Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - PC

I'm having a ball playing this game. I've kind of been away from computer games for a few years--just too busy to play. Recently, I bought Halo, and then bought a few more games. GTA: Vice City is one of the new bunch. And I'm very glad I got it. It's not perfect, no. A couple of missions, like the infamous Demolition Man, are teeth-grindingly bad--there should be a way to just accept failure on non-crucial missions, not get any reward for it, and just move on to the next mission, but I found that if I avoided completing Demolition Man long enough, eventually I ran up against a brick wall and couldn't progress, so I had to go back and do it. Since I'm playing an a notebook PC with no keypad and no joystick, I actually had to go out and buy a cheap gamepad just to complete that one mission! Pretty annoying. But other than that, I love the game. It's a great way to get rid of a long day's frustration. And I love loading up my favorite 80s tunes into the "MP3" station so that they'll play while I drive around town, with just a little hiss of static like a real car radio. So in spite of some less-than-perfect moments, I still give it 5 stars. By the way, this game will run fine on a 1.4G, 256MB Centrino notebook (which has a 64MB "virtual video card" that steals memory from the main RAM)--a bit slow loading, and the graphics are probably not at their best, but it runs with no real problems.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was one of the most controversial video games of it's time. Many parents, mothers especially, were outraged at the amount of violence, the encouraging of crime, and the biggest culprit, the sex that is alluded to in the game. Well, as shown with "Married With Children" and "Family Guy", the only thing these protests did was made the game more well known and sought after. This is when I knew I had to have this game. With so many people talking about it, even if it were as bad as some select parents cried about, I knew it would still be good. Well, I was right. Having played all of the GTA games, I would have to say that Vice City still ranks as one of, if not, the best of the series. Based on the early 80's, this game captured the era so well. From everything from the music on the radio, to the tacky clothing everyone was wearing, and even the fast cars you'd know automatically that this was definitely the 80's. The soundtrack was defintely one of the highlights of this game. Not only did it make the game feel that much more authentic as you drive down the street in your Lamborghini Countach (differently named in-game of course), but the music wasn't terrible to listen too, either. The song selection is outstanding, and almost every song emphasizes the era in some way or another. The DJs of the radio stations are a little too stereotypical for my tastes, but the voice-over artists made it work. Commercials were generally comical and fun to listen to, and even to this day I still refer to Jack Howitzer and Giggle Cream as an inside joke. The supporting characters were well placed in the game, and the dialogue was impressive. Each person was stereotypical in their own way, but to a humorous point. Many of the supporting characters don't last long, as they generally fade away the further into the plot you go, but even the smallest of roles were well done and seemed necessary even if they were not. I don't want to spoil the game too much, even though it being over 6 years old, so I won't go much more into the characters in the game. Once you play the game, you'll get a feel for it, anyway. Finally, on to the gameplay. Being marketed as a free roam game is what made Grand Theft Auto the game it is today, and also prevents any game in the series from being just another game on your shelf. The fact that you can pop in the game at any given time, drive around killing people, or whatever else you deem fun, and it needing not have anything to do with the storyline is what, in my mind, makes for a great game. Well, in that aspect, this game passes on all levels. Mix that with one hell of a storyline and some of the greatest graphics of it's time, this game was amazing to play, especially if playing for the first time. Now, as with most anything, not everything is perfect. While this game is amazing in many aspects, there are also some cons, one of which is the map size. When you start playing the game, you have to do a select number of mission to unlock the rest of the map, which to you at the time seems like a vast wonderland of murder, sex, and stealing cars. Not soon enough do you realize, however, that the map is very small. Getting from one side of the map to the other takes no more than 5-7 minutes, at most. Now the upside to a small map is knowing how to navigate it sooner; something especially good for missions, but if you want to roam around away from the missions, you'll find yourself getting bored within the hour. Another big downfall with the game is the damage meter on any vehicle. When doing missions, you need to get from one place on the map to another. Seeing the AI is terrible, you'll end up hitting a lot of cars/people essentially killing your car. This can be a huge pain if you're limited to that 1 car for the mission (i.e. Taxi missions) and the mission ends when the car goes A-Splode. Another thing is when a car flips upside-down, it immediately catches fire and blows up; another pain in the ass seeing you have no chance to steal another car and try to flip over your now totaled vehicle. All things considered, this game is good. If not for the few cons that plague it, this would be a great game and get 5 stars. Cons aside, I still find myself coming back to this game time and time again meaning that Rockstar Games did something right. If you haven't played this game, I would indefinitely recommend it.

I played this game a long time ago and wanted to try it again. The graphics might seem outdated if you are used to playing the latest high-resolution games. However, as a non-gamer they have always worked well for me. The best thing about the game is that you can complete missions or just fool around, race and complete rampages. My latest goal is to complete the game without using any cheats at all!

What I love most about Vice City is its 80's style, the music, the colors, the cars is all just a great atmosphere. I still think the graphics hold up well, for 2002 it's amazing. Overall, a very fun game, it has beautiful scenery sometimes I just find my self cruising the city at night because the punk lights look so nice, an if your a fan of Brian De Palma's Scarface definately check this out.

This is one of the best and most influential games of all times. There is only one problem: it won't run on a current system. First it didn't like my Video Cards; gForce 8800s It can NOT adjust to my controller at all. If you use a controller that has an analogue system (like the PS1/ps2 controllers) it will not be able to accept proper commands. There is no way to invert or reverse the X/Y axis. So up is left and right is down. It's imposable to get used to doing everything in the wrong order. Half my buttons don't work even though the settings options can read them. The game refuses to recognize my sound card (X-Fi Pro) for what it is, giving me only bare mono sound. It chokes constantly crashing for no reason and freezing the system even though I have 8Gb of ram. Works alright on my old system, but that defeats the premise of a gaming machine.

Far better than San Andreas and a huge improvement of GTA3. Best addition: MOTORCYCLES. Also you can buy properties and houses which leads to more save spots and more missions to do. Excellent game overall when compared to the others in the series. Alhough it is still rockstar, which means it has its frustrating points. Cars still randomly explode when you flip em. And it is extremely easy to die. But still fun for a couple of hours. Not worth the money though guys, for lack of replayability.

Great game and I really enjoyed it when it first released, BUT the graphics on the PC have aged terribly and I even have a brand new graphics card and drivers and it still looked pathetic, Vice City just doesn't do it for me anymore when there are better games out now that have move features and better graphics.

Got the copy today, it was exactly what I wanted, brand new sealed. I opened the case and installed the game, I was slightly worried it would not install properly or not read because it was a UK copy and I am in the US, but I installed the game and launched it and it worked. If you are looking for a physical copy of Vice City on PC this is what you want. Mouse Fix: If mouse won't click on options in game just right click shortcut, then go to properties, then compatibility, check disable visual themes, then apply.