Vice City Extras, Tips and Tricks

After you've finished the main missions, Grand Theft Auto Vice City still has plenty of surprises in store for players: hidden items, gags, Easter eggs. There are also tricks you can use to make money quickly and easily. You'll find all of them in this article.

Easy Money

Many of you already know the mall trick for robbing shops, so I'll point you to something else. Grab a nice melee weapon and lay into the shoppers (leave the security guards alone), then pick up the cash they drop. Once you've got two stars, head to the GASH to change clothes, then start swinging again, then change clothes at the tool shop, and so on...

In Downtown, on the northern edge of the district, there are parking meters. They usually hold enough for a mid-range weapon (mostly between $500 and $1000). You can walk down the row with a car, and sure, the cops won't be too thrilled about it, but the hideout is close by, so you can change clothes, and you'll only have one star beforehand anyway. Good work takes time, and if you set aside a few hours, your money troubles will be solved in no time...

Starting gang wars is also a great idea. Near the end of the game, show yourself to a few Haitians so they get angry, then run toward one of your businesses (I usually pick the taxi company), where the Vercetti gang is waiting for the Haitians with open arms. This nice little gang war is atmospheric and a great warm-up for San Andreas, but it has another advantage too: you can pick up quite a lot of money and weapons from the dead gang members. You can also ask the Vercetti gang for some bread money: our guys obediently drop to the ground after a few punches, and the cops don't get too worked up about it...

A Building from Scarface

This film was the inspiration for the game (it's interesting how much the game and the film resemble each other. Since the basic story is a bit like VC's, Scarface seems like the twin brother of Vice City, and of GTA3 too).

However, one of the most brutal scenes in the film (and probably in film history) takes place in a bathroom, when after a botched drug deal Toad cuts off Angel's arms and legs with a chainsaw.

We can find this very room in the game, and standing right there you can even imagine the whole scene. Starting from the Pay'n'Spray on Ocean Beach, head south, then turn left at the first street. On the left you'll find a pinkish-greenish house. Go up the stairs!

I couldn't suppress a grin. The bag stuffed with coke is there in the room, but the real atmosphere comes when you walk into the bathroom! Next to the bloody wall you'll find the chainsaw that Toad used back then...

Trophies

It's a small nicety from the developers that after completing certain missions, trophies appear in the game, and when we look at them we can remember our "heroic deeds". Here's the list:

Ocean View:

• after collecting all 100 hidden packages: a dismantled statue, revealing what was inside.

• after Phil's "Boomshine Saigon" mission: three barrels of Boomshine in the hotel

• after the Malibu "The Job" mission: a bag of money on the bed and a mask on the table

• after the film studio's "G-Spotlight" mission: Candy Suxxx pictures appear

• after the Malibu "The Shootist" mission, you'll find a trophy on the TV titled "Shooter of the Month"

Vercetti Estate:

• after the "Demolition Man" mission, in the downstairs room on the left there's the box of a remote-controlled helicopter, with its remote on the table (sadly you can't fly it, what a gag that would have been...)

• after winning the races at the stadium, the trophies appear on top of the TV

• after the "Shakedown" mission, GASH bags appear in the downstairs room

• after the film studio's "G-Spotlight" mission, Candy Suxxx pictures in the study

• the pictures taken in the film studio's "Martha's Mug Shot" mission are on the table

• after the "Rub Out" missions, the paintings are a bit battered...

• as time goes by, more and more pizza boxes and beer bottles pile up around the estate...

The Real Easter Egg

Go up to the roof of the VCN building! Walk up to the landing pad, then go to its northwest corner by the light, facing west, so that a window is very close to you (check the windows with the PSG - the laser dot has to line up with our window). Once you've got that, go back and jump...

The developers left you an egg there with a "Happy Easter!" message.... I'm blown away...

The King of Balls

If you want to live out your desire for football or ball games, you can do it in GTA: Vice City too! Here's how: hop in a car, go from the eastern island to Starfish Island, and as soon as you reach the little island, turn right. At the first house there's a Cheetah, and this will be our spot. Get out, walk into the pool, and look at that! The game counts how many times you manage to head the ball, which bursts after a while.

Nighttime Mischief, for Over-18s Only!

Next to the Malibu Club there's a big building whose windows are lit up in the evening. Well, between 11 and 12 o'clock, these windows are lit in a rather peculiar shape...

The GTA3 moon phase change still works too. If you shoot it with a sniper weapon, the moon grows through 7 stages, then shrinks again.

Secrets of the Ocean

The most beautiful moments of GTA: VC are undoubtedly when we hop on a boat, head out to the open sea, and watch the setting Sun (or the rising Sun), admiring the sea life beside us. But the ocean hides not only living things, but lifeless ones too:

• A sunken cargo ship southwest of the wooden shack south of Cortez's dock

• Heading even further north from the northern part of the eastern island, another cargo ship wreck emerges

• A stranded submarine near the North Point Mall

• A boat wreck on the Downtown side of the northernmost bridge, next to the northern "leg"

• A mob victim in concrete boots, between Little Haiti-Downtown and the golf island

The game still has more surprises in store, a good part of them "GTA 3 memories", but we can also come across things that can be found in real life too. I'll continue describing these in an article called "Curiosities".