The top guys at Rockstar love 'Miami Vice' and wanted Collins to appear in their game to lend it a bit of that '80s 'Vice' spirit. But its breakthrough was a star turn as a central song in 'Miami Vice,' that bastion of '80s cops-and-robbers TV shows that influenced, among other things, 'Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.' (Collins even had a role in 'Miami Vice' as a huckster named Phil the Shill - unlike the game, the show didn't allow him to play himself.) Over the course of the next quarter-century, the song's slow build toward a shattering crash of drums became an adrenaline anthem for sporting events and movies. 'In the Air Tonight' was released in 1981. And I didn't have any doubt about it,' Collins said. 'This was suggested to me about six months ago. We talked with the musician, who has one of the softest reputations in the business, about his involvement in one of gaming's most notorious franchises. One month ago, under a veil of secrecy in downtown Manhattan, Collins sat down for the most unusual of interviews: no handlers, no PR people - just Collins, MTV News, some shaggy animal-skin rugs and a skyline view. The commercials airing all over the Web have already helped spoil the climax: Collins holds a concert in the faux-Miami Vice City and drums through his famous song 'In the Air Tonight.' Assassins lurk. And among the twists the company is providing is a string of missions that have Vic Vance, the player-controlled 'Vice City Stories' protagonist, protecting '80s music icon Collins. With the Tuesday (October 31) release of 'Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories' for the PSP (see ' 'GTA: Vice City Stories' Involves Smuggling Rings, Jet Ski Stunts - And Chocolate'), Rockstar Games is closing out another big October of games. Philip Michael Thomas couldn't be Philip Michael Thomas or Tubbs - he had to be Lance Vance.īut this is the world we live in: Phil Collins gets to be Phil Collins.

NEW YORK - Up until now, if you were famous and wanted to be in 'Grand Theft Auto,' you couldn't be yourself.

Samuel jackson in gta 9