Today marks the fourth anniversary of The GTA Place, a website which has grown into one of the largest resources on the Internet for Grand Theft Auto information, and one which started as just a few basic pages to try out some HTML. Obviously we've come a long way in 4 years, the whole community has witnessed an immense rise in popularity, as has The GTA Place, currently serving thousands of visitors every single day with information, downloads and media. I won't go on about the history of the site, as you can read all about that for yourselves on the website history page.

In keeping this post short and sweet, I have to thank the visitors for making this site such a success. All the new members joining the community everyday, all the people downloading mods, enhancing their games, and all the people just looking for information and tips - keeping us going all this time.

Obviously GTA IV is now our main focus, and you can find all latest news and information here on thegtaplace.com, and can find answers to all the questions you have about GTAIV on our forums, where you can also post your wishlists and thoughts on the upcoming game.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more updates on Vice City Stories, Grand Theft Auto IV, and other related news!

Many of you will no doubt have completed the main storyline of Vice City Stories by now, or are near to finishing it. A lot of you may want to play the game to is full extent and gain 100% completion. To help you in remembering exactly what things you have left to do, I have produced a checklist for you to print out and tick off everything you've done.

The checklist is currently the most in-depth and detailed available on the web. In the .zip file I have included both .doc and .pdf formats. If the colour or bordering looks a bit messed up, don't worry, as it should look absolutely fine when printed out on to paper. At this point in time there may be a few inaccuracies regarding side missions, so be sure to let me know if anything is wrong and I'll fix it a.s.a.p. Also keep checking back here for updates as we're hoping to release maps of all 99 red balloons, rampages, unique jumps and other interesting things.

Link: Vice City Stories 100% Checklist (printable .pdf and .doc)

On a sidenote, I've also added and updated my Liberty City Stories 100% Checklist for anybody needing this.

Rockstar Games has today announced a partnership agreement with Capcom Co., Ltd. to localize, publish and distribute the blockbuster title Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system in Japan. The game is currently scheduled for release in the Japanese market in January 2007.

Japan has always been late getting localised GTA games compared to the rest of the world, GTA3 and Vice City were both released in the country almost 2 years after the rest of the world, San Andeas' January release pushes this gap to over 2 years. Some prefectures choose to ban the games, due to the belief that they promote violence and are harmful to today's youths. You may remember our previous stories of GTA3 getting banned in various prefectures, with retailers facing hefty fines if caught selling the game to under-18's.

Link: Take 2 Press Release

You may remember just over a year ago in October 2005, Rockstar released a special edition box set, "Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy" for the Xbox. Now, in time for the holiday season, Rockstar are planning to release this same box set for PlayStation 2 owners, according to a press release from Take 2.

New York, NY - November 7, 2006 - Rockstar Games, the world-renowned publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), is pleased to announce that it plans to release Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas together as the original trilogy for the PlayStation 2 system. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy will ship to retail stores in North America on December 4, 2006 with a retail price of .99.

So this is a perfect opportunity for those of you who still for some reason don't own a GTA game, to immediately get all three for Christmas. Just to reiterate, GTA The Trilogy will be released on December 4th and will set you back just .99, mathematicians among us will know this works out at just over a game, not bad.

Source: Take 2 Press Release

Gamespot have finally posted their review of Vice City Stories, and are probably the last of the big gaming sites to do so. They gave the game a final score of 8.4 / 10, a respectable score for any portable game.

The Good: Vice City is just as gaudy and cheesy as you remember it; fantastic soundtrack and radio dialogue; longer missions; more multiplayer modes.

The Bad: Some control issues with the combat, especially in melee; no real forward progress for the series to be found here--old issues still remain; texture popping is still extremely prevalent.

Many of you will probably be too busy playing the game to be bothered reading another review of it, but the link is below if you wish to read it in full. If you need help in Vice City Stories, or just want to discuss the game, be sure to post on our forums.

Link: Gamespot VCS Review

Today Vice City Stories is officially out in Europe, although some people have been getting their hands on the game early. I now have a copy myself which means I can start getting a lot more content up on the site.

The first page I've made is currently the only page on the web right now where you'll find the complete playlists for each radio station in Vice City Stories, and includes the logos of each station. You can check out the radio stations page for all the info you need on the soundtrack, which of course is currently available on Urge.com, and will be coming to iTunes later this month.

Stay tuned for more Vice City Stories content coming soon!

UK gaming site Eurogamer have put up their review of Vice City Stories today, just one day before the game's official release in the country.

They pretty much talk about the same things as in reviews we've seen from other websites, and also pick up on the same flaws they've found in the game. In conclusion they deduce that Vice City Stories is still one of the best games on the PSP right now. Eurogamer gave the game a final rating of 8 / 10, an excellent score any game developer should be proud of, especially when we consider this is a handheld game.

Link: Eurogamer Review

Thanks to Ciaran for the tip.

edisoncarter, the man famous throughout the GTA community for discovering cheat codes in San Andreas and Liberty City Stories, has today released all the cheats he's found so far for Vice City Stories, just one day after it's release in the USA.

You can find all the new cheats in a categorised graphical format on our GTAVCS cheats page. There are also a few cheats which have an unknown effect at the current time, so if you find out what any of the below codes actually do then be sure to tell us.

Unknown 1:

UP, DOWN, TRIANGLE, X, L1, R1, LEFT, CIRCLE

Unknown 2:

UP, UP, RIGHT, LEFT, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, SQUARE

Unknown 3:

DOWN, UP, RIGHT, L1, L1, SQUARE, UP, L1

Unknown 4:

UP, UP, UP, SQUARE, SQUARE, TRIANGLE, R1, L1

Unknown 5:

UP, UP, UP, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, X, L1, R1

Unknown 6:

UP, UP, UP, X, X, SQUARE, R1, L1

Unknown 7:

UP, UP, UP, TRIANGLE, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, L1, R1

Links: edisoncarter / GTAVCS cheats