gta: vice city stories is the final entry in the gta franchise on sony's playstation 2. it's a great continuation of the story of tommy vercetti, the prototypical mobster. the only new addition to the series is the ability to compete in a citywide gang war through the course of the game. there are three levels of gang war (gta, vice city and san andreas), and you can fight your way through them by finding and raiding the various businesses run by the gangs.

 while you can buy a bunch of properties and set up your own empire, there's no need to do this, as you can find a whole bunch of other empires already set up. there are seven of these empires to be found in the game, ranging from corrupt cops to a near-extinct race of aliens. of course, the best of these is the american mafia, which is the most popular of the seven. by killing off the other gangs in the city and taking over their businesses, you can become the real ruler of vice city. as the true leader of the city, you'll earn respect from the other citizens, causing them to grow a stronger allegiance to you. the other six empires are as follows: the cubans, who are a team of cuban mercenaries; the cacos, a group of ex-cia soldiers; the chinese triads, a group of chinese street gangsters; the dark angels, who are a team of vampires; the russians, who are a team of russian mobsters; and the yakuza, a japanese syndicate. the only empire which seems somewhat important is the yakuza, as you get a special ability from them called "the dragon's kiss". this allows you to pull the trigger on a nearby npc, which will have the same effect as a player kill, even if you're not a "friend" of the npc. 81555fee3f

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Password we are not like them, we are not alike them, we are not the same as them.

Sure, the "Grand Theft Auto" video game series has been a huge hit, but this experiment with a new "social networking" interface has always been a curious development. Today, though, we know that the long-mooted "Vice City" game, which is the fifth in the series, will be hitting shelves today.

So what about this new interface, which very much looks to be the Xbox version's Live interface? Well, we have a few things to say about it, but we are not like them. We are not alike them. We are not the same as them.

How in the world does it work? It turns out, the developers of the game took the Live interface idea, and did two things that will make it a lot more user-friendly, and we're happy about that.

First, the interface has been updated for those of us who are not always in front of a computer (and who also have to be connected to the internet). The new interface not only now integrates mobile, it also takes up less space than the old interface. For most of you, you won't even notice the change.

The other change that we love is the fact that you don't have to install any software. I know, I know, you've read that before. And it's true, too. You don't need to install any software, nor do you need the Live service (if you choose not to join up). You click the "Xbox Live" button and you're ready to go.

So, since you don't install the software, how does it work? Well, the interface has a little icon for every game in the service, which takes you directly to that game and lets you play away (not that we have a problem with that). If you are playing in a session with another Live user, you're seeing a little plus sign in the bottom-left corner, and vice versa. If you are playing with someone who isn't on Live, you can use your new-fangled interface or you can chat away with a text box right in the middle of your video game.

The game options screen is also pretty slick, and you can get all the information you need, just by clicking on the information you want. In the first screenshot on the left, we see