Good Mindless Fun!
Grand Theft Auto (GTA) games are synonymous with violence. Whether it be beating up a scantily clad hooker or having a shootout with the Triads or Mafia. GTA lets you do all this, and with the GTA Double Pack, there are two completely different cities to wreak havoc in. The pack comprises of GTA III and GTA: Vice City.

GTA III is set in the fictional Liberty City in the present day; the city has a dark and gritty feel to it and is quite like some of the cities you will find today. Your character has no name and funnily enough, no voice (strange ain't it?) but it isn't too important.

You start the game in the back of a prison van after being set up by your girlfriend for robbery (she loves you really) but as you drive down a bridge, you are set free by the Mafia and begin to piece together what exactly happened.

Meanwhile, in Vice City you play Tommy Vercetti, who is sent down to Vice City by his Mafia boss Sony Forelli to oversee a drugs deal which goes horribly wrong. Confused and angry, you begin the game wondering who set you up and why, and you promise Sonny he'll get his money and drugs back.

Both of the games have the same simplistic control system. On foot, X is jump, A sprint, D-pad (Left or right): Change weapon and L trigger target a character. Once you get into a car R trigger is used to accelerate and L trigger is used to brake. Pressing Y makes you enter a car, Black changes the radio stations and the left thumbstick is used to steer.

The controls are easy to get used to and the only flaw with this system is that during frantic fire fights you end up targeting non threatening people on the street rather than your enemies.

Both games have the same variety of missions, the two main types are: shooting and driving missions although in both games there is variety along the way to break up things a bit.

Free roaming gameplay is undisputedly the greatest aspect of theses two games. You don't have to do any of the story missions if you don't want to and you can hop into a car and cruise around the city doing whatever you please.

You can literally spend hours just roaming around shooting people or evading the police, this is a game in itself and ensures that you will go a long while before getting bored with these set of games. When you decide to go for a spin in a car you can listen to a variety of radio stations and in the case of the Xbox version, listen to custom soundtracks.

Amazing Soundtrack

GTA III's music is very urban with stations like Lips 106 and Head Radio belting out urban funk and disco style music which produces a few good tracks but most sit firmly in the mediocre category. GTA: Vice City on the other hand, produces one of the greatest game soundtracks ever seen.

Rockstar has gotten the license of some classic songs and every single radio station is worth listening to, from catchy disco sounds to banging guitar anthems, Vice City has this and more, you'll never forget the first time you get onto a scooter and hear Billie Jean coming out the stereo.

With both games being almost straight ports of their PS2 counterparts, the graphics aren't exactly jaw dropping put hold up well none the less when compared with other Xbox games.

Cars have much smoother reflections and character models are more detailed than the PS2 version but the game suffers from at times, terrible draw distance which in all truth doesn't affect your enjoyment of the game that much.

The graphics are one of the only problems with these two games, although not many people will be complaining as the gameplay more than makes up for it. The controls can be cumbersome and frustrating at times and this can lead to you needlessly dying and failing missions all because you targeted the wrong person.
These faults are very minor and in truth a tad harsh for a game that delivers enjoyment on so many levels. You can play this game as casually or as hardcore as you like. There are around 50-70 missions in each game, added to the fact that there are 100 hidden packages and stunt jumps in both games, this game is a monster when it comes to extras.

If you already have these two games on the PS2 then there isn't a great deal to get you to buy them again unless you are a die hard GTA fan. But for people new to the game, GTA is a game that must be experienced; it is a masterpiece of design which implements fun and longevity into a round package. There is no impetus on you doing a single mission or completing the game at all, you can just pick it up and have some good mindless fun.

After all, isn't that what gaming is all about?

9.


Full Review By Alan McGuinness