Crime Scene On The Go: PSP Thug Thriller GTA Vice City Stories Shipping Next Month

[wraggster]

News from LIK SANG

It's that time again, you better grab your (virtual) gun, as a whole new experience awaits in the massively popular Action/Adventure series Grand Theft Auto. Vice City Stories is the follow-up to the monumental first PSP entry to the franchise, GTA: Liberty City Stories, and features all the exciting key elements like open environments, professional voice talent and a diverse soundtrack. The founder of Rockstar Games, Sam Houser, mentioned at this year's E3 that the hardware power of the PSP made it possible for the developers to do things for the series that they never thought possible on a handheld system, intending to smash expectations of portable gaming once again. The unique storyline takes place in a classic setting known to fans of the PS2 counterpart, Vice City. It's an 1980s criminal's eldorado with beach view, which erases all doubt: Rockstar welcomes you to a pseudo-Miami here. Improved visually over its PSP predecessor, with new vehicles to get around town (all sorts of boats, besides planes and helicopters), more varied missions, tweaked gameplay, custom soundtracks and added multiplayer, GTA: Vice City Stories is bound to become one of the sure PSP highlights of this year.



Up for pre-order and qualifying for our Free Shipping Worldwide offer (as with all import games on Lik-Sang.com), the US version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories will ship on October 30th for US$ 59.90 only. Cool thing is: this game works straight out of the box on any PSP handheld the world over, due to the system's region-free nature. Just slap the UMD in and start to play!

Wreak Havoc in an Urban Tropical Paradise

Let's face it, Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest brands in videogaming history. The distinct quality seems to resonate extremely well with gamers: the free-roaming of huge, seamless environments, the sandbox-like structure, where you choose how much deeds you do on the bad side of things and the incredibly dense atmosphere of a living, breathing city come to life. Vice City Stories is no exception and takes it to another fresh level. Taking place in the early eighties, you assume the identity of an US Marine, waiting to start his assignment at Guantanamo Bay. The name's Vic Vance, the suit is polyester. You guessed right: it doesn't take long until our main hero takes a wrong turn law-wise. Certainly longer than Liberty City Stories, the story unfolds in the same open-ended way as before, mission based. Along the way you will get to traditionally use cars, motorcycles and hotrods, while relying on jet skies, speedboats and other aquatic vehicles to get around. Helicopter rides are in as well, plus a number of other aircraft like jets.



When it comes to missions, there are more objectives this time. Hit checkpoints while driving, take advantage of drug deals, rescue someone from a biker gang, while flying and having a sidekick shooting from the helicopter, it's all in there. Gameplay sees you nudging the analog stick to handle character movement, where the shoulder and face buttons are responsible for the camera and other commands. Target-locking foes and strafing is very welcome indeed, when you need to take down some bad mutha and don't wanna end up as fish bait yourself. For added accuracy, manual and "fine" aiming return and come in handy too. Immediately noticeable is the graphical overhaul, Vice City Stories sports double the number of polygons, new features such as animated textures and neon light effects plus an all-new lighting model. This helps you to get immersed in the game in no time, the different parts of the city merge smoothly while you explore. In a recent interview, Rockstar Leeds' Gordon Hall said that Vice City is so much bigger that the devs had to soup up a whole new streaming system.

Expect to move through a bustling metropolis, full of shops, diverse districts and towering skyscrapers. Speed from one end to the other in "borrowed" vehicles, get out where you want, steal or not steal whenever you like, it's all up to: you shape the gaming experience here, it's the fantastic amount of freedom that's the main appeal of GTA still. A month to go, and boy can't we wait! To get you into the mood and obtain a first feel for the cool 80s atmosphere Rockstar infused into Vice City Stories, you can visit their own Kent Paul's Nostalgia Zone. The slightly whacko, retro background created for this game is really something to behold, as is the included soundtrack of over 100 songs. If that's not enough for ya, you are free to add your own tunes right away. Mark October 30th in your calendar red, there's gonna be some business to take care of. Don't forget to pre-order this one-of-a-kind genre gem and get ready to pop!

Preorder now at ik Sang

[Nookadum]

This game will be sex!

[briyan]

This game will be sex!

huh!? say what?
i hope rockstar and other publishers and game developers should continue to release games at 2.71. i'm sure a lof of GTA-phites out there are willing to shell they're hard earned $39-$49 to buy this game regardless. if they release it with a higher firmware than what devhook currently permits, i'm sure a lot of games will shy away from the game. so i hope (cross ur fingers), at least let GTA:VCS be 2.71 compatible. please!!!

[gamesquest1]

huh!? say what?
i hope rockstar and other publishers and game developers should continue to release games at 2.71. i'm sure a lof of GTA-phites out there are willing to shell they're hard earned $39-$49 to buy this game regardless. if they release it with a higher firmware than what devhook currently permits, i'm sure a lot of games will shy away from the game. so i hope (cross ur fingers), at least let GTA:VCS be 2.71 compatible. please!!!

Yeah i hope so to but i reckon it will be 2.81 at least....maybe even somthing more as its a major title for thrm to be releasing and the longer they stop the pirates gettin it the better......not for us like. unless you have 2 psp's well lets just hope its 2.71

[LloydKansas]

I have to admit the game is looking pretty sweet. I never bought Liberty City Stories, but I think its safe to say this one is gonna find its way into my library, although it might take a little while considering the version of its firmware update (possibly even 3.00 o.O)

[Boardman2411]

i agree, the higher the firmware, the less customers for rockstar games