GTA VCS

Mesaj iniţiat de ratonbox

De PC nu se aude nimic?

nope
am citit eu pe undeva mai demult ca e posibil ca LCS si VCS sa nu apara pt PC

Mesaj iniţiat de ratonbox

The same pinky shit ca la Vice City. Joc pt. loc_.

au ales roz ca sa fie mai exotic doar e Miami
loc__ inca prefera The Adventures of Barbie and Gay Ken

Mesaj iniţiat de IGN

September 14, 2006 - Grand Theft Auto is as big as it gets in the games industry. Through the criticisms and controversy, it has stood its ground as a very influential franchise. It may lack an icon, such as Mario or Master Chief, but for a series with an evolving cast, it certainly has unmistakable character.

This distinct quality seems to resonate with gamers. It certainly helped make the first GTA on PSP, Liberty City Stories, the success story it is today. Not that its eventual victory in the marketplace was always assured. Some in the industry doubted whether the modern GTA experience would work on a portable platform. But if current sales figures are any indication, then yes, it seems to work just fine. That aside, favorable response from critics left little doubt. Rockstar Games will follow Liberty City Stories (LCS) with the upcoming Vice City Stories (VCS), which trades in the Italian gagsters of a fictional New York for the polyester suits of a pseudo-Miami.

In pure series tradition, VCS promises to improve upon every aspect of its predecessor. The improvements range from the cosmetic down to the way the game actually plays. The first thing anyone will notice, of course, is how the game looks. Rockstar actually doubled the amount of polygons on the screen from what players saw in LCS. And honestly, the visual improvement is hard to miss. The look of Vice City, from an abandoned street corner and liquor store, to the densely populated downtown, looks almost indistinguishable from its PS2 counterpart. Not only that, some of the environmental and material effects look better.

And for those who thought the draw distance in LCS looked impressive, just know Rockstar increased it twofold here as well. Now it's possible to step out of a taxi on a sunny afternoon and see buildings on the other side of town. This level of visual quality had everyone impressed the first time with LCS, and now it's just that much more remarkable. As far as characters and vehicles go, they look as good as they always have. Some of the added lighting effects and transparencies from LCS also return, only Rockstar improves upon each. And just like the increased number of polys, it too is immediately noticeable. Making things more impressive is the sheer size of the game, which fans know eclipses most everything but the standard role-playing title.

But for those who may not know, VCS renders a cityscape worth of shops, districts and towering skyscrapers. Players can hop in any vehicle they come across (forcefully, for the most part) and take off speeding from one end of town to another. Non-player characters will try to obey the rules of the road, but as far as player conduct is concerned, Vice City grants as many freedoms as current technology allows. This provides most of the game's appeal, but also its controversy. Any game that offers the freedom to kill or not kill, steal or not steal, opens the doors to all sorts of player-created mayhem. But that's a whole other aspect of GTA worthy of hundreds of its own articles. For now, just know VCS carries the tradition proudly.

The game takes place in 1984. Players assume the identity of Vic Vance, a US Marine waiting to start his assignment at Guantanamo Bay. Rockstar has announced few additional details concerning Vic. It's abundantly clear he winds up on the wrong side of the law, but the how remains a mystery. All that's known at the moment is that Vice City circa 1984 is a haven from the repression that plagues the rest of the country.

Not because of its politicians or the strength of its police force, but because of the amount of drugs coming in from Colombia. It transforms Vice City into a virtual playground for the unscrupulous. All it takes to make it big is a disdain for law enforcement and the resolve of an automatic weapon. And that's precisely what most folk have. Or at least, most of the characters that Vance deals with certainly do. More than anything at this point, what's most interesting is Vance himself. Uncovering his story, specifically how Rockstar chronicles his fall from US soldier to criminal, is certainly an intriguing premise.

The story will unfold through the same open-ended structure as before, where players complete story-specific missions at their own pace. Only this time it's a far longer tale, according to Rockstar. In fact, finishing the story portion will take significantly longer than the 15 or so hours it took in LCS. How much longer no one is saying, but fans should count on blocking off some time on their calendars. In addition to the new story and missions, fans will love what Rockstar has included by way of vehicles. VCS has all the standard stuff, like cars, motorcycles and hotrods, but now it also includes aquatic vehicles, as well.

That's right, players will uncover a wealth of jet skis, speedboats and other watery rides to find and take through Vice City's waterways. So, for example, when at a dock and there's nothing to do, it's easy to snag a fishing boat and head out to see. No word on specifics when it comes to water-based side jobs, but don't be surprised if Rockstar decides to include them. Should life at sea become boring, the game offers a squadron of aerial machinery too. Vance can tear through the skies in a number of aircraft such as helicopters and jets. It goes without saying, but this is a significant improvement over the selection of land-based rides in LCS. It had plenty of rides to choose from, but there's little competition when comparing the two.

When actually playing through missions, many of which make use of the new aquatic and aerial vehicles, Rockstar left things unchanged for the most part. The missions offer more variety in terms of objectives, and many rocket from land to sea to sky (multiple times), character movement and combat plays largely the same. The analog stick handles character movement, where the shoulder and face buttons handle the camera and other commands. Fortunately (and mercifully), the game lets players target lock an enemy and circle strafe around them while firing. This happens with most weapons now (rocket launchers excluded) and is a very welcome addition to the formula. Along the same lines, the manual and "fine aim" options return for those instances when accuracy is essential.

So how does a typical mission pan out in VCS? Never the same way twice, would be a cryptic yet truthful answer. Take a mission called "Say Cheese" for example, which has Vance play a stuntman for a TV commercial about chocolates. It starts with him riding a jet ski through a series of checkpoints. The entire time there's a helicopter above him filming the action, and whenever he hits a jump, the camera goes wide to offer players a cinematic view of the action.

The mission then goes from jet ski spectacular to motorcycle race, so Vance needs to find a bike and continue hitting those checkpoints. A job well done provides players with a brief cut of the finished chocolate ad, which states, "All because she can't enough." The name of the sweet? Kock Chocolate.

Here's another example: In a mission called "Steal the Deal", Vance needs to follow a drug courier to his drop off to see if he can take advantage of the situation. The chase starts off on land then proceeds to the waterways. Whether on a jet ski or sports car, Vance needs to keep his distance so as to not scare off the target. Once the druggie reaches his destination, a floating safe house of sorts, Vance jumps out and blasts anything that moves. He then takes the loot, conveniently stashed on a speedboat, and takes off. Not a bad days work.

Flying missions go a little differently. One of them, called "Taking the Fall", actually has Vance riding in a helicopter in an attempt to rescue someone from a biker gang. He's not alone, though. There's a second person in the copter serving as backup. When flying, players will need to pay attention to two meters, one for balance and the other for damage. Keep things balanced with mad piloting skills, and whoever's riding shotgun will decimate targets with weapon fire. Players will get a chance to shoot as well. It all depends on the mission. This particularly one has Vance flying, but his co-pilot does a fine job of taking out a line of bikers.

Rockstar has kept quiet about multiplayer in VCS, apart from admitting that it's in the game. There's still no online functionality, but the developer says that it plans to add even more modes than what was in LCS. In addition, the amount of side-jobs and bonus content has been upped as well. So for all the fans that love nothing more than to perform those hidden jumps or tackle the lucrative side-mission won't be disappointed.

And that's about it for now. Stay tuned!

Mesaj iniţiat de Eurogamer

Motorbikes. When you look back at it, for all its technical ingenuity and impressive length, Liberty City Stories' main contribution to the retrod streets of GTA III's home were crotch-rockets.

That won't do this time. That's why Vice City Stories takes onboard feedback about mission length and diversity, introduces new geographical features to help make the city a bit more interesting for returning players, and even aims to deliver some new mission types - about which the publisher remains notably quiet, despite the occasional sighting in the preview build we had the chance to see in action recently. Nope, it's more than motorbikes.

Although just in case the motorbikes thing will do, there are also some jet-skis as a symbolic equivalent.

They're in evidence right away in our demo, which locks our Rockstar handler into the broad shoulders of Vic Vance - Lance Vance out of the first game's 28 year-old brother - who's been kicked out of the army for a bit and finds himself reluctantly thrust into a life of crime. Apparently he's off for a stint at Guantanamo Bay later. We're not actually making that up.

In a mission called "Say Cheese", Vic tumbles into the studio of Remi, a pampered, film-making prima donna with a touch of Grace Jones about him. Vic needs cash, and agrees to work on a TV advert for a brand of chocolates, which Remi intends to shoot from a helicopter. Vic leaps onto a jet-ski and sets off with the chopper flying low overhead.

It's vintage GTA - and a good introduction to the skis - and yet somewhat different too. The jet-ski skims nimbly over the water, the physics for which have been massively improved since the bad old days, leaping over ramps as the Rockstar man whose shoulder we're looking over switches to an optional first-person view, with the chopper visible in the top-right, and then out to a cinematic cut which frames the action rather neatly.

Then it's onto dry land, where Vic takes to a bike, and goes haring through traffic aiming for checkpoints picked out on the mini-map, weaving like a maniac and eventually stopping outside a house. The game then cuts to a picture of a box of chocolates on the doorstep. "All because the lady loves Milk Tray," we mouth, before killing ourselves.

Apparently this sort of mission set-up - transitioning between land, sea and air - will be a bit of a theme for Vice City Stories. It's all about maintaining interest - Rockstar really did take to heart all that moaning you did about the missions in Liberty City Stories. They don't cry in Leeds, obviously, but they probably butchered some kittens in self-doubt.

Anyway, the next mission completely undermines the above point by being a bit of a classic "blow three things up" archetype. Called "Waking Up The Neighbours" it involves taking out some Cholo vans on behalf of a drug-dealing pimp called Marty Williams (Vic clearly has all the best friends). At least you get to do it with grenades or, if you're playing on a debug version of the game like our Rockstar friend is, you can give up when the going gets tough and spawn a rocket launcher instead. Cheat.

Next it's "Steal The Deal", and here we learn a bit more about how Rockstar's improved the water systems, and get our first look at a younger, bouncier version of Vice City's Lance Vance, who is being voiced by Phillip Michael Thomas out of Miami Vice by the way, despite speculation to the contrary. Lance has made friends with another of Vice City's familiar faces, Ricardo Diaz, and in this mission it's up to Vic and his brother to try and find the location of a rival drug dealer's stash.

It kicks off with Vic and Lance staking out a strip club looking for a goon. This is because Lance has "reliable information" that out-of-towners tend to head to this place to get drunk and do it. He's not wrong, and as dawn tolls a weary-looking goon jumps in a waiting car and speeds off, rather recklessly. Very recklessly in fact; adding a bit of spice to the old tailing missions, Vic and Lance's mark is all over the road, smashing stuff up, although he's still capable of causing problems if he spots you on his tail.

Things then segue into a jet-ski chase, as Vic follows the goon to the hideout, which is a series of jetties and little huts out in the sea. Vic now has to dodge some boat-riding patrols and pinch the dealer's stash, conveniently located in a speedboat. But oh no! He's fallen in the water.

Fortunately, in VCS this no longer means near-instant death. Vic can swim, and not only that but unlike all the other GTA games has can also grab hold of the edge of a jetty and pull himself out of the water. Apparently this is limited to getting out of the water, but still a plus. Once he's taken out a few patrols, Vic speeds off in the boat, and a fast chase through the islands around Vice City eventually delivers him to Diaz' dock, where it's mission accomplished. The boat handles very differently to the jet-ski, of course, and looks properly heavy in the water, but the water itself is much more variable than we remember of Vice City or San Andreas - backing up Rockstar's claims that the Leeds team has delivered "series-best water". Someone give them a medal. Or a snorkle.

The final mission we're shown is called "Taking The Fall" and it's our first sighting of a GTA favourite absent from Liberty City Stories (sans hacks): helicopters! Hurrah. Vic and Lance have to take out some bikers, who have apparently stolen a bunch of cocaine from Lance - although you get the impression perhaps Lance is being a bit dishonest about whose nostrils it wound up in.

In keeping with the theme of new mission styles, this one starts off with you in the driving seat of the chopper and Lance leaning out of the side with a mini-gun. The object is to swoop low over a biker convoy and hold the chopper steady so Lance can take them out. Then it's off to the bikers' construction site base, where there are more targets before, eek, a rooftop gunner sinks one into the chopper's propeller and it's time to bail out onto the rooftop. No time to rest though, because Vic has to race inside and gun down the rest of the bikers. "Where's the coke?" he asked Lance. "They must've sold it already," he replies, before buzzing off unhelpfully on the one remaining hog.

And so ends our brief look at Rockstar's second GTA PSP. Time for some questions. What sort of things can we expect to see in this Vice City that differentiate it from the last one? Well, for a start, we're told, the game's set two years beforehand, and there's a massive class divide separating the super-rich from the broken-down slum-dwelling lower classes, so the conditions are ripe for crime. Lots of familiar landmarks are still under construction, although there are some new ones, like the Chunder Wheel - a reference of course to The Warriors' iconic ferris wheel, and something you'll get to ride on later apparently. Since it's not in Vice City PS2, it seems fair to assume it'll meet a fiery end at some point as well.

In technical terms, Vice City Stories is twice the size of Liberty City Stories, which you might have inferred from the fact Vice City was that to GTA III, and the frame-rate is much better than its PSP predecessor's too. This is because Rockstar Leeds is much more familiar with the hardware now, we're told. It does show a bit. Draw distance in the chopper, in particular, is very impressive, while pop-up is infrequent and "clumping" - the repetition of pedestrian models - is reduced despite the greater number of visible NPCs.

There'll be new weapons too, of course, and potentially new side-missions, with multiplayer returning as well - although they're not talking about that yet. They're still nailing down specifics of the radio stations too, although many will be familiar, like Wave and V-Rock, and the script-writing team is consistent with the other games in the series, so you can expect the same trademark humour. One radio ad we hear advertising action-hero underwear for pre-teen girls ought to give Jack Thompson something to do for the next few months at least. There should certainly be lots of content - with an estimate of 60 or 70 story missions offered during our showcase.

Even with a lot still to be locked down though, it's easy to paint a portrait of GTA: Vice City Stories, and for those of you expecting another familiar retread there might be some surprises in store. Rockstar says it's listening to gamers, and on this evidence Vice City Stories will certainly be worth keeping an eye on. Oh, and it's got motorbikes in it too.

Following a slight delay recently, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories is due out on PSP exclusively (how long that lasts is anyone's guess) in November.

...

Mesaj iniţiat de Games Radar

This latest episode of handheld carjacking is a Vice City-based follow up to last year's impressive but flawed Liberty City Stories. And, from our up close look, it's going to do everything that LCS did only much, much better.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories takes us back to our favourite GTA location - the Miami-inspired Vice City - for more crime wave action as Victor Vance, brother of Tommy Vercetti's buddy/enemy Lance Vance. It's set two years before PS2's Vice City, and Vic's looking for a good time - which, inevitably, sees him lured into the criminal world by his white-lining bro.

Like LCS there's an incredibly large, sprawling city squashed into your PSP. Returning fans of Vice City will instantly recognise their fave areas, and there are some new landmarks to pick out. The pastel-painted beach hotels are still on show, but around the corner there's a brand new attraction called the Chunder Wheel, which you can ride, too.

But the big change is in the missions. They're much longer, more involved and cover a wider range of action. For example, one of Vic's first jobs is as a stuntman for an advert director. You're tasked with riding the new jet-ski vehicle between checkpoints, before leaping ashore and hopping on a motorbike to finish the ad with a zip through the vehicle-packed streets.

Liberty City's control set up remains untouched, with the same lock-on shooting system that sometimes makes things easier, and occasionally makes everything slightly more difficult. But there're plenty of enhancements that ensure Vice City Stories isn't just a relocated rehash of GTA on PSP.

First, you can finally swim in the twinkling waters, putting an end to PS2 Vice City's accidental drownings. Then there's a lengthened draw distance, better detail (count the leaves on the palm trees), and less 'clumping', where you keep seeing the same cars or people everywhere, giving the game a fresher feel. Oh, and there're helicopters too, if you're interested.

'Copter controls are straightforward and piloting across town isn't a chore. We saw one heli-based mission where you take the sticks as Lance guns down a biker gang, with a balance meter to show how your flying is affecting his aim. Then, in another example of the better mission variety, Lance falls into enemy territory and you have to jump out and shoot your way in to rescue him.

Remarkably, helicopter action doesn't reduce the game to a judder-fest. And, while we saw slowdown throughout the game at other busy moments, developer Rockstar is beetling away at tweaking and refining the code so we're confident you'll have a smoother ride than in Liberty City, even with so much more on offer.

How much more isn't totally confirmed yet, although we did catch a glimpse of a pager message that read: "...EARNINGS: $1900", which could mean new property-based money-making for handheld criminals. But even if that doesn't happen, Vice City Stories will easily replace Liberty City Stories as PSP's strongest dose of action. Expect the review treatment soon.

Mesaj iniţiat de SPOnG

The Grand Theft Auto series is, as everybody knows, one of the most notorious in recent years - at least it is if you are a Daily Mail reader (which, we presume you are not). Gamers love it though, simply because it was one of the first, and remains one of the best, examples of truly free open-world game play you can find. The series has recently been transferred to the PSP hand-held, and Rockstar has tried to cram as much as they can into those little UMDs. The first result was Liberty City Stories, which found instant acclaim in the Sony community (and again when it was ported to PS2 earlier this year). Now the developer is eager to talk about the next in the series, and SPOnG was invited to Rockstar London's swanky Kings Road pad to get a sneak preview of Vice City Stories. Not before we did a drive-by first though. You know, to get into character a bit. (Well, in reality we actually threw a bit of cheese out of the train window at a pigeon).

Much like its hand-held predecessor, this game is set around a location most GTA veterans are familiar with. The events that take place in this game happen two years prior to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and as such the game world is both familiar and refreshingly different. You play a 28 year old soldier called Victor 'Vic' Vance, the rather more level headed brother to Lance Vance who adorned our screens in Vice City on PlayStation 2. Vic has been placed in Vice City as an easy posting job before being moved onto Guantanamo Bay, and soon ends up experiencing the seedier side of life (alongside trying to save his brother half the time).

Rockstar's PJ Sim detailed the setting and the time line a little bit more, with an interesting backdrop that not only keeps an existing game world fresh, but adds depth, character and history to the PS2's Vice City: "The city at this point in time is experiencing a state of change, with construction work going on to rebuild the place. As a result, there's a big divide between the rich and the poor, allowing for a lot of corruption on many levels, from crime syndicates and drug dealing to crooked politicians."

The changes aren't just narrative-based either. We had a quick exloration of the game world, and improvements over Liberty City Stories were evident even as we were running around the beach - NPCs and vehicles are more varied now, meaning that in any given area you won't be counting how many people look exactly the same. There are a lot more civilians milling around the world too, making for a much more vibrant city to immerse yourself in.

The graphics are clear and crisp, owing to the PSP's pretty nifty screen, and the extra draw distance means more often than not you can see right to the horizon, with more locales and backdrops to look at. We were told that the rich/poor divide will be a factor in the game too, based on the story setting, so you will also see sports cars drive past one moment and end up in a run-down trailer park the next.

After a little run around, we were shown an example of some of the missions we would expect to see in Vice City Stories. David Manley took us through several interesting missions, each showcasing at least one unique element that makes this title stand out against past Grand Theft Autos. One that stuck in our mind was "Say Cheese" - which involves Vic looking for some cash and winding up in a local production studio's shoot for a chocolate commercial.

After a quick cut scene involving a rather fruity director that gets excited about Vic for some reason, you're hired to become a stuntman for the advert. From this point you hop on a bike and follow checkpoints in order to leap across ramps and land perfectly. Owing to the massive ocean space that surrounds Vice City, you also get to exchange the motorcycle for a brand new vehicle to the GTA series - the Jet Ski - and continue your stunts during the mission.

If nothing else (aside from the excellent Jet Ski vehicle), the stunt mission showed that Rockstar are taking advantage of all the means of transportation available in its mission structure. PJ says this will be integral to Vice City Stories: "A lot of the missions from Liberty City Stories were fairly short, this time they have a lot more depth ... obviously water also plays a big part in Vice City Stories, and you'll get missions that aren't just on land or aren't just on water".

It adds a great deal of variety to the mix, and this aspect of land-to-water-hopping was shown to us again in another mission called "Steal the Deal", wherein you get to see Lance and Diaz from GTA:VC and help them steal a package from a rival boss called Gonzalez. Here, we ended up driving to a location Lance directed us to, then ended up following Gonzalez's goon from a strip club to a secret location in the ocean - meaning we had to follow his tail without being caught over land and sea. The doped up, sexed up sucker we were following was understandably a bit poor at the wheel, making for some hilarious crazy driving - Rockstar's tongue-in-cheek humour is in full play here, right down to Lance's "Barry Scott!" style shouting of every sentence.

There are some classic shorter missions though, such as "Waking the Neighbours". Here, Vic befriends a new GTA character - a sleazy, lowlife drug dealer pimp - who gives him odd jobs to do, and this particular mission arms you with grenades as you 'take care' of a rival gang that has set up business on your turf. Cue instances of gunning people down, lobbing grenades and blowing up vans and legging it when their backup comes and attempts to gun you down drive-by stylee.

We ended up taking refuge in a car, which helped us get from one target to another safely, but not without getting the crap shot out of us by angry goons - the car began to wobble out of control as it took damage. It's this combination of shorter missions and longer tasks that will help give the game much more variety, PJ explains. And we have to agree - shorter missions would be great for quick blasts on the train while epic journeys can be had should you be stuck at a boring party with no booze.

The final mission we saw probably made us more excited than anything else. "Taking the Fall" is a task where Lance teams up with Vic, with the original Vice City star saying something about a group of bikers stealing some cocaine. Lance then persuades Vic, on the back of this, to go and take the bikers out. For a job this big, you need a new vehicle - one that many GTA fans have been crying out a long time for. A Helicopter.

After getting into the chopper, we chased a bunch of bikers by air as they were riding along the road. Naturally, they weren't too happy about our presence, so in order for Lance to shoot them down we needed to keep the helicopter steady by way of a 'balance bar' on the screen when a shooting opportunity arises. PJ at this point said it was possible to land on rooftops and explore them, making for a massive opportunity for game exploration and adding a new plane (no pun intended) to the GTA game world. By the end of the mission, Lance falls out, the chopper is gunned down, and it's up to you to rescue Vic's bumbling brother from the bikers as you land on their turf...

"A lot of people wondered if it was possible to put a GTA game onto the PSP, and if so whether it was going to be a top-down view, or a limited version of the game. What Rockstar Leeds produced was the full living, breathing GTA world, which people didn't expect." PJ's words pretty much echo Liberty City Stories' initial (and continuing) success. It was a game that appeared to be a port, much like many other PS2 to PSP conversions, but in reality the only similarity was the game setting.

It's the same with Vice City Stories, only from what we've seen at Rockstar there's going to be much more stuff thrown into the mix. The addition of crossing land, sea and now even air to explore the city means that Grand Theft Auto really has evolved into 3D in terms of world space. Even more new features have been promised that we don't know about yet, and as we left the room we wondered how features that couldn't be done on the PS2 only a few years ago are now a firm reality on PSP. Technological advancement, that is. Right there in your sweaty palm.

Vice City Stories is due to hit the shelves in October, so big-time GTA fans looking forward to this next instalment need only wait another month or so. We'll have more news on new features as and when we get word of them too. Because we're nice like that.

Mesaj iniţiat de TotalVideoGames

One of the best selling titles for the PSP, Rockstar Leeds' GTA: Liberty City Stories is in the personal collection of around half of the UK's PSP gamers. Such a fact meant that a follow up was inevitable, and a trip to the mid-80s town of Vice City soon beckoned. Set in 1984, two years before the events of 2002's GTA: Vice City, TVG recently had the opportunity to take a flying visit to the new look town...

No doubt by now, you'll have heard that the events of Vice City Stories centre on Victor Vance, the elder brother of the original Vice City's Lance. A soldier in the US military, Vic arrives in Vice City ahead of his next posting to Guantanamo Bay, only to find himself caught up in his brother's dubious antics with the city's criminal underbelly. In a similar move to Liberty City, the atmosphere is set to be quite different to the Vice City of 1986; the yuppies are yet to make their mark for instance, and there's a lot of construction work going on throughout the city. That said the layout of the roads remains the same, and familiar locations from Vice City (such as the golf course) will be there for Vic to visit this time around too. Perhaps the most noticeable addition to the Vice City-scape is the Chunder Wheel, a giant Ferris wheel and homage to the Wonder Wheel of Rockstar's The Warriors and Coney Island, New York...which Vic can take a ride in.

There were a number of criticisms levelled at Liberty City Stories, mainly for the perception that the franchise had taken somewhat of a backward step. Whilst some would argue that such comments were a tad unfair given that the preceding GTA title was San Andreas on PlayStation2, the lack of swimming, clambering, and flying abilities in Liberty City Stories meant that even without the RPG-like character attributes, such missing features left players wanting. One year on and with the release of GTA's second outing on PSP just weeks away, developer Rockstar Leeds has already made strides to fix all of that.

During the course of the demonstration, we got a first hand look at two key additions to the game: Vic's ability to swim and fly. For a long while, it seemed that swimming lessons weren't part of the curriculum in schools across the world of GTA, the result being that characters had a habit of drowning, even in shallow water. When CJ Johnson in San Andreas finally mastered the art, it opened up the gameworld to greater depths, quite literally. Thankfully the ability, which Toni Cipriani also failed to learn by the release of Liberty City Stories, has been added to Vic Vance's repertoire - perhaps he learnt it at military school? Aside from a quick swim in the water, Rockstar did confirm that the deep blue will get more than enough gameplay time in the missions.

We were however shown one flight-based mission, which saw Vic and Lance team up against a gang that has apparently stolen some drugs. Whilst Lance took to balancing out of the door of the helicopter with an automatic rifle, Vic (the player) flies the vehicle above the streets of Vice City to the top of the building that the gang is hanging out. In the mission, as well as controlling the chopper, players will have to take into account Lance's balance on the side of the helicopter (indicated by a balance meter) so he can get an accurate aim on the targets.

Back to the water, where Rockstar has introduced a new mode of transport for the GTA franchise as a whole, a vehicle that pretty much epitomises watercraft in the 1980s - the jetski. Essentially acting like a motorbike on water, the jetski is a fast and mobile vehicle, far more than the speedboats that have featured in the series so far. In the mission that demonstrated the jetski, Vic is a stuntman for a chocolate commercial - one of the latest productions to come out of Vice City; racing across the waterways that surround a lot of the city and collecting time-enhancing checkpoints, Vic has to ramp onto the road before jumping onto the good old PCJ-600 motorbike to continue the shoot....

With the new swimming and aerial gameplay, Leeds has also been hard at work developing two different aspects that will enhance both: longer drawing distances and improved water effects. The extra year in getting used to the PSP has enabled Leeds to increase the draw distances quite considerably compared to its predecessor, so that the distant shapes of the buildings on the horizon fill the background of the city ever so slightly. In addition to the buildings, the studio has been working on new algorithms that decrease the amounts of 'clumping', where the same vehicles and citizens appear in close proximity. Added details to the water have also been made to the game, including a wake behind boats and an added detail to the waves. In short, the water is more realistic than the water in any of the previous GTA titles (and yes, that does include San Andreas). Another added refinement in Vice City Stories will include shorter loading times when Vance crosses from one of the Vice City islands to another; in fact, they are noticeably shorter than in Liberty City Stories.

Since the PSP is a portable system, Rockstar Leeds devised shorter missions for Liberty City Stories that could fit into a 'pick up and play' session of gaming, but for the follow up the studio has gone back to the longer missions that we all know and love. Relying on the fact that the Sony handheld has quite the effective standby mode, Vice City Stories' mission lengths will take a tad longer than just a bus stop of two, but it may just make the experience flow better than before.

One of the key elements of the original Vice City that helped to ground it in the 1980s was its soundtrack, which included the likes of Quiet Riot and Michael Jackson. In the same way, Vice City Stories will also include an eclectic mix of early to mid-80s music. Though the complete line up of tracks is yet to be confirmed by Rockstar, its use in the game's trailer is sure to mean that Foreigner's iconic 80s hit 'I Want To Know What Love Is' will be making an appearance in the final release. As with the appearance of Frank Vincent as Salvatore Leone in Liberty City Stories, another GTA alumnus will be reprising a role for Vice City Stories: Miami Vice's Philip Michael Thomas as Lance Vance.

Rockstar also confirmed that Vice City Stories will feature multiplayer modes, but that's for another time...

Following some criticism with Liberty City Stories last year, Rockstar Leeds certainly seem adamant about developing Vice City beyond the boundaries set by its predecessor. The ability to swim, and use helicopters (possibly planes???) fulfils something that was undoubtedly lacking in the franchise's PSP debut. Coupled with new features such as jetskis and improved visuals, it looks very likely Vice City Stories will at the very least give GTA fans what they want and match the commercial success of Liberty City Stories.

...

Go>Play Magazine has a six-page preview of Vice City Stories, it includes some new screenshots, as well as further details on the empire building feature.

A car is parked outside of each building that you can obtain, destroying it initiates an attack on the gang currently running it. To successfully acquire the building Go>Play say you must kill everyone outside and inside the building, furthermore it will not go up for sale until you "wreck the place."
After you choose what type of business to set up, and its size, the actual building takes around 2 game days to complete. After this you can save the game there and "make changes" to the business via the notice board.
You will have to work for the business as well, as it won't run entirely by itself, additionally you get a "pimped out" car (what type depends on the business) permanently sat outside the place.

Go>Play also suggest the soundtrack is just as good as Vice City's, which is great since Vice City still has probably the best game soundtrack in the world.

http://media.psp.ign.com/media/779/779851/vids_1.html
puteti vedea aici trailerul, precum si 2 filmulete din joc, fiecare de cate 30 sec

Mesaj iniţiat de IGN

One of the biggest questions surrounding Vice City Stories is regarding said helicopters. Specifically, how well they fly, how the controls work and how well the engine can handle drawing the massive world of Vice City. In short, the answer is anywhere from very well to fantastically. Despite requiring the system to draw the entirety of Vice City at essentially any time, the game still holds a very solid framerate. There's some pop-in to be sure, but it's not really any worse than we remember seeing from GTA: Vice City on the PS2. In other words, Rockstar has certainly upped the technical bar it set in the first game and the results are impressive.

The chopper's flight mechanic uses X and Square for throttle control while the analog stick pivots and tilts in any direction and L and R are used to turn. It took us a very short time to get used to the controls, and most of the learning curve simply has to do with how far or long you need to tilt or turn in order to shift direction. But functionally, it's about as natural as could be and really feels great. Good stuff here.

In one of the three missions we tried, we had a chance to hop aboard both an ATV and a dune buggy. The ATV is a squirrelly little rascal, quick to get going but not all too fast. It turns on a dime though, making it great for navigating through numerous pedestrians should you not want to up your civilian kill count. The dune buggy, on the other hand, is much faster and a little more maneuverable on sand than the ATV. Its physics properties combined with the rough and hilly beach that we were on made it feel "bumpy" in that you need to watch how far you're turning the wheels while in mid-air or you'll skip quickly to one side when your wheels touch down again. Slightly tricky stuff, but this is exactly how it should be.

As far as the city goes, we were only able to hit a small percentage of the overall land, but everything we saw looked the same as on the PlayStation 2 as far as layout is concerned. That is, if you invested an untold number of hours into navigating the city on the PS2, you'll feel right at home here. Related to this in some way, the load times appear to be fantastic. Moving from one island to the next resulted in extremely minimal loading -- we didn't have a stopwatch on hand, but you barely have time to take your eyes off the screen before you're up and running again.

The three missions we tried were all situated mid-way to late in the game, so jumping right into the mix of things gave us quite a challenge. We won't say we left the demo unscathed, but these more complicated and challenging missions did give us a better taste of what the game will offer. Vice City Stories promises to have more multi-tiered missions than we saw in Liberty City Stories, meaning that you'll have to transfer from on-foot to one vehicle and then maybe even a third, possibly on a different surface type (water, land, air, etc.), in order to complete some of the missions.

One example of this is a mission we tried entitled "Unfriendly Competition". A group of shady drug dealers is encroaching on your boss' territory and he sends you to put a damper on their business. Heading first to a motel, you need to take out a handful of hapless peons. This part's rather simple but it gave us quick practice with our arsenal for the next section. Hopping back in our car and venturing to a much nicer hotel, a group of bikini-clad women pulled out uzis and other semi-automatic weapons from their beachwear and opened fire. Coming in waves, we had to navigate in and out of a large, empty pool in order to hunt them all down.

Once finished (which was no easy task), the gang leader and a few of his femme fatales hopped on ATVs and sped off onto the beach. Flooring the gas pedal on our own before shortly changing over to a dune buggy, we chased after them and opened fire to keep them from escaping. Unfortunately, we weren't quite fast enough behind the wheel and they made their getaway boat, causing us to fail the mission.

Another mission, entitled "Nice Package", was even more hectic. Umberto Robina, who makes a return from GTA: Vice City, challenges you to prove yourself before he'll trust you with a more important mission. He simply tasks you to find and return a package to him, though the mission proved to be anything but trivial. Hopping in a nearby ride and heading to the package pickup location, a rival gang managed to get their first and acquire our prize.

As we hunted them down, so did a number of other gang members all vying for the same loot. The resulting chase was something like a game of rugby, only with guns and cops in tow. Machineguns firing out of passenger windows filled the streets, and a dead driver meant the package was loose and for the taking. Finally picking up the package we attempted to flee the scene and return to Umberto, but our car had been taken out. Hopping in a police car, we managed to only speed away a short distance before a few choice shots took out our impromptu ride and ended our adventure. This mission promises to be completely insane but fun as hell.

The last mission we had a chance to check out was dubbed "Lost and Found". Louise, your love interest in the game, had been in the hospital and you make your way to see how she's doing. After meeting her downstairs as she'd just been released, you get a page from your brother Lance who turns out to be in deep trouble. He was double-crossed at a meeting and is now trapped on top of a burning building. You and Louise head to the roof and hop in a helicopter to save your brother.

Flying to his soon-to-be fiery coffin, we picked up Lance who filled us in on what happened. Seeking revenge, he sets up in the door of the chopper with machinegun in tow and instructs you to take him to the ocean where the double-crossers are escaping in boats. To take them out, you need to keep the chopper level in order to allow Lance to get off clean shots. As we've previously explained, you have a balance meter that shows you how level your chopper is. The longer you can hold one position, the more balanced Lance will be and the better the shots he'll be able to take. This mission is reasonably simple on the surface but requires careful management of your flight controls to help Lance get his revenge.

Though we only got to play through three of the game's missions, they gave us a nice taste of the new and improved gameplay facets that Rockstar is bringing to the PSP with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. So far, it looks like the developer has not only met but greatly exceeded its first GTA release on the system, and while that really shouldn't surprise anyone, we're more than happy to say it's true.

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The Reinvention of Water Physics in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories


October 6, 2006 - While some Next-Gen titles cannot figure out ways to incorporate motorcycles and flying vehicles, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories for the PSP has taken the watery backdrop of Vice City and expanded on it enormously. From the moment you enter the world of Vice City, one thing becomes clear. More than any other Grand Theft Auto metropolis, Vice City is defined by the water surrounding it. In developing the latest installment of Grand Theft Auto for the PSP, the team at Rockstar Leeds went to great lengths retooling the aquatic playground of Vice City.

Let's clear something up immediately—the player can swim in Vice City. Perhaps lead character Vic's military training is the cause for this, but one thing is clear—swimming, which made its debut in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, has never been more central to gameplay than it is in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.

Beyond swimming, the waterways around Vice City will behave like realistic water. The physics of the game have been developed so that piloting a boat has its own distinct, realistic characteristics. The boats will bob and respond to wake and trail just as they would in real life.

At Rockstar Leeds, careful consideration went into creating an aquatic environment that was as accurate to real world water physics as possible, creating a liquid veracity on par with other areas of the Grand Theft Auto environment. Gone are the days of a boat governed by physics more suited to 4 wheeled vehicles on pavement, unaffected by wake, change in direction, or speed. Instead, general water physics will cause every waterborne vehicle to bob in the water, respond to changes in the current and be affected by the increased drag that a liquid imparts. Turning and maneuvering will be highly affected by the speed in which the boat is moving. Beyond basic physics, each vehicle behaves differently. Jet Skis are as nimble, if not more so, than motorbikes on the mainland as they exploit the extra purchase that water offers to aid in quick directional changes at velocity. This added degree of handling will make chases on the sea as exciting as any police chase on land.

Variety of Vehicles
New vehicles were added to take advantage of the water. Jet skis were added to give the waterways a fast, agile personal craft. It is possible to do water-based "ski-bys" on unsuspecting boat owners, criminals on the high seas or ne'er-do-wells on the beach. Beyond the jet ski, amphibious vehicles make their debut. The APV allows the player the freedom to quickly turn off of the city streets and enter the water, giving pursuers the slip as their vehicles cannot follow. Also, in addition to these vehicles, sea planes and helicopters deliver an added dimension to gameplay.

Add to this the stable of speedboats, yachts, sailboats, zodiacs, airboats, and more, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories might have the largest collection of sea-based vehicles in gaming history.

Mission Structure
Beyond the physics, the core changes being made to the water opened the door to some epic missions. Longer, more complicated missions have been created that take full advantage of the watery environment of Vice City. It's common to find missions that begin on land and move out onto the water, whether by design or by the fact that the player chooses to use the water to their advantage. Sometimes it's faster for a player to use a jet ski instead of a car, for example. In other instances, the missions are designed to take the action to the waterways of Vice City.

Watersports
Taking advantage of the open world structure that Grand Theft Auto is famous for, many side missions now take place in the water. Players will be able to take part in various sporting activities. Vic, strong swimmer that he is, will be able to take fully exploit the waterways. Activities such as swimming events, boat and jet ski races are available for the player to take part in. There are also water-based rescue missions, if the player feels like being a good samaritan.

With all the added gameplay elements, the ability to swim, new vehicles, and side missions that incorporate its watery environment, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories is the most aquatic and by far the most advanced game yet available for the PSP. It easily holds its own against console based games, next-gen or current. A shot across the bow to gamers everywhere—Grand Theft Auto is still the king of the open-world sandbox thriller.

UK Gaming website GamesRadar have a new preview of Vice City Stories, this one focuses on the side missions you'll find in the game. The main highlight of the preview is the explanation of a new mini game - Beach Patrol.

Head to Washington Beach for some Baywatch-inspired challenges that see you saving lives instead of ending them. Use your swimming skills to wade out and rescue hapless beach-goers who find themselves caught in dangerous waters, with the added bonus that continued wet work permanently boosts Vic's stamina.

The stamina boosting mentioned here also suggests there will be some sort of stats system implemented, whether it's as extensive as San Andreas' is unknown.

Alongside this the preview also talks about the Chunder Wheel being part of a fully working fairground with a bunch of rides which you can go on. The preview also touches on insane stunts, which we already know about of course, as well as having a few new screenshots on show.

uitati aici mai multe screenshoturi:
http://planetgrandtheftauto.gamespy.com/screenshots/

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If you own a PSP, you're probably already looking forward to Vice City Stories just as much as we are. Fact of the matter is that it's not too often that Sony's handheld sees stellar software, and GTA is quite obviously its highlight for the holiday season. In anticipation of its release at the end of the month, we stopped by Rockstar's office to get a little hands-on time with some of the game's missions. If you're looking for a general overview on the plot of Vice City Stories, be sure to check out our previous coverage on the game.

Our first mission had us taking on a job for the Mendez Brothers, one of the most powerful cartels in Vice City. Clearly these guys mean business, and their common course of action usually involves the unpleasant end of a rifle. In this case, we were ordered to wipe out some competition holed up nearby. Hopping in a ride, we started cruising over to the mission marker. Draw distance and graphical effects, like a bright orange sundown, were in full effect, though we're hoping the frame rate will see a little improvement with the box copy. Control-wise, driving and running around the city was pretty much identical to Liberty City Stories, so if you sunk a few dozen hours into that title, you're probably good to go.

Once we arrived at the marker, a quick gun battle ensued. In the middle of the carnage, we managed to pop a red balloon nearby, calling up a message reading 1 of 99 red balloons found. Get it? Oh '80s humor!

With our competition wiped out there, we moved on to a beachside resort where a serious rival had set up shop. Surrounded by bikini-coated beach girls, our mark was cool and collected. One moment he was chattin' us up, the next he was ordering the lovely ladies to blow us away! All around us, a few dozen chickas whipped out assault rifles, shotguns and magnums and started taking pot shots at us. Little option but to take them all down. Unfortunately, a few of them got away, tearing off down the beach on ATVs! The mission ended with an intense chase along the ocean, with our man tossing grenades to knock us off the course. A few shots with an SMG and we were 1500 bucks in the black.

Another mission allowed us to test out the much-anticipated aircraft in the game, having us rescue our troublesome brother Lance from a burning building via helicopter. The chopper controls could use a little tweaking, especially since, if you're pointed down for speed, you can't see ahead of you very well, but other than that we got the hang of it pretty quickly. Once Lance was saved, we made our way out to sea, where we had to take down boats carrying rival dealers. Holding the chopper steady allowed Lance to blow them away with an assault rifle, leading to a climatic confrontation and eventual drug windfall.

Based on our brief time with the game, we're definitely more excited for Vice City Stories than when we went in. It's admittedly not a dramatic evolution from the previous PSP GTA game, but all the visual tweaks, new vehicles and higher presentation values (expect an awesome soundtrack) should place it high in the running for PSP game of the year.

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Mesaj iniţiat de IGN

US, October 19, 2006 - The Grand Theft Auto series is about to take its second bow on the PlayStation Portable with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories shipping at the end of this month. The game takes everything that Rockstar established in the first PSP incarnation, Liberty City Stories, and turn it up to 11. We had a chance to sit down and try out some of the game's multiplayer modes recently to get a taste of what's in store for us all.

All of the multiplayer game types that we saw in Liberty City Stories are back in Vice City Stories, though some have been tweaked or updated a bit. For example, some of the street races are now classified as "Quadathlon" races, wherein you'll change vehicles multiple times per race. So while you may start in a car, you may then need to switch to a boat, then a chopper and then perhaps back to a car before the race is done.

The one new multiplayer mode (there are four new game types) that we had a chance to get our hands on is entitled Might of the
Hunter. If you know your way around GTA's history and vehicles, you may recognize that this name refers to Vice City's high-powered helicopter, replete with dual rocket launchers.

In Might of the Hunter, it's an every man for himself game with each "round" opening with a race towards the lone Hunter helicopter on the map. Whoever reaches the chopper is then free to rain down hellfire on their opponents and score a point for everyone he or she kills. Everyone begins the game with a rocket launcher, so once someone is airborne the others are all gunning for him.

The catch here is that you only ever earn points for either taking down the chopper or killing others while in it. That is, you can't roam about the city and take out other grounded players and hope to rack up on points. This means that one strategy you'll want to use is to always have an accessible vehicle nearby before you start gunning for the chopper so that you're able to speed towards the next spawn point quickly.

This mode was pretty fun, though as all of us were relative newbies with regards to flying choppers on the PSP, we had a hard time gunning down the other players as they ran between buildings and down alleyways. This made the session go on for quite a while, though it was pretty obvious that matches would become much faster and more intense as we got used to the controls and better at piloting the Hunter. Regardless, it's a fun mode that plays something like a cat and mouse game, except that in this case the mice have RPGs.

The returning game type Survivor has team play where your teammates can now enter cars with you and perform drive-bys, making it easier for teams to assault or move to a single destination. Of course, it'll be easier for your entire team to be taken out with a single rocket, but it's also somewhat stealthier on some level.

As was the case with Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories will support anywhere between two and six players via Ad-Hoc. Infrastructure mode still isn't supported, but given the game's immense amount of data that has to transfer between players at all times, what with the number of civilians and random cars about, this makes perfect sense.

We were only able to play two of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories' multiplayer modes, and with four new modes and all of modes from Liberty City Stories returning, there's a whole lot more for us to play. The game is set to ship in mere weeks, so check back for our full review right around its release.

Mesaj iniţiat de Gamesradar

The release of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories is mere weeks away, and it's looking to be a huge improvement over the series' first PSP effort, Liberty City Stories. Not only does it sport a bigger city, longer missions and the ability to commandeer helicopters, but it also improves on that game's kickass multiplayer with a whopping 10 modes of ad-hoc play. We recently got a chance to play two of these for ourselves: Vice City Survivor and Might of the Hunter.

Vice City Survivor is the same straight-up deathmatch action that rocked Liberty City Stories, and in a GTA game, "straight-up deathmatch" means something special. With six players, Survivor is literally a riot, with you and your friends to run amok in a sizable chunk of Vice City (six neighborhoods are available as battlegrounds) teeming with almost the same level of pedestrian and vehicle traffic as the single-player mode. So in addition to ramming bullets and rockets down each other's throats, you can jack cars and motorcycles and run your friends over when they least expect it.

As a pure free-for-all (or in teams, if that's your thing), Vice City Survivor is insanely entertaining. As is true for most multiplayer games, screaming trash talk at the buddy who just took off your head with a sniper rifle is almost as fun as vengefully backing over him a few times with a stolen truck. The game performs pretty well with six players, too, and we only occasionally ran into bugs - choppy animation, temporarily invisible opponents - during our session with it. We even saw some cool blurring effects when we got up some speed on motorcycles.

More complicated and less rewarding was the new Might of the Hunter mode, a variation on Liberty City Stories' Tanks for the Memories game (which is also available here). The twist is that instead of every player running for a single tank that appears at some random location, you'll all be hauling ass toward a Hunter attack chopper.

Blowing up opponents with the Hunter's missiles is the only way to score kills, but that's a lot tougher than it sounds. The Hunter doesn't have any sort of lock-on capabilities, and it's touchy as hell to steer, so you'll frequently find yourself struggling to point in the right direction and hoping your rockets connect.

You can fly low to get a better look at your targets, but then you'll open yourself up to fire from their bazookas, which they'll all magically get the second someone hops into the chopper. We can see this being fun with practice, but not so much for newbies - especially given how frequently the animation got choppy when the Hunter zoomed by.

Even with the lag, though, it's good to see that multiplayer is being treated with the same care and attention to detail as Vice City Stories' sprawling story mode. Assuming you have five friends who also plan to get the game, we predict this one won't be leaving your PSP for a long time - at least not until they figure out a way to squeeze San Andreas onto the handheld.

Mesaj iniţiat de Eurogamer

I'm standing on a highway, in my underpants, half-listening to a gun battle about two blocks away. I can hear rockets impacting on palm trees, and the sound of AK fire getting closer.

Suddenly a chap appears in front of me wearing an outfit called a Harry Balsac, and he's clutching a sniper rifle. I'm not bothered though, and neither's he, because while we're very much at war with one another, for now we're both far more interested in the little pink helicopter icon zooming across our mini-maps.
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Pinky's breaking this way, and Harry's noticed. We both look up, and I raise my rocket launcher and fumble with the aiming reticule. Meantime, Harry clicks through a few magnification levels, finds his mark, and then there's a crack.

BOOM. Pinky, already a bit scuffed up from the AK fire, has flames coming out of the back of him, and is spiralling to the ground. Harry and I glance happily at one another. Then I shoot Harry in the face, because that'll make it a bit harder for him to get the next helicopter.

Yes - Rockstar is doing its multiplayer thing again. You might question how good a multiplayer action game can be when everyone has use of lock-on for gunplay, but in actual fact that's less of a problem than you'd think, because all of the really meaty stuff relies upon more than just holding R1 and pulling the trigger.

What's more, you're always aware of where your enemies are in the big city, thanks to the mini-map, and you don't just get to dive behind cars; if someone's causing you trouble, you can always regroup and come at them in a car, or whilst firing over the front of a motorbike.

Liberty City Stories had six modes of play for six wirelessly connected pals to romp through, but the team in Leeds has put three more into Vice City Stories, taking advantage of some of the new tricks the single-player game can do - like helicopters.

There are all sorts of helicopters in Vice City Stories - medical, police, Air Force. Some missions involve piloting, others riding shotgun.

The mode I'm playing is called Hunter, and basically it's a bit like the average Battlefield 1942 public server mixed with Lord of the Flies: six people, one helicopter, and the only way to score points is to grab hold of the bird and then use it to mow down the folks left on the ground.

Fortunately, those folks are well tooled up, with AK-47s (which do immense damage to the chopper in free-aim mode), rocket launchers and sniper rifles. You can also find other things dotted around - although if you can take down a helicopter with a Molotov cocktail then you're a better man than me.

You might imagine that Hunter's a bit boring for the chaps on the ground - after all, helicopters are the ultimate vehicular prize in Vice City Stories single-player, and the Hunter is an Air Force chopper with wing-mounted rocket launchers. But in actual fact, you can have quite a bit of fun being the prey. Because after a bit of dithering around, every man for himself, what you sometimes get is an impromptu alliance. People spread out in one area, giving the Hunter less chance to score multiple kills. With no penalties for the ground team's failure other than points to the man in the sky, teamwork's the lesser of several evils.

But once the chopper's going down, all bonds are broken, and the only thing on anybody's mind is to get to the new one, indicated by a white helicopter icon on the mini-map, before anybody else.

So what's it like when you do get there first? Well, initially it's a bit of a challenge. Helicopter controls in Vice City Stories are fairly intuitive, don't get me wrong - you spin up by holding X, which puts you in the air, and you tilt forward and back on the analogue nub to push the nose down or pull up. And with the shoulder buttons ruddering you left and right and the analogue allowing you to strafe sideways, manoeuvrability is impressive.

But of course sometimes it's necessary just to shoot people in the face. Handily, the lock-on aim and firing controls have come a long way since the bad old days on PS2.

But the Hunter's a wily chopper, and moves almost too quickly, so getting anybody in your sights is quite hit and miss to begin with. It's only after a bit of careful practice that you get the gist of it, and let's face it, nobody on the ground is all that interested in letting you find your feet. You can't just fly off and toy around with it either, because if you stray too far from the little enemy men indicated on your mini-map, then the game kills you off and respawns the copter for the others to grab.

All in all, it's a neat mix of tactics, backstabbing and, well, flying, and you can't say much fairer than that in a third-person shooter.

And we can't say much more than that about this particular third-person shooter either, because Rockstar swore us to secrecy about the other modes. Still, we don't like secrets that much, so we'll risk upsetting them to let you know that there's a fourth new mode, which is technically a variation on the old Street Rage racing mode, called Quadathlon, where you race between checkpoints and switch between cars, bikes, boats, dune buggies and even helicopters.

We can't imagine they'll be all that bothered if we point out how well all the new modes run either, even with helicopters and the like. For the most part, our experience was entirely lag-free, even in complex situations involving all six players, although the game did have a bit of trouble when we ran people over, with victims' models clipping through cars even if they did then fall down.

Still, like Liberty City Stories before it, the latest PSP GTA's multiplayer modes do a good job of capturing the manic, violent, treacherous fun of the main game, and we're looking forward to giving them a closer examination ahead of our review, which should be available for you to check out in the week leading up to Vice City Stories' 3rd November release.

PSM are the first major publication to get their review of Vice City Stories out. We've had a flurry of previews recently, and it seems that companies are getting to play the entire game for themselves now, so expect a lot more reviews coming in over the next week or so.

In short, PSM say it's an excellent game, giving it a rating of 9.5. Included in the article are 9 new screenshots, and a few new details.

PSM say that Vice City Stories is the best PSP game they've ever played, but it didn't achieve a perfect 10 due to all the technical glitches. There is an incredibly vague explanation of drowning - it seems that if you swim for 'too long' you will drown, it's unclear whether they mean underwater (running out of breath), or actually above water and losing stamina and energy. I'm sure this will be cleared up in other reviews.

There are still issues with the targeting system, sometimes pedestrians will be targeted instead of armed gang members. There are also issues with the AI, enemies will sometimes get stuck running into walls, and occasionally your fellow gang members will run in front of your gunfire, causing you to kill them and subsequently fail the mission.

The storyline apparently clocks in at taking approximately 15 hours to complete, very short for a GTA game. Then again, taking into consideration all the mini games, side missions, empire building, and the fact it's meant to be portable, this figure is fairly reasonable.

Expect many more reviews, the final site update, and many more screenshots and videos soon!

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Mesaj iniţiat de Gamepro

15 Things You Need to Know About GTA


We have it, we've played it, and here's what you need to know if you're thinking of picking up GTA: Vice City Stories.
Vice City Stories marks Grand Theft Auto's second showing on the PSP, proving at least one new reason to dust off your Sony handheld. But how different is it from Liberty City Stories, and even more importantly, what's new and improved from the original GTA: Vice City? The following 15 reasons
should provide just what you need to know!

Key characters return
Since you play as Lance Vance's brother, Victor, there is some family familiarity right off the bat. But other minor characters, such as Vice City's sole porn legend also make cameos in VCS.

Swimming is in
In a key upgrade over Vice City and PSP predecessor Liberty City Stories, players can swim to safety in Vice City Stories. The swimming controls are intuitive, and this functionality comes in handy during the many boat-based missions. Interestingly enough, cops can also swim, should a tenacious one happen to follow you into a ravine. But you can't swim forever, obviously, or you'll run out of precious oxygen and sink like a stone.

Vehicles galore
After all, the game is still Grand Theft Auto, so of course Rockstar didn't skimp on the vehicle side. Look for bikes, helicopters, boats, and planes, as well as ATVs, buggies, and even a Sea-Doo-type watercraft to make their first appearances in Vice City.

$@#&!!!
Yes, you'll hear quite a few f-bombs. Bully may have shown a kinder, gentler side of Rockstar Games, but VCS spares no expenses in the vulgarity department. This is a mature game, and if your virgin ears don't like it, TS.

Cut scenes look better
Don't expect any cinematic revolution in VCS, but the good news is that they've seen a key boost since LCS. Cut scenes still have that gritty, somewhat low-budget look...but then again, that's part of the Rockstar charm that keeps people coming back.

The voice acting shines
Vice City and San Andreas started a trend of impressive voice work for GTA. VCS is certainly no exception, keeping the series at the top of the curve in voice acting.

Look for celebrities
We can't say which ones, or even how famous they are, but you will surely recognize a few.

Vice City hasn't changed much
Yes, there are a few new stores, but the general layout of Vice City is exactly the how you remember it. This is handy if you played the PS2 original -- you won't have to learn a whole new city.

The soundtrack kicks ass
It's awesome. It's all new and chock-full of licensed tracks. The track
selection is as good, if not better than, than the PS2 version of Vice City. The same radio station format provides 80s hits aplenty.

The pager is back
This is the 80s, after all. It's great. Something about having to check a pager for mission info is just fun. Personally, I miss the pager and think we need to move back to the pager days. I'll wear mine on a sideways baseball cap.
Unfortunately, the pager does not play the famous "GTA III jingle"
A shame, really: standard beeping noises just can't compare to the glorious tone played in the first PS2 game, Grand Theft Auto III.

You can't climb walls
But you can jump, and often times you can orient Vic on a high spot and then jump over a fence, but there's no wall climbing mechanic like in San Andreas. Bummer!

Pack some night-vision goggles
Beware nightfall! When the sun goes down in Vice City Stories, it takes visibility with it. This is mostly due to the PSP screen's glare factor. Turning the PSP's brightness setting to its highest helps a little, but playing in the sunlight is downright obnoxious.

VCS pokes fun at many ethnic backgrounds
Just like South Park, VCS is merciless in skewering ethnic stereotypes. That's what so many people miss about the original Vice City, which took some heat for its racial "slurs" -- the game made fun of Caucasians the most!

It gets hard, fast
There's not much in the way of a training mode in VCS. And considering the controls on the PSP, even the first few missions can prove to be a big challenge if you don't proceed carefully.

With Vice City Stories set to go on sale next week, Rockstar passed over some last minute information today on the game's new "Empire Building" feature. The idea here is that instead of just running around clearing enemies out of buildings, you can now take over those buildings and start businesses in them -- "brothels, drug distribution, gambling, extortion, and other modes that will remain secret for now," according to a Rockstar statement.

This isn't just so you can look at a map and see how much of the city you own, however. As you acquire businesses and proceed through the game, you will earn money from them, play out errands and missions related to them (via notices on your pager), and have to deal with the downsides such as legal trouble and creating enemies by stealing their locations (who will try to get it back). It essentially adds a layer of strategy on top of all the running, gunning, and driving that the main game provides.

Plus, assuming you set up a solid infrastructure, you can at certain points just sit back and earn money by doing nothing, which should please all those of you who don't follow the missions anyway.

Naturally, there are all kinds of different locations in the game, so there are three types of businesses you can launch that range in everything from price to the number of staff needed to the amount of money it brings in. Plus, as Rockstar puts it, "if it's gambling, you might have to collect debts."

And that's essentially how the game looks to live on virtually forever -- the more you acquire, the more problems you'll have to deal with, which looks to be a great way to expand GTA's gameplay from the 50 hour range up into the hundreds.

Which is particularly fitting for this title, since as far as we know, it'll be last big GTA game of this generation (at least, before GTA4 hits) and those who have stuck with it the whole time will want to keep on playing.

Vice City Stories Officially Out Now


It's Halloween today, also known as October 31st, which means Vice City Stories has been officially released across North America. Some people in other countries have already received their copies of the game, and thanks to exploits made possible through various homebrew applications, are already taking digital screenshots and sharing them in forums - these show you exactly how the game will look on your PSP.

In other news, Rockstar have made a minor update to the official site by way of a link to Urge where over 80 songs from the soundtrack can be downloaded. Urge of course have exclusivity rights lasting until mid-November, at which time iTunes will also have the songs to download.
Looking at other pages on the site, it's probable there will be one final update (occurring in mid-November) to obviously add the link to iTunes, but also to update the downloads page which still says "More coming soon", presumably this means more wallpapers and such like are on the way.

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In Vice City Stories there are 9 different radio stations you can listen to when driving a vehicle. All of them have different types of music on so there should be one there to suit your tastes. The soundtrack is one of the most complete ever made, and includes a total of 104 tracks. As well as Rockstar's own choices, you can also use the Rockstar Custom Tracks application to put your own music in the game.

posturile de radio precum si soundtrack-ul complet le gasiti aici:
http://www.thegtaplace.com/gtavcs/radiostations.php

Ar fi ceva daca s-ar putea modifica si mapa dar cred ca e foarte greu.

Mesaj iniţiat de Crazy_I

Ar fi ceva daca s-ar putea modifica si mapa dar cred ca e foarte greu.

daca apare pe PC, "mapa" mai mult ca sigur va putea fi modificata, la fel ca pana acum