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[Oni Jazar]

I gotta say Vice City owns this competition. GTA3 had some nice tunes: Some good electronic music, Royce 5 9, old Scarface songs, hilarious Lazlo talk radio... but obviously the selection just isn't as strong as the others so its not even much of a fair fight. San Andreas has some great tunes but honestly not as wide a variety as I would have hoped and there are some stations that I rarely listen to save for a couple songs here and there. Bounce, Playback, SF-UR, and Mastersounds are the weakest IMO. SF-UR is dissapointing because they really could have had some major 1992 dance classics (like I'm Too Sexy or Finally or Pump up the Jam) instead of just underground house. I think I listened to the country station the most which is kind of disturbing but fit real well in the countrysides.

I gave equal listening time to all the stations on Vice City. V-rock, Emotion, Wave103, Flash, Wildstyle, Espantoso, and not one but TWO talk stations. Maurice Chavez ownz and it's sad I haven't heard anything about him in San Andreas.

Anyways I guess the 80s tunes will always hold a special place for me but this was also to say that sadly, the variety that Vice had just wasn't in San Andreas IMO. I'm looking forward to the PC version so that I can load it up with Sr Mixalot, PM Dawn, MC Hammer, Paula Abdul, Color Me Badd, C & C Music Factory, maybe even some Achy Breaky Heart who knows!

 

[Matlock]

GTA3, mainly because it was a soundtrack and not a billboard top 40 compilation.

 

[Do The Mario]

Vice City!

Because i am a whore for the awesome 80's

Spandau Ballet is awesome!

 

[Ranger X]

Wave103, I guess the 80s tunes will always hold a special place for me.

There you go. There's nothing better than drive on Gary Newman's "Cars".

 

[Do The Mario]

GTA3, mainly because it was a soundtrack and not a billboard top 40 compilation.

When simulating a radio station playing popular song is a good idea!

 

[8bit]

The 80s were a musical wasteland.

I don't want to know where those tracks were major 1992 dance classics, but it wasn't anywhere near a decent dancefloor.

 

[Kuroyume]

The 80s forever....

 

[Unison]

Vice City, obviously, I'd say.

 

[Naked Snake]

I didn't play GTA3, and I have to vote Vice City.

 

[SolidSnakex]

VC > SA > GTA3

Cheesy 80's pop owns all. And why isn't there a pop station in SA?

 

[The Faceless Master]

San Andreas by FAR

K-JAH WEST!!!

i almost died when i flipped it on the first time and heard Barrington Levy!

 

[Ranger X]

VC > SA > GTA3

Cheesy 80's pop owns all. And why isn't there a pop station in SA?

No 80's pop but there's Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus on Radio X. It kinda make it for me

 

[DopeyFish]

GTA2

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

Custom soundtrack (on PC/Xbox) = Win

 

[Oni Jazar]

San Andreas by FAR

K-JAH WEST!!!

i almost died when i flipped it on the first time and heard Barrington Levy!

KJAH has some pretty sweet tunes which I used to listen to about a decade ago. Some weak songs in there too though.

Custom soundtrack (on PC/Xbox) = Win

If only the PC version let you organize your music into quasi-stations. The Xbox version did this right?

 

[john2kx]

can i vote none?

 

[WasabiKing]

There's a lot of songs in SA that weren't all 90s to begin with. But I'll give SA's soundtrack a slight nod over VC because of Bounce FM, and since I'm such a funky soul. Gangsta rap and the East Coast flavorings really brought me back to my DJ days, hence the unfair bias.

VC had a lot of great songs that I loved, but nothing that would make me say "yeah, that's the perfect song for this mission and/or drive-by." But looking at the 80s genre, it wasn't all about that... And I love the 80s...

As for GTA III, I like the original songs better, and the talk radio chatter was the best. But a few songs taken from the Scarface soundtrack won't make me choose it over the other two.

 

[Boogie9IGN]

Custom soundtrack (on PC/Xbox) = Win

IAWTP.

Driving around while listening to Tony Montana's Theme from Scarface = Great

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

If only the PC version let you organize your music into quasi-stations. The Xbox version did this right?

Affirmative.

 

[Virgin Wii]

Vice City's soundtrack had Megadeth, so I have to vote for that.

note: I've never played a GTA game for more than 30 minutes.

 

[bishoptl]

Vice, by far. Then San Andreas and GTA 3.

It's more than just having a soft spot for the 80's - as far as general cohesiveness, VC's radio stations are structured better than the other two. In fact, if there's any part of SA that I'd call disappointing, it's the radio stations - the selections on SF-UR don't represent any sort of dance music I was listening to in the early 90's (and I was the biggest club whore you ever saw), Los Santos repeats way too much, and the absence of a strictly Lazlow station is terrible. Axl Rose phones in his performance - put him next to Chuck D or Michael Bivens, or the lady from K-Rose and it's like "why bother spending the money to put him in?". Bland and no personality whatsoever.

Maurice Chavez's Vice City DJ performance was head and shoulders above anything presented in San Andreas.

 

[evil ways]

Vice City by far. "Sunglasses at night", "Africa", "Broken Wings" and all those other , cheesy but good 80's songs.

Also I noticed that one of the things that's missing from the San Andreas soundtrack is that the DJs do not interact with callers that much.

Between Lazlow, Fernando Martinez DJ'ing and Maurice Chavez and the Pastor Richards, mother and nudist panel skit, you have comedy gold.

 

[The Faceless Master]

KJAH has some pretty sweet tunes which I used to listen to about a decade ago. Some weak songs in there too though.



If only the PC version let you organize your music into quasi-stations. The Xbox version did this right?

yeah there were alot of weak songs, but it was alot better than i expected... i was thinking it would be just like GTA3... but they had buju, shabba, dennis brown and barrington.. i mean, it could have been ALOT better, they could have went all out and had some old terror fabulous, mega banton, ninjaman, etc, but i wasnt really expecting much and walked right into a big surprise when i switched to the station

and the xbox version organized it however your soundtracks were organized... each soundtrack had a number and each track in the soundtrack had a number, and it played thru whatever soundtrack you selected one track after the next...

 

[Bob White]

As much as I love SA, Vice's soundtrack blows it out of the water.

Tears for Fears > Pretty much everything in SA

Even though I now have a man crush on Willie Nelson after listening to "Crazy" on K-Rose.

*Swoon*

 

[Mike Works]

GTA3. Opera Station > all, except for Rage and Soundgarden, but there are only 2 songs from them in GTA:SA

 

[ourumov]

VC > SA > GTA3

Cheesy 80's pop owns all. And why isn't there a pop station in SA?

IAWTP

 

[Baron Aloha]

Vice City

 

[geogaddi]

Definitely Vice.

Glorious indeed.

 

[explodet]

I nabbed the entire vice city soundtrack, listening to it now.

"And I raaaaaaaaan, I ran so far awaaaaaaaaay...."

 

[8bit]

...the selections on SF-UR don't represent any sort of dance music I was listening to in the early 90's...

You were on the wrong continent. I spent a lot of time in the Manchester Hacienda, the Glasgow Sub Club and Land of Oz in London, and that station nails it.

 

[Rorschach]

There you go. There's nothing better than drive on Gary Newman's "Cars".

Except driving to "Running Down a Dream" ;b

 

[Razoric]

As much as I love GTA:SA (best GTA imo) I'd give the nod to Vice. You just can't beat that soundtrack.

 

[ArcadeStickMonk]

Except driving to "Running Down a Dream" ;b

Yes, yes that and "Barracuda."

I always tune into K-DST for drives across the country, hoping to hear Tom Petty.

 

[imastalker co.]

Vice City (although it should've been a lot better). 80's was the golden age of music,

i'll take GTA3 over San Andreas too since GTA3 had a station that played nothing but the best songs from the Scarface soundtrack. something they should've put into every game in the series from then on.

 

[8bit]

The best thing about the SA soundtrack is listening to the rap stations, then changing to the Rare Groove or Funk station and hearing the source of the samples.
There's a lot of love gone into SA, whereas VC is more of a snapshot of the hell that was the 80s.

For me, the only station in VC worthwhile was the Electro station, the rest bring back horrid flashbacks.

 

[Socreges]

GTA3 > GTASA > GTAVC

A precarious verdict, though. Each is excellent. GTA3 wins out because I'm a big Scarface fan. GTASA for Radio X and certain KDST songs (ie, Freedbird).

 

[Badabing]

I own the PC version so I can play whatever the hell I want

But I'd say San Andreas, for the simple fact that Stone Temple Pilots and Guns N Roses are on the sountrack, as well as Axl Rose playing a talk radio host.

 

[J2 Cool]

Hmm.... tough

GTA3 (for scarface station and more importantly frickin Lazlow) > GTA:VC (80's music was amazing) > GTA:SA (like it but never to the point I could simply listen to radio like the other 2. Needs better chat and more variety)

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

Yeah Vice had the best DJ's and commericals. The selection of music was probably quite a bit better than the other games as well, but none of the soundtracks have been to my taste so far. However they do a great job of representing an era.

 

[Beezy]

Vice City had the greatest soundtrack. Sometimes I'd find myself cruising around the city and just listening to the radio station. I miss Vice City...