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ESRB ~ Mature 17+ (M) (intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.)
Players ~ 1 (no online multiplayer)
Publisher ~ Rockstar Games (Parent Company TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE)
Developer ~ Rockstar North

GTA3 was what I, and many others, would classify as a "damn good game". Sites raved about it. It picked up more awards than [enter something that gets lots of awards]. There's no doubting the impact GTA3 had on both the console and PC games market. But we can, and do, still criticise our beloved gaming masterpiece. GTA3 had its faults - minor faults - but enough for us to yearn for a sequel to fix the niggles. GTA3 was like your new-born baby who develops unfortunate bucked-teeth - we loved it to bits, but next-time, damnit, that kinds gonna get some early dentistry work.

And we didn't have to wait long for the next game to come our way. Vice City has been hyped as a whole new game, not just a sequel, and we're promised it will blow our mind. So before we get into the preview, lets list the general GTA3 criticisms we'd like to see rectified (the following were general complaints found on many-a review site);

• Radio stations get pretty tiresome after ten-or-so hours of play
• Game engine needs some tweaking
• Multiplayer support
• Targetting system (on the PS2)
• Camera problems

On top of those improvements, a whole host of suggestions to improve gameplay were suggested. So lets delve into to the depths of Vice City, and see if we can expect a GTA3-beating sequel, or a lack-lustre re-hash.

The Usual

As expected with a sequel, the usual 'bigger-better' statistics accompany the news of Vice City impending release. Here's the list;

• Nine hours of cd quality music - that's over ninety tracks (GTA3 - 3 hours)
• Miami (Vice) is 2-3 times the size of the whole of Liberty City (GTA3)
• 8000 voice-over effects (GTA3 - 2000)
• 20 hollywood actors cast as GTA3 characters
• A total of 40 weapons (including a Machette) (GTA3 - 15)
• 120 vehicles (GTA3 - 50)
• Fully flyable helicopters
• Multiple motorcycles used by the public and the player, varying in speed and durability
• Larger possiblity of multiplayer in the PC edition as a result of RockStar press release

Overall I'd say these stats sound pretty promising - however I'd question the need for 120 different vehicles and 40 weapons. Lets just hope they haven't been put in for the sake of it.

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.

The city will now all be open from the start. To me this seams a bit dodgy - in a city that's twice as big as liberty city, it could be rather daunting trying to learn the whole of it in one go. What I presume will happen is that, although it's all open, missions will generally focus in one area of the city. 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.