The job of a GTA radio station isn't just giving you a bunch of songs to listen to as you drive around the city—it’s to create a mood. When you're driving along the neon-lit beachfront in Vice City, listening to Hall & Oates and Michael Jackson on Flash FM, the feeling of being in the 1980s is palpable. In San Andreas, cruising through Ganton in a low-rider, listening to Snoop and NWA on Radio Los Santos, is all part of the '90s gangbanger fantasy. This is something Rockstar excels at, carefully choosing music that evokes a specific time and place, rather than just songs they think would be cool to have on a soundtrack. This is why so many people's fondest GTA memories are closely associated with music.

It's also why Vladivostok FM works so well. Grand Theft Auto 4 is the story of immigrants making a new life in Liberty City. You even play as one, Niko Bellic, which was, and still is, pretty radical for a video game. For the first chunk of the story you spend most of your time in Broker (an analogue of Brooklyn), largely around the Hove Beach area. This has become a home for Eastern European immigrants, including Russians, Poles, Albanians, and Ukrainians—which is reflected in the kinds of stores, bars, and even NPCs you find there. You overhear people on the street speaking in Russian and many of the signs around you are written in Cyrillic. It's only a small area, but features some of the best world-building in the series.

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This part of the city, based on the real NYC's Brighton Beach, has a uniquely Eastern European flavour and culture, which makes it a natural fit for Niko as he finds his feet in this strange, alien new city. You also notice that the official radio station of Hove Beach is Vladivostok FM, playing in locations like the Perestroika theatre and Comrades bar, and on car stereos when you 'borrow' a local's vehicle. It's also one of the very first things you hear in the game, moments after disembarking the Platypus and setting foot in Liberty City for the first time, playing in Roman's beat-up taxi. The early hours of the game are defined by the distinctive sound of this station, its infectious music, and its charismatic DJ.

GTA 4

Vladivostok FM plays an eclectic mix of catchy Eastern European folk and pop music, as well as a selection of Russian hip-hop. Standout tracks like King Ring by Seryoga, Wild Dances by Ruslana, and Schweine by Glukoza will be permanently burned into the brains of GTA 4 fans. Ukrainian singer Ruslana also hosts the station, and is one of the best DJs in the game, appearing between songs with a wild, upbeat energy to criticise capitalism, American pop culture, and the hypocrisy of the country's crusade for freedom. She also references Ukraine's Orange Revolution, which Ruslana was a vocal supporter of. It's a surprisingly politically charged station, but with GTA's usual self-aware sense of humour.

However, if you want to hear Vladivostok FM in its original form, you have to use mods. In expansion The Ballad of Gay Tony, Western dance music was added to it, diluting the Eastern European feel and arguably ruining the station. Worse still, many of its most iconic songs were removed in an update due to licenses expiring. Rockstar added some new music to replace it, but it's just not the same. Starting a new game and not hearing that Glukoza song playing as you drive into Broker with Roman just feels wrong. Thankfully there are legally dubious mods for the PC version that not only restore all the cut music, but prevent the out-of-place Gay Tony additions from playing on Vladivostok FM in the main game.

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