With the GTA 6 location (surely) all but confirmed, here are the Vice City tourist traps I'd love to see return

Dec. 2, 2023

Grand Theft Advent | From the Malibu Club to the Ocean View Hotel, we explore the hottest spots we want to return to in GTA 6 Vice City

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The wait for theGTA 6 trailer release timehas begun in earnest, now that Rockstar has marked Tuesday, December 5 at 9am ET / 2pm UK for liftoff. At the time of writing, so much still remains unanswered about the as-yet untitled entry of the long-standing open-world crime simulator series – not leastwhereit will take place. TheGTA 6leaks of last year – whereby over 90 in-development screens and videos were posted into the public domain – suggested the Miami-aping Vice City is where we headed next, and while this still hasn’t been officially confirmed either way, the palm trees and sunset hues ofthis teaser imagealso suggest the same.

The Malibu Club

Welcome to Grand Theft Advent – a month-long celebration of Rockstar’s enduring crime sim series. Be sure to check in on ourGTA 6 coverage hubfor more every day throughout December.

An easy one to kick off with – The Malibu was one of OG Vice City’s most prestigious locales, especially early doors in its story. Centred in Vice Point and inspired by The Babylon Club from Brian De Palma’s 1983 gangster movie, Scarface, the nightspot was a hive of nefarious activity and hedonism, adorned with neon lights and filled with body-shaking revellers.

Set in the mid-80s, films like Scarface inspired so much of GTA: Vice City, and while it’s still unclearwhenGTA 6 is set within the HD universe’s timeline, I sincerely hope we get the chance to return to the glowing floor tiles of this after hours establishment.

Of course, in front of The Ocean View Hotel runs Ocean Beach and Ocean Drive, both of which are scaled down versions of Miami’s real-world tourist traps.

Which leads us nicely to our next point: the GTA 6 setting. With the sun piercing the aforementioned diner’s windows, and with palm trees lining the concrete thoroughfare outside, the suggestion that GTA 6 unfolds in its universe’s pseudo slant on Miami, Vice City, seems credible. Signs adorned with ‘Vice’ were likewise spotted in the backdrops of the leaked videos and stills by intrepid would-be players at the time; and the teaser image Rockstar posted on social media on Friday, December 1 has the same sunset hues and palm trees associated with the same part of the world.

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This is definitely a personal one in that The Printworks in GTA: Vice City made mea lotof money back in the day. Towards the end of the original game’s story mode, you’re let loose on the map and encouraged to buy up properties in a bid to further grow your criminal empire. With a price tag of $70,000, The Printworks ain’t cheap, but it can ultimately bring you in ~$8,000 profit every in-game day.

I’m not overly fussed if The Printworks itself returns in GTA 6 or not, but I do want profitable businesses – akin to what we’ve seen over the last several years in GTA Online, whereby savvy/untrustworthy entrepreneurs (they’re one in the same, right?) can generate passive income across a portfolio of dodgy operations.

Another memorable OG Vice City locale, another distinct hat tilt to Scarface. The Diaz estate is perhapsthemost iconic location in the whole of Vice City, and it’s one which protagonist Tommy Vercetti visits early on. At first working for the eponymous kingpin Ricardo Diaz, and latterly running the estate as his own after things get a little bit hairy, the Diaz/Vercetti estate is a drug lord’s paradise that just screams money and ostentatiousness.

Again, if GTA 6 steps out of the ’80s timezone, you’d have to imagine this abode’s gauche and era-specific Tony Montana-inspired decor likewise shifts – but I really want to see our characters spend like never before this time around. Between nightclubs, penthouse apartments, and luxury villas in the Vinewood Hills, we’re hardly limited in GTA Online’s Los Santos when it comes to home-building, but if it’s faux Miami we’re indeed travelling to next, I want to enjoy some proper high-life, Snapmatic-friendly real estate.

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