Why GTA: Vice City's Ice Cream Factory Was The Game's Worst Purchase
Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is remembered fondly as one of the best games in the franchise, but a save file glitch at the Cherry Poppers Ice Cream Company in the game's original release made life miserable for many. GTA: Vice City featured a number of firsts for the 3d era of Grand Theft Auto games, including the ability to buy boats, go inside building interiors, and have a means of communication other than pagers and pay phones. It was also the first time the series allowed players to purchase businesses, a mechanic which has since been expanded and (sometimes) improved on in subsequent GTA releases.
Although many longtime series fans will agree that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas had the largest and most impressive amount of quality side content in the 3D era, GTA: Vice City brought a lot to the table as well. One of the franchises' best heists is in GTA: Vice City, and the game boasts a nice collection of outfits, rewards, and mission variety in both the main campaign and its optional areas. Many things which would become standard in later Grand Theft Auto titles, such as the player's ability to take a cab themselves back to a failed mission, as well as iconic vehicles like the Freeway motorcycle, appeared first in Vice City.
Unfortunately, the game wasn't perfect. While GTA: Vice City did not launch with such a wide array of bugs and glitches that the game had to be pulled from store shelves, nor did the developers ever anger so many fans that thousands of people demanded refunds, one pesky glitch at the Cherry Poppers Ice Cream Company in GTA: Vice City slipped though the cracks - and it's one that made a lot of players very frustrated back when the game originally launched on the PS2.
If a player saves their game at the save icon which appears after purchasing the Cherry Poppers Ice Cream Company in GTA: Vice City, there is a very strong chance that save file will become corrupt. If that same player does not use multiple save files, this could mean their entire progress can be erased - something which would amount to a hefty number of hours, since the ability to purchase property in Vice City isn't something which unlocks until the second half of the game.
There was no way to get around this glitch when Grand Theft Auto: Vice City originally launched on PS2, and players simply had to know about it ahead of time and not make the same mistake twice. Since this was before the common practice of day one patches and online updates, every version of GTA: Vice City which was sold for a while had this problem. It was only when the game was ported to other consoles, and had further printings and releases on PlayStation, that the save glitch at GTA: Vice City's ice cream factory was able to be fixed. Even so, there are likely many players who are playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on PC today, and although the glitch has been fixed in all versions for a while now those players should (and likely will) pick somewhere else besides the Cherry Poppers Ice Cream Company to save their game... just in case.