Metareview -- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

I agree. Because your opinion is the only one that's right.

EDIT: Officially warned. Next comment like this gets you banned.

wtf?

Man I feel the exact opposite way. I love how cheeky the story gets. Is it a novel? no, more like a comic book. Not that that's a bad thing. I don't want to read 100 lines of text for every cinematic. I want a pick up and go portable GTA. This one brings back the fun of the old school GTA games I used to get in so much trouble for playing in Com Sci class back in high school.

Old school feel with new school features. I love it. The touch screen additions are pretty damn well executed. Game feels great to play, looks nice enough, and has the fun factor of the old GTA games.

To each his own, but im loving this thing

props R*!

@moptimus - Touche

@arrrrgh - I wouldn't have minded if they went totally back to the old GTA style, but it seems to me that they tried to keep one foot in the old and one foot in the new and didn't pull off either very well. I think the game would have worked better without the comic book cutscenes and trying to create characters from such little dialogue.

I wasn't saying the game is bad by any means, just no where near the mid 9's to 10 range that it's been getting. I'm going to keep playing it, as it is quite fun despite it's faults.

You are of course entitiled to your opinion. I for one think it's a much better package than GTA IV, precisely because the story does not disagree with the gameplay.

The game also has quite a few little innovations that make all kinds of sense. Crashing cop cars to lower star levels. Little minigames here and there. A much more satisfying email system. A copy of Dope Wars, built in the game.

Simplifying the game to its core and adding a some innovative refinements is nothing new, but it almost always pays off. Remember Civ Revolution?

The problem with your post isn't that you didn't like the game, it's assuming that simply because you didn't like the game, anyone who praises it must be wrong or the game has to be overrated. Is it so hard to accept the fact that people may like something you don't?

@ Vegeta -Notice how I didn't say "this game is overrated", but "I think this game is overrated." The key part of that sentence is "I think", therefor making it my opinion. I wasn't saying anyone was wrong for liking the game that much, just that I thought it wasn't as good as the reviews say. And I do like the game, I've said as much. I just think it might have the same problems as GTA4, where it gets amazing reviews at first because of the hype, and after it's been out for a bit people kind of realize it was reviewed a bit too highly.

@hibikir - I pretty much have the exact opposite view on almost everything you posted, (@vegeta - note I didn't say that he was wrong, just I disagreed). Crashing cop cars to get your rating down makes absolutely no sense. It is fun, and I do enjoy it, but how does it makes sense that if you are attacking police officers and disabling their cars that all of a sudden the police would stop looking for you? By that measure is a cop sees you in the game, you should just be able to kill them to have your wanted rating go down.

The gameplay is the exact opposite of the story. You're supposed to be some spoiled little brat who doesn't know anything, but apparently you are the best gangster ever, able to defuse bombs, steal cars, and shoot expertly. The gameplay is fun, but I think it works despite it's story.

And how does it make sense that you can just drive away from a cop in IV and they never bother looking for you again? Goes both ways on that issue. They're both stupid if you want start a semantic argument about which is more realistic.

And srsly, this guy sticks to his guns and doesn't afraid of internet moms. Er, memes. Erhmn, I meant other commenters.

The game is incredibly impressive for the DS. I mean, I was impressed by the graphics engine knowing the limits of the hardware and it was an incredible undertaking to send out what they did on what was no doubt a much more limited budget than most gta games.

The writing is awful. I totally agree with that. But, I suppose when it's meant to be stupid and cliched it's ok. I mean, it's fun and the writing fits the style of the game, I just wish for some more wit in it. Nevertheless, it doesn't detract from the fun that no other DS game matches in style.

I admit they are both dumb but I could at least somewhat rationalize it. You get out of their search area, and lay low until they call the search off. I think a combination of the two mechanics would be awesome, if you could lower the wanted level by taking out cop cars or by getting out of the search radius.

And I agree Massmass, the game is very technically impressive.

"The problem with your post isn't that you didn't like the game, it's assuming that simply because you didn't like the game, anyone who praises it must be wrong or the game has to be overrated."

He made it incredibly clear that it was his opinion, including using the words "I think" and "maybe I need to play more".
Don't be such a such a GTA fanboy. At no point did he imply in any way that anyone who likes the game is wrong.

there's a reason. Game is actually damn well made

God I love bacon

Better bacon up that sausage, boy!

I really can't stand GTA but i loved the old-school top-down ones. As someone who owns a DS and barely any games for it, should i pick this one up?

I dunno, Foetoid, I heard it wasn't getting very good reviews at all. I haven't seen any reviews for it though, so don't really know where you would go to look at reviews to see if it is worth picking up :P

Well when you find out where i can see some reviews, come back and let me know plz?

It will... just don't expect millions in the first week. Remember that most games on Nintendo systems start slow, but by the end of the year, they usually become huge sellers.

GTA is one franchise I imagine has the muscle to get a huge opening sales burst.

I think it will sell and I'll definately do my part!

dont care what u said, but +1 for SWAT Kats

Personally, I was never interested in playing the GTA PSP games because to me they essentially seemed like PS2 ports. I don't want to play a console game on my handheld system. I don't think a handheld game should necessarily just try to emulate a console game. My two cents, if any of that makes sense :P

Seriously, and look what's come out in the past few weeks. Dragon Quest 5, Y's book 1 and 2, peggle, puzzle quest galactrix (if you can get by the really annoying parts, which I'm trying to), These last two months have been amazing for DS games.

i never really felt that way about the gameboy anything. the ds though, wow. the scope of games and teaching programs will reel almost anyone in and they have plenty to be busy with. props for having a great variety of games at any given time of the year.

As long as it's on a Nintendo console, yes, they give 10's.

They gave Fable 2 10/10.

bam

I'm pretty sure that most of the sales of previous GTA's (specially the PS2 versions) were from kids.

i think you're right. I'm in middle school and my friends sometimes talk about GTA DS and they say the ds sucks and they won't buy it.

also, it's a bit bs that ign gave the lasting appeal of grand theft auto a 10...while other games with greater replay value (aka resistance retribution and new super mario bros if you have friends with DS's) gets a 9...

They're consistently inconsistent. They seem to have a whole bunch of freelancers writing articles alongside the core contributors, and the left hand never talks to the right.

Holy shit were the minigames in New Super Mario Bros. great; most fun I've had with a DS, by far.

Dopple Boppler you are certainly correct, sir. Few times over a huge family, extended family group vacation 3 or 4 of us have busted it out, and it's a blast. Put together really well.

Also, sony boy, thanks for mentioning you're in middle school, it certainly puts a lot of your comments into a good perspective for the rest of us when we have to read them.

There seem to be a lot of divided opinions in controls for most DS games. A lot of people hated the controls in Super Mario 64 DS - personally, I think it controlled a lot better than the original. Using the d-pad, of course, the touch screen controls were...worthless for me, at least. Anyways, I'm definitely going to check this one out when I can spare the cash.

I've never experienced the brown void you're talking about, and I already finished the story mode Oo