Archive for: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

GTA: Chinatown Wars Bound for PSP

Despite positive reviews, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars didn’t exactly set the sales charts on fire when it hit the market back in March of this year. Failing to crack the NPD top ten in its first month on shelves, many deemed the DS title a commercial failure, although Nintendo reported that they were pleased with the figures. Nintendo’s Denise Kaigler even went so far as to slap the “evergreen” label on it, claiming they expected it to have a long tail in sales.

Well maybe this move was planned from the start or perhaps things aren’t as green as we’d like to think, since Rockstar announced today that GTA: Chinatown Wars would also be bound for the PlayStation Portable – and in two flavors, no less!

“We’re proud to extend this truly unique handheld Grand Theft Auto experience to PSP and offer a downloadable version of Chinatown Wars for PSP Go,” said Rockstar head honcho, Sam Houser. “Rockstar Leeds has shown incredible talent in creating games that raise the bar in terms of depth and innovation on portables, and with Chinatown Wars we have a rich, fast-paced, and incredibly addictive entry into the series”

The PSP version of the title will be adding new story missions to the gameplay. No official word yet on how the touch-screen portions of the game would be handled on the touch-less PSP, although rampant internet speculation has people throwing about the idea that Rockstar may re-envision the title in a full 3D engine, much like the previous GTA entries for PSP. Considering that the press release cited that the game would be “specifically built for the PSP platform with upscaled widescreen graphics, enhanced lighting and animation”, it does make one wonder.

Crush! Frag! Review! – Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Damn junkies! I normally don’t deal with them, but I had some product that I didn’t want to hold onto and it looked like an easy enough deal. Now I’m running from the cops with a bag full of money and I’m cut off from my ride which means I have to improvise. I jump into the first empty vehicle that I find, but it’s got an electronic anti-theft device and I’m a little short on time. I look for other travel arrangements and find a car stuck in traffic. I yank the driver out and hit the gas. His girl doesn’t have time to jump out before we’re speeding along, so all she can do is scream in the passenger seat as I split the lanes of traffic, trying to lose the heat. I’ll deal with her and the junkie that got me into this mess just as soon as I find a way out of this.

This is what you’ve come to expect from a Grand Theft Auto game. What you wouldn’t expect though, is that this scenario played out on a Nintendo DS. GTA has finally made an appearance on the world’s most popular video game system with Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and, despite the limitations of the system, Rockstar has delivered one of the most compelling games in the series.

+Continue Reading