Game Info From IGN

[matrixreloaded]

April 25, 2003 - We start with a five-minute video, a "montage of inspiration" as they call it. There are clips are all of movies and TV shows I watched in junior high. As the wholesome images of Bachelor Party and Revenge of the Nerds start to mingle with the clips of drug deals and Ronald Reagan (separate clips, mind you), I sense something familiar about it all. I have the strangest urge to buy a trench coat and roll up the sleeves. What's happening to me?

On the soundtrack the guy from Flock of Seagulls is singing about running so far away and then Nena sings "99 Luftballoons," German for "shot a missile at me." Amidst the gunshots and screeching tires, a familiar face pops on the screen and pleads: "Hookers, man! Where are the hookers?" The images continue: the Cold War. Cocaine. Crockett and Tubbs. Suddenly it's all coming back to me. A quick flash of ZZ Top and I know I've been here before. Welcome to the eighties.

A definite core soon takes shape in the pastiche of pastels, porsches and pool parties. Three movies and one TV show begin to appear more frequently than others. These are the four main pillars of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City's inspiration reel. Scarface and Miami Vice, Manhunter and Less Than Zero provide the greater share of inspiration for the overall style of the game. In that frame of mind, I found myself being fooled that sequences in the montage had actually been taken from the game.

They've got the look down.

The Rockstar office has a gigantic screen. Now that the video montage is over, we settle in to play a little of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the PC. First, or the benefit of those who haven't played the PS2 version, or read the rather exhaustive preview we posted, Vice City is the next title in a great crime-action-driving series that puts all of the violence and racing in a huge interactive city. Missions for various patrons take you all over the city causing total mayhem -- or at least some wary purse clutching.

Though the series' history starts on the PC, the last two versions have appeared, thrived even, on the PS2. Undeniably engaging in a console format, I'm excited to try out the PC controls and see how they fit. Beyond just using a regular gamepad, there are two modes of steering. The traditional WASD shooter set up can serve for accelerating, decelerating and turning. Though not analog, with some good tapping you can get fine enough adjustments. Mouse steering offers a more graduated analog feel as you move it left or right. Though the need to recenter the mouse to drive straight took a bit of getting used to, it eliminated the need to move the mouse too far to make tight turns.

While Tommy's on foot you can use the mouse to look around and aim. The aiming is much easier with the mouse. Things like the Haitian sniper mission are likely to be much easier this time around. Targeting in general is much more precise and I found myself better able to take out guys with the mouse than I could with the analog stick. Having played the game on the PS2, you'll find the mouse makes it more convenient to look around at things around you. You get a better sense of the vertical nature of the city that way.

It's sometimes hard to tell the difference between screenshots that are rendered and those that only look rendered. As Vice City runs in as high a resolution as your monitor and video card will support, you can get graphics that match the quality of the screens in our media section. Naturally the game's performance depends greatly on the video card so you'll need to strike a balance between frame rate and resolution. Still, it ran smooth as could be in 1920x1440 on Rockstar's demo PC. Even in the air with virtually unlimited draw distance, things stayed pretty stable.

Beyond those details, you'll also see that there are new 32-bit textures in the game. Tommy's Hawaiian shirt looks much more believable and, well, textured than in the PS2 version. Also, you can notice the faded spots on his jeans at times. You can also see this on the character's faces in the cutscenes. The coarseness of the textures gives the game a richness and depth that's a shade realer than that on the PS2 version. Reflection mapping on the ground and some artful use of lighting create some pleasant effects as well.

As expected, you can even create your own skin texture for Tommy. There's still no word yet on whether the game will ship with the Kenny Rogers or David Letterman skins as we'd hope but I bet if someone started one of those online petitions, we could get them in. Those things usually work, right?

Another feature in the PC version will let you save replays of the last thirty seconds of game action and replay them later. Simply hit the key and almost instantly, the action picks up thirty seconds in the past. You can now use the mouse to rotate the camera around your character or car as the last 30 seconds unfolds again before you. Once it's over you can return to regular play. You can even pull up the old replay minutes later if you want. Since this replay is saved as a file, you can archive them and send them to your friends. Since it doesn't increment the file name, you can only save one file until you move or rename it.

The game will have all nine of the radio stations from the PS2 version along with an extra MP3 station that you can program yourself with your own legally acquired MP3 files. (Like someone who'd beat you to death with a golf club is going to worry about copyright issues on the internet. Those are the kind of people who actually like Metallica in the first place.) Anyway, if you don't think it can possibly be the eighties without some tunes by The Police or Gilbert O'Sullivan, you can fill your MP3 folder with either of them -- but never both.

Though I fight it, I have to bring up my one real frustration with the game. "What kind of a bad ass am I supposed to be if I beat a man to death with his own golf clubs and then drown two feet from shore because I fell of the stupid bridge?" Rockstar's reply that "Gangsters don't swim" pretty much put an end to that complaint. I'm sure their New York gangsters are much tougher than we have here in San Francisco. I think Ivan's juiced in but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to talk about it.

After the swimming thing, there's just one other uncomfortable topic. I discreetly raise the topic: "You guys should totally do multiplayer." I know what comes next. They just don't want to do the same old thing and they definitely don't want to incorporate a new idea until they make sure it's solid. Rather than just throw something in to sell a few copies, Rockstar's challenging themselves to design a multiplayer experience that's as solid as the single player game.

 

 

why do they have to have the f*cking replay system again, this replay system is bollox, who gives a sh*t about it.

[FISKER_Q]

I think the problems goes beyond that.

 

Have you seen all those race games? There you always have a replay at the end of the game.

 

I dont think its whats causing the problems, i just think people blamed that because that was somewhat the only thing changed technically.

 

I think it was either lies or bad coding that was the problem.

[matrixreloaded]

I think the problems goes beyond that.

 

Have you seen all those race games? There you always have a replay at the end of the game.

 

I dont think its whats causing the problems, i just think people blamed that because that was somewhat the only thing changed technically.

 

I think it was either lies or bad coding that was the problem.

god Rock* was running it at 1920x1440 res, i wish it could run it at that res on my crap PC.

 

what do you think an athlon 1.2gig, 512mbpc133, geforcemx2 will run GTA:VC like at the minimum of resolutions -   5fps

 

 

[Jordan]

Let me explain to you how this replay system works.

 

It does not capture video.

 

It makes a replay file with "coordinates" for where everything should be and where it is moving within the 30 seconds.  The replay feature isn't even shedding 1 frame off your fps...

 

Trust me...

[BLACK PLATINUM]

At times like this i envy people with high power computers! at least u guys on the pc can save wot uve done (replays) where us guys on the ps2, have now gotta wait until a new gta comes out, hopefully the replay will b out on ps2 so u can save wot uve done. And the high res thang 1920x1440, blimey!!

 

 

[liamk15]

glad there puttin repalys on cos some stuff on the ps2 that i've done is worth a save