Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Rockstar hoists the ill-fated though brilliant DS adventure to PSP, minus touch-screen antics but with much-improved visuals and six new story missions.
Chinatown Wars deserved a better reception on Nintendo DS earlier this year, but Rockstar isn’t sitting around patching its wounds. The most recent handheld iteration of the infamous Grand Theft Auto series is simply a great game, and perfectly suited to Sony PSP. And surely this time there’s an audience waiting to lap it up.
To sweeten the deal Rockstar Leeds has beefed up the graphics, making for moodier lighting and pin-sharp graphic novel cut scenes. The new solidity of Liberty City makes the game much easier on the eye, enhancing the cool comic book style. Street lamps shimmer, explosions bloom, the weapon effects are awesome and there’s some vehicle damage for added spice to cop pursuits.
Indeed it’s higher fidelity all round, as the music content is also much improved by the increased performance and onboard capacity of PSP. Seven new radio stations boast 100 more minutes or so of new tracks now in CD quality sound.
Even though the polygon counts are higher and the real estate surpasses that of Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories we thought we’d miss the mini-games from Nintendo DS (seriously they are superb). However the guys at Rockstar Leeds have successfully transposed these to PSP, using a rough-and-ready approach to jiggling the direction pad and tapping the L / R buttons to rummage through trash cans and hotwire cars, etc. It works well and takes advantage of the larger screen using split window effects, again reinforcing the comic book vibe.
Players can also look forward to new Rampages, Turret Rampages, PCJ Playgrounds for added value beyond the main missions. Speaking of which, we got hands on with ‘Driven to Destruction’ and ‘Deadly Xin’ last week. We have to say that we were laughing most heartily as lead protagonist Huang Lee escorted a mobster on a shooting spree and later took the streets in a N.O.O.S.E. tank respectively. You can only imagine the carnage – Wanted Levels through the roof.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is released 23 October for PSP. We strongly suggest that you check it out, and please take our word for it this time!
