Lately, I’ve been watching a fair bit of P.C. playing video games on his Playstation 2. The one we’ve been playing/watching is Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
The brilliance of this game is not the open-endedness that was revolutionary when GTA came out, not the anti-hero Tommy’s missions, which are often very difficult, and not the graphics, which are sub-par compared to recent game systems’ recent contributions to CGI. It’s the radio.
GTA: Vice City has a bunch of radio stations, from my least favorite “Espantoso” (latin music with an occasional reggaeton beat) to “Flash” (number one hit station with the tagline “we’ll play it ‘til you like it!”) to the amusingly candid roundtable discussions on Vice City Public Radio. It’s the dialogue between the songs, which (since Vice City is set in the 80s) include classics such as “Video Killed the Radio Star” or Cutting Crew’s latest power-balled, that makes the radio great.
Most people being interviewed have written a book or two: the modern-day Viking who supports pillaging and looting as a way of life; the playwright who penned the pop culture muck “Just the Five Of Us” as well as “In the Future, There Will Be Robots,” which seems to be some kind of interpretive dance drama (and is advertised on other stations); Pastor Richards, of the Pastor Richards’ Salvation Statue fund (the statue will blast off into space with those who have made the largest donations toward its creation when Armageddon arrives).
Some of the panelists on morality, such as the nudist who insists “if everyone were naked, there would be no war!”, are satirical, while some seem to be just stating the secret beliefs of people who really exist: “I’m a mother, and I’m opinionated and judgmental! No, don't interrupt me! I have children, you know!”
At any rate, whatever you think of GTA, Vice City, or vice in general, this is radio worth listening to.
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