First Vice City Stories trailer debuts

In less than two months, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories will hit store shelves. This evening, its publisher, Take-Two Interactive subsidiary Rockstar Games, released the first trailer for the much-anticipated title, which will be the second GTA game for the PlayStation Portable.

Clocking in at just over a minute, the trailer confirms some rumored plot details. Vice City Stories will indeed center on Vic Vance, the ex-soldier brother of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City character Lance Vance. It will also be a prequel to the best-selling PlayStation 2 game and a much younger and less stylish Lance Vance is shown.

The trailer also appears to confirm some casting details about GTA: VCS. Lance Vance appears not to be voiced by Phillip Michael Thomas (Miami Vice), who played the character in Vice City. Vic Vance's dialogue is definitely not spoken by Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction), as had been rumored.

One Vice City voice actor that does appear to be returning in VCS is Danny Trejo (Heat, Desperado). His character, Cuban gangster Umberto Robina, appears in the trailer and appears to have the veteran character actor's trademark gravelly baritone.

The trailer also reveals at least one song that will be featured on the Vice City Stories soundtrack. As numerous scenes of chaos involving motorcycles, helicopters, and explosions dot the screen, the 1984 ballad "I Wanna Know What Love Is" from early-80s rock band Foreigner plays in the background.

Rockstar also launched the official Vice City Stories Web site. It offered a brief summary of the game, which reads as follows:

Vice City, 1984. Opportunity abounds in a city emerging from the swamps, its growth fueled by the violent power struggle in a lucrative drug trade. Construction is everywhere as a shining metropolis rises from foundations of crime and betrayal.

As a soldier, Vic Vance has always protected his dysfunctional family, his country, [and] himself. One bad decision later and that job is about to get much harder. Kicked out onto the streets of a city torn between glamour and gluttony, Vic is faced with a stark choice--build an empire or be crushed.

The site also confirmed that Vice City Stories will indeed have multiplayer but had no details. It also has sported several risqué commercials, including one for too-tight Camus Jeans and several other brands. The Web site also has a brief promotional trailer for disco channel Paradise FM and rock station V-Rock, which will once again feature the character of DJ Lazlo.

Also included on the site are several mock news stories, including one for the "Bait and Switch" Vice City boat show and the "Domestebot" home robot from Vice City. Also included are reports on the so-called "Trailer Park Mafia" taking over some of Vice City's poorer districts.