Welcome back to the Gameathon. Plucking games from the shelf and giving them a little bit of the love they deserve. Or do they? Next up: Vice City, previously played for about 10 hours...

Cute

What is there to say about this game that hasn't been said already? I bought this second hand because I'd read and heard so much about it that I felt like I'd be missing out on something if I didn't get it, even though I knew it was probably not my kind of thing. Thinking back, the GTA series was the first game to genuinely shock me - a mate brought round his PS2 so we could play Metal Gear Solid 2 the week it came out, and he brought a GTA game round too. I'd not really paid any attention to the series so when he showed me how you could find a prostitute, boff her in the back of a car and then punch her out and steal your own money back off her, I was taken aback to say the least.

I've barely scratched the surface of GTA Vice City but once I got about half an hour in I was reminded how the game both delights and repulses me at the same time. I don't enjoy the gratuitous violence you can dish out - at least not initially. Once you progress from the knuckle-duster and baseball bat to the Uzi or shotgun, the game becomes a disgustingly wonderful world of nasty. The radio stations are superb of course, and more than once I forgot where I was meant to be going next because I was listening to Redneck FM and laughing myself silly. When I stopped to look down at a newspaper blowing round and noticed the headline was something like 'Zombie Elvis Found! (win shit- page 9)' I realised the seemingly sparsely filled city was actually stuffed with little nuggets of gaming brilliance.

Postcards from the Fedge

I'm shit at this game - the cops caught me constantly, my escape and evasion skills are lacking and I failed the mission to protect my partner with covering fire every time I tried - but I will be coming back for some more of this, even if it's just to razz around on a trial bike and listen to Toto.

Will I go back and play it again? Yup. Just not right before bed time, it makes me all aggy.

February 2008

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