8. The Music Was AWESOME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOQ6iTXC6QE You'd think it'd be hard to distinguish Vice City over any other GTA game when it comes to music, because the soundtrack in each one was absolutely brilliant. And yet the music in Vice City combines with the setting to create a glorious gestalt that no other GTA game can possibly match. 80s music - with its excesses of synth, glam metal and power ballads - feels like something of a truly past era; a turning point in musical history that we love and relate to, and yet has such a distinct sound that we know it couldn't possibly have been made in the last 20 years. The 80s soundtrack enhances that pink, neon-tinted nostalgia that Vice City oozes out of every pore. It completes the escapist 80s fantasy that Vice City always played on, and no GTA game set in modern times can possibly replace that experience, because it's lacking the sentimental appeal of eras gone by. The only GTA game that comes close to matching Vice City's nostalgic fantasy is San Andreas, where you can cruise through a 90s LA Hood in your Low-Rider while bouncing the car to Snoop Dogg. But for me, the campy, powerful and unapologetic sounds of the 80s combined with the neon-lit Vice City beach strip win out.
Robert Zak
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Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
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