Better GTA: Vice City or San Andreas

I loved Vice City, it's in my top 5-10 games of all time. I know San Andreas was technically superior in every way but something about it just missed the mark for me. It's like there was too much going on and none of it really fit all that well together, at least for me.

Better soundtrack? Vice City
Better lead character? Vice City
Better storyline? Vice City
Better gameplay? San Andreas
 
I really liked the environment in Vice City (setting it in a fictional Miami was a great idea), but I loved San Andreas. Great characters, story, massive world (crash through the city or 4x4 in the woods), RPG elements, turf wars, just lots to do with a lot of variety. I spent way more time playing San Andreas. I also don't have nostalgia for the 80s which probably effects my perception.
 
I'd store the best modded vehicles in the hangar of that desert base
with some cool motorcycles.
Doing stunts on the the hills next to base

Some pics of modded cars, i just imported a 1.3 gb file into the game folder,
that contained all the cars

JQLr2SD.jpg


XOhrz2X.jpg
 
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Obviously San Andreas. The only reason some people jerk off to Vice City is because of the Brilliant Scarface vibe.
 
I always loved the vibe of California and the hood movies of the 90s but something about Vice City did it for me. The soundtrack was easily the GOAT GTA soundtrack and I can still remember checking the web every day to see what updates the vice city site would have and what new music they'd reveal. I was crazy obsessed with that game before it even came out.

Gameplay wise SA was on another level but the jump from gta3 to vice city just felt bigger to me.
 
San Andreas.

I love the vibe and soundtrack for Vice City. But the gameplay game itself just doesn’t stack up to SA. I still remember how great it was that you could drive out of the city and find all those little rural areas. I then had my mind blown when I found a crop duster just sitting on some hill and I could get in and fly it. Then getting to drive to other cities in the game, with no loading time in between, on top of all of that was fucking amazing.
 
I loved Vice City, it's in my top 5-10 games of all time. I know San Andreas was technically superior in every way but something about it just missed the mark for me. It's like there was too much going on and none of it really fit all that well together, at least for me.
Loved both games but pick Vice City for this reason

Lotta gimmicks in San Andreas. Eating food ? (never used it, stupid) exercising ? (never used it, stupid), swimming ? (barely did it, only for required missions), customize cars ? (never used it), 10x bigger map ? (whole lotta nothing), burgarly missions ? (paid shit money, not worth it and boring/repetitive) Gang wars ? (fun a few times then gets incredibly annoying getting alerts every 10 minutes to go do LITERALLY the same battle everytime)........ect

Alot of those gimmicks where cool when I was a kid but if you go back and play both games now, Vice city has for sure aged better due to less gimmicks
 
vice city has a cool setting but san andreas is by far the best GTA imo
 
I recall hating the character development stuff in San Andreas (eating, working out). It was probably only one mission that made you do it, but I still remember thinking it was dumb.

For me Vice City was just an overall more enjoyable experience. Something about riding a moped on the beach...
 
Loved both games but pick Vice City for this reason

Lotta gimmicks in San Andreas. Eating food ? (never used it, stupid) exercising ? (never used it, stupid), swimming ? (barely did it, only for required missions), customize cars ? (never used it), 10x bigger map ? (whole lotta nothing), burgarly missions ? (paid shit money, not worth it and boring/repetitive) Gang wars ? (fun a few times then gets incredibly annoying getting alerts every 10 minutes to go do LITERALLY the same battle everytime)........ect

Alot of those gimmicks where cool when I was a kid but if you go back and play both games now, Vice city has for sure aged better due to less gimmicks

That's an interesting argument. I personally think the extra shit added to the overall experience, but you are right that it was all rather pointless, and served no real purpose. It's qualities were superficial.
 
Easily San Andreas. This game is a classic.
 
San Andreas feels closer to the our current timeline and can relate with all the trash depicted in the streets of rage!
 
I liked the atmosphere in VC more, but San Andreas had a much bigger world and a lot more to do so I give a close decision to SA
 
San Andreas proves that bigger isn't better with these sorts of games. As a practical matter, big empty maps and cities just lead to long travel times between points of interest. Travel times in Vice City were perfect, as opposed to SA, which dutifully simulated having to take the freeway to get anywhere. I distinctly remember a mission where you drive out to Long Beach, meet someone, then drive back. It resembled nothing so much as an L.A. commute simulator.

Apart from that, you had a huge cast of goofball characters and ludicrous missions that gave the game a gonzo vibe that I just didn't care for. It wasn't as funny, the music wasn't as good, and the story dragged on forever.

I played VC for ages and it never got stale. I still remember the cheat codes fifteen years later. It's an all-time great for me, while SA isn't a game I ever wanted to spend much time with.
 
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Loved Vice City. Was just talking to buddies about the sound track/radio stations.
 
I recall hating the character development stuff in San Andreas (eating, working out). It was probably only one mission that made you do it, but I still remember thinking it was dumb.

For me Vice City was just an overall more enjoyable experience. Something about riding a moped on the beach...
grand-theft-auto-vice-city.jpg

So much nostalgia from just one picture
<mma1>

I'll never forget my dad busting into my room going "Is that Working For The Weekend?!" <Lmaoo>

I remember being 13 and walking around Best Buy desperately trying to find a copy. I ask a guy working there and he pops open a drawer and says "I got one left but it's on reserve". I dejected begin to walk away and he goes but you're here and he's not so it's yours. He then asks for my parents for me to buy it and as I stammer he laughs and goes just kidding man, it's all you. Thank you anonymous Best Buy worker, I still remember you 15 years later.
 
Alot of those gimmicks where cool when I was a kid but if you go back and play both games now, Vice city has for sure aged better due to less gimmicks

This could not be further from the truth. As someone who has bought GTA 3, Vice City and SA on the PS4 then I can confirm that San Andreas has much, much better controls compared to the other two which were a clunky mess understandably. Forget graphics, resolution etc... Controls like that make games age far worse.
 
Vice City for soundtrack and theme.

San Andreas for how big everything was.
 
GTA 5 online kill them all especially race it fantastic
 
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