What can be said about the Grand Theft Auto series? That hasn't been said before. Well, not a heck of a lot.First of all, this is one of the best deals to come along in a long time. These games alone are the reason to own a PS2, and provide some of the longest gameplay sessions in recent memory. Let's break it down.
GTA III:
The story of a nameless street thug who becomes a wheelman for the mob. Set in the dar and stormy (and ironically named) Liberty City, you will do everything from boost cars to deliver "goods" to whack people in your journey through this dark world of crime and punishment. While it seems simple, this isn't just a game. It's an experience.
With GTA III, Rockstar Games gave people a giant, shiny, macabre, funny toy to play with. There's a whole world in here, and it's ripe for the picking. Hookers, gangsters, cops, robbers, grease monkeys, and innocent pedestrians; all are there to populate and color this world. This is a crime simulator, and crime most certainly DOES pay here. It's also damn fun.
GTA - Vice City
Rather than offering an upgrade to the blockbuster GTA III, Rockstar crafted an acid-washed, neon-soaked, 80's gangster epic with equal parts Scarface and Miami Vice thrown into the mix that was created for the previous game. Tommy Vercetti, a jailed man just freed, is set up by the mobs of Vice City, and now is in a fight for survival, and control.
Take the free-roaming gameplay of GTA III, add more vehicles, more city, more people, smarter AI, more weapons, and a whole lotta hair metal, and you'd be close to getting a bead on Vice City. This 80's inspired masterpiece of gameplay, story, and style stands as a hallmark of the series, and of action games everywhere. You'll not only turn wheelman, but you'll buy property, earn money from the city's drug trade, get yourself a mansion, and even some minions - I mean, comrades in arms.
What was good in GTA III is better, slicker, prettier, faster, and funnier in Vice City. It's a brave new world. It's up to the gamer to make the most of it.
It's funny really. There were two games in the series previous to the megahit that was GTA III, and yet, despite that these are the same concept, gameplay, and focus that the sequels expand on, it was only with the realease of the more realistic 3D games that all the noise was made about more violence in vidya games being bad for youth.
Realism can be dangerous, but the claim that violent games make violent people is unfounded and lunatic. There is a fundamental difference between the digital and the real, and it's up to parents to make sure that children understand where the line is.
Besides, that's what the rating system is for. "M" games are NOT for kids, any more than "R" rated movies are. Amazing how logic can be so easily sidestepped in the name of moral outrage.
In either case, these are gems not to be passed up. Bargain price, classic gameplay, great stories, and the most replayability this side of. . .well, anything really. There's more than enough violence and mayhem for anyone to really enjoy living on the wrong side of the law. Just remember, save before you quit.
