Rockstar's surprise PSP installment to the formerly DS-only Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars made more sense in my hands when I played it late last month at the company's Manhattan HQ. Finally, I can explain why.

Chinatown Wars is the new version of Rockstar's 2009 return to top-down Grand Theft Auto gaming, rebuilt for Sony's handheld. The DS version was the best-reviewed game on Nintendo's portable (Read our GTA: Chinatown Wars DS review to see why).

Rockstar Games presented the PSP game to me as a more ergonomically friendly version of Chinatown Wars. I had played through the DS game happily and comfortably, with my thumbs on the d-pad and buttons and stylus cradled in my left hand, ready to be used at a moment's notice. But some people literally couldn't handle it. They'd have benefited from a third hand or the dexterity to wield their DS stylus with their teeth.

Chinatown Wars PSP, the Rockstar rep showing me the game told me, was engineered to allow players to keep their hands in constant contact with the PSP. No reaching for another control instrument for this game.

I expected that added comfort to come at a cost. I believed that the DS' touchscreen gameplay, which I had found more charming than gimmicky, would not make a successful transition to the PSP.

The PSP has no touch screen, yet Chinatown Wars DS had included a lot of smartly-made touch-screen snippets that zoomed in during typical chaotic GTA action to force momentary concentration on a more focused goal: Flicking change into a toll booth; shocking a heart to keep it alive; smashing the window of a sinking car; rummaging through trash to find a gun.

The folks at Rockstar told me this content was adjusted for the PSP version, not cut. For proof, I asked if I could hotwire one of the game's cars. I moved GTA CW protagonist Huang Lee toward a car and had hm break into it. If this had been the DS game, the lower screen would have switched to a close-up view of the dashboard and a touchscreen challenge would have begun to twist wires or punch in a code to deactivate the alarm system. On the PSP, a small comic-book-panel inset box emerged on the left side of the system's screen, right next to where my thumb was on the analog stick. Rotating arrows showed me which way to turn the stick to unscrew a panel on the dashboard and how to twist two wires together to get the car going. The interface was smooth. My apprehension about converting touch-based challenges to stick-based challenges diminished greatly.

I drove through Liberty City to see the sights. The metropolis is rendered as it was on the DS, still top-down, still with extraordinary detail and vertical depth, just in widescreen with better textures, sharper resolution and improved lighting.

The game's map and missions haven't been changed, the Rockstar rep said. But I found that the game will play a little differently. Interface tweaks enable the player to throw grenades while still maintaining control of their car. The presence of the mini-map on the same screen as the one your character or car is on is also a game-changer. I found Chinatown Wars DS hard to play without the option turned on to render GPS routes as colored lines on the city's roadways. Without it, I could barely tolerate having to glance away from the top DS screen where the action usually was in order to look at the lower screen to view the map. With the PSP's mini-map on the same screen as the action, that aggravation is remedied — though I like the GPS option enough that I'd probably still use it.

Rockstar is adding six radio stations to the PSP game, though sticking to the all-instrumental style of the DS release. New rampage and other variations on Chinatown Wars' side missions have been programmed for the PSP release. The most prominent of the new content may be the addition of video documentary maker Melanie Mallard. I played one of her missions, keeping her alive while Lee raided a drug warehouse. The first game had very few moments of indoor action; this new mission was full of it, playing out almost as a GTA-ized ode to Gauntlet. Mallard hung back with her camera; Huang Lee had to make sure she didn't die.

The iPhone/iPod version of Chinatown Wars wasn't announced yet when Rockstar showed me the PSP iteration, so I don't have details on how its controls and content compare to the DS and PSP games. I also wasn't able to get a clear answer from Rockstar yet about when the PSP version was greenlit. It is attractive enough and has tight enough controls that it doesn't feel like a rushed port, whether it was one or not. What it does feel like is an appropriate modification of an entertaining and content-rich game, a return to GTA's top-down roots that can soon be enjoyed by non-DS owners.

I had expected something a little clumsy with the PSP version of the game. Instead, GTA: Chinatown Wars, at first play, appears and feels to be smooth. The game will be out as a disc or download game for PSP on ...

Rockstar's surprise PSP installment to the formerly DS-only Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars made more sense in my hands when I played it late last month at the company's Manhattan HQ. Finally, I can explain why.

Chinatown Wars is the new version of Rockstar's 2009 return to top-down Grand Theft Auto gaming, rebuilt for Sony's handheld. The DS version was the best-reviewed game on Nintendo's portable (Read our GTA: Chinatown Wars DS review to see why).

Rockstar Games presented the PSP game to me as a more ergonomically friendly version of Chinatown Wars. I had played through the DS game happily and comfortably, with my thumbs on the d-pad and buttons and stylus cradled in my left hand, ready to be used at a moment's notice. But some people literally couldn't handle it. They'd have benefited from a third hand or the dexterity to wield their DS stylus with their teeth.

Chinatown Wars PSP, the Rockstar rep showing me the game told me, was engineered to allow players to keep their hands in constant contact with the PSP. No reaching for another control instrument for this game.

I expected that added comfort to come at a cost. I believed that the DS' touchscreen gameplay, which I had found more charming than gimmicky, would not make a successful transition to the PSP.

The PSP has no touch screen, yet Chinatown Wars DS had included a lot of smartly-made touch-screen snippets that zoomed in during typical chaotic GTA action to force momentary concentration on a more focused goal: Flicking change into a toll booth; shocking a heart to keep it alive; smashing the window of a sinking car; rummaging through trash to find a gun.

The folks at Rockstar told me this content was adjusted for the PSP version, not cut. For proof, I asked if I could hotwire one of the game's cars. I moved GTA CW protagonist Huang Lee toward a car and had hm break into it. If this had been the DS game, the lower screen would have switched to a close-up view of the dashboard and a touchscreen challenge would have begun to twist wires or punch in a code to deactivate the alarm system. On the PSP, a small comic-book-panel inset box emerged on the left side of the system's screen, right next to where my thumb was on the analog stick. Rotating arrows showed me which way to turn the stick to unscrew a panel on the dashboard and how to twist two wires together to get the car going. The interface was smooth. My apprehension about converting touch-based challenges to stick-based challenges diminished greatly.

I drove through Liberty City to see the sights. The metropolis is rendered as it was on the DS, still top-down, still with extraordinary detail and vertical depth, just in widescreen with better textures, sharper resolution and improved lighting.

The game's map and missions haven't been changed, the Rockstar rep said. But I found that the game will play a little differently. Interface tweaks enable the player to throw grenades while still maintaining control of their car. The presence of the mini-map on the same screen as the one your character or car is on is also a game-changer. I found Chinatown Wars DS hard to play without the option turned on to render GPS routes as colored lines on the city's roadways. Without it, I could barely tolerate having to glance away from the top DS screen where the action usually was in order to look at the lower screen to view the map. With the PSP's mini-map on the same screen as the action, that aggravation is remedied — though I like the GPS option enough that I'd probably still use it.

Rockstar is adding six radio stations to the PSP game, though sticking to the all-instrumental style of the DS release. New rampage and other variations on Chinatown Wars' side missions have been programmed for the PSP release. The most prominent of the new content may be the addition of video documentary maker Melanie Mallard. I played one of her missions, keeping her alive while Lee raided a drug warehouse. The first game had very few moments of indoor action; this new mission was full of it, playing out almost as a GTA-ized ode to Gauntlet. Mallard hung back with her camera; Huang Lee had to make sure she didn't die.

The iPhone/iPod version of Chinatown Wars wasn't announced yet when Rockstar showed me the PSP iteration, so I don't have details on how its controls and content compare to the DS and PSP games. I also wasn't able to get a clear answer from Rockstar yet about when the PSP version was greenlit. It is attractive enough and has tight enough controls that it doesn't feel like a rushed port, whether it was one or not. What it does feel like is an appropriate modification of an entertaining and content-rich game, a return to GTA's top-down roots that can soon be enjoyed by non-DS owners.

I had expected something a little clumsy with the PSP version of the game. Instead, GTA: Chinatown Wars, at first play, appears and feels to be smooth. The game will be out as a disc or download game for PSP on ...

Rockstar's surprise PSP installment to the formerly DS-only Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars made more sense in my hands when I played it late last month at the company's Manhattan HQ. Finally, I can explain why.

Chinatown Wars is the new version of Rockstar's 2009 return to top-down Grand Theft Auto gaming, rebuilt for Sony's handheld. The DS version was the best-reviewed game on Nintendo's portable (Read our GTA: Chinatown Wars DS review to see why).

Rockstar Games presented the PSP game to me as a more ergonomically friendly version of Chinatown Wars. I had played through the DS game happily and comfortably, with my thumbs on the d-pad and buttons and stylus cradled in my left hand, ready to be used at a moment's notice. But some people literally couldn't handle it. They'd have benefited from a third hand or the dexterity to wield their DS stylus with their teeth.

Chinatown Wars PSP, the Rockstar rep showing me the game told me, was engineered to allow players to keep their hands in constant contact with the PSP. No reaching for another control instrument for this game.

I expected that added comfort to come at a cost. I believed that the DS' touchscreen gameplay, which I had found more charming than gimmicky, would not make a successful transition to the PSP.

The PSP has no touch screen, yet Chinatown Wars DS had included a lot of smartly-made touch-screen snippets that zoomed in during typical chaotic GTA action to force momentary concentration on a more focused goal: Flicking change into a toll booth; shocking a heart to keep it alive; smashing the window of a sinking car; rummaging through trash to find a gun.

The folks at Rockstar told me this content was adjusted for the PSP version, not cut. For proof, I asked if I could hotwire one of the game's cars. I moved GTA CW protagonist Huang Lee toward a car and had hm break into it. If this had been the DS game, the lower screen would have switched to a close-up view of the dashboard and a touchscreen challenge would have begun to twist wires or punch in a code to deactivate the alarm system. On the PSP, a small comic-book-panel inset box emerged on the left side of the system's screen, right next to where my thumb was on the analog stick. Rotating arrows showed me which way to turn the stick to unscrew a panel on the dashboard and how to twist two wires together to get the car going. The interface was smooth. My apprehension about converting touch-based challenges to stick-based challenges diminished greatly.

I drove through Liberty City to see the sights. The metropolis is rendered as it was on the DS, still top-down, still with extraordinary detail and vertical depth, just in widescreen with better textures, sharper resolution and improved lighting.

The game's map and missions haven't been changed, the Rockstar rep said. But I found that the game will play a little differently. Interface tweaks enable the player to throw grenades while still maintaining control of their car. The presence of the mini-map on the same screen as the one your character or car is on is also a game-changer. I found Chinatown Wars DS hard to play without the option turned on to render GPS routes as colored lines on the city's roadways. Without it, I could barely tolerate having to glance away from the top DS screen where the action usually was in order to look at the lower screen to view the map. With the PSP's mini-map on the same screen as the action, that aggravation is remedied — though I like the GPS option enough that I'd probably still use it.

Rockstar is adding six radio stations to the PSP game, though sticking to the all-instrumental style of the DS release. New rampage and other variations on Chinatown Wars' side missions have been programmed for the PSP release. The most prominent of the new content may be the addition of video documentary maker Melanie Mallard. I played one of her missions, keeping her alive while Lee raided a drug warehouse. The first game had very few moments of indoor action; this new mission was full of it, playing out almost as a GTA-ized ode to Gauntlet. Mallard hung back with her camera; Huang Lee had to make sure she didn't die.

The iPhone/iPod version of Chinatown Wars wasn't announced yet when Rockstar showed me the PSP iteration, so I don't have details on how its controls and content compare to the DS and PSP games. I also wasn't able to get a clear answer from Rockstar yet about when the PSP version was greenlit. It is attractive enough and has tight enough controls that it doesn't feel like a rushed port, whether it was one or not. What it does feel like is an appropriate modification of an entertaining and content-rich game, a return to GTA's top-down roots that can soon be enjoyed by non-DS owners.

I had expected something a little clumsy with the PSP version of the game. Instead, GTA: Chinatown Wars, at first play, appears and feels to be smooth. The game will be out as a disc or download game for PSP on ...

Aside from the new JournE touch, the other main thrust at IFA's booth is Blu-ray -- at least, one would think. In reality, when we finally found the lone BDX2000, the LCD it was plugged into was off, while numerous DVD players and upscaling tech demos littered the surrounding booth area. Once we got a rep to turn it on for us, the Blu-ray player seemed to work just fine, as should be expected. The new Blu-ray equipped P500, however, wasn't so successful: our colleagues at Engadget Spanish watched an attempted Blu-ray showing on the laptop go awry, and by the time we'd dropped by the booth, any Blu-ray models of the P500 had been pulled from the show floor due to crashiness. In talking with a Toshiba rep, it's clear that the company hasn't abandoned its ideas of internet distribution and other alternatives to the once rival format of Blu-ray. The company is looking into a solution that uses a Blu-ray disc and BD Live to stream internet media to the player, and has packed in decent codec support for playing back media off of the BDX2000's SD card reader. We're sure Toshiba will figure out its P500 woes before the laptop ships to consumers, but there's no lack of interestingness in these first displays of Toshiba's "commitment" to the Blu-ray format.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/04/t...elieves-in-ot/ ...

You know, sometimes if you just study hard, keep your nose clean, and stay away from the pirate cable TV business, fate will do you a solid. For instance, check this post by PreCentral forum member go4craig. Today, the hapless youngster innocently applied webOS Doctor in a bid to reset his phone back to factory and wouldn't ya know it? When all was said and done, the phone's operating system was upgraded to webOS 1.2. And what's more, the maneuver has been repeated successfully by a handful of other forum members.

What can the accidental early adopter expect for their trouble? How about account information for the App Catalog (a sign of paid apps to come), a Select All option in the browser's edit menu, and some changes in GPS location services. In addition to all this inadvertent newness, the update is said to have "much improved (zoom animation)" and a number of "little tweaks throughout." Sadly, as of this writing the gang at Palm seem to have plugged the leak. But chin up, little ones -- we're sure an official release must be imminent.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/04/p...n-record-time/ ...

Sure, it's not exactly news to hear that the Xbox 360 is the most unreliable console of the big three, but just how unreliable is it? Now there's a point of contention. The good news for Microsoft, of sorts, is that a new study from SquareTrade found that just 23.7% of Xbox 360 consoles failed within the first two years of ownership, which is actually a fair bit better than some of the previous numbers that topped 50%. The study also found that 10% of PlayStation 3 users reported a system failure, compared to a mere 2.7% of Wii owners. The Wii actually fared the worst when it came to power and remote control issues, however, while the most common problems with the Xbox 360 and PS3 were disc read errors and output issues. For its part, while Microsoft hasn't responded to this particular study, it has previously pointed to its "best warranty in the industry" to reassure its users and, of course, to its more recently-produced consoles, which are less likely to buckle under the pressure of a marathon Call of Duty session.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/04/n...ail-within-tw/ ...

"I kind of think of it as the land of bunsen burners and test tubes," Sega West president Mike Hayes recently told IndustryGamers, commenting on the company's experimentation with Microsoft's Project Natal and Sony's motion controller. Hayes claims that while Sega is still getting into the swing, kick and jump of things, it hopes to toss out official announcements in early 2010. "We have our ideas and we know what we want to do, but the technology is pretty new, particularly with Natal, so we've got to get to grips with the technology and see if it can do what we want it [to] do," he said.

Of course, turning your body into a controller is something Sega wanted to do back in the days of the Genesis. With Microsoft and Sony taking care of the hard part, perhaps it's time to bust out all those unused Activator concept games.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/04/se...in-early-2010/ ...

"I kind of think of it as the land of bunsen burners and test tubes," Sega West president Mike Hayes recently told IndustryGamers, commenting on the company's experimentation with Microsoft's Project Natal and Sony's motion controller. Hayes claims that while Sega is still getting into the swing, kick and jump of things, it hopes to toss out official announcements in early 2010. "We have our ideas and we know what we want to do, but the technology is pretty new, particularly with Natal, so we've got to get to grips with the technology and see if it can do what we want it [to] do," he said.

Of course, turning your body into a controller is something Sega wanted to do back in the days of the Genesis. With Microsoft and Sony taking care of the hard part, perhaps it's time to bust out all those unused Activator concept games.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/04/se...in-early-2010/ ...

The sales figures for digital games are rarely disclosed. So we rarely get an idea of just how many of them are selling. A reveal by Microsoft Australia, however, shows they're selling a lot.

At a recent Xbox press event in Sydney, Microsoft Australia told Kotaku AU that the 360's downloadable games aren't just giving retail game sales a run for their money, they're often outselling them.

Case in point 1: Microsoft's Summer of Arcade (or, as it was known down here, the Winter of Arcade). All five games - 'Splosion Man, MvC2, Turtles in Time, Trials HD and Shadow Complex - would have made the Australian retail top 10 charts in the week they were released.

Case in point 2: Two slightly older games - Worms 2 and Battlefield 1943 - wouldn't have just made the charts, they'd have topped them.

Now, there are obviously a few disclaimers to note here. Firstly, it can be a little unfair to compare $10 games to $50 ones. Of course $10 games are going to sell well. Secondly, these are Australian numbers we're talking about here, not global figures. And Australia is a pretty small market.

Then again, it's also a nation with poor (relative to other Western markets) broadband speeds and (relative to other Western markets) higher prices, so who knows, in other regions the numbers could indeed be similar, if not higher.

http://kotaku.com/5352396/digital-ga...s-retail-games ...