Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

1001 Video Games

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Bugs

On the (North American) PlayStation 2 version of this game, memory card data can get corrupted when the game is saved at the Ice Cream Factory.

Commodore 64

The second Rockstar Logo sequence that appears before each game pays homage to the Commodore 64. The blue on blue screen, the quality of the music, and even the load command accurately model the most popular home computer (especially for gaming) in the late eighties.

Controversy

In December 2003, the New York City's Human Rights Commission demanded that Take-Two removed the phrase "Kill Haitians" from Vice City after Haitian groups complained about this.

Take-Two responded:

As with literature, movies, music and other forms of entertainment, we have strived to create a video game experience with a certain degree of realism, which we believe is our right. Nevertheless, we are aware of the hurt and anger in the Haitian community and have listened to the community's objections to certain statements made in the game. Accordingly, we will remove the objectionable statements from future copies of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

DJs

Among the connections this 'prequel' has with the original Grand Theft Auto III are the return of younger versions of some of the radio DJs.

• Lazlow (whose real life counterpart is responsible for writing a lot of the radio dialogue), the talk radio Chatterbox personality returns as a young DJ starting out trying to convince everyone that he's a hard core rebel on the rock and roll station, V-ROCK.
• Toni (Maria Chambers), was Flashback-FM's aging pop groupie DJ in GTA III. In Vice City, she not only sounds younger and naive, but a good chunk of her material plays into her GTA III material (for example, yes, she has been on fire). Her 80’s station? Appropriately enough, named Flash FM
• And in a twist, Fernando Martinez (Frank Chavez), who ran the pseudo-legal prostitution ring ads euphemistically called 'Fernando's New Beginnings' got his start as a Vice City radio DJ on Emotion 98.3. In between playing emotive records, he’s already begun his pimping ways.

Dundee

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was created by Rockstar North, a division of Rockstar Games. Rockstar North was previously known as DMA Design. DMA Design was originally located in the Scottish City of Dundee. In 2000, the company moved to Leith in Edinburgh.

Located near the airport is a sign mocking Dundee. It has a picture of a ship on it (Called the RRS Discovery) and the word "Dundee" very similar to that used by the local council when promoting Dundee. There is also some text saying something along the lines of "We have a ship that belonged to a loser".

German version

On 29 March 2003, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2) was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. For more information about what this means and to see a list of games sharing the same fate, take a look here: BPjS / BPjM indexed games. After this occurred, publisher Take-Two Interactive released a new, censored version. Rated USK 16, the edited version can be distinguished by its white edges on the cover.

The changes are:

• People on the ground can't be hurt with melee weapons
• Blood effects when hurting people were removed
• No decapitations
• Killed people don't leave money behind
• The Rampage missions were removed
• Two regular missions were removed: Messing with the Man and Dirty Lickin's

Guinness World Records

As of 2008, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is listed by Guinness World Records as the biggest selling game of 2002 and the best-selling PlayStation 2 game of all time.

Movie studio

In the movie lot located in Prawn Island, there is some set that looks like Broadway. If you take a look, you´ll notice that is the set of Staunton Island (Liberty City) even with the same advertisements.

References

• In one of the assassination missions you get from the payphones the targets are called Nico Carter and Marcus Hammond which is a nod to the two main characters in the game The Getaway.
• The remote control helicopter used in the mission 'Demolition Man' closely resembles the helicopter which is piloted in one level of Blood Money, a game developed by DMA Design (now Rockstar North) for the Commodore Amiga computer.
• In the Malibu Club, the band performing on the stage of the club is an obvious parody on the Village People.

Sales

Vice City was a massive success for Rockstar. Electronics Boutique sold more than 500,000 copies on the game's first day of release, and more 250,000 in the UK.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was available in record stores. The German version had more tracks on it than the US version, due to some copyright difficulties.

Swimming pool

There is a mansion on Starfish Island, by the shore, with a peculiar swimming pool. If you look at it from above (looking south) you'll see that it has the shape of a woman's torso, and some rocks at its bottom look like a bikini.

Telephone numbers

Telephone numbers advertised on the radio or elsewhere can be called in-game.

Weapons

As of 2009, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the only GTA game not to feature the AK-47.

Windows release

Windows version of this game was accidentally put on shelves 5 days before right release date. After that, many game shops put out this game 1 or 2 days before right release date.

Vice Point building

From 23:00 to 00:00 in-game time, near the Malibu Club, the Vice Point Langer building's lit windows form a figure which looks like a penis.

Every 15 in-game minutes during this time, a fountain on the top of the building is activated to give the impression the penis is ejaculating.

Awards

• 4Players
  • 2002– Best PS2 Game of the Year
  • 2002– Best PS2 Action Game of the Year
  • 2002 – #2 Best PS2 Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
  • 2002– Best PS2 Action Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
  • 2003 – Best PC Game of the Year
• Computer Games Magazine
  • March 2004 - #2 Game of the Year 2003
• Computer Gaming World
  • March 2004 (Issue #236) – Best Music of the Year
• GameSpy
  • 2002 – PS2 Game of the Year (Readers' Choice)
  • 2002 – Best Music of the Year (PS2)
  • 2003 – #2 PC Game of the Year
  • 2003 – PC Action/Adventure Game of the Year
• Golden Joystick Awards
  • 2003 - PS2 Game of the Year
• PC Games (Germany)
  • Issue 02/2004– Best Game in 2003 (Readers' Vote)
  • Issue 02/2004– Best Action Game in 2003 (Readers' Vote)
• PC Powerplay (Germany)
  • Issue 07/2006 - #8 Best Packaging
• Retro Gamer
  • October 2004 (Issue #9) – #15 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by Bob Shand, Emepol, Felix Knoke, festershinetop, Jeremy Petho, keth, Marshall Leslie, Maw, Medicine Man, MegaMegaMan, PCGamer77, piltdown man, Sciere, tarmo888, WildKard and Xoleras