Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Rating:
Summary: Despite minor flaws, Rockstar continues to dazzle with Vice
Review: This game has now been out for more than a year and with the release of its follow-up "GTA: San Andreas" just months away, Vice City is still well worth a look for anyone who hasn't played it yet.
Naysayers have protested that Vice City only offers "more of the same" of what made GTA 3 a breakthrough success. Well, this is true to some extent, but the interactive environment has also been substantially tweaked, with a large number of indoor areas (including a huge mall) adding to the game's immersiveness. There are also puchasable properties contribtuing an extra dimension to main character Tommy Vercetti's meteoric rise as a crimelord. The availability of helicopters, motorcyles, and planes more than makes up for the lack of a subway in Vice City.
My criticisms of the game are minor. Firstly, while most of the radio programming is great, some of the scripting for the talk shows simply doesn't match the invetiveness of the previous game and is occasionally downright weak. Secondly, it has often been said that Vice City's grapihcs are behind the times. While I agree, it seems to me that this was a trade-off to enable the construction of a huge virtual world with a manageable game engine. Even if the 3D modelling isn't quite up to Max Payne standards, the gameplay, storyline, and indeed the very game-concept are so far superior to Max's as to put Vice City in a different league entirely.
My favorite addition to Vice City is the availablity of an Apache helicopter as an unlockable feature. With or without the "Brown Thunder" sub-mission engaged, you can reek havoc on a scale only dreamt of by veterans of GTA 3.