GTA Vice City Beta Map Analysis

That map is so small honestly, not too much buildings and doesn't feel like a city type of land.

gta sa have beta map(s) in it too

I know I’m late but it really annoyed me of the lack of roads in the downtown area

Yeah…Vice City wasn’t the best map wise

Never realized how empty the western map is. Guess they were too focused on shipping the game out a year after 3 to actually finish a lot.
And yeah, now that i'm older, it does feel like a lot of the map is severely rushed, especially the west map.

Maybe they could of added bigger planes? I mean they had to thought they could do that instead of scraping the airport they just built

I've been doing my first playthrough of vice city recently, (so I am not biased by nostalgia) and many of these things had me going "wait wh-"

1. obviously the curved runway
2. obvious lack of detail in the western island
3. obvious lack of camera movement (so I had to get a mod, sorry vanilla players it was just too hard :c)

The city especially mainland should have been 5 times larger

I have always hated the Voce City map way too many turns and no place to really go full speed unlike Liberty

To Quote the Legendary Jesse Lee Peterson:







Beta!

Yeah, the beach parts is sad.. And you took the words right out of my mouth on the west island.

Your voice is so comfortable to listen to. Never stop

Lol

Honestly, never noticed the weird shape of that runway.

correction: the lighthouse in beta vice city is still present and it was there even in alpha tho

Maybe the stadium is really a space center where we are transported into another planet and have to engage in different sports activities where martians cheer us on from another planet. Which is why you see no crowd watching you!

Man there up to the map has a road i think this road is road to Gator Keys

I can't believe they didn't update the HUD map for the "remaster"...... I still get confused trying to cut through alleys around Little Haiti.

Shame that Vice City was such a small production, since IMO it's way better than GTA 3. Some have said that it was originally planned to be a DLC to GTA 3 (probably in the same sense as the episodes for GTA IV). It certainly feels like it. It released just one year after the predecessor, it's basicly GTA 3 with a new setting (exactly the same gameplay, barely any new features, many recycled resources). It has that "Hey this GTA 3 is really fun! What else could we do with this?" vibe...

I think the west beach was added so the stadium doesn't look like it was literally just added on to the side of the map (which it was). There is literally nothing on the west side of downtown in the beta map. Just backsides of buildings. I also think that Vice Beach was extended all the way to the north for the same reason. It would be a bit boring if there was nothing but water behind the buildings. The bigger Vice Beach is fine, because the alternative is literally nothing. Some open terrain on the edges of the map never hurt anyone. They really should have done an inaccessable "mainland" like they had on GTA 3, since that thing made it feel the city is not just an island in the middle of the ocean.

The west island is very bland unlike the Vice Beach with beautiful neon lights. The game actually used to be an expansion pack for GTA 3. If you don't believe me take look at GTA VC's beta vehicles. Everything looks like GTA 3. The west island is like mini Liberty City. Its so dark and bland with tall buildings, empty areas and low quality apartments. Look like they just slap some textures into a box, add some small details and the new apartment building is ready. Also you were right about the airport. The airport is fricking space comsuming while the flyable plane is a seaplane that can't even take off on land and all other flying vehicles were just helikopters. The Prawn Island and Starfish islands were undetailed af. Like the road layout of them is just a straight road with a single side road. And why they need to put so much efforts on the east island? And the stadium is like a dot standing on a wall. It was super oddly placed. And i think you're frogot that the North Point Mall is just a blank area

the western island was so hideous, I never finished the game because of that cause I never wanted to go there lol

Idk I find that I spend most of my time on the western island. I've always liked it better than the first island for some reason.

I played vice city just last week and my god it feels really barren. Even compared to GTA3 it just feels so empty and lifeless.

Ive noticed a huge difference in Badger's video style since 2019. In this video he's really high energy and speaks as quickly as he can, but in newer videos he takes his time when presenting content and doesn't rush anything or try to take an emotion. I'd say that's an improvement ngl

Is there any chance that, this beta map is available on any gta vice city beta mod?

Vice City was actually developed and released in just a few months after GTA 3, so it makes sense why the map is small and less detailed. Also VC reuses alot of gta 3 models and assets and textures.

Vice city is my least favourite map

I spent a vast amount of time on the beach

the map is too small.
imo they have never really made a true attempt at vice city.
GTA VI will be the first, true VC.

i like to think of it as vice city in the past instead of them forgetting to change it (the map)

your probably not going to read this but I saw a simler thing in gta 5 airport it may be a beta map for that game

They should keep the old map of Northern International Escobar Airport but it should serve as a huge army air base instead of small fort

About planes, I think standard Dodo was planned bur not included. In the file "handling.cfg", it has its handling line which is not use, very useful when you wants to add a handling to a vehicle like Vice Cheetah which doesn't have its own.

I'd have removed the other side of the airport to make the military base, instead of the way it was done in the end. Then the runway wouldn't have an impossible shape, the scene at the airport in the beginning of the game would be OK, the "ghost tower" wouldn't be a ghost anymore, and the airport wouldn't take so much space from the map.

Viceport reminds me so much of San Fierro with all its empty, prop-free spaces, "parks" with nothing but low grass as vegetation, and incredibly repetitive and bland storefronts in most areas. The suburban areas are nice though.

What kind of plane can land while turning

とても面白い！

In the book jacked they talked about how GTA 3 to San Andreas was done with zero breaks with basically the housers being dictators, it’s why we probably got a lot of quick weird choices and leftover stuff.

Are you the same guy from Parallel Pipes? Its literally the same voice

Yeah that curved runway is weird as hell and the funny thing is, there is no way any of those planes can taxi to the main part of the airport. it's like it's a separate airport museum where planes can't ever leave.

Honestly, I think incorporating some of these changes into a mod would be amazing. Changing the orientation of the stadium/modeling its interior to look more finished would be nice, including a few copy/pasted storefronts into that alley-street in downtown. As well as shortening the Vice Point's beach. I don't know much about modding, but looking at what's possible with San Andreas, it can't be too difficult to add these to a 20-year-old game, right?

I cant wait to see to the unused assets and changes that data miners find in GTA VI a month after it comes out, ima avoid all for the first mouth to avoid spoilers, that why i never beat RDR2, the story was spoiled for me.

Gta 6 : has gator keys not to spoil it for anyone