The games themselves always, always start slowly. I never judge them on these sections but, try and bare with it until you get to the much more fun missions later (although there are usually several "controller throwing" levels which have immensely stupid difficulty or controls). This is because every game assumes you don't know how to play, so there are dozens of tutorials, for every damn aspect of the game (it only gets worse in San Andreas!)
If you're into more information on Vice City and San Andreas, these are some short bits on the changes/features of each:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Yes, Miami-Vice influenced, but much more besides that happened in the 80's - Scarface, rock bands, bikers and pornographic films all appear too! This game is very laid back - and the lead character Tommy (they now did a speaking protagonist, yay) is basically out to take the city. This game's flows the best of all the games, in my opinion, and the tutorials are more barable. If however you can't stand the setting, you won't be able to stand much of the game.
For the time, it vastly improved the experience - it added a better set of graphics (brighter ones for starters), flying vehicles (helicopters, planes), and a multitude more vehicles. Also contained interior buildings for the first time (such as a Mall). There is also the ability to buy properties (and "complete" them to gain income from them by completing their set of missions).
The radio stations were kicked up a notch with a ton of licensed music (the trend started here), and some good "Chatterbox" stuff. The police got more intense - there is a Miami-Vice copycat car at 3 stars, and also tire blowers/police boats used by the Police. I think they also improved the AI a more significant amount for chases/traffic.
The story ebs and flows with a lot, and I mean a lot of parody humour (if you know the films/TV references, you'll get a lot of it). There is a much better story then GTA3, which was bare bones as it got, with an actual aim for the protagonists and some good interaction in cutscenes and missions. There are much better/inventive/enjoyable missions then GTA3, and in general much more polished ones then GTA:SA too - although some were really difficult - usually timed missions.
The level was smaller in total, but I think more enjoyable to drive around. The sunny atmosphere, well laid out roads and generally more natural flow helped a lot. Half the island is locked until about a third of the way through the game.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Goes for the early-90's "State" of San Andreas (more like a huge island really). Kicks up the size a notch, with 3 cities of about the same size as Vice City (so, not as big as Liberty City each), with additional space between them for countryside - a previous earthquake stops progress to each city (give or take). Bigger isn't always better - it takes ages to get anywhere (public transport/jumping to save points is non existent). Some missions really benefit from the space however.
Starts laboriously slow. A truckload of tutorials goes above what Vice City and GTA3 had. Gang Warfare was poorly implemented with "losing territory" a constant bother, and didn't even matter for the most part. The amount of things to complete also shot up - gang spray tagging, things to randomly find, and stunts to perform. 100% completion is really, really hard without a guide.
Main additions for the character was RPG things - getting fit meant button mashing for a while after every rest, until stats were maxed out (for running, strength and so on). Eating wasn't really required since sleeping had the same effect. Massive amounts of character customisation - which also applied to cutscenes really well. You could, although I don't know anyone who bothered, customise cars with extra gubbins. You can also swim for the first time, meaning you no longer died by touching water!
There were more "Minigame" things added, and some of the missions were frankly rubbish or too much based on luck. There were also an entirely mandatory tutorial for how to fly a plane about 2/3rds of the way through the game. This was crap. CRAP. However, despite rehashing every possible mission in the first two games, there were some good gems in there.
Optional missions/quests didn't mean much but were generally enjoyable. You could buy properties in some cases like Vice City, which generally unlocked these optional missions.
Radio was "improved" by having random intros/outros to songs by the DJ's and randomisation of the songs (although this also randomised the "Chatterbox" stuff which got annoying if you kept hearing the same one). Radio news changed as the story progressed, which was a nice touch. Not quite the soundtrack of Vice City though.
----
To be honest, the games are hard to get into - the tutorials are bloody boring and long. Generally it picks up after them though. One thing I noticed about all the GTA games, you never ever play a female protagonist, and most of the protagonists seem the same - not "Evil" crime perpetrators, but instead just "defending" themselves or taking jobs for money under orders. It's not exactly cookie cutter, but it's as good as it gets for motivation and "why", since the games are all entirely linear story wise.
Hope that information helps, but sticking with a GTA can be hard at the beginning, and if the story and activities don't impress then it's very hard to stick with the story :)
Bill, I meant "NES" not "DS". Slight of hand.
The games themselves always, always start slowly. I never judge them on these sections but, try and bare with it until you get to the much more fun missions later (although there are usually several "controller throwing" levels which have immensely stupid difficulty or controls). This is because every game assumes you don't know how to play, so there are dozens of tutorials, for every damn aspect of the game (it only gets worse in San Andreas!)
If you're into more information on Vice City and San Andreas, these are some short bits on the changes/features of each:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Yes, Miami-Vice influenced, but much more besides that happened in the 80's - Scarface, rock bands, bikers and pornographic films all appear too! This game is very laid back - and the lead character Tommy (they now did a speaking protagonist, yay) is basically out to take the city. This game's flows the best of all the games, in my opinion, and the tutorials are more barable. If however you can't stand the setting, you won't be able to stand much of the game.
For the time, it vastly improved the experience - it added a better set of graphics (brighter ones for starters), flying vehicles (helicopters, planes), and a multitude more vehicles. Also contained interior buildings for the first time (such as a Mall). There is also the ability to buy properties (and "complete" them to gain income from them by completing their set of missions).
The radio stations were kicked up a notch with a ton of licensed music (the trend started here), and some good "Chatterbox" stuff. The police got more intense - there is a Miami-Vice copycat car at 3 stars, and also tire blowers/police boats used by the Police. I think they also improved the AI a more significant amount for chases/traffic.
The story ebs and flows with a lot, and I mean a lot of parody humour (if you know the films/TV references, you'll get a lot of it). There is a much better story then GTA3, which was bare bones as it got, with an actual aim for the protagonists and some good interaction in cutscenes and missions. There are much better/inventive/enjoyable missions then GTA3, and in general much more polished ones then GTA:SA too - although some were really difficult - usually timed missions.
The level was smaller in total, but I think more enjoyable to drive around. The sunny atmosphere, well laid out roads and generally more natural flow helped a lot. Half the island is locked until about a third of the way through the game.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Goes for the early-90's "State" of San Andreas (more like a huge island really). Kicks up the size a notch, with 3 cities of about the same size as Vice City (so, not as big as Liberty City each), with additional space between them for countryside - a previous earthquake stops progress to each city (give or take). Bigger isn't always better - it takes ages to get anywhere (public transport/jumping to save points is non existent). Some missions really benefit from the space however.
Starts laboriously slow. A truckload of tutorials goes above what Vice City and GTA3 had. Gang Warfare was poorly implemented with "losing territory" a constant bother, and didn't even matter for the most part. The amount of things to complete also shot up - gang spray tagging, things to randomly find, and stunts to perform. 100% completion is really, really hard without a guide.
Main additions for the character was RPG things - getting fit meant button mashing for a while after every rest, until stats were maxed out (for running, strength and so on). Eating wasn't really required since sleeping had the same effect. Massive amounts of character customisation - which also applied to cutscenes really well. You could, although I don't know anyone who bothered, customise cars with extra gubbins. You can also swim for the first time, meaning you no longer died by touching water!
There were more "Minigame" things added, and some of the missions were frankly rubbish or too much based on luck. There were also an entirely mandatory tutorial for how to fly a plane about 2/3rds of the way through the game. This was crap. CRAP. However, despite rehashing every possible mission in the first two games, there were some good gems in there.
Optional missions/quests didn't mean much but were generally enjoyable. You could buy properties in some cases like Vice City, which generally unlocked these optional missions.
Radio was "improved" by having random intros/outros to songs by the DJ's and randomisation of the songs (although this also randomised the "Chatterbox" stuff which got annoying if you kept hearing the same one). Radio news changed as the story progressed, which was a nice touch. Not quite the soundtrack of Vice City though.
----
To be honest, the games are hard to get into - the tutorials are bloody boring and long. Generally it picks up after them though. One thing I noticed about all the GTA games, you never ever play a female protagonist, and most of the protagonists seem the same - not "Evil" crime perpetrators, but instead just "defending" themselves or taking jobs for money under orders. It's not exactly cookie cutter, but it's as good as it gets for motivation and "why", since the games are all entirely linear story wise.
Hope that information helps, but sticking with a GTA can be hard at the beginning, and if the story and activities don't impress then it's very hard to stick with the story :)
Andrew
Andrew