GTA Vice City Stories Update - Gordon Hall Interview

***wraggster*** · September 28th, 2006, 20:42

Heres an excerpt of that interview:

Eurogamer: Apart from the obvious feedback you received - I'm thinking primarily about comments concerning mission length and variety - what lessons did you learn in making Liberty City Stories that have influenced the design of Vice City Stories?

Gordon Hall: With Liberty City Stories the development team at Leeds were very much dealing with a platform in its infancy, and with any platform it takes some time to come to terms with the development tools. A lot of the missions were built with a handheld in mind... namely, quicker and simpler mission types. While happy with the decision, having a chance to create a new title in the universe on the PSP, we opted to go with longer and more diverse missions. What we did not want to do was replicate Liberty City Stories in a different city; we wanted a whole new game set in this universe. Doing so required a new visual setting, and a fresh gameplay feel.

At the same time our ears are always open and constructive feedback by fans is taken on board. We are always looking at ways to improve what we do and this time around our newfound experience has enabled us to work really hard to make the missions even more varied, dynamic and action-packed than before with multiple ways to tackle them by land, sea or air.

The Studio is known for its ability to compress data, achieving the previously unachievable. This kind of grim determination to prove people wrong pays dividends when you are faced with the task of putting a game like Vice City Stories on a PSP, a platform many industry pundits said could never render such a game in a good light. We have moved on from our experience on Liberty City Stories to a place that is truly very interesting indeed.

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