replaying vice city before gta 6: hype fuel or torture?

ok so i'm replaying the original vice city on my dusty ps2 right now and i can't decide if it's genius or self sabotage, every time i drive down ocean beach i'm squinting at the neon signs trying to map them onto the trailer 2 shots of vice beach and it's making me notice stuff i never did before like how the docks curve around the marina and how the skyline from the golf course might line up with the new port gellhorn angle we saw, but then the credits roll and i'm just sitting there with six months to go and my brain is screaming for that modern render distance

the definitive edition isnt doing it for me, the character models still look like melted wax and the rain is a war crime, so i'm sticking with the 2002 jank and honestly the radio stations are hitting different now that i know we're going back to leonida, emotion 98.3 is basically a time machine and i'm convinced rockstar is gonna sneak in a fernando martinez cameo somehow

it's making the wait worse in the best way, i'm not just replaying i'm doing recon, looking for every alley and rooftop that might get expanded, every interior that could become a full location, and now i'm wondering if i should fire up san andreas too just to see how they handled the countryside transition because grassrivers and mount kalaga are gonna be huge

what are you all replaying, or are you avoiding the classics so you don't burn out before november 19th

I'm not replaying. I counted 9 vehicles across both trailers (0:52, 1:14) and the 2002 map already lives in my spreadsheet.

already lives in my spreadsheet

Meanwhile I'm stuck in Washington Beach checking sightlines north toward Vice Point. (Old Los Santos muscle memory.)

emotion 98.3 is basically a time machine

Couldn't agree more! Those needle drops are exactly why I'm replaying on original hardware instead of counting cars in a spreadsheet.

I'm about 40% through a fresh San Andreas run right now. I need to see how those rural missions actually flow before Grassrivers and Mount Kalaga drop. The Badlands strand has lopsided pacing. Maybe 70% travel, 30% combat. I'm hoping Leonida tightens that ratio.

I 100%'d Vice City last month and the mission density still holds up. The Job and Phnom Penh '86 are masterclasses in escalation.

Old Los Santos muscle memory

doing recon

I barely have time to finish my coffee. I'm just trying to beat one mission a week.