8. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Rockstar has been hard at work porting its Grand Theft Auto games to iPads and iPhones, including GTA III and Chinatown Wars. While both of these games play great on iOS devices, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the latest GTA game ported over to iOS, and it holds out as the best of the three GTA ports for two reasons.
First and foremost, Rockstar learned from porting GTA III to iOS and included the option to customize the on-screen virtual buttons with Vice City. The Grand Theft Auto games feature an abundance of contextual buttons, and naturally this becomes a problem on a touch screen. The ability to move and resize these virtual controls makes Vice City much easier to play on iOS than its ported predecessors.
Second, Vice City is set in a fictional version of 1980s Miami, complete with Hawaiian shirts, bright colors, and classic music straight out of the time period. Furthermore, Ray Liotta voices protagonist Tommy Vercetti as he takes over criminal organizations, Scarface style. It just can't be beat.
Simply put, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the definitive GTA experience on iOS devices, and holds up as one of the best open-world games available on iOS, despite minor control issues. Next year marks the 10-year anniversary of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, so let's hope Rockstar continues the trend and we see an improved port next year.
