... With "tasteful" minigames. Indeed, Nintendo Power has published the first comprehensive preview of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, according to details provided by NeoGAF poster botticus. The relayed information (in handy bullet-point format), describes Chinatown Wars as a "true GTA game," which is to say, a Mature-themed sandbox game concerned with all things criminal (just like the survey said). The DS technology limits gameplay to an isometric camera angle with cel-shaded visuals, though the load times, draw distance and frame rate are reportedly sound; and weather effects, along with a day and night cycle are in tact. The preview claims there are plenty of on-screen pedestrians and cars -- speaking of: there are multiple radio stations, mostly juiced with instrumental tunes. All in all, "800,000 lines of hand-optimized source code" are packed into the tiny cart.
What else? Chinatown Wars is said to return players to a sizeable portion of Liberty City (wild guess: Chinatown?), though the map has been altered from the console version. Missions will also be shortened and can be easily restarted upon failure. The D-pad is used for aiming, while the R-button activates auto-targeting; and there's "subtle" auto-steering built into the driving controls. The touch pad will be used for the aforementioned minigames, in addition to navigating the PDA-like UI, which includes email, contacts, the map, a music player, GPS, and stat-tracking (stats can be Wi-Fied to the Social Club). Now, how about some, uh ... scans? (Or better: screens! C'mon Rockstar, with this game scheduled to release in mere months, throw us a friggin' bone or two!)
Update: Gamekyo's got some scans right here. [Thanks Fernando!]
[Via GoNintendo; thanks, Frank]
Reader Comments (50)
Posted: Sep 19th 2008 10:49AM FernandoRocker said
Nice... I guess the cell shaded graphics will be something like the engine that Level 5 use for Dragon Quest IX or Jeanne D'Arc.
And the isometric camera, I hope is something like the one used in Phantom Hourglass.
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And the isometric camera, I hope is something like the one used in Phantom Hourglass.
Posted: Sep 19th 2008 1:58PM FernandoRocker said
Posted: Sep 19th 2008 2:26PM Saucepanman said
Those screenshots are kind of underwhelming. It's still a GTA game though, so it's a guarenteed like for me.
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 3:13PM zlickrick said
Those screenshots look like garbage - its like im looking at something through a cardboard filter.
Nintendo is so desperate to get anything "GTA" on their system that they are willing to make a version that looks worse that the 10+ year only orginal GTA just to say - GTA on NINTENDO!!!
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Nintendo is so desperate to get anything "GTA" on their system that they are willing to make a version that looks worse that the 10+ year only orginal GTA just to say - GTA on NINTENDO!!!
Posted: Sep 19th 2008 3:24PM FernandoRocker said
zlickrick
They look like that because those are zoomed screens scanned from a magazine.
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They look like that because those are zoomed screens scanned from a magazine.
Posted: Sep 19th 2008 3:51PM FernandoRocker said
Posted: Sep 19th 2008 4:34PM Supermanisdead said
The second set of screens look REALLY good, infinitely better than the first link.
I hope it's got some sort of competitive, or co-operative wi-fi.
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I hope it's got some sort of competitive, or co-operative wi-fi.
Posted: Sep 19th 2008 6:06PM KeenCommander said
That second batch of screens looks absolutely bloody amazing. I can't wait for this one.
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 11:07AM (Unverified) said
I think that it will also be physically weird to play.
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Posted: Sep 20th 2008 10:08PM Extinction said
I loved the GBA one. I was very impressed how close to the PS1 one it was
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 11:16AM (Unverified) said
I agree, I was actually hoping for the top-down view I thought it would be a fun retro feel.
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 12:14PM (Unverified) said
I actually think its very likely that this will use the original GTA top-down view
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 12:57PM (Unverified) said
If only everyone on the planet could be pleased at once. Some would love top-down, others would loathe it.
One thing is certain: humans prefer to b*itch than to praise.
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One thing is certain: humans prefer to b*itch than to praise.
Posted: Sep 19th 2008 11:10AM (Unverified) said
"All in all, "800,000 lines of hand-optimized source code" are packed into the tiny cart"
What is the memory/capacity limit of a DS cart? Micro SD card capacity can get pretty high. At least enough to rival a DVD.
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What is the memory/capacity limit of a DS cart? Micro SD card capacity can get pretty high. At least enough to rival a DVD.
Posted: Sep 19th 2008 11:44AM FernandoRocker said
Archaic Sealed Heat and other RPG's with a lot of FMV like the new Tales of Hearts uses a 256 MB card.
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 11:19AM jhoff80 said
You know, there was a Max Payne for GBA which worked pretty well. It had an isometric 3/4 view. Aiming was slightly difficult, but it sounds like this auto-lock will fix that up.
If they can do GTA on the DS as well as they did Max Payne on the GBA, I'd be very happy.
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If they can do GTA on the DS as well as they did Max Payne on the GBA, I'd be very happy.
Posted: Sep 19th 2008 11:36AM CheesecakeJones said
Why all the Negative Nancies? Regardless of quality, this is a good thing for gaming. If there's one thing the DS lacks it's blockbuster games from third parties. The glut of casual garbage is getting old. I'm tickled pink to see a developer taking a chance on a new formula for an established franchise.
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 12:01PM MrHashbrown said
That's a good point, and everybody KNOWS this is smart on the business side of things, but after the horrendous GBA version people have the right to be hesitant.
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 4:39PM Supermanisdead said
"one thing the DS lacks it's blockbuster games from third parties"
correction... from WESTERN third parties. Japanese companies have been supporting it VERY well. Like 3 "Tales of" games, Kingdom Hearts, Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest 9 and the list is endless.
I'm glad a major western developer sees the DS as more than a mini-game system. Hopefully (if this turns out good) this causes Ubisoft, Activision and others to make quality DS games.
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correction... from WESTERN third parties. Japanese companies have been supporting it VERY well. Like 3 "Tales of" games, Kingdom Hearts, Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest 9 and the list is endless.
I'm glad a major western developer sees the DS as more than a mini-game system. Hopefully (if this turns out good) this causes Ubisoft, Activision and others to make quality DS games.
Posted: Sep 19th 2008 11:56AM MrHashbrown said
Based on what I've read here...I'm up for another PSP side-story. LCS and VCS were fantastic on the PSP.
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 12:39PM (Unverified) said
HAHAH! No they weren't! The controls were near unplayable and throw in the screen ghosting for increased difficulty playing!
I bought a PSP Slim just for the GTA games and they're a miserable duo. Hoping they're working on SAS and all this time has been spent making it playable this time.
Granted I don't want this DS version either. I'll stick to GTA3 and sons.
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I bought a PSP Slim just for the GTA games and they're a miserable duo. Hoping they're working on SAS and all this time has been spent making it playable this time.
Granted I don't want this DS version either. I'll stick to GTA3 and sons.
Posted: Sep 20th 2008 10:10PM Extinction said
I loved the PSP versions. The controls were fine, and ghosting was a deliberate motion-blur effect and didn't make the game any harder to play at all. They were the first GTAs to get real multiplayer.
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 12:19PM Megadanxzero said
Isometric? Top-Down I could understand (Though it'd probably be crap) but Isometric? I can't see how that'll work
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 1:00PM (Unverified) said
You'd swear that some people are getting their arm twisted to buy the game.
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 1:26PM Bones3D said
An isometric game doesn't necessarily mean "not 3D". With a locked camera, you can achieve some interesting tricks with only a few polygons and some fancy texturing methods. It'll probably end up looking a lot like a version of SimCity that allows you to get a close enough street view that the individual buildings extend off screen.
Combine this simplistic Carmageddon-style vehicles and sprite-plane pedestrians, and you could have something good enough to pass as a populated city with plenty of onscreen vehicles to grab.
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Combine this simplistic Carmageddon-style vehicles and sprite-plane pedestrians, and you could have something good enough to pass as a populated city with plenty of onscreen vehicles to grab.
Posted: Sep 19th 2008 3:48PM (Unverified) said
This needs to be played before passing judgment... the potential for failure/success can go either way.
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 4:47PM Supermanisdead said
Well, Max Payne on the GBA was pretty fun and it had isometric view. The only thing annoying about it was aiming, which seems to be addressed here by auto-lock on.
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Posted: Sep 19th 2008 5:35PM TendoMan said
James, I really (really) suggest using the other scans as an example link for the screenshots. They are 10x better than the ones that got "first" scans.
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=3857
Anyway, on to the comment. I'm actually pretty excited. It looks really good. Cant wait to see it in motion.
Isometric will work great. Hell, I might even have to bust out my old GTA's for a nostalgia fix before this comes out.
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http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=3857
Anyway, on to the comment. I'm actually pretty excited. It looks really good. Cant wait to see it in motion.
Isometric will work great. Hell, I might even have to bust out my old GTA's for a nostalgia fix before this comes out.
Posted: Sep 19th 2008 7:03PM Fox City said
They should call this: GTA: Squint at the screen to try to see what the hell you're doing- lord help us if you're supposed to actually use the TOUCHSCREEN to control that tiny little blob the size of a crumb to go shoot other tiny little blobs and then get in a tiny blob and drive off. Thanks, but no thanks
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Posted: Sep 21st 2008 3:35PM (Unverified) said
I really liked the birds eye view GTA games for ps1 so if its as good as them it should be good
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