Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will feature around three-quarters of the Liberty City map seen in Grand Theft Auto IV. That's according to a preview in Spanish magazine MarcaPlayer, which stated that Broker, Bohan, Dukes, and Algonquin (all of which are highlighted in yellow above) will be playable, with only Alderney missing. GTA IV's map might not be the biggest in the series, but this is further evidence that Rockstar is squeezing every last drop of juice from the DS.

Also bound and gagged in the trunk of MarcaPlayer's preview were a few new details. While the action plays out on the top screen, the touchscreen lets you control your PDA (which contains the map and mission goals), GPS (on which you can mark destinations to find the shortest legal route), and radio.

As you explore the city (with the help of a camera that can be swiveled 360 degrees), new landmarks and venues you discover are marked down on your map, and you'll see lots of nice little touches, such as trains that pass over the city. You'll also be able to whistle into the microphone to hail a cab; they just couldn't resist, could they? And now we wait!

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick dropped a bomb on all of us anxiously awaiting the DS installment in the Grand Theft Auto series, GTA: Chinatown Wars. Speaking at the BMO Capital Market conference today, Strauss pushed the release of the DS title back into Take-Two's second fiscal quarter, which goes from February through April. That means we're a few short months away from getting down and dirty with GTA on our DSes!

So, who's ready to clean up the streets of Chinatown?


[Via Joystiq]

Edge has posted an extensive (and extremely positive) hands-on preview of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, describing Rockstar's DS debut in luscious detail.

The overriding message seems to be: Chinatown Wars on the DS really works, in the sense that it feels like any other Grand Theft Auto title. Despite the hardware limitations, Liberty City comes across as a living, breathing city, with civilians who exit and enter houses, get into cars, engage in conversation with one another, purchase snacks from fast-food carts, and put up umbrellas when it rains. Assisting this illusion is a full day and night cycle, along with a dynamic weather system and realtime shadowing.

As you'd expect, any vehicle can be hijacked (and driving an ambulance to people in need is one way of making some extra cash), and your surroundings can be trashed, too -- Edge mentions how "fences, street lamps, and newsstands can all be smashed aside." Meanwhile, driving does feature a "little bit of auto-alignment." According to Rockstar's Dan Houser, this is to "make the driving a little forgiving, without it feeling like you're wearing armbands or something." When out of your car, a stun gun and flamethrower are just two of the weapons you'll be able to use. Toasty.

Houser also discusses how missions have been made shorter, to accomodate shorter bursts of play, and describes one "outlandish" errand where hero Huang Lee robs a bank and escapes through Chinatown by blending into a parade, disguised as a dragon. Hit up the full preview at the link below, and don't forget to stop by our gallery!

It's rare to see DS titles being held responsible by the mainstream media for society's ills. Usually, such treatment is reserved for home console releases, but in the last 24 hours two DS games have triggered a bout of misguided bleatings, both from British papers that amazingly aren't the Daily Mail. That's right, readers: two titles. Welcome to a special, double edition "Outrage!" post. Double the horror! Double the controversy! Double the irrational fear!

We'll start with the obvious one, then. We sensed there'd be a backlash against Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars as soon as we saw these shots, but even we were impressed by the speediness of The Sun's error-strewn report. Next to an incorrectly captioned picture of Grand Theft Auto III, the paper reveals how a game about selling drugs will soon be playable on the "family-friendly" Nintendo DS, and remarks that, "Experts predict the final edition is unlikely to feature explicit criminality." They're in for a surprise, then.

Next up in the stocks is a far more surprising scapegoat: the rather innocent Advance Wars. According to the Daily Telegraph, police investigating the stabbing of a 20-year-old who was also a massive fan of the game (to the extent that he ran an Advance Wars fansite) are now investigating whether the killer was a fellow "internet gamer." Of course, that's just one of several potential links being examined by the authorities, but the newspaper still leads with the Advance Wars angle. Why? OUTRAGE!

Source: Grand Theft your child's INNOCENCE [Via Game Politics]
Source: Advance Wars: Murder Weapon [Via Game Politics]

Update: Screens! Past the break! Why are we yelling?!

We all love games. And if you're like us, you enjoy escaping the real world through gaming every now and then. Well, now you can escape into the life of a dastardly drug dealer.

Rockstar's Dan Houser has dropped a few deets on the upcoming DS game, GTA: Chinatown Wars. Following up what was in the latest issue of Nintendo Power, we now know the game will not only be following its mature roots (which means "Mature" rating), but Nintendo actually wanted Rockstar to make a mature game. They didn't push for a family-friendly, tone down title on the handheld. So what's all this drug dealing business about?

In this drug dealing minigame, players will be able to peddle six different types of narcotics and gain profit depending on how smart they are at selling. The "smart" selling (remember, kids: drugs are bad) comes in the form of recognizing market conditions, based on geographical location, and selling one of the six different types accordingly, with the aim being gaining the most profit possible. Confused? Well, basically, the game will tell you what drug is the most scarce and will fetch the highest price in any given terriroty, then all you have to do is sell accordingly.

Edge promises more details in their latest issue, so sadly this is all we have to go on for now.

Courtesy of RockstarWatch, the November issue of Nintendo Power has been scanned and uploaded online. In case you missed it last week, it's the issue with all of the details and first screens for GTA: Chinatown Wars. With all four of the pages scanned, it's a wealth of information on the upcoming game that you likely won't want to miss out on. So head on over here to check out the scans.

[Thanks, Josh!]

Now that we know something about Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, aside from the usual stuff like how it's going to force us to stop watching the news for a while, we can make somewhat informed decisions about our own interest. To us, the screens look pretty great, the PDA interface sounds fun, and the isometric perspective may just make us care about GTA.

What about you? What do you think of the first known details about Chinatown Wars?

Update: First screens! Check past the break to see them.

Some details on the upcoming portable GTA game, GTA: Chinatown Wars, have dropped in the latest issue of Nintendo Power. For one, it's apparently following the sandbox formula of previous games, and will have that M label slapped on the front of the boxart.

Due to hardware limitations, these details say the game will have an isometric camera angle and be a cel-shaded affair, complete with no load times. There will be dynamic weather effects and it's reported that draw distance and frame rate are sound. Liberty City will be scaled down quite a bit, though (and changed some), but there will be pedestrians and cars about, doing their thing. Oh, and there will be radio stations, although songs are going to be focused more on instrumental numbers.

As for controls, there will be an auto-targeting system that the player can utilize with the R trigger. They can also use the d-pad to aim and bust caps that way. There's also going to be "subtle" auto-steering for when you're in a car and players can use the touch-screen to navigate the in-game PDA, which will allow you to "email, contacts, the map, a music player, GPS, and stat-tracking (which allows you to upload stats direct from the game to Rockstar's Social Club website)."

And that's basically all that's being reported right now. Sounds like a lot for such a small cartridge, and until we see some screens, we're going to remain skeptical. What about the rest of you?

During an end-of-quarter conference call yesterday, Take-Two Interactive will be releasing GTA: Chinatown Wars this winter. That's a release window of November to January 31, 2009, according to Take-Two's fiscal year. One individual from the press asked if the game would release before Christmas, but Take-Two was quick to comment that they "didn't say that," further adding that they're "not confirming that."

So, with some hints at Wi-Fi play and a release window, we're starting to get a better idea of what to expect from the title. Next up, let's see some game footage!

See also: Point/Counterpoint: Should GTA be 2D or 3D?

That's right folks, it's that time again: two bloggers square off in debate over one subject in our Point/Counterpoint feature. This time, we're talking GTA: Chinatown Wars and whether or not the title should be 2D or 3D. So, without further ado, hit the button below and read the arguments.

A UGO reader participated in an unspecified survey about an "upcoming game," which, judging by the kind of information presented in the questions, is definitely Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. For example, question 18 begins with the premise "The title of this new game is called Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, by Rockstar Games."

If this is a real survey, then it has backhandedly revealed previously unknown gameplay information about the new handheld version of the mega-popular franchise. However, that information is of the "glaringly obvious" variety that you could "learn" by pretty much imagining the game.

For example, one question asks responders to rate the importance of features like "OPEN WORLD" and "MATURE STORYLINE." To be fair, this question does go on to mention genuinely interesting new features like ad-hoc multiplayer, replayable missions, and stylus-based minigames, but if you're just now learning from this survey that GTA has "mature storylines," you'll be very excited to hear about its new "car theft" feature in which you totally steal cars.

It doesn't take the CEO of a massive corporation to figure out why Grand Theft Auto on the DS is a good idea from a financial perspective. Luckily for people who like stealing fake cars, Ben Feder, who is the CEO of Take-Two, has figured it out. In an interview with GameDaily, Feder offered the obvious motivation for GTA: Chinatown Wars.

"There are a number of things going on, but you can imagine we're really excited about one of the best franchises, if not THE best franchise in the business, mapped against the largest installed base in the business."

He also suggested that the company isn't planning to just drop GTA onto the DS as-is, which could be good or bad. "You need to create a game for that platform and that's what we expect to do with GTA: Chinatown Wars for DS." Games being rebuilt for the DS are just as likely to end up as minigame fests as they are Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword-style triumphs.

Look, this one is pretty unlikely, considering the source, but when Ubisoft explicitly works on a spin-off game for the DS, from their big 2007 console game Assassin's Creed, then you too might start looking differently at a rumor here or there. And, considering how much we know about Take Two, we know they like to make money. Having a game on the DS? Yeah, that's how you make money.

So what is this all about? Well, N4G posted a supposed leak retail sheet showing Grand Theft Auto IV's existence on the DS, with a release date of June 15th. Of course, when it's listed above Guitar Hero 3 for the DS (Guitar Hero: On Tour, we assume), which is in italics all by itself for some reason, then you can understand why we remain apprehensive about it. Odds are, this is just a clerical error.

See also: 2008 Blips - Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles

[Via Joystiq]