Grand Theft Auto, Vice City

Genre: Sandbox game
Release date: PlayStation 2
^NA October 27, 2002
^AUS November 8, 2002
^EU November 8, 2002
Windows
^NA May 12, 2003
^AUS May 20, 2003
^EU May 15, 2003
^Steam January 4, 2008
Xbox
^NA October 31, 2003
^AUS January 2, 2004
^EU January 2, 2004

Game history:

Vice City draws much of its inspiration from 1980s American culture. Set in 1986 in Vice City, a fictional city modeled after Miami, the story revolves around Mafia member Tommy Vercetti, who was recently released from prison. After being involved in a drug deal gone wrong, Tommy seeks out those responsible while building a criminal empire and seizing power from other criminal organizations in the city. The game uses a tweaked version of the game engine used in Grand Theft Auto III and similarly presents a huge cityscape, fully populated with buildings, vehicles, and people. Like other games in the series, Vice City has elements from driving games and third-person shooters, and features "open-world" gameplay that gives the player more control over their playing experience.

Upon its release, Vice City became the best-selling video game of 2002. As of July 2006, Vice City was, in the American market, the best-selling PlayStation 2 game of all time. Vice City also appeared on Japanese magazine Famitsu's readers' list of the favorite 100 videogames of 2006, the only fully-Western title on the list.^[2] Following this success, Vice CityEurope, Australia and Japan, as well as a release for the PC. Rockstar Vienna also packaged the game with its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto III, and sold it as Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack for the Xbox. Vice City's setting is also revisited in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, which serves as a prequel to events in Vice City. saw releases in

Game description:

Because Vice City was built upon Grand Theft Auto III, the game follows a largely similar gameplay design and interface with GTA III with several tweaks and improvements over its predecessor. The gameplay is very open-ended, a characteristic of the Grand Theft Auto franchise; although missions must be completed to complete the storyline and unlock new areas of the city, the player is able to drive around and visit different parts of the city at his/her leisure and otherwise, do whatever they wish if not currently in the middle of a mission. Various items such as hidden weapons and packages are also scattered throughout the landscape, as it has been with previous GTA titles.

Players can steal vehicles, (cars, boats, motorcycles, and even helicopters) partake in drive-by shootings, robberies, and generally create chaos. However, doing so tends to generate unwanted and potentially fatal attention from the police (or, in extreme cases, the FBI and even the National Guard). Police behavior is mostly similar to Grand Theft Auto III, although police units will now wield night sticks, deploy spike strips to puncture the tires of the player's car, as well as SWAT teams from flying police helicopters and the aforementioned undercover police units, à la-Miami Vice. Police attention can be neutralized in a variety of ways.

Influences: 'Vice City draws much of its inspiration from 1980s American culture.'

Controversial aspects of the game:

Attacking a Haitian gang in Little Haiti. The game was accused of inviting people to harm immigrant Cubans and Haitians, and featuring anti-Haitian and anti-Cuban phrases.

Like Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has been labeled as violent and explicit is considered highly controversial by many special interest groups some of whom suggest that parental supervision is necessary when young people play this game, since children were never the game's intended audience.