Like most people, I played Grand Theft Auto 3 last year, and enjoyed it. Whether youÂ’re willing to tolerate the violence or not, itÂ’s hard to argue that the game wasnÂ’t extremely well made, and all around just a great game. But while I enjoyed it, I never finished it, due to a number of missions which were more frustrating than fun, and really brought the game down a few notches. Still, I liked the game, and some day I may pick it back up again and push my way through those annoying (but necessary) missions to complete the core storyline.

But again, I did like it, so when GTA: Vice City came out, I was eagerly looking forward to it, and quietly hoping that this one would be less frustrating. Fortunately it is, and IÂ’m proud to say that I did indeed finish the core storyline, and quite a few of the optional missions as well.

First, the basics. If you never played one of the games in the series, the general idea is that youÂ’re a thug who has to make your way up the ladder in the crime business. You do this by completing missions given to you by various bosses, and they range from flat out murder, to intimidation, theft, and just about every other crime you can think of. In short, itÂ’s a ton of fun.

Vice City doesnÂ’t do much to change that formula. The biggest change of course, is its setting, which has moved from Liberty City (which I suspect is somewhere next to Springfield) to Vice City, a fictional location in Florida. The date has also dropped back to the mid eighties, which changes the tone of a lot of the game.

In this game you play Tommy Vercetti, a character voiced by Ray Liotta, and in the introductory cinematic you watch a drug deal go sour, leaving Tommy in debt for a lot of money to the Italian mob. In the core storyline it is your job to find the money and repay the mafia before they come looking for you.

Through the course of the game, youÂ’ll move from mob boss to mob boss, going on their respective missions. The missions in this game are by and large more clever than those in GTA3. One of the better ones has you stealing a police uniform, walking into a heavily secured area and detonating a bomb, before high-tailing it away from there as fast as possible. YouÂ’ll also encounter plenty of side missions, from various other characters in the game, including a suite of fun biker gang missions, and ones from the Cuban and Hatian gangs (the former of which requires you to prove the size of your cojones). And like GTA3 there are vehicle-specific missions, like the Crazi Taxi-esque cab missions, vigilante missions (which are available once you steal a cop car) and ambulance missions.

You can still steal any car off the street, but Vice City adds motorcycles into the mix. These bikes aren’t essential to the game (except for a few stray missions) but they are fun to zip around in (just be careful – you’re not wearing a helmet when you steal one, so if you get in an accident, it’ll hurt). There are plenty of other vehicles, including helicopters (there’s even a gunship if you get a crapload of hidden packages), speedboats and even a tank.

The voice acting in Vice City has no equal (except maybe Kingdom Hearts, although that’s obviously a very different cast). There’s an impressive collection of A and B list actors playing both major and minor roles, including the aforementioned Ray Liotta, as well as Dennis Hopper, Luis Guzman, Burt Reynolds, Tom Sizemore, Gary Busey, and more. “Miami Vice” vet Philip Michael Thomas even makes an appearance as a fairly major character.

And of course, like GTA3, thereÂ’s an amazing array of radio stations available for you whenever you hop into a car. As this game takes place in the 80s, every one of the music channels is airing 80Â’s music of some kind, whether itÂ’s glam metal or new wave pop. While thereÂ’s no classical station this time around (which is a shame, since that announcer cracked me up), there are two talk radio stations. Lazlow is here, but heÂ’s just a newbie DJ on the rock station, and instead weÂ’re treated to the ditsy Amy on KCHAT, and former clown turned radio host Maurice Chavez on VCPR, the public radio station that is periodically interrupted with some very funny pleas for donations.

The world of Vice City feels alive, even more so than the last GTA game. Just driving around, youÂ’ll see lots of pedestrians, plenty of lousy drivers (prompting some very funny quips from your character), and every now and then, youÂ’ll find a car stopped in the middle of the road with someone on the ground and bleeding while others look on (and an ambulance eventually shows up). Little touches like that really help give the game the feeling of a living, breathing city.

Vice City also has a better flow than its predecessor. At the start of GTA3, I kept hitting boundaries, and it all felt very restrictive. Vice City doesnÂ’t let you roam the whole city at the get go, but you do have a very large area to play around with at the start of the game, and it doesnÂ’t take too long for the whole thing to become available. And thereÂ’s always plenty to do, no matter how much is available for you.

Other improvements in this game include a vastly improved (but still not perfect) aiming system, and more buildings that you can go into. Towards the end of the game youÂ’ll be able to buy various places around the city, and these all include their own missions and of course provide a daily stipend for your all-important bottom line.

IÂ’m not going to say that Vice CityÂ’s perfect. ItÂ’s got its fair share of problems, and while there are less missions that are frustrating and not a lot of fun, they are there, but thankfully much fewer and farther between (and less of them are mandatory).

If you liked GTA3, chances are you donÂ’t need my recommendation to run out and get this game, but IÂ’m doing it nonetheless for those of you who havenÂ’t gotten it yet. Yes itÂ’s more of the same, but the minor tweaks to the gameplay really do go a long way, and this is a better overall game than its predecessor. Of course, if you didnÂ’t like GTA3, then chances are this game wonÂ’t win you over (unless the novelty of 80Â’s music is enough to get you through the stuff you donÂ’t like). But for those who pick this game up and are open to its unique feel and style, I guarantee a good time, and particularly if youÂ’re the type who feels the need to complete every single quest and get all the packages, a really long, enjoyable experience.