GTA: Liberty City Stories Impressions

 

So you've heard about the PSP instalment of the Grand Theft Auto Series. We've seen it first-hand - so come inside for full details, screens and video.

 

Everyone knows that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the biggest selling game of recent times. Now, Sony's PSP handheld is getting an exclusive title from the GTA series all to itself. Kikizo was recently treated to a first-hand look at the new game, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

 

 

This entry into the series sees players returning to Liberty City - the clues are there - which will be familiar to anyone who played the first 3D incarnation of GTA, for the most part at least. You see, as with every GTA game, this one has a particular time-frame; the story takes place three years before the events portrayed in GTAIII - before the silent-but-violent Claude set about his quest for revenge - as players take control of Toni Cipriani.

 

Toni was (chronologically, 'will be') a character in Claude's glory days, a 'made' member of the Leone mafia family - and this game charts his rise through the ranks. It starts out with his return to Liberty City following a four-year exile, after carrying out a particularly risky execution for Don Salvatore.

 

 

Liberty City Stories has now been in development for around the two-year mark, currently set for release sometime in October, and Rockstar Leeds has the development honours. Rightly so, after its previous track record with portable conversions of Midnight Club 3 for PSP and Max Payne for GBA. This time they've been working in conjunction with Rockstar North, and the original minds behind the series at Rockstar New York, so this is as 'GTA' as it can be. Indeed, as Rockstar put it to us, this conversion is not just a watered down version for handhelds, but is considered by the company to be the "next chapter in the series". After seeing it in action, it's easy to see the amount of effort that's gone into the game, with a product that is stunningly comparable to the various PS2 GTA titles.

 

In fact, that is doing the game an injustice, as it takes some of the best bits of all three PS2 games, and crams them all onto a UMD. It looks so great our eyes could melt - better than with the PSP conversion of Midnight Club 3, this resembles the PS2 games to a tee, with their familiar, likeable roughness and chunky vehicles. GTAIII has obviously contributed the actual playground of destruction we'll all be navigating, though not just a carbon copy of the one already explored. The main areas of Liberty City (Portland, Staunton Island and Shoreside Vale) will be just as recognisable as from our last visit, but have some tweaks: different short cuts, alleys, buildings, and some interiors have been thrown in for good measure too.

[...]

Trailer(WMV)

Namco's decided to completely port Xenosaga 1 + 2 from their PlayStation 2 incarnations onto the handheld.

 

Before you panic, realize Namco understood from the start Nintendo DS couldn't handle all the 3D used in the series originally. As a result, the latest issue of Famitsu Weekly reveals Xenosaga 1 + 2 are completely 2D, and though Namco will reportedly be including as much of the famous lengthy FMV cutscenes from the original games, much of the story will obviously be told in recreated 2D cutscenes.

 

The battle system for the overall series will be primarly based upon Xenosaga 1's, though there are sure to be additions and tweaks made that Namco hasn't made clear yet.

 

We're not exactly sure why Namco's decided to undertake such an ambitious port over the typical spin-off, but it's likely to prepare people for the closure of the series with the also revealed Xenosaga 3.

Even though Namco and Monolith originally intended to have the the Xenosaga storyline spread out over far more than three games, plans have changed; the latest issue of Famitsu Weekly reveals Xenosaga 3 will be the final installment in the RPG series.

 

Of course, there's nothing stopping Monolith from coming up with a reason to revive the Xenosaga series next-generation, but current storyline appears to be coming to an end. Set approximately one year after the events of the last game, Xenosaga 3 features much of the same cast (that we know of so far, at least) and is subtitled Thus Spoke Zaratharus.

 

As there wasn't much fanfare for the last Xenosaga release, it shouldn't come as much surprise much of the game is undergoing retooling, starting with the battle system. Character battles will include tech again this time around, mech battles are supposedly more diverse in terms of attack variety and you'll apparently be able to hold conversions with people while in the midst of battle.

 

Look for an official unveiling with high-resolution screen shots, an overly lengthy, cutscene heavy trailer alongside the game's debut at the Tokyo Game Show later this week.

>>Scans from Game-Age.

>>XS DS | XS3

Update the scan. Updated scan from 4chan.

Metal Gear Solid 4.

Yes that is Snake we all know.

>>MGS4 Revealed (PS3.IGN)

Devil May Cry 4.

Yes, that is Dante we all know.

DMC4 Revealed (PS3.IGN)

>>Scans from 4chan

I knew it. Famitsu gets all the good Japanese games first. The latest issue contains so much juice it'll get you wet. I mean it. Wear a bib as you read on.

 

First, Metal Gear Solid 4 for PS3 is announced for real and new art and screens seem to show Snake as...an aging cop? That's what I gather from the grey moustache and the wrinkles. Is this Solid Snake from the future? A brief interview with Kojima mentions that there will be psychological elements at play in the game. If you intimidate the enemy AI, for example, they may get spooked and be less likely to fire back.

 

If you've seen the scans floating around the web, you've seen Solid Snake an old man looking closer to actor Sean Connery than your classic Snake. With Big Boss' picture having shown up in the early artwork and this 'new' Snake wearing an futuristic eye-patch - we're not 100% sure who this really is. Is Kojima up to his old tricks again?

 

In a short interview with Famitsu, Kojima says MGS4 "...is a game for the old people. As a game designer in my 40s, I feel this is something I really need to do. I'll leave the teenage coming of age stories for my younger staff."

 

The setting for MGS4 is an intense battlefield with soldiers, tanks, and mini versions of the Metal Gear Rex walking the streets on patrol. A scientist we're guessing is none other than geek Otacon is also shown in the early screens.

 

What about everybody's favorite hero Raiden? Don't count him out yet. "This time around Raiden is really cool. He's completely changed. You'll see him in the TGS trailer."

 

As if that weren't enough, Dante also gets a makeover in Devil May Cry 4, only he looks younger, almost...baby-faced. Is this Dante from the past?

 

Dude. Stop messing with the space-time continuum!

http://www.mame.net/downmain.html

0.100

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Source Changes

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Fixed crash in some games when using a low sample rate or -nosound.

[Aaron Giles]

 

Fixes crashes in the following drivers: [Aaron Giles]

* Beat Head (video update)

* Hit Me (graphics decode)

* Imago (palette setup)

* Legend of Kage bootlegs (accessing invalid CPU)

* Rock Climber

* Speed Attack (palette out of range)

 

TumblePop driver updates: [David Haywood]

* split driver into tumblep.c and tumbleb.c

* tumblep.c runs the original tumble pop sets and use now using

deco16ic.c for the gfx.

* tumbleb.c runs the bootlegs and games which use hardware which works

in a similar way to tumble pop (semicom titles etc.)

 

Kludged around glitches in Monster World. [David Haywood]

 

Cross Pang is now using the sprite draw copied from tumbleb.c instead as

the game also seems to be based around Tumble Pop designs, as a result the

'Alpha Blend' bit has been removed and replaced with a flicker sprite bit

like Tumble Pop which looks more correct to me. Also changed some default

settings. [David Haywood]

 

Corrected Indian Battle DIP switches. [shimaPong]

 

Updated D-Day DIP switches to use conditionals. [James Wallace]

 

More Namco sound/MCU updates: [R. Belmont]

* Fixed analog controls for Ridge Racer and Rage Racer

* Fixed sound/music to play in System 22 games

* Fully share the sound part of the MCU RAM for System 11. This allows

games to read back the song names and fixes the sound test menu in

Tekken and Tekken 2.

 

 

 

New clones added

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G-LOC R360 [Craig Walker]

 

 

 

New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING

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Rebus [David Haywood]

Thanks to R.Belmont @ the mame.net forums for the info!

The following v0.100 releases are now available:

MAME command-line version: HERE

MAME32: HERE or HERE.

MAME32FX: Here

MESS: Here