Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PlayStation 3)

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Description

Tommy Vercetti is a gangster who just got off a fifteen year prison sentence for not squealing on his friends. Because he didn't rat out his "family", Tommy's sent to work with Sonny Forelli, his old boss. Sonny gives him an easy drug job, but everything goes wrong, and Tommy loses everything. Upon returning to Sonny, he gets mad and wants his money back. Unfortunately, everybody in Vice City, from gangsters and Cubans to bikers and politicians are in his way, and it's up to Tommy to clear a path.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City offers the same free-roaming driving and action gameplay style as its predecessor, but in a new setting based on the city of Miami. The game includes all the features of the previous installment and builds upon them. There are new cars in the game, reminiscent of typical vehicles from the 1980's. Some cars are earlier models of the vehicles from GTA III. A few missions also involve the protagonist navigating a boat.

New to this installment is the ability to drive motorcycles. Tommy can drive a variety of two-wheeled vehicles, from huge Harley-esque bikes to dirt bikes to a standard motorcycle. Flying is also a bigger part of the game, as the player can fly small planes and helicopters, traveling from area to area, landing on helipads on top of towering skyscrapers.

Firearms are for the most part the same as in GTA III, and melee weapons have been added to the protagonist's arsenal. Tommy can use riot batons, crowbars, and a few others. Activities outside of the missions (driving taxis, delivering sick people to hospitals, firefighting and playing a vigilante policeman) are available as well.

To effectively capture the mood of the 1980s, the soundtrack has been altered to fit the time period. Players will listen to an estimated nine hours of music (nearly three times the amount featured in the previous game) across ten radio stations. The eclectic mix features such noteworthy titles as I Ran by Flock of Seagulls, The Message by Grandmaster Flash, You've Got Another Thing Coming by Judas Priest, and Out of Touch by Hall & Oates.

Screenshots

There are no PlayStation 3 screenshots for this game.

There are 107 other screenshots on file for other versions of this game.

Alternate Titles

• "侠盗车手：罪恶都市" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
• "GTA: vice city" -- Informal/slang
• "GTA:VC" -- Common abbreviation

Part of the Following Groups

• BPjS / BPjM indexed games
• Gameplay feature: Chainsaws
• Genre: Open world / Free-roaming / Sandbox action and driving
• Grand Theft Auto series
• Graphics Engine: RenderWare
• PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits releases
• PlayStation 2 Platinum Range releases
• Portability Engine: Cider
• Protagonist: Gangster
• Technology: amBX

User Reviews

There are no reviews for the PlayStation 3 release of this game. You can use the links below to write your own review or read reviews for the other platforms of this game.

The Press Says

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Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
How to do this stupid the driver mission	2	St. Martyne (3562) Sep 21, 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Bugs

On the (North American) PlayStation 2 version of this game, memory card data can get corrupted when the game is saved at the Ice Cream Factory.

Commodore 64

The second Rockstar Logo sequence that appears before each game pays homage to the Commodore 64. The blue on blue screen, the quality of the music, and even the load command accurately model the most popular home computer (especially for gaming) in the late eighties.

Controversy

In December 2003, the New York City's Human Rights Commission demanded that Take Two removed the phrase "Kill Haitians" from Vice City after Haitian groups complained about this.

Take 2 responded:

As with literature, movies, music and other forms of entertainment, we have strived to create a video game experience with a certain degree of realism, which we believe is our right. Nevertheless, we are aware of the hurt and anger in the Haitian community and have listened to the community's objections to certain statements made in the game. Accordingly, we will remove the objectionable statements from future copies of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

DJs

Among the connections this 'prequel' has with the original Grand Theft Auto III are the return of younger versions of some of the radio DJs.

• Lazlow (whose real life counterpart is responsible for writing a lot of the radio dialogue), the talk radio Chatterbox personality returns as a young DJ starting out trying to convince everyone that he's a hard core rebel on the rock and roll station, V-ROCK.
• Toni (Maria Chambers), was Flashback-FM's aging pop groupie DJ in GTA III. In Vice City, she not only sounds younger and naive, but a good chunk of her material plays into her GTA III material (for example, yes, she HAS been on fire). Her 80’s station? Appropriately enough, named Flash FM
• And in a twist, Fernando Martinez (Frank Chavez), who ran the pseudo-legal prostitution ring ads euphemistically called 'Fernando's New Beginnings' got his start as a Vice City radio DJ on Emotion 98.3. In between playing emotive records, he’s already begun his pimping ways.

Dundee

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was created by Rockstar North, a division of Rockstar Games. Rockstar North was previously known as DMA Design. DMA Design was originally located in the Scottish City of Dundee. In 2000 the company moved to Leith in Edinburgh.

Located near the airport is a sign mocking Dundee. It has a picture of a ship on it (Called the RRS Discovery) and the word "Dundee" very similar to that used by the local council when promoting Dundee. There is also some text saying something along the lines of "We have a ship that belonged to a loser".

For more information on Dundee try www.dundee.com www.dundeecity.gov.uk

German version

On March 29, 2003, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2) was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. For more information about what this means and to see a list of games sharing the same fate, take a look here: BPjS/BPjM indexed games. After the game has been banned in Germany, publisher Take 2 released a new, censored version. Rated 16, you can recognize the edited game by its white edges on the cover.

The changes are:

• People on the ground can't be hurt with melee weapons
• Blood effects when hurting people were removed
• No decapitations
• Killed people don't leave money behind
• The Rampage missions were removed
• Two regular missions were removed: Messing with the Man and Dirty Lickin's

Guinness World Records

As of 2008, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is listed by Guinness World Records as the biggest selling game of 2002 and the best-selling PlayStation 2 game of all time.

Movie studio

In the movie lot located in Prawn Island, there is some set that looks like Broadway. If you take a look, you´ll notice that is the set of Staunton Island (Liberty City) even with the same advertisements.

References

• In one of the assassination missions you get from the payphones the targets are called Nico Carter and Marcus Hammond which is a nod to the two main characters in the game The Getaway.
• The remote control helicopter used in the mission 'Demolition Man' closely resembles the helicopter which is piloted in one level of Blood Money, a game developed by DMA Design (now Rockstar North) for the Commodore Amiga computer.
• In the Malibu Club, the band performing on the stage of the club is an obvious parody on the Village People.

Sales

Vice City was a massive success for Rockstar. Electronics Boutique sold more than 500,000 copies on the game's first day of release, and more 250,000 in the UK.

Soundtrack

You can buy the soundtrack in your record-store. But try to get the German version - it has more tracks on it, than the US-version, due to some copyright difficulties.

Swimming pool

There is a mansion on Starfish Island, by the shore, with a peculiar swimming pool. If you look at it from above (looking south) you'll see that it has the shape of a woman's torso, and some rocks at its bottom look like a bikini.

Telephone numbers

You can call the telephone numbers that are being advertised on the radio or elsewhere. They work.

Weapons

As of 2009, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the only GTA game not to feature the AK-47.

Windows release

Windows version of this game was accidentally put on shelves 5 days before right release date. After that many gameshops put out this game 1 or 2 days before right release date.

Vice Point building

From 23:00 to 23:59 in-game time, the Vice Point building's lit windows form a figure which looks like a penis.

Awards

• 4Players
  • 2002– Best PS2 Game of the Year
  • 2002– Best PS2 Action Game of the Year
  • 2002 – #2 Best PS2 Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
  • 2002– Best PS2 Action Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
  • 2003 – Best PC Game of the Year
• Computer Games Magazine
  • March 2004 - #2 Game of the Year 2003
• Computer Gaming World
  • March 2004 (Issue #236) – Best Music of the Year
• GameSpy
  • 2002 – PS2 Game of the Year (Readers' Choice)
  • 2002 – Best Music of the Year (PS2)
  • 2003 – #2 PC Game of the Year
  • 2003 – PC Action/Adventure Game of the Year
• Golden Joystick Awards
  • 2003 - PS2 Game of the Year
• PC Games (Germany)
  • Issue 02/2004– Best Game in 2003 (Readers' Vote)
  • Issue 02/2004– Best Action Game in 2003 (Readers' Vote)
• PC Powerplay (Germany)
  • Issue 07/2006 - #8 Best Packaging
• Retro Gamer
  • October 2004 (Issue #9) – #15 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by Bob Shand, Emepol, Felix Knoke, festershinetop, Jeremy Petho, keth, Marshall Leslie, Maw, Medicine Man, MegaMegaMan, PCGamer77, piltdown man, Sciere, tarmo888, WildKard and Xoleras

Related Web Sites

• Grand Theft Auto Vice City (Official Website)
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City at Wikipedia (Provides information at a neutral view, free to edit by anyone.)
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - Japanese (Official Japanese site)
• GTA: Vice City at GTAGaming (Information site about all things Vice City.)
• IGCD Internet Game Cars Database (Game page on IGCD, a database that tries to archive vehicles found in video games.)
• Kent Paul´s 80s Nostalgia Zone! (Kent Paul´s personal webpage regarding the 1980s (including his time in Vice City).)