Title: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

From: Rockstar Games

For: PSP

It would be easy to write a review of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars filled with cynicism and comparisons. It is afterall, more or less a direct port from the most successful DS game ever and it is also very typical of the GTA series from a gameplay perspective.

In a world where time is money, I could end the review right there and you’d have a decent idea of what to expect. 9/10. Must have. Thanks for coming.

But for those of you who have already played the game on the DS, there lies the question of why you should even consider picking up the PSP version, and there are a number of reasons.

Firstly, let’s take a look at the game from a newcomers perspective. Chinatown Wars takes the GTA series back to its roots and tilts the players’ viewpoint from a 3^rd person perspective to an almost top-down view, but none of the street-smart violence, cutting humour and underbelly atmosphere from recent releases has been omitted.

Set once again in Liberty City, the same world displayed in GTAIV (with the exception of one island – Alderney), you play as Huang Lee whose seedy, prostitute-loving crime-boss father has recently been murdered. So Huang jumps on a plane from Hong Kong and jets to Liberty City to avenge his father and deliver a precious sword to his uncle. Within minutes of arriving, Huang is abducted, thrown in a car and driven off a wharf, presumed drowned and his sword stolen.

From here the story begins as Huang infiltrates the Triad gangs and discovers a power struggle within the organisation.

The main quest, if you choose to play it by the numbers will take you around 9 hours, but in true GTA style there are a bevy of distractions and side missions that bring longevity and ultimately replayability to the game. These side missions are dependent of the type of vehicle you hijack and your ability to take on the occupation of its previous occupant. Steal a taxi – become a taxi driver, steal an ambulance – become a paramedic etc.

Main storyline missions usually consist of driving fast from A to B, killing person C to appease person D, evading the police at all times and delivering item X to person Z. However the main mission requirement that runs parallel to the story involves buying drugs in bulk and reselling them for a profit – this is how you earn most of your cash in the game. It’s a questionable ethos to include in a game, but hey, this is GTA and an R18, not Spiro the Dragon, and if you have trouble discerning between fantasy and reality then you shouldn’t be playing games at all, let alone GTA.

Story missions are only required to be played once, but one of the redeeming features in Chinatown Wars having the choice to play them again if you want to beat your time or earn a higher score. Along those lines too is the “trip skip” option – which allows you to skip the initial travelling and jump straight back to the action should you get killed.

Many missions are dished out to you via your PDA. Where the DS utilised the touchscreen for this feature, the PSP uses buttons to navigate and suffers from a short load time from the UMD each time you open your PDA. The lack of the stylus/touchscreen combo also means that all of the mini-games play differently too. Like stealing cars (jamming a screwdriver in the lock and turning it by swivelling the thumbstick), or hotwiring the vehicle, for example. They all work ok, but in games such ad tattooing fellow gang members or making your own Molotov cocktails, where the DS stylus excelled, now just prove to be an annoyance.

Chinatown Wars have had a great deal of thought put into it in terms of making the game as user friendly as possible. It could easily have been ruined by a bad combat system, but aiming your attacks is surprisingly simple, especially when performing drive-by shootings, where an auto-targeting system kicks in. There is even a slight steering assistance which straightens your vehicle on the road so to avoid snaking from one wall to the other.

The map is situated to the bottom left of the PSP screen, and while it’s easy to see where you’re meant to go and which way, because of the top-down view it’s dangerous to take your eyes off the road even for a second. Far too many times I rear-ended slow or stationary vehicles because I was glancing at the map. Or when you drive under a railway overpass, it’s easy to lose sight of your own vehicle let alone any others.

To combat this, and I highly recommend using it constantly, you can switch on GPS style directions which map arrows onto the road surface. All of a sudden the map becomes virtually redundant in missions where you are driving from one point to another.

Other major differences from the DS Chinatown Wars are the grenade selection – previously done using the stylus, but made quicker and simpler using buttons.

Of course graphics is perhaps the biggest difference with the PSP being able to pull off real time lighting and far more detailed texturing. The widescreen is also taken full advantage of and proves invaluable in crowded firefights.

There are also several missions and radio stations unique to the PSP release of Chinatown Wars.

The multiplayer aspect still requires the use of the Rockstar Social Club system but alas only two players can indulge in GTA goodness at any one time.

At the writing of this review I hadn’t tried the multiplayer – mainly because the Rockstar Social Club sound too much like a badly painted hall where Iggy Pop, Keith Richards and Joe Walsh meet on a Tuesday night to play bridge and euchre.

All in all, if you’re a PSP owner, or a DS + PSP owner then Chinatown Wars on the more powerful console with the superior visuals is well worth your money. The game slots in nicely with the handheld philosophy in that you can either sit down and have a marathon session or just as easily have a 10 minute blat while waiting for the pizza to arrive.

Ups: The game oozes style and has thick lashings of dark humour. Fantastic lighting and detail on the bright PSP screen

Downs: Some minigames lose their appeal without the stylus. Short but frequent loading times off the disc.

Score 90%

Watch the Trailer

Title: Gran Turismo

From: Polyphony Digital

For: PSP

I remember he very first time I turned on my PSP on release day. When I saw the impressively bright, vivid screen I thought to myself – “Holy crap, Gran Turismo would look amazing on this”.

Shamefully for Polyphony and Sony, it’s taken several years for that dream to be realised. But finally, Sony’s premier driving simulation has shown its face on the handheld format and for the most part, it’s a joy to behold.

If I had to describe Gran Turismo on the PSP in a short sentence then I’d say it has the styling and feel of the original GT combined with the good looks of GT4. But it’s not all beer and skittles for GTPSP (as I’m going to refer to it as from here on in), there are problems, which I shall address later.

The hat-tip to the original GT begins with the remarkably similar cover art and doesn’t stop there. When I first started flicking through the menus a chill went down my spine as the original GT menu sounds brought back memories of countless hours and countless laps of PSX racing 12 years ago.

One of my biggest gripes with the GT series is also one of the major appeals for many racing fans – the License Tests. I hated having to reach a certain skill level before I could progress and I’m personally pleased to see that License Tests are non-existent in GTPSP. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to do a whole heap of driving to load up on the goodies, it’s just presented in a way that makes it a lot less stressful.

The lack of a structured single player mode means that there are just three choices from the single player menu – Mode Selection (Time Trial, Single Race and Drift Trial), Car Selection and Track Selection. You will earn credits from racing based on your performance, the difficult and number of laps. These can then be used to purchase better cars, which is something you’ll want to do in a hurry. Initially you’re forced to pick from a selection of snails-pace vehicles which are nothing short of painful to drive. The speedo maxes out at about 120kph but it feels like you’re doing no more than 50. In about an hour, you’ll be driving something a bit more substantial, even though it might be the longest hour of your life.

Thankfully credits come easily and you’ll quickly catch the car collecting bug and with around 800 cars to choose from, all faithfully recreated in looks and handling, you’re spoilt for choice. It’s a figure that blew me away to be perfectly honest. I was expecting maybe 200 vehicles on the UMD but 800 is an amazing feat.

Add to that 45 tracks, including variations, plus the ability to dive most of them in reverse and you have a comprehensive GT release that can hold its head high amongst its bigger console brothers.

Vehicle handling works surprisingly well with the PSP analogue stick, but with the high-speed cars I found that the D-Pad had better response times, especially on the more complicated tracks. However the analogue comes into its own in the drift races where twitchy movement isn’t as important as feathering the throttle. However neither method seems to help on the dirt and ice tracks, which are far too slippery. Even though they’re few and far between, the game would have been better off without them.

If the single player mode becomes a little tedious, there is an excellent Challenge mode to make things more interesting. Here you are presented with more than 50 challenges (similar to the License Tests of old) where you can earn Bronze, Silver or Gold medals and a whole heap of credits to spend, which alone makes completing them worthwhile.

Car modding and upgrading is also absent from GTPSP, which has never really appealed to me anyway, but you can still tweak your car’s handling in a number of pre-race options such as traction control, tyre type, stability control etc. You can also choose the level of Simulation (Standard or Professional). But you’ll want to be very confident in your ability to choose Professional, as the cars tend to spin off at the drop of a hat.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment in GTPSP is the complete lack of online features and support. Multiplayer is reduced to up to 4 players local ad-hoc only. There isn’t even online leaderboards to upload your best lap times or ghosts to, which is obviously a deliberate decision, but a criminal shame nonetheless. That said, I’ve experienced many wireless latency problems with other PSP racers that would no doubt ruin the whole GT experience. So maybe the developers had this in mind when the decision was made to cut online multiplayer from the game altogether.

Graphically, GTPSP is easily the best looking racer on the handheld, running at around 60fps. There is some visible stitching in places but nothing that suggests shoddy workmanship. The game obviously pushes the PSP to its processing limits and for that we should allow for the occasional glitch.

As for the sound, there’s a quality tracklist as per usual, although the music is usually the first thing I turn off in driving sims as I like to hear every squeal of the tyres. But if you like your sounds playing while you drive then there is also MP3 support so you can make your own playlist.

Ultimately, this is Gran Turismo, and the PSP version is a legit release that’s a must have for PSP owning petrol-heads. There’s a ton of cars to collect and a whole lot of track to race them on. Sure, the lack of online support is disappointing, but if you call yourself a Gran Turismo fan then GT5 will no doubt satiate all your online multiplayer urges.

Pros: It’s a stunning game that both looks and plays beautifully. Truckloads of content will get you addicted in no time.

Cons: No online multiplayer is excusable, but the lack of leaderboard and ghost support is not.

Score 90%

Watch the trailer

Title: Forza Motorsport 3

From: Microsoft Game Studios

For: Xbox 360

It’s no secret that 2009 has been a massive year for top quality games. Most gaming genres have seen games touted as “the best to date” this year. With the recent release of Microsoft’s Forza 3, the driving simulation genre is no exception. Forza 3 is quite simply an astounding game.

Sure, Gran Turismo 5 is on the horizon in early 2010, and will no doubt be incredible, but Forza 3 is here now and is showcasing realism that could only be imagined just a couple of years ago.

With 400 fully upgradable cars (including 8 V8 Supercars Team Cars), 200 events on over 100 tracks, Forza 3 has an unprecedented amount of content. So much so, that the game needs to install about 1.9GB of information on your hard-drive.

Depending on your level of knowledge, upgrading your cars can be as easy as having the game automatically choose the best upgrade for your needs or you can virtually strip a car back to basics and rebuild it from scratch with any parts you can afford. Of course unless you know what you’re doing then this could make the car completely undriveable, so tinker at your own risk.

It goes without saying that the tracks and vehicles look sublime. When you’re racing amongst a full field of racers, the surrounding vehicles appear as close to photo realistic as a game has ever come.

To get the full sense of actually driving these cars, I highly recommend using Microsoft’s own Xbox 360 Racing Wheel as it lets you experience Forza 3 the way that the developers intended.

When you think you’ve mastered the AI competition, take Forza 3 online to race against other Forza 3 owners. But be warned that there are a heap of gamers out there who have no driving ethos whatsoever and will just slam straight into you. So if you can find players who can race properly then it pays to add them as friends so you can set up decent races with good drivers.

I realise I’ve been saying this a bit lately, but Forza 3 is yet another contender for best game of 2009. There are even more huge games to be reviewed this year, so one thing is for certain – as gamers, we are all winners.

Score 98%

Title: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

From: Activision

For: PS3

When Super Heroes are forced to register with the Government, it creates a division in their loyalties, which produces a battle of epic proportions.

In this hack-n-slash/RPG you control one of a group of 4 Super Heroes, initially Wolverine, Iron Man, Spider Man and Captain America, and are able to hot-switch between them at any time. Your group traverses city streets (and other environments later in the game) going from objective to objective and dispatching the hoards of drone enemies along the way before eventually facing a Super Hero boss at the end of each section.

Whileyou are controlling one hero, the AI obviously controls the other 3, but up to 4 players can play simultaneously in co-op mode too. Combat is reasonably easy, but when you are surrounded by a dozen enemies, or you’re facing a particularly difficult boss, then you can perform “fusion” attacks, in which the hero you are controlling and another hero of your choice combine their powers to deliver a devastating attack which plows your way out of most sticky situations.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is good looking and well made, but as with most hack-n-slash games, it gets monotonous before too long, despite the wealth of different characters with differing abilities.

Score 65%

Title: Risen

From: Piranha Bytes

For: Xbox 360

It’s common knowledge that I am not the world’s biggest RPG fan by any stretch of the imagination. But I do recognise a good one when I play it and if an RPG can hold my interest for a few hours then it must be doing something right.

Risen is an RPG that could have reached the heights of the likes of Oblivion. It’s big (considering it’s based on an island), has a deep and twisting storyline, interesting characters, witty dialogue and plenty of imaginative monsters. But sadly the execution doesn’t live up to the promise. The graphics in general are almost last-generation (or 10 years ago if you’re a PC gamer), there’s terrible pop-up, collision and targeting problems and complicated menu systems. And for my money, if an RPG doesn’t have a user friendly menu system then my interest wanes immediately.

But if you’re a true RPG fan, albeit a very patient one, with a bit of time to spare, then Risen is worth a look. Because once your character has levelled up enough and the story is rolling along, there’s some enthralling if somewhat generic gameplay to be found.

Score 70%