Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Platinum)

Since the release of San Andreas, it was undoubtedly going to be hard to top, especially with the longest GTA storyline, and some expansive characters. When Liberty City Stories came out, it integrated excellent graphics for the PSP, yet a short story. Vice City Stories is most certainly an improvement yet.

Vice City Stories (VCS) is a refreshing return to Vice City (after playing the previous PS2 game), and the PSP doesn't let you down, with the full VC map there, and extra detail where you wouldn't have expected. All of the original vehicles are there, with the addition of some more cars, helicopters, and motorbikes, making transport around VC a lot more fun.

Cut scenes and character animation are an improvement to ALL GTA games, with, for once, individual fingers! It's been noticed in previous games that the characters lack actual fingers on their hands. While this is a minor upgrade, it certainly suits. Facial expressions need some work, and are on par to previous games.

The story is longer than that of Liberty City Stories (LCS), which amounted to around 11 hours (with just the story), as VCS plays for much longer than 14 hours, a play time currently unheard of from a PSP action/adventure game. Definitely something to look at. Missions are the same as the other GTA games, with simple 'kill this man' to 'take over this property', with the odd exception to one of Rockstar's niche missions where something completely random and unheard of in a GTA game happens (always delighting the unsuspecting gamer).

Alike to San Andreas, VCS integrates an 'Empire' objective to the game. This includes taking over certain businesses dotted around VC, via causing gang wars (and winning) with other rivalling gangs. The empire allows you to generate a much needed income, fuelling your weapon and bribe budget. Ever get tired of losing weapons when you get busted or wasted? Well, in VCS, you can now buy them back! Yes, that's right. A whole new way to bribe people. When you die, or get busted, you'll notice an icon near the hospital/station asking for $2000 in order to buy all of your weapons back. Most certainly an offer worth investing into.

However, setting aside the niceties, there is going to be one problem with the game, and in this case, it's the map. Streaming can cause serious map lag. You'll drive to an area of a map so fast that you skip the area rendering, causing a complete lack in detail. Stopping often leads to the loading catching up. This can get seriously irritating.

So, the game's worth getting for the PSP, but like most other GTA games, it will get boring reasonably fast unless you're a die hard fan of the series. For the time, it's fun and there's plenty to do, prolonging play time.

Pros:

New types of missions available, including mini games.
New drivable vehicles.
Extra detail on characters and maps (including car chrome).

Cons:

Map lagging gets annoying, and occurs often.
Can get boring reasonably fast. Really only something to play for a short amount of time.

4/5.

If there is one title that proves the PSP can do lasting, engaging, graphically accomplished games, this is it.

It has been frustrating in the past when an eagerly awaited port turns out to be a heavily diluted affair, missing key features, simply because the developer assumes a handheld gamer is only looking for quick-fire action (Gran Turismo, anyone?) Either that, or they're just lazy. I am delighted to report that there has been no such skimping here.

Vice City Stories is a full game in every sense. Yes, it uses the same beautiful surrounds of the PS2 original, but the storyline, missions and even the radio output are all completely unique to the PSP.

There is every type of vehicle at your disposal, including motorbikes, boats and helicopters and every one handles in a way that really satisfies. You can swim. The weapons are as varied as ever and there's even the opportunity to sport some new threads.

The graphics and draw distance are spot-on and loading times are kept to an absolute minimum. The cut-scenes and writing are of an equally high standard to any game in the series and still manage to convey the same drama and humour the games are famous for on bigger screens.

If anyone is going to take issue with anything, then it is likely to be the on-foot controls. The much maligned single analogue stick on the PSP makes for a more clunky experience when compared to the console versions. But Rockstar definitely knew this, and have introduced the best possible lock-on system to assist you in the heat of battle. There are still some errors when targeting, and GTA IV's cover system unfortunately does not feature, but given the gentle way into which you are initially guided along, only the most ham-fisted will fail to master the controls and make the best of each situation.

That really is about it for the negatives. All the exploration, the hours you can invest in the campaign and the side missions, or otherwise the enormous amount of just messing about, is all present and correct and it looks great.

This is a great advert for the PSP and every owner should be taking a look. Here's hoping that San Andreas gets the same treatment.

There are certain people in this world who purchase a game like Liberty City Stories for PSP, and fall in love with it. Then, when a superior sequel such as Vice City Stories is released, they convince themselves that it sucks. They almost feel protective of their original game.

I can understand this behaviour. Although, while Liberty City Stories is still unique, there is no denying that Vice City Stories has a layered storyline, more interesting missions and a digital Phil Collins concert to enjoy. In short, Vice City Stories is awesome and technically more impressive than anything before it on a portable system. I would even say that with the PSP's sharp hi-res screen, visually this gives the PS2 a run for its money. Not to mention the amount of space you have to roam free is simply groovy and tons of fun.

The original GTA:Vice City was really good, and to many is the best GTA title so far, even bettering San Andreas. While this is arguable, it certainly had style by the truckloads and the 80's setting was marvellous. GTA:Vice City Stories takes us back to this time, only with a more serious tone and a less cartoony atmosphere. It succeeds on every level and even squeezes some features from San Andreas in here, making it one of the most perfectly rounded GTA's to date. To have all this in your pocket? Forgetaboutit!

Special mention must go to the soundtrack, which is worth the price of admission alone.

Firstly, I love the GTA series and feel Liberty City Stories is an excellent PSP title. This game however STINKS. T
he map is a mess of cluttered narrow streets that are difficult to navigate. There is a glut of pointless and boring missions and more glitches than you could imagine.
Example - Early in the story you befriend a single mum who you then must drive to a quad bike race on a trailer park.....which you must then win. However the quad bike has some of the worst handling in GTA history and if you lose you have to go collect the woman and sit through the massive load times all over again. This and many other storylines are just dire with some terrible scripting and woeful characters.
The graphics are pretty good but the frame rate is terrible as is the buffer times. I would find myself driving fast down a street only for the road underneath me to dissappear completely while I wait for it to load. Or I could be driving and crash into an invisible object only for a tree to appear a second later. This is just not acceptable and highlights the knocked together nature of this shoddy title.
Even for £9.99 I felt this game was poor and almost unplayable. If you dont have Liberty city stories buy that...its far superior to this Lazy, glitching nonsense...did I mention the massive load times???

good game with absolutely sstupid missions. some are unessecerily hard too early on in the game and too tedious. Small things will annoy you with this game. i enjoyed flying the helicopter even tho you could only fly a 100 ft in the air and only in a small space, because if you flew anywhere too far you would be shot down by rival gangs. how they know its you flying the helicoptior 100ft ion the air is beyond me. if you buy it let me know what you think maybe its just me..