Grand Theft Auto, a name synonymous with open world gaming, has once again decided to visit the handheld space, returning for a second time to a Nintendo handheld. Luckily, this romp is not the train wreck that happened last time. This time has you returning to Liberty City, yes your beloved Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto 4. It is back in it's (almost) full glory. The entire city, sans Alderney, is here and open to you from the get go. It is all there, all the little details you remember from its console brethren. It is almost overdone, details you would never expect to transition are their in all there, um, 'glory.'
It is amazing how much content is wedged into that tiny cart. What Rockstar has managed here is truly astounding. I have never seen anything quite as impressive as the living breathing Liberty City. The transition to the DS did not cut that feeling, this still feels like a city, albeit a very cartoonish and over the top city, but a city none the less. Cruising around the town, I was amazed as to how many just seemingly random events would occur: the random police chase, the hit and runs, the traffic collisions, even the occasional murder all happening without my input. It was yet another technical marvel that Rockstar loves to use their signature franchise to showcase.
Of course that all well and good, but Rockstar always knows how to make an amazing cityscape in their games. That doesn't make the game good, it just makes it technically impressive. Interacting with world is what makes or breaks the game, and though it has broken before, luckily it refrains this time. The controls are quite simple, use the d-pad to move around and the buttons to interact with the world. Of course as in any GTA game, there crops up some problem with the controls. Chinatown Wars' lies in the aiming mechanic. It is almost impossible to hit anything without using the auto aim button, imagine playing a twin stick shooter on one stick and you get the idea. The auto aim works about 95% of the time, but it is the other 5% in which the frustration really sets in. There is nothing like being surrounded by heavily armed enemies and the auto aim deciding to target an enemy across the screen. Luckily this does not happen to often, and I found the problem solved as soon as I found the chainsaw and just hacked everyone to pieces.
This is a DS game though, so naturally some touch screen mechanics must be utilized. Sure there is the occasional minigame, escaping from a sinking car by tapping out the back window or restarting a faulty boat engine, but most of them are few and far between. For the most part, they were actually pretty inventive and were a nice replacement for quick time events. Unfortunately, the real problem with them is needing to have the stylus ready, or just switching between control schemes on the fly (I recommend keeping it in your mouth, other wise you tend to lose track of it :). I never quite managed to get control of it, it did not hinder my enjoyment of the game, but after a while it grew tiresome. Though, what really begins to drag are those few that tend to repeat. I quickly grew tired of hotwiring cars and searching through dumpsters and did everything I could to avoid the tedious touch screen activities. Luckily, you don't ever have to participate in them, though to avoid hotwiring cars, you have to hijack them which, more time than now, will garner police attention.
The real backbone of a GTA game is the driving. It isn't called Grand Theft Auto for nothing. Rockstar has really knocked it out of the park here too. Cruising around Liberty City feels fantastic and so much better than in GTA4. Each car feels different enough to offer reasons to choose, yet similar enough to not be confusing. The real enabler here is the camera, this camera feels like it actually know what you are doing. Instead of fixing it directly about your vehicle like similar games, it moves with your car, adjusting to your speed to allow the hairpin turns and evasive maneuvers, which is need against the new wanted system. Instead of simply needing to escape a vision cone, you must destroy one cop care per wanted star. They also stack, so get two stars, destroy two cars, then you down rank to one and have to destroy one car. This can be a bit challenging, though for the most part, drive fast or well enough and the cops will just crash themselves.
To get the the missions, you must encounter this thing called story. Following in the footsteps of GTA4, some expectation had to be placed on the story for Chinatown wars. Unfortunately, anyone expecting anything of that magnitude will be disappointed. What you end up with is the standard parody of an already set in stone plot, this being the classic revenge tale. I felt that the writing was a bit lacking, you know how everyone is going to act as soon as their first line of dialog appears. It also seems weak in its execution, maybe that is because it is written and not spoken, but it is written so that is how you have to accept it. On the positive side, your character Huang, is surprisingly strong. When confronted with these extreme parodies and stereotypes, he says exactly what responses popped in my head, so incredibly sarcastic and blatant rebuttals.
Now what allows the successful transition to the handheld, is the alteration of the mission structure. Gone are the epic, city spanning 30 minute or greater missions. Instead, no mission is longer than five minutes, perfect for the DS. Just pick up and play whenever the urge strikes you. The tasks assigned to you are very straightforward, drive here, shoot this guy, sell this weed, burn this building, nothing too complex. Sticking to the tropes of the series, expect many distractions and random romps to pull you away from the story missions. I struggled to complete the story when I stumbled across a firetruck and proceeded to complete all the major side, car based, jobs.
Then came the countless hours spent drug running. The system in place is very simple, and incredibly reminiscent of Dope Wars. See a blue dot on your GPS, that is a drug dealer who will buy and sell your 'stuff.' You'll receive emails on your PDA (replacement of the cell phone and is on the touch screen) on who needs to buy a certain drug for extra cash, and who is selling a drug for cheap. You could just run between the various zones of who is buying and selling what that is gang based (and yes they are all tied to racial stereotypes) but the fast cash is tied to those emails. For something so simple and, quite frankly, useless. Except for going for the 100% which requires you to buy all the safe houses, money does not really serve a purpose. Even with that in mind, the drug dealing was still incredibly 'addictive.'
That is the one great thing about the series and in Chinatown Wars, there is never a shortage of interesting things to do. 40 hours in, story mode completed, all the character upgrades from said car based jobs unlocked, plenty of cash unlocked through drug trafficking and still only 50% completed. There is an astonishing amount of content for a portable game. I have never been a fan of the GTA series. I missed the original PC releases, I thought 3 was decent and I could not stand any since then, yet in spite of my distaste for the franchise, I loved Chinatown Wars. It is one of the best games on the system and I encourage everyone to add it to their library.
GameCrate: "We take a look at five games and franchises that would be perfect for garnering some potentially strong third-party support (which we're well aware isn't Nintendo's strong point)."
Why do people think putting an M-rated game on Nintendo console will signal an influx of more M-rated title? We've had many M-rated games on Nintendo consoles since the N64. If third parties don't feel that it's profitable to do so in the past 20 years, I doubt they'll change their mind in the next 20 years
Depends. If Nintendo are planning to create games more akin to the big games we expect from Sony or ms in tandem with their fan favourites like zelda Mario, xenoblade etc, the Console could see an influx of more users. And if the Console is like ps4 and xb1 when developing games for it, that could really push 3rd parties to include Nintendo again. It's all up in the air right now of course because we don't know anything about the Console but with previous rumours of the likes of dragon quest 11 and more coming to the nx, it's fun to speculate on other 3rd parties that would be cool to see on the new console.
GameCube was on hardware parity with its competition, yet it didn't receive as many of the multiplats. Wii U has hardware parity with PS3 and 360, yet it still misses out on many of those multiplats.
I really don't see why this situation would change with NX.
i want cod battlefield and gta oh yeah nintendo will win console war easily with those big sellers with better graphics and fps than ps4
Unless the Console is developed as a next gen console, I don't really see much changing in how things are going, even if it is a bit stronger than ps4. If it's designed to compete rather than pass out then the market will remain the same. Ps4s lead is pretty much set in stone due to its mainstream popularity. Before it could even think about overtaking ps4 it needs to catch up with xb1 which, despite being severely behind ps4, is still selling very well in its own right. If the nx were a whole generations difference between ps4 and xb1 then we could see some interesting turn of events. But it would also need to work on expanding its games library and entice 3rd party devs to develope all games on ps4/xb for the nx as well.
Edit: fixed grammar
CoD didn't sell for crap on Wii U, and it ran better than its PS3 and 360 counterparts before the PS4 and XBone launched.
If it didn't help the Wii U, chances are it won't help the NX.
Exclusives are more important than multiplats when it comes to getting the NX to sell.
That's just how it is.
No one is going to plunk down over $200 for an NX just because it has a copy of the latest CoD, when they can pay only $60 for it on a console they already own[PS4/XBone].
It's too late bruh the PS4 took over like 80% of 8th gen home console market share. It will sell like the N64 at best. Unless they are waiting for 9th gen or something which by then will be too late. We all know Nintendo doesn't care about 3rd party. The consoles they create are for their benefit and only their benefit. They do not go to other companies and ask what they may need/want in a console so they can grow and thrive. They are stubborn and do not improve their consoles. They do not live or die on 3rd party and thus are on a one man island.
Sadly to say, but when it comes to Nintendo home consoles, they are almost irrelevant to the average person. Yes the wii Nintendo's best selling console was relevant, but I honestly think it was just a fluke.
Unless Playstation stops getting lots Japanese games I like each gen, then I'll stick with them.
I just love mathematicians on N4G! So the PS4 has taken like 80% of the 8th gen market share you say. Does that mean there's only 20% left of what the PS4 has currently sold available to these consoles to sell?
Nintendo needs to bring in more struggling developers in Japan who are still obsessed with Sony, who isn't selling well over there, which is exacerbating their struggles further. Might be able to sell more NXs if it becomes THE place for Japanese niche titles.
VICE: 'Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars' has got me moving acid and coke across Liberty City. But how do my exploits measure up to the real thing?
Having put a little time into my GTA drug empire, I thought I'd ask a flesh-and-blood dealer about how the game's simulation compares to the real thing. Naturally, they're remaining anonymous. And I don't think I can be arrested for selling acid that doesn't actually exist. Right?
NWR:
I’ve already talked about what five games I’d like to see most on the Nintendo 64 Wii U Virtual Console. But now I would like to take a look at the other new system that’s getting all the Virtual Console attention, the Nintendo DS! It feels like only a few years ago I put my Nintendo DS Lite into my closet, along with all of my other systems of years before, just to sit and collect dust until I feel like playing it again. That’s because in fact, it was only a few years ago. But the Nintendo DS has one of the most diverse libraries of any Nintendo system out there. Choosing five games is hard, and the logistics of all of these games actually being released on the Virtual Console are slim. But it doesn’t hurt to make a list and imagine! Here are the five games I’d like to see re-released for the Wii U.
I need a new golden sun, if there was one exclusive to the Wii U, I would get a Wii U in a heartbeat.
Hotel Dusk and Last Window need to be made available on the 3DS eShop, and the postervabove me made good choices as well.
If only they could put them on the 3DS as well, I know technically you can just pop the carts in but for some games that are really expensive to get hold of physically this service is ideal, just a shame it's only on Wii U
Metroid Prime Hunters. Flipping loved that game and the diverse characters of bounty hunters. Sylux looked so badass.
Wish there was a sequel to that game.
Ace Attorney Investigations 2
I want a localization of that game, and a VC release seems like one of the most likely ways.
