Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

[RetroEd]

It's unbelievable the amount of content they have managed to squeeze onto a DS cartridge.

The gameplay is very tight, loving the controls completely, and the mini-games aren't just tacked on. This has been built from the ground up taking the DS features into account, and it shows. If you saw my post in the latest purchases thread, you will see that the world is huge, only leaving off Alderney from GTAIV's map. I'm around 13% into the story so far, and I'm having a superb time with it. The dialogue is superb, very witty.

I love that for a GTA first, you can now aid the ridding of your wanted level by taking out the Police cars. The GPS system works very well too, you can mark any target on the map and it'll guide you on the bottom screen. You can replay any missions you have previously finished, another GTA first. It's simple to restart a mission if you fail, too, and you can cut out the trip to it as well, taking you straight to the action. Chinatown Wars relys heavily on drug dealing, and is a great way to build up your funds. Or you can try your luck on the scratch cards, you may even win a home! I haven't yet, though.

This could just be the best GTA yet. I think it'll end up being my favourite, anyway. Portable, bite-sized missions FTW.

It's still only ?17.99 at Play.com, too.

[Dezm0nd]

Grand Theft Auto : Chinatown Wars

This dropped through my letterbox this morning, I was a bit sceptical about it all to be honest. An old style GTA game set in Liberty City. I originally had it on pre-order, cancelled and re-ordered purely based on Eurogamers 10/10 review.

I opened the box to see that the layout of Liberty City is the same as GTA4s version, this got me a little bit excited to be honest, something to relate to, i'm familiar with Liberty City and the areas.

The game starts out impressively well, the two screens lending themselves to both a gameplay and text story. Presentation is slick as can be on a DS, controls are honed to perfection and from what i've seen so far, the two touch screen events i've performed are neither gimmicky nor frustrating.

I completed my first missojn and decided to take a cruise around the city, checking the "Badger OS" PDA is just as good, if not better, than the other GTA games. The GPS has POIs now to make it a bit easier for the player to choose where to go.

You have constant contact via emails with people in the PDA, stats, briefs, access to online multiplayer too, which surprised me a bit.

Being chased by the police has never been more enjoyable, they have now taken elements from Burnout and asks you to takedown the police cars chasing you. Doing so will cross off one from the X amount of police car icons up by your wanted star level. Clearing all police car icons then lowers your rating and eventually clearing it entirely.

The cel-shaded graphics work wonders for the machine and it really looks great. This is a true Rockstar product put into a DS. Humour plays a very big part of the game, i've already had some comedy both in cut-scenes and gameplay. Willis Wash and Lube being your new pay 'n' spray.

I've yet to play a mission which involved shooting so I can't comment on combat just yet but if the game continues to ooze quality like this i'm sure it won't dissapoint.

This is a GTA title 100%. The fact it's on the DS doesn't diminish the sheer enjoyment of the series.

Having not bought a DS game and giving my DS to my mum for a long term loan, she'll be gutted to know that the DS is back for us gamers. This and Henry Hatsworth are definitely worth purchasing especially at the play.com prices, but if it was only one, it'd be this one.

An absolute surprise and well done to R* Leeds for yet another brilliant portable GTA game.

[Dezm0nd]

Seems RetroEd put his up the same time as me, typical

Mods, merge!

[Neon Ignition]

I opened the box to see that the layout of Liberty City is the same as GTA4s version, this got me a little bit excited to be honest, something to relate to, i'm familiar with Liberty City and the areas.

I've never been overly fond of the 2D GTA's so this one hasn't really registered with me on its build up to release. But the above just confirmed I'll skip it. Absolutely hated GTA4's forgettable shell of a version of Liberty City so the idea of another GTA even resembling it puts me off. I hope they get back to the PS2/Xbox era GTA form of city/county design soon.

[mr_rich]

good impressions fellers, so went and picked this up from play.com - look forward to playing it next week.

[ezee ryder]

Just gonna echo what everyone else and said do far, this is as good as the 3D GTA's on any console. Brilliantly designed and superb fun.

[ETC]

Simple on this one really, if you like GTA buy it if you dont, dont it is just GTA done smaller. I wonder how many times they can get away with the same game. It does have some nice touches and you can tell it was made from the ground up for DS the graphics are very good but they made my eyes hurt after a while as it is small and a lot going on, the GPS map works well as above stated, still didnt feel very fresh to me, think ill persevere with it and see

[mr_rich]

i saw a few videos online of more touch screen mini games. like connecting wires to a bomb, filling molotovs with petrol etc. good theyv thought about the DS in that way and not just done a straight PSP style GTA

[112]

i saw a few videos online of more touch screen mini games. like connecting wires to a bomb, filling molotovs with petrol etc. good theyv thought about the DS in that way and not just done a straight PSP style GTA

Well, they couldn't really do what they did on the PSP could they, if you think about it, so they had to do something different. But yeah you are right, it nice to see them using their creative minds on the DS platform.

So is the Audio any good? I mean is there lyrics to songs? Are the conversations spoken? A part of GTA that makes it SO damn good is the audio.........

Im thinkin text based convos and instrumental music with a smidgen of voice over content. Hope im proved wrong mind.

112

[djjimbob]

deadmau5 radio station.

the bollocks.

[Dezm0nd]

Yeah the game made me realise I like Dead Mau5 so I bought one of their albums off Itunes, but thats for the music thread

I agree with the 'made for DS' comment, the gameplay could only be done on the DS effectively, the PSP games can and have been ported onto consoles making the game not exactly PSP unique.

[Dezm0nd]

Man this game is dangerous when you turn it on. It has a knack of keeping you interested with either missions or drug trafficking.

I just spent about an hour on the toilet as it kept drip feeding me things to do. The use of the DS is phenomenol(?) in this game, you'd think it was Nintendo themselves made a GTA game. Top quality gaming.

[hudson]

I just spent about an hour on the toilet

Toilet seat imprint. lol

[Dezm0nd]

What started out as an innocent venture to the bog turned into an epic drug bust which involved me carrying about 70 bags of weed, 30 ecstacy and some acid across Liberty City.

I was so desperate not to get busted by the police, I took 3 police cars out by ramming into them only to run over a civillian infront of another police car after.

During this i'm trying to reach a dealer who is buying ecs for a ludicrious amount before friday and the day was thursday so time was running short. I got to the dealer and sold my ecs only for it to be caught on camera and was a drugs bust.

The benny hill music was playing in my head after a while.

[Guts]

Great game and great GTA game for the DS.

The drug dealing is very addicting, searching for cheap stuff and waiting for that big deal to arrive. Just made a nice deal by selling 50 units of acid for 20,000 profits.

Sometimes it's hard to see Huang while on foot because of tall buildings even with the camera-centering but that's a minor thing.