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The success of this title around the world took gamers by storm, and if that weren't enough, Take-Two Interactive expanded on this by releasing Rockstar Games' critically acclaimed GTA: Vice City. Now, one year after GTA: VC was released, the games have debuted on the Xbox, not as two independent titles, but as one double pack. Value? Oh yeah.

As both games were independent titles, let's take a look at them independently. GTA3 sees you controlling a small-time crook in Liberty City, based loosely around real-life New York. Almost left for dead by a crooked partner, it is not long after that you are being carted away to jail in a paddywagon. However, in this wagon there are a few gang members that are broken free by a local gang and this in turn sees you breathing freedom once more.

You partner up with another local crook called ?-Ball?who lets you use his hideout and introduces you to "Luigi?for a few jobs. It won't be long before you will be working for all sorts of crime bosses and earning yourself respect in Liberty City.

The first two missions you play teach you the jist of the controls. From here you can pretty much do what you please. That's right, one of the best features in this game (as well as its predecessors) is the fact that you are not limited to what you want to do and free roaming is encouraged.

However, it is only by progressing through the missions that you will unlock the next parts of Liberty City. Three islands make up the entire map, and each one is large enough to almost be a full game in itself.

The missions themselves are varied enough to eliminate the feeling of forced progression. Some of these missions may involve taking out an opposing gang, or even protecting a boss's vehicle during transportation.

There is normally more than just one way of completing a mission although violence is usually the key. Violence plays a big role in the game, hence the R18 rating the last few games have received.

Moving around Liberty can be done either on foot, or vehicle. The trouble is, which vehicle do you choose? There are so many to choose from with cars, trucks, taxis, ambulances, fire engines and even police cars. Any of the service vehicles can be used to complete side tasks such as putting out fires in the fire engine, picking up injured or sick people in an ambulance and taking them to hospital, or becoming a vigilante and cruising around in a police car taking the law into your own hands.

GTA: Vice City takes all the best elements of its predecessor and expands on them in many ways. The game sees you sent to Vice City to take care of a little deal going down. Unfortunately the deal goes sour and now you have to get back the money that was lost during the ambush. Set in the mid 80s, the game will bring back some memories for many players in more ways than one. The start of the game sees you paired up with a crooked lawyer as you try to make contact with some of the big bosses in the area and find out who was responsible for the drug deal gone bad.

Your local "hideout?so to speak in this game is an hotel on the beachfront. However, unlike GTA3 where your hideouts are pre-determined, in Vice City you can purchase your own properties. These can range from a mansion with a garage for your car, a nightclub, or even a porn studio. Yes, as bizarre as it sounds, you can buy any one of a large selection of properties.

The missions themselves have a lot more variety with the addition of even more vehicles. Helicopters, golf carts, planes and even more variety of boats are an addition to the already huge selection of cars that are similar to GTA3. These are all unlocked over the course of the game, as you need them to successfully complete missions. Once they are unlocked you can use them whenever you please.

Aside from the stories, and the addition of a few more features in Vice City, both games are quite similar. Both encourage exploration by hiding secret packages in the nooks and crannies of town from back alleyways to rooftops. Insane stunts are achieved by finding ramps and launching off them at speed; these can be quite fun in themselves and can prove quite a distraction from the rest of the game.

The Xbox versions of these games have received some updates to make use of the technology at hand. Both games now support Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as receiving graphical updates, although out of the two, GTA3 does look a little dated.

That said, the graphics do the job remarkably well. Weather changes during the game as well as the time of day, with a nice bright lens flare at sunset with an orange/reddish haze in the sky, or the raindrops giving the impression they are spraying up on your television screen.

Each game has huge sprawling cities with some places that you may not even end up seeing such as back alleys, or an underground car park. Everybody has his own role, be it taxi driver, pedestrian, policeman or even the occasional prostitute, and all of them will go about their daily routine and offer a degree of interaction.

The sound is one of the best features in both games, with the choice of many radio stations to listen to while cruising the city streets. Each has some very humorous adverts that will have you laughing out loud. The radio stations each have a variety from hard rock, R&B and even talkback.

The actual songs in Vice City owe a lot to the 80s, with classic songs from Iron Maiden, Michael Jackson, Electric Light Orchestra and even Ozzy Osbourne. Another great feature of the games is the voices used in both with some big name stars such as Michael Madson, Kyle MacLachlan, Ray Liotta, Dennis Hopper as well as some big names from the 80s such as Lee Majors (Six Million Dollar Man), and Phillip Michael Thomas (Miami Vice). These names also only make up about a quarter of the cast across both games, so you get an impression how huge the list is.

The controls work very well, apart from one small gripe. When using your fists to get into fights it can sometimes be a bit difficult to pull off moves consistently as the right shoulder trigger is used for punching. Because of the analogue sensitivity, it can be hard to chain a few hits together due to only having to press the trigger very lightly. When in the heat of the moment, lightly is not on the mind.

Besides that very minor problem, everything else does its job well. The handling of the vehicles is responsive, and you can also change radio station at will whenever you want, and even access your custom soundtracks without going to the options screen.

It wasn't too long ago that gamers thought the GTA series wouldn't make it to Xbox, and now the games have finally arrived. Each game is worth the price of admission alone, but to get two great games for the price of one is fantastic. There is enough in both games to keep you going for at least 60 hours if you want to just rush through.

If, on the other hand, you want to complete every single task, find all the packages and jumps as well as other bits and pieces, you can expect even more bang for your buck. Every gamer old enough needs this in his collection.