Like a lot of you, it has been a while since I have bought a new PSP game (short of being tempted at Fry's to buy Bleach 1 & 2). As well, like many of you, I have been waiting for Grand Theft Auto : Liberty City Stories to come out along with the high tide of games to follow its release (finally, some RPG's).
First off, I would like to say that every initial review of the game from semi big internet entities such as Gamespot/IGN etc, are giving a completely whiney perspective on the controls of this game. They are executed flawlessly with the lack of the 2nd analog stick (not that the originals use of the 2nd analog was a requirement). Camera control is extremely easy as where other reviewers have said "you have to stand still to change camera angle cry cry cry", this is not the case and leads me to question their job as a supposed "gamer/reviewer".
Gameplay
It's Grand theft auto. Seriously, it reacts the same as any of the other GTA 3/vice games, short of San Andreas since I haven't touched that game. Controls work great and the only gripe I have about the controls is the fact that the PSP's analog isn't so limber when it comes to precise, short adjustments.
Story:
So far, there IS a story, which not much can be said for GTA 3 (yes I beat it), but GTA 3 takes quite awhile to get into anything other than the "climb to the top". LCS gets you in straight from the beginning, without even having played the game (intro) you learn immediately how many possibilites the story could have.
Sound
Flawless with a couple irritations in Options. I bought the game with the educated assumption that LCS would have custom soundtracks, and with the option in the audio portion of options screen, why would you think anything else? It looks like this.
Radio Volume: ||||||||
SFX Volume: ||||||||||
Custom Soundtracks: Unavailable
Radio Station: MSX 98
Where Unavailable, doesn't move, no matter what you do to it, even if you have both MP3 and ATRAC3plus songs on your memory stick. It just doesn't do anything. To add to the frustration, it doesn't say ANYTHING at all in the manual about these adjustments. I'm assuming there will be something announced later as to what this is, or i'm assuming (I hope not) that Custom Soundtracks means downloadable music content (such as more Lazlow talk radio). Audio is clear and crisp, the existing radio stations have good tracks (even ones when you jack a cab it starts playing stereotype based music, such as like Hindu chants and crap like that, yeah yeah, I know it's bad, but doesn't lead to laughing).
Controls:
With the sometimes cumbersome and annoying lack of precision the PSP's analog stick provides, driving can be a pain, leading to too slow or too hard of a turn, especially on motorcycles.
Loading Times:
Perfect. Like the other GTA games, the only long loading time is really when the game is first started. When changing rooms, buildings, mission beginnings and endings, anywhere there is standard game loading, it is astonishingly quick. You won't be waiting around wondering if your disk is messed up.
Overall
While almost everything points to this game being probably the most thorough and well thought out gaming experience on the PSP so far, I had to give it a 90 simply for the fact that I am left hanging when it comes to the confusion regarding Custom Soundtracks. I'm a picky bastard when it comes to music, and when i'm driving around launching my purple Buick off someones face, I dont want to hear Hip-Hop, I want to hear something messed up like gabber or squarepusher.
Okay, I don't know about "unlocking" the option to use custom soundtracks but I did find a review on the net that included a link to download the neccessary software that the game requires so you can take advantage of the custom soundtrack option. It totally works. I was able to take tracks off of several audio cd's and transfer them to my PSP. Once I did that, I was able to enable the custom soundtrack option in the game and now I can listen to my ripped songs while playing the game. Pretty cool!
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