GTA: Vice City

How goes it my readers?   Well I missed Comic Con thanks to a butt ton of migraines so that sucked.  Today's foray into writing is an older subject I haven't done in a while, it's a video game.   Well it took me a while to get off of crappy WiFi and pick up Cox Cable again.   Yeah priorities are fun.   So I thought we would hit Steam for some classic mischief and nothing says classy like the world of Grand Theft Auto.   This is GTA: Vice City

Tools and the talent.

In the far-back time of 2002,  Rockstar Games gave us standard third-person perspective as we follow the story of Tommy Vercetti (Ray Liotta of Goodfellas, Unlawful Entry, No Escape, Corrina, Corrina, Cop Land, Revolver, Smokin' Aces and Narc).   A low ranking soldier of the Forelli family from Liberty City is back after a 15 year stretch in the iron bar hotel.  

The year is 1986 and his boss Sonny (Tom Sizemore of Heat, Red Planet, Blackhawk Down, Dreamcatcher, Born Killers and No Rules) feels his loyalty has earned him caporegime (Made Man, a boss among men) being put in charge of Vice City.    With a middleman, a crooked lawyer Ken the deal is set to go when out of nowhere, a three man hit squad smokes Tommy's bodyguards and the drug supplier.  Tommy and Ken flee while the gunmen take off with the cash and drugs.

All I asked was for Don Johnson's autograph!

Sonny is pissed and leaves it in Tommy's hands.  Tommy hits a yacht party hosted by a retired colonel Cortez (Robert Davi of Maniac Cop 2, Maniac Cop 3, Die Hard, License to Kill, Profiler and The Expendables 3) who brokered the coke deal and he wants answers too.   With a bit of mission working, Tommy starts piecing who screwed him and starts wacking wise guys like he has a hunting licence.   Bumping off a few key players in Vice City, Tommy and new partner Lance Vance (Phillip Michael Thomas of Miami Vice, The Wizard of Speed and Time, Extralarge: Black and White, Extralarge: Miami Killer, Swamp Thing, Extralarge: Moving Target and We Are Angels) the boys are sitting pretty on that much Colombian flake.




 

Meet pillars of the community.

Doesn't hurt to have a biker gang watching the compound and working with the Cuban gangs as business partners.    Tommy can also hide his money in buying out bankrupt companies, putting them back in the game and having additional earnings.

Let's talk about gameplay.  Standard W,A,S,D for movement, mouse for direction and of course index figure is firearms, melee like a bat, blade or brass knuckles and punch.  Yes you can "acquire" cars, trucks and bikes as you could in GTA III but all radio shows, music, chat formats are all 80s.   Gun, machine guns, SMGs, grenades, RPGs (Rocket Propelled Grenades), ball bats, a katana,  it's nuts what Tommy has to work with.  While some missions will be timed, overall you can explore the town, get the vibe of it and in general, have a blast.

Given we are in the wayback machine on this one, Vice City cannot help but look like Miami.    Dude, we have Lee Majors, Burt Reynolds, Danny Trejo, Gary Busey, Luis Guzman, Dennis Hopper all making voice appearances.  Including Blondie's Debbie Harry and Adult Actress Jenna Jameson as plot based characters.  Even NY Giants Lawrence Taylor is in on this.

Missions vary from delivering four flavors of ass whipping, to a remote control helicopter ride for demolitions and more gun fights than a game of Quake. 

Yes it is just as violent as say...almost any action, drama, crime drama or buddy cop film in the 80s and so what?  This can be one the kids play or not.  That is a parent call.

Nothing seamy going on here.  Honest.