Vice Vice Baby
10/31/2

Tuesday, I sat (and got paid for it) and wondered why I�d not been sent an email about my Grand Theft Auto: Vice City shipping. I decided to sort through the Bung Folder, or whatever Yahoo calls that thing they put the spam in, and lo (hark�) and behold, there was a shipping confirmation.

I currently have a shipping confirmation from ordering banana flavored whey protein powder from some Fitnesspro, or FitnessMAX or FitnessJuggernaut, or something, but it actually had a company name on the invoice like they were training pro-American terrorists or something. That�s not the interesting part. I buy protein in bulk, or as much as I feel like cashing out at once, if you consider five pounds bulky. But the UPS thing says the weight of m five pounds of whey plus the jar and the box and the packing peanuts is three pounds.

The current crisis du jour is that Woody Anderson Ford, the people who fixed the 626, or most of it, then handed it back to Aisai and within 30 minutes the transmission destroyed itself. Tuesday, a State Farm inspection droog went to go look at it. The additional stuff on the claim, basically that the tranny was trashed in the wreck, is under dispute it seems. This means two things. If it�s not covered, we pay for a $2000 transmission. If it�s not covered, we�re paying $30 a day for that Ford Focus and not $5. We still have not heard word about this. Aisai will call again today to see if this has been resolved.

I looked at the shipping confirmation for Vice City and did the UPS thing. It was on the truck, truckin� around Huntsville. When I checked it again at 1:40, it had been delivered at 1:10. I went home early and let others know I�d not be in Wednesday.

What�s Good

Jan Micheal Vincent is great as his Tubbs/TC character. Burt Reynolds was a great guy to work for, and so far has assigned me the best mission of the game. The motorcycles are pretty neat, and if there�s ever a lesson from GTA:VC it�s that you don�t want to ride a motorcycle. Ouch. The radio stations are great. The cars are still as responsive as they are from GTA3 and there are more kinds of them. The Miami Vice feel is perfectly captured.

What�s Not So Good

Why are there so many freakin� cops walking beats? I could be in the middle of the beach at 2 a.m. and I can probably find a cop. I�m not as fond of the terrain aspects or the engineering of the street systems as I was in GTA3. Portland was a brilliant island. Everywhere in Vice City is more like Staunton. It�s flat. Which is to be expected on a game based on Miami.

What Stands Out And Makes You Blather At People About It

Lionel Riche�s Running With The Night isn�t so bad a song, and other way�s that I�ve been brainwashed by the 80s music. The mission, mentioned above, where you use a radio controlled helicopter to transport bomb into a high rise under construction is brilliant. By the time you�re carrying in the last bomb, there are about 40 construction workers terribly pissed at the little helicopter and several have guns. Navigating Little Haiti is horrid since it�s all tarpaper houses that look alike. It�s harder than GTA3.

How Much Have You Played it?

From about 3 p.m. Tuesday to 1 a.m. that night. We did take an hour off since Aisai wanted to watch Smallville. Wednesday, I took off work to play. I played from nine a.m. until six p.m. However, there was a shower and some looking stuff up on the internet in there.

Like GTA3, it�s a world. You pop the disk in and it starts. You don�t have difficulty settings or levels or whatever. You want a car, you don�t earn it, you steal it. Just don�t do it in front of the cops, which are much harder this time.

Actually, I don�t think the game is really all that harder, I think I just don�t know their world yet. In GTA3, I know of several places I can pick up police bribes. I can take a four star down to nothing in about a minute. I don�t know where bribes are in Vice City. I have to pay the spray shop and lay low for a while.

The most significant think I have to report was already reported in the Official Playstation Magazine of this month. If you heard rumors of a Grand Theft Auto movie, this is the movie.