Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Platform: PSP
Publisher: Rockstar
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail
It's a strange feeling; being so familiar with a place you've never really been. But there it is. Returning to Liberty City feels like a homecoming. I know the place like the back of my hand. And its this familiarity that keeps Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories from being the killer PSP ap many have touted it as. Don't get me wrong. It's a great, albiet sometimes frustrating, game. But it's not the game to buy a PSP for. The game is a port. It's a port rich with new content (like wireless multiplayer), but its still a port.
The good news is that Rockstar didn't scrimp on the usual care they put into their games. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is rich with snappy, subversive writing, top-notch voice acting and and expertly assembled licensed soundtrack. But this is also where the difference between handheld and console budgets comes into sharp focus. For the PSP verision of their free-roaming mafia sim, Rockstar didn't spring for star power. There's no Sam Jackson or Guns 'n Roses here. Thankfully, the spendthrift alternative is equally cool (at least in my book). The game's radio dial is full of killer obscurities, like Bollywood legend Asha Bhosle's pot-smoking anthem "Dum Maro Dum" and electro classics from Giorgio Moroder.
Rockstar always goes above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to tone. The efforts of their level designers, voice directors and licensing ninjas combine to create vivid and oftentimes hilarious worlds that feel mindmelded straight from a trash cinema lover's addled brain. And that's why, no matter who abivalent I feel about how some their games actually play, I'll always come back to places like Liberty City.
Publisher: Rockstar
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail
It's a strange feeling; being so familiar with a place you've never really been. But there it is. Returning to Liberty City feels like a homecoming. I know the place like the back of my hand. And its this familiarity that keeps Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories from being the killer PSP ap many have touted it as. Don't get me wrong. It's a great, albiet sometimes frustrating, game. But it's not the game to buy a PSP for. The game is a port. It's a port rich with new content (like wireless multiplayer), but its still a port.The good news is that Rockstar didn't scrimp on the usual care they put into their games. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is rich with snappy, subversive writing, top-notch voice acting and and expertly assembled licensed soundtrack. But this is also where the difference between handheld and console budgets comes into sharp focus. For the PSP verision of their free-roaming mafia sim, Rockstar didn't spring for star power. There's no Sam Jackson or Guns 'n Roses here. Thankfully, the spendthrift alternative is equally cool (at least in my book). The game's radio dial is full of killer obscurities, like Bollywood legend Asha Bhosle's pot-smoking anthem "Dum Maro Dum" and electro classics from Giorgio Moroder.
Rockstar always goes above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to tone. The efforts of their level designers, voice directors and licensing ninjas combine to create vivid and oftentimes hilarious worlds that feel mindmelded straight from a trash cinema lover's addled brain. And that's why, no matter who abivalent I feel about how some their games actually play, I'll always come back to places like Liberty City.
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