Grand Theft Auto Vice City

Published by Rockstar Games
Developed by Rockstar North
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Released - Out Now
Age Rating: 18+
Price : £34.99

At long last the wait is finally over for PC gamers. The game, which dominated the pre-Christmas and early year sales charts, has finally made the move from the PlayStation 2 to PC. Of course the question that most PC owners wanted answered before the game was released was how well did the transfer from the PlayStation 2 to PC go? Was it simply a straight port? Let's take a look at the PC version of GTA Vice City and find out.

Vice City is set firmly in the 1980s. The clothes, the vehicles and the mannerisms of the characters reek of the 1980s. Immediately this will amaze those who remember the decade and it's films and TV shows. Rockstar North could simply have expanded upon GTA 3 but as their talents continue to blossom, it's becoming obvious that these are the chaps who could finally bring true cinematic quality to games software. The cutscenes are a testament to this statement. At times the quality of them (and no I'm not talking about the graphics) is amazing and you can't help but be impressed by them.

The game begins with a scene in Marco's Bistro in Liberty City. Tommy Vercetti (the character you control) is about to be released from prison and the family wants him out of the neighbourhood, as he's bad for business. They agree to send him to Vice City to establish a drug operation to bring the family some extra dirty cash. Tommy and his two associates travel to Vice City and are met by their contact, Ken, and arrange to purchase some 'merchandise'. The exchange goes horribly wrong when as the money is being handed over for the drugs an ambush occurs and all but Tommy and Ken are killed. This is where you come in to the game. Tommy has to pick up the pieces and not only get the drugs and money back but get revenge on those who killed his friends.

Of course you don't have to plough on with the story, you can just roam the city, much of which is shut off to begin with. GTA 3 was so popular because you could do what you wanted when you wanted and Vice City is exactly the same. The map in the lower left of the screen points the way to the next objective and when you are ready you simply make your way to the coloured zone to collect your mission orders. You can even buy up some of the local businesses, when you've earned enough cash to do so.

The one disappointment with me for this PC version is that it is more or less a straight port from the PlayStation 2 version. The characters still look far too angular for a modern day PC title. That said though the graphics look better because of the increased resolutions you can run the game at. The framerate still isn't brilliant either. Driving a high-speed car from one end of a city to the other reveals pop-up (even with draw distance set to maximum) and occasionally you'll receive a loading screen too (albeit for a split second). This highlights the fact that we have a straight port that is always disappointing considering the superiority of PC hardware. The game could and should have looked as good as titles such as Mafia.

Generally the game is good in it's provision for deaf gamers. There are a couple of areas that could have been improved upon though. First of all the cutscenes aren't subtitled by default, these have to be enabled. Some of the speech isn't subtitled either. This occurs in a cutscene if the screen goes black for a moment and the speech continues (the introduction is a good example of this). If you are familiar with GTA 3 you'll know that the first time you begin the game it goes straight into the introduction and thereafter it immediately loads your saved game. Vice City is the same in this respect. The first time you'll load the game the introduction will not be subtitled. What you will have to do is to skip the introduction and enable the subtitles and then start a new game. It's a small thing but enabling the subtitles by default would have prevented this problem. Once enabled though the subtitles make the game great for deaf gamers. The only other verbal information that is missing is the comments that you get from passers by in the street. These are usually only one or two word comments and have no bearing on the gameplay. All tutorial tips are given in text so you'll have no problem getting used to the game.

So there you have it. GTA Vice City is still a great PC title and it's fair to say it's one of the best games on the PC this year but it doesn't look as good as it should and it's a shame that not all the speech is subtitled. Still for those of you who've waited patiently I'm sure you won't be disappointed with the finished article.

Overall Game Rating: 9.0/10
It's finally here and it's exactly the same as on the PlayStation 2 ... which is a shame because the PC is capable of so much more than straight ports from the PlayStation 2.

Deaf Gamers comment:
Not everything is subtitled but there are no real problems for deaf gamers with Vice City.