The Visuals
A big criticism of the original. Grand Theft Auto 3 was built around the Renderware engine. Rockstar programmers really tweaked this rather limited engine to its limits - and what they produced was quite remarkable for what the Renderware engine was actually cut out to do. However many complained this wasn't good enough - blocky textures and nasty popups plagued both the PS2 and PC version.
Since then the Renderware engine has been vastly improved. And look at the screenshots, you can definately see an improvement all-round. Textures are in a higher resolution and the framerate has been increased. The lighting system of the Renderware engine has been re-vamped; so expect to see real-time shadowing and reflections. The world seams generally much more colourful too - this perhaps could be due more to the new setting than the game engine, but it will certainly be a welcome relief after the dark seedy world of Liberty City.
Various other visual tweaks have been made sinse GTA3's release. The camera has been tweaked to aid movement on-foot - the camera now fixes to an over-the-sholder view to easy targetting. Character models have also been given a new lease of life, now sporting much more detailed features overall.
The Gameplay
Set in the 80's, we've been promised a whole new storyline based around our new hero, Tommy Vercetti. And this time round he speaks - vocalised through the talents of Hollywoods Ray Liotta (famous for the superb gangster flicks Goodfellas and Muppets From Space).
A whole host of added features to enhance gameplay have been mentioned. We've been promised much more indepth missions - rather than the rather mundane pickup > drop off > kill procedings of GTA3, much more engrossing tasks should be set. Remember the brilliant mission in GTA3 where you had to give covering fire for 8-ball down in the docks whilst he planted a bomb? This mission has been used as a marker-point for following missions.
One big addition which really caught my attention was the focus on interior action - we're not just talking ammu-nation, but buildings with multiple floors, from hotels to disco's. Missions will often feature interior objectives as well as ones outside.
Tweaks
One big revamp is the new auto-targetting system. PS2 users were often infuriated by the auto-targetting in GTA3, which would often target completely the wrong person at a critical time. The new method selects the victim based on priority (rather than proximity) - so when you're having a gang shoot-out you won't find yourself targetting a ped. I'll wait to see how well this works out, but it seams like a sensible solution.
A recent news release from RockStar confirmed this to be speculation from a games magazine, and nothing more. Like GTA3, the city will be released island by island.
Crap-loads of extras have also been promised - boats are now going to be much more heavily featured, and the handling for boats has been re-written; gangs are now going to be much more interactive, with enhanced AI; police will not just be after you, but will also respond to other crimes (finally! - this has been at the top of my request list sinse GTA1); peds will now be much more active - we're promised tennis players, joggers and roller skaters (a must for the '80s); General AI for peds has also been improved; motor-cycles have been confirmed.
Conclusion
As you can tell, if only half of what they mention is true, then it is clearly worthy of a sequel. Rather than just a re-hash off the success of GTA3, they have clearly focussed on the criticisms. This is a whole new game - and it looks like they're going to have to do something serious wrong to screw this one up.
GTA: VC is nothing short of a masterpiece. The cast, the theme, the play. It all fits so well, the closest a game has come to being a complete life replacement. I had only played this in limited amounts when it first came out and wasn't really hooked, I then bought San Andreas for PS2 and decided to back track to Vice City for PC. Low and behold it contains an aura that San ADreas does not. The soundtrack fits the game like a glove, the map is quiet a lot like Miami and the fashions and vehicles available just made it near perfect. One thing different from San Adnreas is that Tommy Vercetti is a winner, he is respected, whereas Carl in San Andreas is always battling for it for some reason, Tommy just seems to be a tougher character, and his rise and rise throughout the game confirms this.
I guess there is a fault with this game, it came to an end, eventual I suppose, but it did not look open for a sequel, perhaps Rockstar can throw us back to the 70's?, imagine it, GTA: San Francisco
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GTA : Vice City Part CD1
GTA : Vice City Part 1 http://sv4.gushare.com/file.php?file=663114bc37db50c1cc0384536d8dcd5d
GTA : Vice City Part 2 http://sv2.gushare.com/file.php?file=3ea3d16347586fa2d4b57027d6a88e9d
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GTA : Vice City Part 6 http://sv5.gushare.com/file.php?file=a944cc7471d18a752e831a0ec92b5c59
GTA : Vice City Part 7 http://sv5.gushare.com/file.php?file=ae6f8948e204171a518fd96894d7c6ed
GTA : Vice City Part CD2
GTA : Vice City Part 1 http://sv1.gushare.com/file.php?file=29bafec65f93810e5d8a01a9d7ca240e
GTA : Vice City Part 2 http://sv1.gushare.com/file.php?file=d3097c8c6d026de6894afae21abb244d
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GTA : Vice City Part 7 http://sv5.gushare.com/file.php?file=f544a83678d937a9a786dcd5bd76a377
