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4 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - Cruising to Billie Jean
Like many of the games on this list, Vice City is so brilliant you could easily write a feature on the 101 best Vice City moments. But we all agreed on this one magnificent example because it's a moment everyone who plays the game will experience. We're talking about the first time you get into a car in the game.
You run over to it, press triangle and Tommy gets in. And the radio starts up. What's it playing? "Billie Jean". Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". On the radio. In 1980s pseudo-Miami.
You pull away with the sun beating down on you, glinting off the windshields of passing cars and reach for the 'volume up' button. This moment encapsulates the whole game for us.
Firstly, it was one of the first times we really appreciated having licensed music in a game. Secondly, it represents the extraordinary production values of this extraordinary videogame. But thirdly, and most importantly, at the time it appears to be a coincidence that it's playing when you get in. After all, we were so used to GTA III's vehicle radios playing random songs (except of course for occasional news reports telling you the next area is open).
But, in talking it over with other people who played it, you realize it is the same song for everyone getting into that first car; Rockstar designed the moment to appear to be a chance occurrence.
For successfully engineering an indelible moment of delight in the minds of so many, Rockstar has to be applauded.
Above: Surpassed only by San Andreas, the neon-and-pastel Vice City is still the most stylish GTA of the series
Firstly, it was one of the first times we really appreciated having licensed music in a game. Secondly, it represents the extraordinary production values of this extraordinary videogame. But thirdly, and most importantly, at the time it appears to be a coincidence that it's playing when you get in. After all, we were so used to GTA III's vehicle radios playing random songs (except of course for occasional news reports telling you the next area is open).
But, in talking it over with other people who played it, you realize it is the same song for everyone getting into that first car; Rockstar designed the moment to appear to be a chance occurrence.
For successfully engineering an indelible moment of delight in the minds of so many, Rockstar has to be applauded.
