GTA3: Vice City - Learning to Drive Again

Recently I upgraded my computer, so I can finally play some of the newish games I'd like to play.

So have I played them? A little. But what I've mostly done instead is fire up my old original XBOX and play Grand Theft Auto 3: Vice City. (Click here for the excellent intro - press play on tape? Been there, done that.)

The first time I did I walked into walls for about 5 minutes, then crashed every car I had into everything near me for another 10 minutes. Within 15 more minutes I was sailing along, but still leaning the patterns of other drivers so I can zip around without killing pedestrians or wrecking my car. I'll get there. The best way to get there?

Taxi missions. I arrived in Vice City and prompt ignored the main mission so I could tool around in a (stolen) taxi - preferably one from Kaufman cab company - listening to the radio, picking up passengers, and getting better at driving around. I knocked off the pizza delivery missions to get my health bonus. I'll go back to cabs again after that. Once I've hit 100+ passengers and unlocked the special cab feature, I'll see about doing the paramedic runs.

Then I'll be well-equipped and familiar with the controls and I can go about Tommy Vercetti's mission to dominate the drug trade and get Marco his money back. It's not how I wont the game the first time, but I'm having fun doing it this way, this time.

I'd once unlocked almost everything in the game, but then I loaned someone my XBOX while I was in Japan . . . and when I came back I'd found he'd only played Vice City a little bit, but managed to save over every single one of my save games. Sigh. So this time I'll unlock it all systematically. Because it's like 16+ years old but the game still isn't boring to me.