Could this game even exist nowdays?

Think about how crazy this game is. The soundtrack. The voicecast. The setting. All for a game that was very mainstream. I hope to God we will get another open world with this much heart, but I doubt we will ever see a huge blockbuster game set in the 80's again. Maybe in 2040 when the 80's is old enough for Assassin's Creed 105: Brotherlations, but not a Rockstar game.

There's a lot about Vice City that would not exist in today's climate. For starters, the game was made by roughly 70 people in a span of nine months. Open world games today cost way more to make. Games like Assassin's Creed VI and GTAV take over 600 people to make, and a lot more time.

Secondly, the gameplay of today's games are much less playground-like. Modern GTA games don't have missions where you are jumping a motorcycle from roof to roof across an entire city district. It wouldn't have cheats. It wouldn't have blood geysering out when you chop heads off in a comical manner. It wouldn't have a gang of bikini SMG girls.

I can see there being another game with that kind of voice cast and soundtrack. Maybe they even get the setting right, but there is no way the gameplay gets made to be that level of goofy fun. Games are too serious now.

Yeah, this stuff is perhaps more why I look on the game so fondly. It was sillier but that made the game just feel that much sharper. I could appreciate its sardonic sense of humor because it didn't even take itself too seriously. Also, from a gameplay perspective, nothing beats driving around in Vice City for me.

To this day it's still my favorite GTA. I prefer it over San Andreas even.

Sure it could be made today, I don't see why not.

Huh? This sounds like some weird nostalgia trip, there's no reason why a game like Vice City couldn't exist today. I'm sure in 2023 some guy like you will say, "man, they'll never make a game like GTA V again. The eclectic soundtrack. The voiceacting. The setting (Fully realized LA!), all for a game that was very mainstream."

Seriously, I fail to see what about Vice City is special compared to other Rockstar Games other than taking place in the 80s. If Rockstar made Vice City 2 I could nearly guarantee it would do all this and much more.

This game was too good to be made today, now it would be focus tested to death and sliced up 30 ways before going on sale.

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I wish they would release an HD version of this on PS4. Man I loved this game.

I pray to god that's what they're doing. After GTAV, I don't think I could stand going back to the confines of Liberty City and I feel as if setting a game in VC would offer a lot more freedom.

Yes. What kind of question is this? Rockstar made a western game with the budget of a GTA for fucks sake.

I think part of the problem with Liberty City is that every single game in Liberty City takes place during the year which that game came out, except for LCS which was still late 90's. It's always a modern touristy version of New York. I think the grungier, graffiti plastered, gang filled, tourist unfriendly 70's version of New York would make an interesting setting.

The only GTA's I've played were 4 and 5, and even though the world's were well realized, it was difficult to make myself care about modern L.A. and New York. I really hope the next game they do has a more interesting setting like Vice City's.

I guess I feel differently from a few people in this thread in that I never see a vice city 2 happening. I'm not saying I'm not on a nostalgia trip, but I feel the same way about this game as Jeff feels about the first mercenaries game. It's like lightning in a bottle for me, and I guess I'm just sad the formula will never feel quite as fresh as it did with this one.

I don't get the hostility here but sure, a GTA western is equally whacky.

Well, I know it's not what you mean, but The Phantom Pain is going to be a big blockbuster game set in the 80s.

But it's not really the 80s since there are mechs and holographic smartphones and cyborg arms.

Definitely couldn't be streamed on Twitch!

But there's a mercenary group named after a David Bowie album/song. If you think that game isn't going to have a lot of 80s references and stuff in it, then I think you're mistaken. Kojima even said at one point that they had been working on a filter for the game that would make it look more like an 80s movie, but they weren't going to put it in the game because it detracted from the experience, or something.

Kojima loves pop culture, and he loves 80s movies and things. Again, it's not really what the original post was about, but it'll have some of that in there.

I'm pretty sure Rockstar have said they've intentionally moved away from high profile voice casts. Other than that, if you consider that a negative, they've been making incrementally improved versions of the same game with each successive GTA. Honestly, for me their best work has been outside the GTA franchise. I'd rate Red Dead, Bully and maybe even the warriors higher than any GTA game.

Honestly with how little fucks Rockstar North gave with regards to the "current climate" in GTA Five, I think if they wanted to they'd make another Vice City. Rockstar have always made the games they want to make with zero regard for anyone else's input. As it should be.

You're totally right. I feel like GTA 5 almost predicted a lot of the stuff happening before it became a big talking point. It's incredible how much content there is about NSA spying and Facebook and privacy in that game when it was only a year after all of that was uncovered. For how much crap people give it for its writing (Alex hated it with some weird and misplaced passion) I think it is beautifully written. Dense and with an extremely well defined point of view.

I think 5 is their most pointed and furious game in the series.

@dudeglove: D:

Kojima is a starman blowing our minds

About Vice city ... yeah maybe he means the sutff of the 80s would be so politically wrong in todays gaming climate that I doubt they would triy it .... altho nothing shouls stop them from trying.

Amen.

I mean, I see your point, it's hard to make a game with a lot of heart these days, but Rockstar is still a successful company in business, so yeah Rockstar could make a game like this again. Hell, maybe that's what they're working on right now.

Too many people would be upset by the ludonarrative dissonance of hopping across rooftop ramps on motorcycles.

Rockstar is kind of one of those few companies that is allowed to take these sorts of risks. I think they make enough money doing their thing that their publishers are kind of hands-off with them. It's great, and I wish we could see more of that sort of trust. I realize games are too expensive to let fail, but I also think publishers often over manipulate games until they're no longer unique or interesting. Taking risks is harder, but way more profitable if it works out, otherwise you're just kind of getting by.

@claybrez: I he wasn't talking about a western GTA, he was talking about Red Dead. The point being that, saying " I don't how this got made when GTA was so mainstream" is missing the key factor: as with films, your game being the biggest thing out there means you can earn enough money to make whatever you want, that's why rockstar were able to make Red Dead and Bully/canis cadem edit.

Also, I am loving the Kojima-bowie connection discussion we have going on here.

@mosespippy: When GTA4 took out things like the insane stunt bonuses and crazy stunts and bonuses for longest two-wheeling etc my friends and I where all real let down. That's when we really knew that GTA was no longer going to be that sort of fun.

Having played the game through three times in fairly quick succession (including one of those playthroughs being guiding a girlfriend through the entire narrative where I was hands off besides the tougher missions) I definitely picked up on what Alex was throwing down those other playthroughs, and even moreso on the PS4 remaster which I've been trudging through in first person. I think it's a really, really fun game, but the conversations between characters in that game barely make any sense.

You know the group of friends you're tangentially a part of but rarely attempt to hang out with because you're all too aware of how often their conversations devolve into mindless bickering and yelling about what seems like nothing? That's GTA V. Franklin and Lamar's friendship is the best example of this, as they continue to help each other murder enemies and get out of some very serious trouble despite seeming to seriously despise each other.

The moments of pure friendship in that game are superlatively rare, and it's kind of numbing just how much anger is in that game. You're right in that it's their most furious game but I think the anger is misdirected, with all the main protagonists constantly cutting each other off, correcting each other and generally head butting linguistically without any real reason behind it other than they lead stressful lives. GTA V doesn't give its characters much reason to stay afloat, and while that's always been an issue with the series it felt really start this time around, in part because of games like Walking Dead, Last of Us and Rockstar's own Red Dead Redemption giving characters some proper grounding in their worlds in the time between GTA IV and V.

Vice City was the only GTA 3 era game I finished (San Andreas and GTA 3 weren't nearly as good, though the larger map of Andreas was nice)

I know he meant red dead. I get that Rockstar has enough money to make whatever they want, I just feel like they won't get as whacky with it as they did with vice city or bully. That's less to do with Rockstar and more to do with how I feel about games now days though. With this thread, I was merely trying to observe how crazy it is to think that this game existed in the first place and was the huge success that it was. I feel like a Vice City sequel would be super niche now (compared to the mass appeal of GTA5).

I also love the bowie discussion.

@nodima: Yeah, I disagree. I think it's leaps and bounds above most games. Most of the stuff that you didn't like I appreciated. I liked the bickering about nothing because that seems to be everyone's favorite hobby these days, including myself. Everything about it seemed necessary to me and the game seemed to be filled with an avalanche of ideas and self assurance. I'm still peeling apart layers in that game. You don't often get clear cut messages in games but I think GTA V is an almost perfect dissection of the american dream and the superficial nature of our current world. It's brilliantly written.

I wouldn't even put The Walking Dead in the same boat. GTA V wipes the floor with that. For every emotional beat there's three hamfisted and stilted conversations in TWD.

Try pitching a remake to the guys making Saints Row V

@nodima: @spraynardtatum: I think you guys are basically talking about two different kinds of writing. There's the dialogue between characters type, and the path of the narrative type. The individual conversations between characters are fairly well written. It's only once you examine why these characters are friends and why they are doing what they are doing does it begin to break down. Trevor has zero reason to trust Michael and the feds after he finds out about Brad. Franklin has zero reason to hang out with either of them. Michael has zero reason for taking Franklin under his wing to begin with. Dresdon has zero reason for screwing over spree murderers. Studio executive guy has zero reason to work with Michael and so on. The arc that the narrative goes through to get from A to B is some shooty explosive entertaining stuff, but it's certainly not coherent.

Same here, and by far :)

I always wonder how no one ever comments on how bad the voice recording for Tommy is in this game. The acting is all over the place, but the actual audio quality of the recording is awful. You can practically make out the size of the recording booth with how much echo there is.

@mosespippy: I didn't find anyones motivations to be poorly defined. They all just want success and stimulation. Any other explanations are superfluous. Everyone uses each other to benefit themselves and they all are driven by greed and glory. It's a completely coherent story arc, in-so-far as a story about a bunch of absolute maniacs can be coherent.

I've heard the complaints you brought up before (I think even on some of the bombcasts) but I never thought they held much weight. Playing the game for the second time really clarified how complete a vision the game has. Almost every aspect of it is built around its satire and the current problems of American life. The excesses of our times and the inequalities of our times.

I think the dialogue, narrative, and all encompassing point of view of the game are top notch. Some of the best in the entire medium.

GTAV has some serious narrative issues. Mainly the lack of character development and the weird, arbitrary bit with Michael's family where they suddenly love him again despite him never changing. The end is also equally arbitrary, I don't see how Franklin has a reason to trigger any one of those endings. I like the dialogue (although the angry tone gets seriously tiring), but the grander narrative isn't really there. The parodies about commercialism are a dime a dozen nowdays, so that doesn't do it for me either.

I'm not sure I'm getting the argument.

If anything has rockstar has much more freedom to do whatever they want know than they did then.

So yes this game could absolutely exist today.

I don't really understand why you think this. To my knowledge GTA V didn't have much of any DLC. I think there was some blimp stuff for ps3?

hands down gta: vc is still my favorite gta and probably open world ever but games like that only come out once in a blue moon. scarface was super popular and sand-box games were still a new and novel thing. on top of that, everything in the game came together perfectly. i mean it also helped that it was the follow up to the ground breaking game called gta3. honestly, it's unfair to expect for something like that to repeat. be happy it happened once and you were their to experience it in all its glory.

This sound is one of my favorite sound bits of any game.

They haven't done straight DLC type DLC. They've done microtransaction DLC. Every 5 or 6 weeks there will be a new update to GTA Online that will include new weapons, clothes, vehicles, houses, etc. You can buy it all with your GTA Online bucks, but at close to a million bucks for a vehicle it'd take a lot of grinding. Many people buy the credit card packs, so that million dollar car will set you back roughly $18, and that's before you buy any mods for it.

I'd play this. With trophy support too.

I'm actually surprised we haven't seen more 80's inspired games, given how incredibly 'hip' the 80s was between 2009 - 2012, and in a way the 80s style has stuck this time around... but the was a brief period between 2009 and 2012 where 80's was very 'in' so I was expecting more then BloodDragon to come along and capitalize on the resurgence of 80s culture. But a game from any period could come out at any point with a large budget... it just needs to be the right place at the right time to be successful.

Same

That seems incredibly reasonable to me. The person I was quoting was relating GTA to the shitty DLC trends where the devs seem to cut out content of the base game and sell it later. I just think it's silly for people to keep using GTA as an example of poor DLC practices in this thread because Rockstar usually handles that stuff really well.

undead nightmare and the gta 4 dlcs were all top notch

Yes.

100% agree with you here @spraynardtatum. Living in pretty much the heart of LA, it's jarring how well Rockstar North nailed the culture of various things here. Everything from the Hollywood/celebrity worship/gossip culture, weed, hipsters, the desert...even the fucking traffic is so spot on and I feel so many things go over a lot of peoples heads. It's the little intricacies. Listen to the commercials on the radio. Watch television and the different cartoons they have playing. The dialogue during car rides on missions. I feel like everything the game does makes a statement about something. Rather it be political, sociological, racial...the game is literally mirroring our society. When you are playing you are sort of dissecting it as spraynardtatum put it.

@nodima I feel the relationship between Franklin's and Lamar's relationship is great because it seems authentic. What I love about GTA and what Rockstar does is when they dive into different lifestyles, they respect it. They do the research, they grab real people that live these lives to make sure it transfers over true to its source. The type of bond they have may not be understood or by those who don't live the lifestyle, or that haven't been around it enough to fully understand it. A lot of the binkering between these characters are about very real subject matters in their world. Family, loyality, "making it out the hood". It's all about perspective. Crazy to think that people disliked the dialogue because I thought it was some of the best.