Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

John Gillooly enjoys one of the best console to PC moves of recent years.

Already considered one of the finest games ever made, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City blew away the competition in last year's Christmas game sales race and permeated pop culture like few games have. Nintendo attributed low sales not to competition from Microsoft's Xbox, but due to this title from Rockstar Games that delivered the mature gaming experience that many of us crave.

For those unfamiliar with the Vice City storyline, you play Tommy Vercetti (skillfully voiced by Ray Liotta), a mobster who has just been released from jail following a long stretch done to protect his bosses. As a reward he gets sent down to Vice City to move a little cocaine and build up a criminal empire away from the limelight of Liberty City. As the game progresses Tommy gets sucked into the seedy gangland underbelly of the town, working with everyone from the Cubans and Haitians in the slums of Vice City to the high flying property developers and drug lords. The storyline is strong but not restrictive, and Rockstar North managed to combine free form gameplay with story based progression through the game, which is a stellar feat in itself.

Vice City on PS2 is a bona fide masterpiece, and the arrival of the title on PC has been eagerly awaited, although with a degree of trepidation thanks to the half-arsed port that GTA3 for PC was. GTA3 suffered from poor frame rate, loads-o-bugs and just felt like a console port. Despite this, it hooked many a jaded gamer with its free form gameplay and mature storyline.

Well, it is time to offer up a huge bowl of fruit and virgins to the gaming gods, because Rockstar North seems to have taken this criticism onboard and delivered a PC version of Vice City that leverages all the advantages of the PC without making it feel like the late arrival of a console game. There are some minor, but very welcome, additions to the PS2 title, but essentially this is an accomplished reworking of the original.

The main additions are a new radio station that plays any MP3 files that you throw into one of the game's subdirectories and support for new skins for the game's hero. These are fun additions but only the MP3 station really adds to the game experience, even though the soundtrack already has everything from Reign in Blood by Slayer to Billy Jean by Michael Jackson, all eighties musical tastes are catered for.

Vice City on PC really excels in the graphics department. For the most part the game is free from the bouts of chugging that marred GTA3 on PC, with annoying slowdowns only really happening when helicopter downwash gets close. Of course, this usually happens when you are escaping from a very pissed off local constabulary and hence it can be frustrating at times, but for such a graphically rich game, a small issue like this pales into insignificance.

There is a distinct visual style to the game, drawing from the neon lit tropical hell hole that is eighties pop culture Miami. There is a hyper-real feel to the city, unlike the generic metropolis of Liberty City that provided the location for GTA 3. It already looked good on PS2, but at high resolution and with better quality textures the game looks fucking amazing.

PC controls also bring more to the game in some areas, although for vehicle control the PS2 Dual Shock 2 controller is still the better choice. By using the keyboard and mouse however, the 'on foot portion' of the game opens right up. Rockstar North put a lot of effort into the PS2 version to improve aiming and auto-targeting from GTA3, but this is irrelevant once you get the smooth targeting action that only comes with a keyboard and mouse.

The one big control issue is the horrid keyboard layout for helicopters. It works ok when you are in a full size chopper but for the ultra-twitchy remote controller chopper that is a big part of the "Demolition Man" mission that forms a key part of the early game it is painfully frustrating. At least there is only one mission that is marred by this fiddlyness.

Rockstar North has managed to deliver for PC gamers the same amazing and immersive gameplay that makes Vice City such a PS2 classic. And it has done it by playing to the relative strengths of the PC platform. Smooth, colourful and classy - it is every bit as good as the PS2 version, and is a title that no game lover should miss.