Well as a little change instead of doing yet another movie review I thought I would have a look at a video game and I will be focusing on the re-release of Grand Theft Auto Vice City, as its now been 10 years since its originally came out for the PS2. I am myself a big fan of the game and was one of the proud owners of Vice City when it first came out on the PS2, as it was back in my college days and I wiled away many idle hours playing GTA, so much so I eventually completed it 100%, which took quite a while I can tell you!
So this post will really focus on the game itself and not so much the re-released version for the IOS Apple and the Android OSs, mainly because as I have a Samsung galaxy 2 android phone, the re-released 10th anniversay version has been postponed due to validation errors when you try to download it, which is a real bummer, as I was looking forward to playing it on its scheduled release date on 6th December last week. And the updated version apparently is more graphically enhanced than the PS2 edition, which no doubt it will be, as obviously the character models were pretty crude and basic looking in comparison to today's games. However the game itself won't have changed much at all, so let's have a look at that instead.
To begin with let's have a look at the plot, as the game is set in 1986 with the main character, Tommy Vercetti (voice by Ray Liotta) having just been released from prison from a 15 year sentence for killing eleven men. Tommy's mob boss, Sonny Forelli (Tom Sizemore) sends him out to Vice City, where he meets up with mob lawyer Ken Rosenberg (William Fichtner) who he does some business with. Sonny sets up some cocaine deals for Tommy to head up, but at one of the deals, there is an ambush and he loses both the money and the cocaine. Tommy after having a heated phone call with Sonny swears he will get his money back and kill whoever was responsible. From this point through Ken, Tommy meets up with another drug dealer, Juan Garcia Cortez (Robert Davi) who helps make some enquiries as to who was behind the ambush, and he also meets with Cortez's daughter, Mercedes. Along the way Tommy also meets a British record producer, Kent Paul (Danny Dyer), a real estate dealer Avery Carrington (Burt Reynolds), and Lance Vance (Philip Michael Thomas) who was the brother of one of the men present at the drug deal who was killed, and Lance is out for revenge.
Tommy and Lance become business partners, and together they discover that the man behind the hit on the cocaine was in fact Ricardo Diaz (Luis Guzman). Lance himself goes to try and take out Diaz, but he fails, leaving Tommy with no choice but to save Lance from being killed. Once Tommy rescues Lance, the two men go to Diaz's mansion and they kill him, after which Tommy takes over Diaz's mansion. After this Tommy's business enterprises expand as he and Lance become the drug kingpins in Vice city, and buys over near bankrupt businesses such as a strip club, a car lot, a night club, a parking lot and a counterfeiting print shop and turns them into successful money spinners. However all is soon not well, as Tommy's hotheaded nature makes him somewhat selfish as he refuses to pay tribute to Sonny, by giving any cut of his earnings to his boss, as well as disobeying his orders. Lance also becomes somewhat paranoid and exhibits signs of insecure and irrational behaviour as he feels left out by Tommy, who belittles him at times. And its not long before Sonny is forced to confront Tommy at his mansion as he sends his men to force him to give up money from his assets, which leads to a final shootout.
GTA Vice City is without a doubt one of the best games from the 2000s, as it takes the impressive and immersive sandbox world of GTA III and expands on it even further. In the Vice City there are several tweaks in gameplay from its predecessor, and there is a larger variety of vehicles such as motorcycles, scooters, helicopters, planes and boats. Movement wise there are also improvements as now Tommy for example can crouch giving his a better vantage point in certain missions when he wants to take cover and snipe his enemies. There is also the nifty inclusion of moves such as where Tommy can leap into an open top car and drive off, which we didn't get before in GTA III. There is also a much larger variety of weapons than previously, as now Tommy has access to pistols, shotguns, sub-machine guns, sniper rifles, assault rifles, and even a chainsaw, as well as melee weapons such as swords, knives, baseball bats and even golf clubs!
Clearly the tone of Vice city borrows heavily from Miami Vice, and there are also traces of Brian De Palma's Scarface in there as well, especially one mission where Tommy chases a man down the street with a chainsaw. The game also features different gangs as well, one of which in particular is a gang of Haitians, which caused some controversy at the time it was released as Haitian groups in Florida accussed the game of having a potentially harmful effect on immigrants. The Haitian groups also accused Rockstar of the depiction of the groups in the game as it appeared to be almost a racist depiciton, based on some of the lines of dialogue that appear in the game, which were later edited out of the game.
However despite all that, its Vice city's overwhelming variety that helps make it such a great game, and there are other areas of variety to be found in there too, such as the large amount of vehicles available in the game with over 100 different choices of vehicle, with everything from a sports car, to motorcycle, to a bus and even a golf caddy car! There is also the inclusion of buying properties and business in the game which makes for a new feature, as buying these can help make Tommy more money in the game, as he will come back and make collections from the property over time. There are also of course side missions, such as taxi fares, driving injured people to hospital in ambulances, extinguish fires using a firetruck, and delivering pizzas! Graphically the game also features quite a few improvements as the environments in Vice city are much bigger in size, and the size of the city is pretty big, and different parts of the city become available as the game progresses.
But you cannot of course forget or relish in the ability to just go bananas in Vice City as well, creating chaos on the streets, and bringing a big wanted level on your ass is undeniably alot of fun. One of the funniest things that can happen in the game also as is when you blow up a car or something, a firetruck soon comes along and sprays its firehose, which quite often will blast Tommy right in the face if he gets in the way and sends him flying which is pertty funny! Although one of the newer features involving the police is they have the ability to lay down spikes on the road to puncture the wheels in your cars. Tommy as a character can also finally make a change of clothes as he can go into clothes stores and change outfit at certain points in the game, although in GTA San Andreas, the main character is given more choice when its comes to clothing.
The only things negative I would say about GTA Vice City is that its graphics, while are far from bad, they do look pretty basic in comparison to today's video games. Another thing is of course the amusing big spinning icons you get for extra health, with the big heart sign, or a spinning icon of a gun, and if you run over the icon you automatically get the upgrade, whether it be more heatlh or ammo. Its a far cry from the more realistic options you get in todays games where you have the option to bandage yourself up or take painkillers. But it does in a way highlight the game's cartoon-esque appeal, and it helps reinforce the fantasy of the game, and we aren't talking about a realistic gritty experience, its just pure fun. And finally one of the other things I didn't like about Vice City is when Tommy falls into the water, he instantly drowns, which I think is a bit unrealistic. This was the same in GTAIII, I mean surely didn't these guys learn how to swim????! Even if they couldn't swim they certainly wouldn't drown instantaneously like they do here! Obviously this was a bone of contention with fans as by the time we got to GTA San Andreas, they finally resolved this issue by giving the main character, CJ, the ability to swim in the ocean, and not only just merely swim, but swim like a champion swimmer at a hundred miles an hour!
As for the voice acting, well the cast on display are top notch, with Ray Liotta delivering an excellent performance as the main character, Tommy Vercetti, the hot tempered mobster, who makes it big in Vice city, and ends up getting himself in hot water. Although it has to be said that Tommy isn't all that likeable, as he comes across more like an arrogant asshole than anything else, so in a way its not surprising the heat he brings on himself. Philip Michael Thomas, who was previously a co-star in Miami Vice, is very good as Lance Vance, of which the name itself makes him a neurotic mess, as he himself states at one point in the game how his brothers and everyone at school used to taunt him about it. Lance later on of course out of feeling paranoid and left out by Tommy's enterprises, ends up betraying him to Sonny, leading to his own demise in the final confrontation between him and Tommy (OK just given it away!!).
Tom Sizemore is great as Sonny Forelli, Tommy's mafia boss, who is similarly hot headed and is resentful at Tommy for being cut out of his businesses as well, which leads to their fallout. William Fichtner is also very good as Ken Rosenberg, who was basically modelled on Sean Penn's character from Carlito's Way, David Kleinfeld, as a neurotic coke addled mob lawyer who does business with Tommy off and on throughout the game. Luis Guzman as the drug overlord, Ricardo Diaz is great as well, and he has several funny moments in the game, one of them being when he is out the front of his mansion shooting at birds with his shotgun, and another where he trashes his TV when he loses a racing bet, and he keeps calling everyone "dickheads!". Diaz's mansion is also based very close on the design of Tony Montana's in Scarface, especially in the climactic gunfights when Tommy takes out Diaz and when he faces off Sonny at the end.
There are also several supporting characters as well which provide plenty of humour and amusement, such as Kent Paul, the annoying Brit record producer, voice by Danny Dyer. Dennis Hooper also makes an amusing cameo as a porn director, Steve Scott, who in the game directs the character, Candy Suxx, voiced by the real-life former porn starlet, Jenna Jamieson. Lee Majors as the gang leader of a group of bikers, Big Mitch Baker, gives a really good account of himself here too, and finally Gary Busey is very funny as the half crazed former Vietnam vet, Phil Cassidy. Interestingly enough Phil Cassidy appears in GTA III, which was set later on in 2001 (the year of its release) where we see that Phil only has one arm, and he claims he lost in Nicaragua. But in Vice city we see that Phil actually lost the arm in an accident when he makes an unstable explosive cocktail called Boomshine, which explodes and takes off his arm with it!
Another prominent feature in Vice City and also one of its strengths is its extensive soundtrack, as there a vast variety of music tracks and what must about a dozen radio stations, featuring different styles of music such as rock, pop, rap, latin, jazz, and electro. Some of the tracks featured include rock/metal from Megadeth, Iron Maiden, David Lee Roth, Ozzy Osbourne, Twisted Sister, Judas Priest and even Slayer. Some pop tracks of the time include artists such as Blondie, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Michael Jackson, The Buggles, INXS, Talk Talk, Go West, A Flock of Seagulls, Kool and the Gang, Kate Bush, Spandau Ballet, and this game also introduced me to one of my favourite ever bands, The Fixx, who never quite made it, which is a great pity as they are great. The game also features a fictional rock band called Love Fist, who are a group of drunken Scottish bisexuals, who are fronted by the singer, Jezz Torrent (great name!) who is voice acted by Kevin McKidd (who is best known as Tommy from Trainspotting).
And just like in GTAIII there are a couple of chat radio stations, both of which are really funny and feature some pretty eccentric interviews. The first station is K-chat, which its host is a real air-headed lass called Amy Sheckenhausen, who either gushes or talks over her interviewees. One of Amy's interviews is a piss take of the late Steve Urwin, as she interviews an over enthusiastic animal lover, Mr Zoo, who is soon revealed to have been involved in a court case, as he got a bit too friendly with a dolphin. And the second is VCPR, Vice City Public Radio, which features a very funny debate show voiced by its fictional presenter, Maurice Chavez, who was once a failed entertainer (he used to be a clown and also tried to make his way into movies unsuccessfully). Some of Maurice's funniest debates, include a naked man who get's a bit too comfortable on the show, and an annoying promotional speaker, who Maurice eventually ends up hitting him in the face with a paperweight. Maurice also has two supervisors who continually put him down on air (probably when he's not listening) as one of them calls him at one point "a useless talentless asshole!". The game is also notable for its funny ads, some of which are very satirical and are worth a listen, as you will get a laugh out of them.
However, as a quick update (as of 16.12.12) I have played the Android version of Vice City, and despite some graphical improvements, unfortunately it has to be said its a pretty frustrating port of the game, as the game keeps freezing during missions, and its near impossible to aim your weapon at times, particular if its a rifle you are using. This is particularly frustrating in the mission Phnom Phem 86, where Tommy and Lance fly over a gang's hideout and Tommy has to shoot them from a chopper, as due to the infuriating skipping of the camera, its really tough to complete, and I kept failing the mission, and at the time of writing this, I STILL cannot complete it! (I might yet though!). So its up to Rockstar to try and resolve these issues with more updates, hopefully they can iron them out, otherwise playing Vice City on the Android system won't be a laugh, and you'd be best sticking to playing it on the PC or a PS2/3.
In spite all that however, GTA Vice City itself is a terrific game 10 years on. It has plenty of missions, provides plenty of laughs, and there is a tremendous amount of variety in its missions, tasks, side missions, as well as the sheer scale of the game, not to mention its terrific voice cast, and excellent soundtrack.
And with that I shall leave it there.
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