First Vice City Stories Details from GamePro AU

01
Aug
2006
By Chris | 1st Aug 2006 at 02:54 GMT in Vice City Stories | 47 Comments

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The latest edition of Australian GamePro magazine has an exclusive interview with Rockstar. Editor Chris Stead has posted on GTAForums letting us all know about the magazine. We've got scans of it which he has allowed us to post, and we've got details of vital information and new features below.

Vice City Stories - The Brothers Vance - That's right readers - not only was Australian GamePro the first in the world to play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, but we also got to put the hard questions to RockStar themselves in our world exclusive interview!
  • Victor Vance is the main character. Vic is a 28 year old marine in peak physical condition.
  • VCS is set in 1984 and is "much" bigger than Vice City, there are also lots of familiar buildings that we see just entering development.
  • Improved Animations - The animations have been improved massively from the other GTA game. It is now much more realistic and the character's emotions are are more true.
  • New Vehicles - JetSki's for example, are in the game.
  • Vic does have the ability to swim.
  • The game will feature a multiplayer mode similar to that in LCS.
  • New weather effects including hurricanes
  • Less "A-B" missions, more unique style of gameplay
  • New water effects, shower the streets with spray from your jetski.
  • Vice City's radio stations will return with new songs
  • New loading system which means only slight pauses before missions
  • Improved draw distances (again) - better than other titles.
  • Increased density of pedestrians, foliage, cars and objects
  • Less "clumping" (where groups of the same model would appear together)
  • There's a new theme park on Ocean Beach - it includes the "Chunder Wheel" - a large ferris wheel which you can ride on in first person view!
  • Trip Skips return, this is where a taxi appears after you die and can take you back to the start of the mission you were attempting.

And the downsides? Well, it is confirmed that Vice City Stories will not feature the following things:

  • Character and Vehicle Customization
  • Wall Climbing
  • Seamless integration of interior and exterior areas (as seen in LCS) will no longer be in VCS

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Thanks to Jar-Jar at GTAForums for getting this info to us

Mr.Speed's photo
Mr.Speed 1st August, 2006 @ 02:57 - Permalink

Out.... TODAY....... Someone BUY THAT DAMN MAGAZINE! Damn you see what you do? Post something like this, now I won't sleep tonight, I shall be refreshing the page every 20 seconds! w00t!

Edit: OMFG LANCES BOTHER'S IN THE GAME! YAY FINALLY SOME INFO!

Chris's photo
Chris 1st August, 2006 @ 03:03 - Permalink

Dude, it's 4am in the morning here in England. I'm tired. Lol. :P

Mr.Speed's photo
Mr.Speed 1st August, 2006 @ 03:53 - Permalink

Oh noes! Its only 11:04pm over here. Damn it! I need some info. :P

Anything else? Got any pics? :whistle:

chris82's photo
chris82 1st August, 2006 @ 04:02 - Permalink

Stay up Chris. Drink some Bawls. Keep the lights on. Keep feeding us information!

Oh, and I'm still predicting a setting of 1983.

Artur's photo
Artur 1st August, 2006 @ 04:50 - Permalink

Yeah Chris, you can't tell us stuff like this and make us wait until tomorrow to find out more! Just stay up and great find by the way.

I agree with the other Chris that it is probably going to be set in 1983 (3 years before the original VC like LCS 3 years before GTA3).

Keep giving us the info!

Chris's photo
Chris 1st August, 2006 @ 05:16 - Permalink

6:15 am. I'm so damn tired. And only the subscribers get the mag today, so that narrows it down to only their subscribing readership who are also GTA fans AND visit gta sites...

Thing is it sounds as if there's a lot of info...

Anyway I don't need lights on, it gets light here around 5am so I can see perfectly well, in fact, I can't actually get to sleep now :P

Artur's photo
Artur 1st August, 2006 @ 05:33 - Permalink

I wonder when other magazines are going to get all this info. I can't wait to read about it, I hope there are some Australian GTA fans who have subcribed to GamePro (and are GTA forum members) and are up right now reading about it and then they come here and see the big news and tell us the juicy info.

JOYA's photo
JOYA 1st August, 2006 @ 06:20 - Permalink

Man, that looks awesome. I can't wait to learn more about the brothers Vance!

Pandora's photo
Pandora 1st August, 2006 @ 10:19 - Permalink

info info info info :dribble: I wanna no everything, ow and there is a boy in Australia who said he will buy it tomorrow, and try to put text on internet, he doesn't have a scanner.

K_P's photo
K_P 1st August, 2006 @ 10:47 - Permalink

Hmm the brothers Vance, eh? does that mean where gonna play as Lance or his bro or what. Good to see some info, but is it 100% fullproof - i know there's mags in the UK which post some dogy articles.

Scott.'s photo
Scott. 1st August, 2006 @ 11:13 - Permalink

Great info once again Chris. I only just found out this morning so I got sleep :P. It maybe good to play as one of the Vance brothers. Doing their Deals and stuff.

Chris's photo
Chris 1st August, 2006 @ 11:31 - Permalink

Post updated with first detail. BTW JarJar has the copy of the magazine so thank him for the info. Actually he isn't active here, so continue thanking me as normal ^_^

Scott.'s photo
Scott. 1st August, 2006 @ 11:50 - Permalink

Cool. I think Victor would be a great main character. Doing the deals across Vice with Lance. Do you think we will see Cortez in VCS?

Maybe Victor and Lance will be doing deals with Cortez and Ricardo Diaz.

K_P's photo
K_P 1st August, 2006 @ 13:28 - Permalink

Yh it would be great to play as Victor, hopefully he would have more hair when we get to play as him!

err guys, i think u should look AT THIS

http://www.adamcs.net/uploads/omgvcswtf.jpg

Jetskis!

Chris's photo
Chris 1st August, 2006 @ 13:28 - Permalink

OMG new details.

set in 1984 btw.

K_P's photo
K_P 1st August, 2006 @ 13:35 - Permalink

Some important points

1. Victor Vance is a 28yr US Marine in peak phiyiscal condition

2. Game set in 1984

3. In the magazine its says ' We cant give you a definite answer on how big VCS will be, but we can assure you it will be much, much bigger than Vice City

YEAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

chris82's photo
chris82 1st August, 2006 @ 13:40 - Permalink

Damin it. Damn it. One year off my prediction!

Well, it looks like Rockstar is putting a lot of work into this.

Of course they do that with all GTA games, but introducing several new things on a game exclusive for the PSP is bold.

Slayer's photo
Slayer 1st August, 2006 @ 13:42 - Permalink

It would probably be kinda...pointless...to play a character that will die 2 years after.

K_P's photo
K_P 1st August, 2006 @ 13:49 - Permalink

Lots of peeps gonna wanna buy this little gem! Rockstars shares are gonna go sky high ( when they sell the game ofcourse)

Another page on gta forums!!!!!!

Looks likes this is a GTA VCS webmasters lucky day - I bet Chris is real chuffed...

VCS Stories will have multiplayer

First mission is called 'Say Cheese' and you will go down to the studios, and you are a stuntman for a chocolate comercial

Chris's photo
Chris 1st August, 2006 @ 13:51 - Permalink

First couple of scanned shots posted.

K_P's photo
K_P 1st August, 2006 @ 13:59 - Permalink

Also read this quote

'Rockstar want their misssions to be less one- dimensional in VCS and monotonous tasks like 'get form A-to-B' will no longer drag out your GTA experience. Now missions will be designed to be multi-tiered and split between varoius skill sets. The idea is to do away with the quick-shot mission structure of LCS and instead opt for longer in-dept tasks that make greater use of the environment and lend themselves to a more defined narative'

So that will be an improved misssion structure - get in there!!!!

Scott.'s photo
Scott. 1st August, 2006 @ 14:01 - Permalink

Wow this sounds way better than the orginal Vice city.

K_P's photo
K_P 1st August, 2006 @ 14:11 - Permalink

---------------------------------------------

Yet another page!!!

uh-oh

they say the venturted into amuniation as well as other bulidinds during there demo and each was precedded by a little loading time, still no worry, i dont really care! we got JetSkis and a bigger city!

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they also say there was no evidence of car or character customisation and they noticed no wall climbing either - still there not thaat important

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the next page is about cultural movement, nothing big really, hope i helped a little, you can see everthing at gtaforums.com, though u might be waitng a while!

Chris's photo
Chris 1st August, 2006 @ 14:18 - Permalink

More screens posted.

K_P's photo
K_P 1st August, 2006 @ 14:42 - Permalink

---------------------------------------------

another page

Theres this new thing called The chunder weel - jumping on the ride puts you in a first person persepective, interesting!

Mission 2 called: Jump Ship

Rockstar put alot of effort into this, and it looks like a very good game! Im so happy!!!

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2 more pages!!! - Am i the only one who cares about this game!!!

More amazing info - I Quote ' The world is breathtaking, with arguably the most epic draw-distances the open-world genre as ever seen. Standing on the beach we could see buildings and trees miles down the sandy shore.................'

Scott.'s photo
Scott. 1st August, 2006 @ 16:29 - Permalink

Man this is turning out to be nearly the best GTA game there is. But I think GTAIV will take over. This game looks excellent though.

Gerard's photo
Gerard 1st August, 2006 @ 16:39 - Permalink

Yeah it really does sound like Rockstar are concentrating on the important things, like decent missions and vehicles, rather than silly things like girlfriends and clothes.

I'm actually looking forward to VCS, since I loved Vice City. Might have to steal a PSP....

We've got all this information, along with the full article scans, on the wiki now. We just need to get everything written out in full, and then finish every other game.

It seems everyone else likes it too:

Most members ever online in one day was 99, last accomplished on July 29th, 2006

Chris's photo
Chris 1st August, 2006 @ 17:41 - Permalink

From our poll:

"Are you looking forward to VCS, more than you were LCS?"

Yes - 66.6%

That's 2/3 of the visitors feel that VCS will be better than LCS basically. And I agree.

K_P's photo
K_P 1st August, 2006 @ 17:47 - Permalink

Yh VCS will be much better, its a better environment, bigger city, there will be better missions with its new structure, and many other features which are superior than LCS

Artur's photo
Artur 1st August, 2006 @ 18:56 - Permalink

I actually got some sleep and when I saw the update a couple of minutes ago I was suddenly hit with a lot of excitement. It is going to be cool playing as Vic and I knew there were going to be Jetskis (I put it on the wishlist for GTA4 and they came sooner than I expected.Oh and KP since there is no character customization so I don't think Vic will have more hair than he does now (bald). There's a ton of new stuff like hurricanes, you can swim and there is a ferris wheel that you can ride! I hope maybe there will be rollercoasters in it too (probably not or they would have mentioned it) but if not they should put them in GTA4). There's going to be a new cars, new music and everything. I am really psyched about Vice City Stories, it's gonna kick ass!

This game does look like its going to be the best one yet but in a year and 3 months GTA4 is going to come out and I can't even imagine what new stuff it's gonna have!

Chris's photo
Chris 1st August, 2006 @ 21:36 - Permalink

Finally we got page 9. Three new screenshots have just been added.

There wasn't much info though, apart from saying the damage has been slightly tweaked.

ScoobyDoo82's photo
ScoobyDoo82 2nd August, 2006 @ 01:01 - Permalink

by the looks of the pictures, it has san andreas license plates(where every car has a different plate number). Also, i am so excited for the sound track, i love music from the early 80's. Owner of a Lonely Heart may reappear, it was on the top 100 in 1984

Harwood Butcher's photo
Harwood Butcher 2nd August, 2006 @ 06:44 - Permalink

Im not bumbed about the main character being Victor cause he seems to be ok but It just really sucks that you know he'll die 2 years after you do what ever in VCS. I think it will be sort of a waste of time...mission wise. But Im still hyped up from the way the missions will be set up and the new additions to VC.

tilly's photo
tilly 2nd August, 2006 @ 07:45 - Permalink

but maybe if victor wasnt there in life (gta) maybe the whole world would be blown up because of a chain of nuclear reactions from a chemical plant that he was the last person to vote not to build in VC, that lead to the saving of the world by a win of one vote. you know he will die with a fulfilled purpous.

Harwood Butcher's photo
Harwood Butcher 2nd August, 2006 @ 08:01 - Permalink

.........what?

Chris's photo
Chris 2nd August, 2006 @ 14:16 - Permalink

lol, tilly, wtf are you on?

What he's saying is that in VCS, Vic may have done something awesome, overthrown gangs and shit, and if it wasn't for him, Vice City would be ####ed.

So in the end, him dying in Vice City in 86 isn't all that bad because he has done a good job, so to speak.

Scott.'s photo
Scott. 2nd August, 2006 @ 15:15 - Permalink

Yeah Chris is right ( as always :P) he probably done what Vercetti done and took over the whole city or something.

Artur's photo
Artur 2nd August, 2006 @ 20:20 - Permalink

Yeah good point tilly, and thanks Chris for translating it into English so to speak. Vic will probably take over the city or something like that but the sad thing is he dies later on. I hope this doesn't happen to all the other protaganists because we never do find out what happens to them after the storyline finishes. They probably do live though or it would be kind of stupid and disappointing.

Harwood Butcher's photo
Harwood Butcher 2nd August, 2006 @ 22:56 - Permalink

Yeah well if Victor did good then we should make a memorial thing for him :D

JOYA's photo
JOYA 3rd August, 2006 @ 05:32 - Permalink

Could he be that important, while risking his life in drug deals?

equitydoo's photo
equitydoo 3rd August, 2006 @ 10:38 - Permalink

hey guys 1st post. just read the vcs stuff man, impressed altho me and my mates have been saying since san andreas they need to put animals on there! just amagine walking through some trees frin a cow or something and then slice it open with a sword. it would be great. the only animals ive ever seend on gta is fish and birds. anyone think the same?

K_P's photo
K_P 3rd August, 2006 @ 11:12 - Permalink

Hey man welcome to the forums, but i dont think the animals idea is good, rockstar will be in big trouble if they do, as game protesters will argue that the game encourages animal cruelty!

tommy vercetti guy's photo
tommy vercetti guy 3rd August, 2006 @ 16:34 - Permalink

Yeah, but the game already "encourages" running over people, carjacking, property destruction and running red lights. I hope they add animals, like shark attacks and stuff. Yeah, this game looks cool, but what do they mean by "bigger" vice city? It cant be bigger, as this game takes place before VC, so the city must be either smaller or the same size as VC in GTA VC. Or ae they talking about a bigger "interior" world? Glad that you could swim now, seeing as VC is 1/2 water. Good thats there no more A-B missions like in LCS, the missions in like GTA3, VC and SA had A-B-C-D-E-F missions, those were better, longer, more enjoyable and funner. How will hurricanes work? I hope it works like the sandstorms in SA, execpt for sand everywhere, there would be rain and the cars, etc would get pushed around, but not push like they go flying, but more like you see the weight of tyhe car shift and it becomes harder to drive. New animations? Just give the GTA characters fingers and ill be happy. Dam, no wall climbing? I dont want to friggen walk another 100 miles to get to the other side of a fence, just 2 taps of the square button should get you on the other side! Oh, another thing, "Familiar buildings enter devolment", oh, god, no! LCS made Liberty City look like it was just being built from scratch. In LCS, 50% of the buildings were still in construction, wtf? I mean, its just like 2 years from GTA3 and pratically nothing is built? I know they want you to know that this is a younger Vice City, but we dont want a city that has just been recently founded. Mabye some of the new buildings (or the buildings that look new) like malibu club, etc or whatever could still be in construction and as you progress through the game, the buildings get more parts attatched to them to make it look more complete and some buildings will even finish construction. Prawn Island would have the mansions, but instead of the being destroyed and generally shit, they would be nice and stuff. Starfish will have most of its mansions complete, but some of the REALLY big mansions like diaz's one will have somthing small in construction like a pool, garage, etc. Trip skip is back, but instead of just brnging it to your failed mission, it would be cool if you could go to places like a safehouse, ammunation, mission, etc on your choice. Parked Taxis will be around Vice City and there is a blip (that pink thingy to start missions) on the side of the taxi, if you enter the blip, you get in as passenger and a menu comes up, showing all of the "major" places like ammunation, mission, safehouse, etc. But instead of taking a ride, you can just carjack the taxi, just dont enter the blip. another thing, no character customization? Can we still change "full package" clothes like in GTA VC and LCS?

Cant wait for SAS (San Andreas Stories). Or if they cant fit SA into a PSP, they could always have LSS (Los Santos Stories), SFS (San Fierro Stories) and LVS (Las Venturas Stories). Or, or, or, CSS (CountrySide Stories) or DSS( DeSert Stories)

K_P's photo
K_P 3rd August, 2006 @ 16:43 - Permalink

Yh i know it also encourages carjacking, murders, crime etc, but what i meant to say was people like Jack Thompson and co will have another reason to try and ban GTA Games.

P.S your post was bloody long TVG.

chris82's photo
chris82 4th August, 2006 @ 01:39 - Permalink
We don't like the idea of small children or fuzzy animals in our games.

Also, I really don't think that GTA encourages people (in real life) to commit crimes. If GTA encourages people to commit murder in real life, does Half-Life 2 encourage people to shoot furniture at alien-slugs using a zero-point energy field manipulator in real life? Does Battlefield 2 encourage you to join the Chinese army and defend an airfield in a gulf while being attacked by US Marine Corps on an aircraft carrier at sea in real life?

Good thats there no more A-B missions like in LCS, the missions in like GTA3, VC and SA had A-B-C-D-E-F missions

Yeah, A-B missions are only good for tutorial jobs, which, if you think about it, GTA really doesn't need. (It's incredibly difficult to learn to play GTA) I liked the "Learning to Fly" in San Andreas, but complicated missions, and entire mission structures revolving around one, yet complicated to achieve goal (Breaking the Bank at Caligula's strand, The Job (Malibu) strand, etc...) are the best in my opinion.

"Familiar buildings enter devolment", oh, god, no! LCS made Liberty City look like it was just being built from scratch. In LCS, 50% of the buildings were still in construction, wtf? I mean, its just like 2 years from GTA3 and pratically nothing is built? I know they want you to know that this is a younger Vice City, but we dont want a city that has just been recently founded. Mabye some of the new buildings (or the buildings that look new) like malibu club, etc or whatever could still be in construction and as you progress through the game, the buildings get more parts attatched to them to make it look more complete and some buildings will even finish construction

Agreed.

Can we still change "full package" clothes like in GTA VC and LCS?

Yes, if Rockstar knows what they are doing, we should still be able to do this, if not more. Rockstar generally doesn't like to take a step back from previous works, unless the situation calls for it. All LCS features (custom tracks, outfits, multiplayer, etc... should return with improvements.

Cant wait for SAS (San Andreas Stories). Or if they cant fit SA into a PSP, they could always have LSS (Los Santos Stories), SFS (San Fierro Stories) and LVS (Las Venturas Stories). Or, or, or, CSS (CountrySide Stories) or DSS( DeSert Stories)

To get technical, it really isn't the large map that makes San Andreas so large, file size. It's the textures and models that make up the map. Buildings and objects are so diverse, and those large textures on each one drives up the size of the game. GTA3.img is the size culprit. Over 900mb alone, almost twice the size of the entire GTA3 game. (minus audio on the GTA3 play cd) So, yeah, probably individual cities of San Andreas, but Los Santos + countryside, San Fierro + countryside, and Las Venturas + desert could probably be released in a compilation, three UMDs, with three different characters. Everything happening in the same time period, in different cities.

But Vice City Stories looks amazing and I can't wait to play.

Pandora's photo
Pandora 16th August, 2006 @ 08:11 - Permalink

Jet ski's :D, day before yesterday I was on 1. The rock. But eventuelly I fell off, didn't hold the trottel while turning.

btw, I'm 13, that's wy I still find it exiting. :P

ThePunisher's photo
ThePunisher 16th August, 2006 @ 14:29 - Permalink

I would like to know about that.