5. The Other Bits
Compared to later games in the series, Vice City was a more streamlined and perhaps refined experience. Like the other games there were plenty of extra content to get engaged with across the city. Hidden packages to collect and rampages to complete, these are staples of the series. Add to that street races,boat races, taxi and Mr. Whoopee activities to earn some extra cash, there was plenty to get stuck into after the main campaign was done and dusted. San Andreas took this to the extreme, and while it provided a great sandbox experience, it wasn't necessarily a good GTA experience. Especially when they integrated some of the extra stuff into the main story to pad out the content. Flight school was particularly frustrating, and not passing that meant it took some players longer than it should have to advance the story. GTA IV was no better, with its intrusive mobile phone. No Roman, how many times do I need to tell you I do not want to waste time going to a strip joint with you, and no Dwayne, I'm not going to take your mopey ass bowling. Everything in Vice City was streamlined into the experience without becoming overwhelming. It also realised that some of the best fun a player could have was not in fact buying properties or stealing cars for export, but something far simpler. Like inputting a cheat to give pedestrians weapons, and then inputting a separate cheat to make them all hyper aggressive and just let the chaos play out. Not once was I fire bombed by and old woman in GTA IV, and it was worse off for it.
This is the internet, so I'm probably wrong about this on all accounts. Feel free to tell me just how wrong I am in the comments below.