GTA: Liberty City Stories - Hands On Preview

Considering that everyone thought that San Andreas would be the last time for a while that Rockstar would release a Grand Theft Auto title, the announcement that the massive genre defining franchise would be heading to Sony's PSP handheld drew both excitement and concern: would the game take the traditional top-down view a la GTA/GTA2 or would the team at Rockstar Leeds be able to be able to work their magic and bring the series onto a portable system for the first time in 3D? Of course when the first screen shots emerged and the world gawped in awe that the dev team in Leeds (along with guidance from GTA daddies slight north of the border) had indeed managed to bring the franchise to PSP in 3D and to a visual standard that seemed to surpass North's original efforts on PS2, the initial excitement soon gave way to concerns over several gameplay facets such as the control systems, combat systems, and loading times.

Earlier this month TVG managed to get a first look at Liberty City Stories at Rockstar's London offices, which certainly opened our eyes to the standard set by the development team. However, the generosity of Rockstar has continued beyond that, and we've been lucky enough to actually get our mitts on the game to get a good idea of what we can expect when Liberty City Stories is finally released at the end of October.

For those unfamiliar with the background story of Liberty City Stories, the game is set in the New York inspired location of Liberty City, taking place in 1998 (three years before the events of GTA3) and follows the story of mafia outcast (and GTA3 veteran) Toni Cipriani on his return to the city after fours years away. Cipriani had fled the city following he assassinated a Mafiosi 'made man', but with the dust settling after that time, he decides to take his chances and return.

During the course of the hands-on demo we were presented with a couple of the missions in the game. In one objective we were set the task, as Toni, to take St Marks Mafia Don, Salvatore, from Portland Island to a safe house on Stanton Island. Driving a mafia car and chauffeur the Don to the ferry port on Portland, Toni is surrounded by the LCPD and has to try an alternative route over to Stanton. Back in the Liberty City of 1998 the bridges, including the Callaghan Bridge between Portland and Stanton, are in the process of being built: cue classic GTA cut-scene of Toni's car shooting over the gap of the incomplete bridge.

The mission served to demonstrate the vehicle control systems in the game, which seemed to prove quite solid despite concerns over the PSPs single analogue nipple. Following a system close to that of the home console GTA titles players use the nipple to steer the vehicles around, but utilising the left shoulder button plus the stubby analogue stick to control the camera, gamers can still do everything they could before including drive-bys and looking behind the car. The developers have also integrated the ability to snap the camera view back to its original angle, which certainly came in very handy during the course of the demo. Rolling out of vehicles a la Vice City and San Andreas is available in the game and continues to be a nice touch also. But driving around in the cars and trucks, or on the yet-to-be-banned bikes that still plague Liberty Cityâ??s roads isn't the primary mode of moving around the city - a staple of the gameplay is of course on foot. So how does that fair in the single-analogue streets of Liberty City?

Like the vehicular control system, players can around the streets of Liberty City by using the nipple and controlling the camera by holding the left shoulder button. Running, shooting, and vehicle-jacking is still accomplished with the typical face buttons, which neatly brings us onto one of the key concerns of GTA fans: targeting without the use of two analogue sticks.

Calm your fears folks because any concerns can be allayed here and now. Rockstar Leeds has done an incredible job adapting the targeting system to the PSP thanks to intelligent lock-on that identifies whether an enemy is within range and targets them with the press of the right shoulder. One of the missions that we were able to play through at the hands-on demo was called Snuff and featured everybodyâ??s soon-to-be-favourite Big Smoke look-a-like, JD Oâ??Toole, who works for a rival gang, the Sindaccos. Wishing to defect to the Leoneâ??s mafia Oâ??Toole asks Cipriani to help take out his â??observersâ?? so he can become a stool pigeon for the Italians. After visiting one of Liberty Cityâ??s many Ammu-nation stores, Toni heads off to complete his task. After driving to the destination the mission demonstrated quite clearly the strengths of the new targeting system, which was far more refined than previous titles. Switching from one enemy to another via the d-pad, Cipriani managed to gun down every gang member before stealing their car.

The final mission that we were privy too saw Toni and Salvatore capture one of the aides to the cityâ??s major. All goes well until they get the aide back to Salâ??s speedboat and they discover that theyâ??ve been watched by the Secret Service. Desperately trying to escape with Sal steering the boat, players take control of Toni as he tries to shoot down his would-be federal captors. Besides good shooting practice against moving objects, the mission demonstrated the subtleties of the targeting system with gamers able to aim more accurately by holding down the left trigger, which causes the crosshairs to move slower across the screen; letting go of the shoulder button allowed for the reticule to move across the screen with greater speed â?“ perfect for those quick adjustments. Again the system showed its strength and provided a solid platform for some serious blood to be shed, GTA style!