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Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)
Like playing "Scarface", but better...
This game takes what "Grand Theft Auto 3" did (which took what "Grand Theft Auto" did) and made it better. The Renderware engine is used superbly to create a very good looking "living" city (enough people and cars to make it look more like a city and less like a ghost-town) and is even taken further than in "GTA3" as there are now special lighting effects such as glare off of cars, vehicular shine (though not environment mapping), and even better looking weather effects. Oh and now there are motorcycles, helicopters, and small aircraft (with uncut wings!). About 3 or 4 distinctly different types of motorcycle, each one with its own road/offroad characteristics (and yes you can wheelie and stoppie/endo).
The meat of the game is not just the main storyline (which involves an Ex-con mafia member who winds up in debt to his supperiors and must make good) but the fact that there are tons of alternate missions, some of which are initiated by heading to specific locations and others initiated by pressing a command while in a specific vehicle (like driving a taxi, driving the walking wounded to a hospital in an ambulance, putting out fires, stopping criminals, and delivering pizzas). Even better is the fact that the game is completely open ended, so if you never wanted to do the missions, you could just buy a gun, hop in an empty vehicle (or carjack/hijack one) and wreak havoc-or not. It's really all up to you.
It's set in the '80s, in Miami Florida, and has you playing an Ex-con mafia-man. The set-up draws tons of comparisons to "Scarface" and the game even references the film (...and tons of other '80s pop culture) at certain times in its normal darkly humorous manner. It's as violent as the movie of similar quality, but isn't nearly as gorey (most pure shooting games and "suvival/horror" games actually have a higher gore content)-in this case, there is blood, but no guts. I'll leave it with you to decide whether that's a pro or a con. The missions are quite entertaining and actually offer a fairly wide degree of challenge. Even if you've beat all of the storyline missions, you'll probably only have a completions percentage of around 75% as there is tons of other things to complete.
In addition to all to the copious amounts of '80s references, there is the fact that the game actually has about the most licensed music (specifically late '70s early '80s though) to date, enough for the publisher to actually sell a multi-disc boxed-set soundtrack for the game. All this music really adds to the cinematic feel of the game. If you don't like the music in the game or think you could add a few '80 hits that they managed to miss, some versions (the X-Box and the PC versions) offer the ability to set up your own "cassettes", essentially music play lists based on the MP3s you've given the game access to.
So if you were an '80s or car fan disappointed by "Interstate '82" or just like the idea of near total freedom in a game, then I'd suggest buying this game, it's really worth it (even more so now since they bundle "Grand Theft Auto 3" with "Vice City").
Grand Theft Auto: London, 1969 (1999)
Great expansion for its time
Until "Grand Theft Auto 3" came around, this was the state in which the games were played: top down with the accelerate and brake/reverse buttons rigged for walking forwards and backwards. To say the least this control scheme was a bit awkward and the fact that the camera would pull back the faster you traveled in a vehicle helped a bit, but became annoying as it occasionally made it difficult to control if you wanted to get somewhere quickly (most people pulse the accelerator in a particularly speedy car).
Anyway, GTA was a good game in its time and this was no less an amusing expansion pack as it attempts to give the flavor of late '60s London with vehicles and music based on the variety found in that era. While not revolutionary it an expansion pack and they're usually not expected to be revolutionary. It's not nearly as pretty as many games, even those of the original PSX (not to be confused with the up-coming, pumped-up, home entertainment center version of the PS2 by the same name) era as it was mainly sprite based with some 3D for the buildings. However, the fact that you get a whole city (albeit low-res) to play around in with no loading screens is a big plus.
So, thus this game is/was fun, but can be real hard for those used to "Grand Theft Auto 3" or "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" to play. Though one can't say it was bad based on the new GTA as it's like saying "'Mario Brothers' is bad compared to 'Mario Sunshine' because of doesn't look good or offer enough." So if you've still got an original PSX or a PSOne or even a PS2 and have a couple of dollars to spend at a used game store, this game is still fairly fun (7.3/10).
Dirty Pair Flash (1995)
Not to be taken as seriously as "Evangelion"
Simply stated this series is rather silly and not to be taken seriously. It's not really meant to be deep and that's pretty clear from the occasionally (and I use that term lightly) gratuitous fan service (though not as gratuitous as "Amazing Nurse Nanako"). While it's a shade cheesy, it appears to vaguely parody the genre created by '70s T.V. show "Charlie's Angels" (which is cheesy as well, but thoroughly enjoyed by many none the less). If you're ONLY into stuff like "Shinseki Evangelion" or "Serial Experiments: Lain", this is probably not the right series for you. However, if you enjoy "Charlie's Angels" or the more recent movie/s based off of it, then you'll probably like this series. However, if you want truly high grade action/silliness, then try either "Full Metal Panic: Fumofu" (2003) or "Full Metal Panic!" (2002).