"That's not vodka, that's boomshine!" This single line from GTA: Vice City has been cozily camping out in my temporal lobe for 22 years. I remember everything about it: tone, cadence, slurred Scots drawl. I'm not really sure why, especially when the fourth mainline entry in Rockstar's beloved crime sim is littered with zingers, but it's probably because the mission it comes from encapsulates why I love the PS2-era GTA games: they're daft, proud of it, and still plenty challenging to this day.
I'll be square with you: I am awful at driving in video games, so much so that I could only ever watch my brother play through 'Publicity Stunt' when I was a kid because I found it so frustrating. Still, escorting Love Fist to their gig in a bomb-on-wheels stands out as my favorite mission of the bunch – even if I was too unskilled to try it myself – but having started replaying Vice City on my old PS2 this week, I have a new dream in mind for GTA 6. Despite what some facets of the internet pine for, I really hope to see Rockstar retaining a touch of VC's garish charm when we return to Tommy Vercetti's reworked stomping ground in 2025.
