  Toni Cipriani is back with a vengeance in 'Liberty City Stories'.
For more screenshots from 'Liberty City Stories' check out the Screenshot Gallery. |
Even if you’ve been living under a rock for years, it’s likely you still know all about the Grand Theft Auto series. Gamers, parents, lawyers and politicians alike all keep their eyes on GTA, ready for the next round of controversial mayhem. This newest release from the talented folks at Rockstar Games will allow you to take the psyche shattering, violence inducing and lawsuit producing series-of-the-century with you on the road.
For the first time in the popular driving-shooting-adventure series, you’ll be revisiting a location previously seen in the original Grand Theft Auto 3. Liberty City returns in all its glory, with the all same architecture and graphics from a few years ago. Taking place before the events in GTA3, some locations are slightly different than before, including the bridges between islands, which are still under construction during LCS.
The setting may be old in Liberty City Stories, but everything else is new. A new storyline featuring bad boy Mafioso Toni Cipriani, many new vehicles and all-new radio stations, new secret locations, and a few tricks learnt from Vice City, including the most popular mode of transportation, motorcycles.
The storyline features a few characters you may remember from previous GTA games as it follows Toni Cipriani, loyal mobster of the Leone family in quest to protect the family and its honor. Despite being shorter and less focused than previous storylines, the characters and situations are never dull or repetitive. The missions can be slightly lacking, with what seems to be easier difficulty settings and lower average mission times. However, being a GTA game, it’s still a joy to play through the most of the story and missions, aside from the select few duds.
Graphically Rockstar has done an amazing job of recreating the GTA universe on a much more constrictive platform. The city is as open as ever, with only short load times when traveling between islands, or loading mission cutscenes. The city is just as busy as ever, with cars and pedestrians frequently getting in your way as usual. The textures are sharp and clean looking, and most of the car models look great, though some suffer from reduced polygon counts. The frame rate can take a hit in some cases though, as the action on the screen varies widely, sometimes there is just too much for the PSP to handle.
The sound is as good as ever, with amazing voice actors and great writing. The wide variety of comments that pedestrians can make are hilarious. Sound effects other than voices are great as well, with every car and gun having a distinct sound. The music on the radio is always a toss-up, as it will depend largely on your tastes. I enjoyed the majority of the stations, including the talk radio which is always a blast. Unfortunately the advertised custom soundtracks feature is not up to par. You must convert and save your music exclusively for use in GTA, which is really constrictive on storage space. Why they are unable to play regular music tracks from the PSP is beyond me.
 |
Click here for the official 'Liberty City' trailer. (Windows Media Player: 7.21 Meg) |
The biggest attraction to Liberty City Stories is likely to be the inclusion of multiplayer, another big first for the series. You and up to 5 of your friends can hop into Liberty City and fight it out in a series of unique and well designed game types. From racing to combat there is always a lot to do in GTA, and doing it with or against a friend for the first time brings a whole new side to the series. Multiplayer is an absolute blast, I’ve never had as much fun with my PSP than when fooling around with a few friends in Liberty City Stories.
It’s really a no-brainer if you’re thinking about picking up the latest GTA game. A sure bet on any platform, GTA on the PSP is the beginning of a portable revolution, setting the bar even higher for any future games that dare challenge it as king of the PSP. Whether you want single or multiplayer, racing or shooting, structure or freedom, you’ll find it all here in abundance.
WHAM! Rating: |
9 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
M (Mature) |
Official Web Site: |
|
|
