Been playing this GTA 3 mod that adds Vice City since 2009, and it's still holding me over

I stumbled on this GamesRadar piece about the Back to the Future: Hill Valley mod for GTA 3 and it hit me right in the nostalgia. I've had that thing installed on and off since 2009, no joke. It's not just a car or a skin, it's a full-on Vice City map ported into the GTA 3 engine, complete with the neon, the palm trees, and that weird pink sky. The mod's been around so long it's practically a relic at this point, but it still works if you're willing to fiddle with some old files.

The article goes into how the mod came together, and honestly I never knew the backstory. The creator basically reverse-engineered the Vice City map and rebuilt it inside GTA 3's Liberty City framework. It's janky in places, sure, but there's something about cruising Ocean Beach in a DeLorean that hits different when you've been waiting for a proper return to Vice City for two decades.

With the extended look dropping later this month and the actual game still months away, I've been firing up all kinds of old mods just to feel something. This one's been my go-to. It's not the real thing, but it's a weirdly comforting placeholder. Anyone else digging through ancient mods to pass the time?

Source: GamesRadar+ · Curated content.

I'll take a janky 2009 mod over another polished trailer that'll age poorly by November.

I'll take a janky 2009 mod over another polished trailer

Same. Back then the AI would plow into you at full speed and call it a felony stop. No tactics, no formations, just chaos. I'll take broken placeholders over another slick cutscene. I'm waiting on actual pursuit mechanics and confirmed loadouts.

I've messed with that Hill Valley port too. It's wild seeing Ocean Beach crammed where Portland usually sits, like someone dragged the whole island north by a thousand miles. (The draw distance makes the water look like a painted wall, but that's the charm.)

I'll take a janky 2009 mod over another polished trailer

Hard same, but here's the thing. That mod gives you the Vice City island and nothing else. Leonida is the whole state. Grassrivers to the north, the Keys stringing south, Mount Kalaga past the swamps. GTA V gave us Los Santos plus a full countryside. This old port is basically a diorama by comparison. Still love cruising Ocean Drive in a DeLorean though.

janky in places

the jank preserves the pattern... polished code erases its own tracks.

diorama by comparison

Exactly. A map port with zero mission scripting is 0% campaign completion. Cruising a janky Ocean Beach isn't "Keep Your Friends Close..." or empire management. I'll take placeholder mods over nothing, but they're still just ambient tourism.