#8:

GTAVC6.jpg

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Tommy Vercetti picked up the following awards personally:
'Most cruisy boulevard'
'Best hotel room'
'Most atmospheric city'
'Most roller skating bikini girls'
'Best mafia real estate sim'
'Best rock radio channel'


One of my best friends and me were insanely hyped for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Luckily it surpassed all our expectations by a mile and after playing through all over again about year ago I can happily say it still is an incredible game.

None of that modern GTA stuff I don’t like, hurray! Scriptedness is held to a minimum and so are rubber banding, hand holding and one-man-army-ism (to a certain extend). The missions boast more freedom than any other GTA to let our creative minds get to work and that’s exactly the way I like it. Finishing a mission the way I want to with whatever I want to use gives an extra sense of accomplishment.


With a compelling story, a ton of sidequests, the most successful humour in the series, a good climax and near-perfect pacing I think I spent at least 500 hours in Vice City and I loved every minute of it. It came to a point where my buddy and me came up with our own challenges as if getting 100% wasn’t enough. And I got 100%. Twice. It was that good.


Oh Rockstar and your crazy rewards.

GTAVC8.jpg


Last thing I want to point out that Vice City was the perfect size to comprehend. I could remember every alleyway, every escape route, every landmark, almost all hidden packages or unique jumps and drive anywhere without using the map at all. I think in this sense the following GTA’s all became too big for their own good.


I didn’t just play GTA: Vice City; I lived in it and it was epic.