly voiced by Ray Liotta, as you try to find out who double crossed you in the beginning of the game, robbing you of everything you flew into town with.

So here you are, fresh out of prison, no money, no hardware and an angry mob boss breathing down your neck. What's a good fella to do? You set up shop of course, and thus the magic and fun of Vice City begins. I now realize why GTAIII sold so many copies. GTA:VC is a wonderfully open ended game that should provide anyone with hours and hours and hours of gaming insanity.

I really enjoyed the way the game progressed in Vice City. It was really rare to get a part where there just wasn't anything to do. This helped out a lot during the times when you would get stuck on a mission and just needed to divert your attention elsewhere. The game even has built in stress relief as you can just go on a rampage if you get frustrated with a mission or task. How can you go wrong with that? The diversity in the missions are also a big plus to the game. Many of the missions are multi-part and feature all kinds different things to do as well as a myriad of ways to complete the tasks at hand. Should you barge in with your Colt Python blazing or should you hang back and pick off your targets at a safe distance with a sniper rifle? These are the questions that you will have to ask yourself while you are having fun experimenting with all of the different ways of creating carnage.

To help you along in the missions, you will have plenty of fire power at your disposal and you can carry plenty of it with you. You are limited to carry only one of each type of weapon which shouldn't be a problem for anyone. Being armed with a brass knuckles, a golf club, Colt Python, pump shotgun, assault rifle, Uzi, Molotov Cocktails, flame thrower and laser scoped semi auto sniper rifle should be enough to get you by. Luckily, it isn't too hard to stock up on ammo and weapons since they are all over the place. It is also worth finding the hidden packages since they tend to give you nice weapons that are always available at major save houses.

The selection of transportation in the game is also staggering. It's like being a kid in a candy store when it comes to picking out a set of wheels that you want to drive around in. There's plenty of cars that look a lot like most of our favorite 80's sport models. Then there are the sturdier sedans, bulky trucks, crotch rockets, hogs, and even oddball vehicles like golf carts and pizza delivery mopeds. You're not limited to the ground either since you can now snag helicopters in addition to boats. There has been many hours spent just driving or flying around and learning the layout of the city while you relax and listen to the radio.

The radio stations in GTAIII were some of the best reasons why people loved the game so much. Vice City is no different and actually expands upon the idea to a staggering degree. Not only is just about all of the music real 80's tunes, but there are two talk stations this time around and a ton more phony commercials to keep you laughing. I could listen to Lawrence Taylor's spots for days. Actually, I have! They're hysterical and really add to the immense personality of the game. The stations cover most of the major music scenes that were happening in the 80's from pop to new wave and even early hip hop. I bought the boxed set of the music from the game because I liked it so much. The time and effort that Rockstar North put into this part of the game is just awe inspiring.

In addition to the standard story missions and the side story missions, you also have all kinds of other treats to uncover. For instance, if you get on a particular PGC 600, you can trigger an event where you have to perform precision rooftop stunts around the city. Or perhaps you would like to nab the pizza moped and deliver some pizzas for a prize of an additional 50 points of health? How about some vigilanti missions that you get when you jack a police car? Perhaps you'd like to race around a beach track with some RC racers? When you buy businesses, they generally come with missions that enable the property to generate cash after you complete them.

On top of all of that, you even have a series of 'rampages' which you trigger whenever you run across a skull icon. Rampages are timed mini-missions which generally involve you ruining a bunch of people's days with a specific weapon. The benefit to these are an ever increasing cash payoff and a lot of stress relief. There's just so much to do in Vice City that you will often find yourself getting distracted from the main missions to just either goof around or find some hidden packages and whatever other trouble you might find yourself getting into.

The graphics in Vice City are pretty decent for how ambitious the title is. Let's face it, the game engine is pumping out a huge persistent city complete with traffic and people that go about their own business. Cops will chase down other criminals, people will get into accidents and gang wars break out all of the time. With all of that going on, I feel the characters look respectable enough and the game usually manages a constant framerate. I did turn the 'trails' effect off though since it seemed a bit over done. The performance seemed to pick up as well after disabling that feature. The camera was a little unfriendly when you were trying to run around closed quarters, but it usually is pretty decent. All in all, you should be pretty pleased with what you see in GTA:VC.

I have mentioned the radio already, but the rest of the game's aural experience is nothing to scoff at. There is a TON of things going on in this game to hear at all times. All of the vehicles sound great as the different engines whine depending on what type of car they are. Explosions and gunfire rock your speakers as they all have their own distinct sounds. Then there is the awesome voice acting which is handled by a load of Hollywood stars. But that's not all, there's even a ton of lines that the Vice City inhabitants kick out as you cross them in the streets. Again, the amount of effort put into these parts of the game are staggering. It's even more amazing considering the relatively short development time between GTAIII and Vice City.

In the end, I can't really say if you won't get burnt out on Vice City if you played 100's of hours of GTAIII already. I haven't grown tired of the game and I can't foresee myself doing so anytime soon. The game certainly has legs and easily will sell millions upon millions of copies, and deservedly so. The game is insane amounts of fun and doesn't hold back at all. It is a reason to own a PS2. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a blockbuster for a lot of reasons. Now go back to playing it.