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Rockstar's neon-drenched 2002 opus Vice City deliberately calls many pop references to mind. The title, the logo, the suits, the sports cars and the ostentatious colour palette all combine to evoke Miami Vice, of course. The plot, meanwhile, draws heavily on that other classic tale of 1980s excess on the Florida coast: Brian DePalma's Scarface. The presence of Ray Liotta in the lead role, all laconic New York swagger, adds a welcome dash of Scorsese's rich and salty Italian-American flavour.Yet, for me, the thing that most immediately springs to mind when thinking about Vice City is not a gangster tale at all. It's Goldfinger.
The third Bond movie saw the 007 formula click into place, finding a blend of gadgets, girls and glamour that would endure for another 40 years. So too does Vice City crystallise the fledgling GTA formula for 3D, as the gaudy debauchery of the 1980s collides with Rockstar's arch millenial irony - an alchemical reaction that results in the perfect balancing of tone and humour, bad taste and great wit.
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