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GTA: Chinatown Wars - more mini-games revealed

And yes, they're just as controversial as the drug dealing one

GTA: Chinatown Wars - more mini-games revealed
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DS
| GTA: Chinatown Wars

It's still marked up for a winter release, and - as that release window fast approaches - new details have emerged on Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, courtesy of Edge magazine, which has been to play the game.

Of GTA's game world, the article reports that while the game uses a new three-quarter view of Liberty City, and is clearly scaled back in comparison to the home console games, it still takes place in a concise and crowded playground of a world. Residents leave their houses, get into the their cars and drive around or wander the streets, stopping to talk to one another and buying snacks from fast-food carts.

The detail goes down to fences and street lamps which can be smashed aside when in a vehicle, a day/night cycle and a dynamic weather system. Civilians even get out umbrellas when it starts to rain.

Dan Houser, Rockstar's vice president, talks about the game's extreme cel-shaded visual style, saying it's there because it makes the game look more vibrant and also because it "helps with figuring out what you're doing."

"The characters on foot are exaggerated for the very simple reason of being able to inject them with character when viewed from above," says Houser. "It just isn't as fun otherwise... I think now it's more explosive and fun than it ever was before. Part of that is simply an issue of clarity, so the explosions are really powerful, and the firefights look great."

On the subject of those mini-games (people joked GTA on DS would have drug dealing, but were quite surprised when that was exactly what emerged) Houser admits they were quite nervous about losing GTA's seamlessness. But says when he played them, "we realized that the guys at Leeds had nailed them – they worked really well with what the hardware can do."

As well as the now-infamous drug dealing mini-game in which you can sell the likes of acid, ecstasy and cocaine, there's also a petrol station one where you use the stylus to aim a petrol-pump nozzle to dispense fuel into bottles, then stuff them with rags to turn into Molotov cocktails.

One has you fiddling with a car's ignition system with a screwdriver to hotwire it, and another involves punching out the rear window of a car that's sinking in a harbour. There's also a screenshot which seems to show a game that has you inking in a tattoo with the DS stylus.

Which brings us neatly onto the subject of the obvious controversy a GTA game on DS will face and how Rockstar feels about it.

Houser tells Edge: "No one disagreed with Sam's very clear edict that GTA has to be an M rating. It can't be softened to make it family-friendly – that's not the game we're making... We wanted the cutscenes to feel like they are almost like from a classic arcade game – then, when the characters are talking about something that is horrendous or funny or ridiculous, that juxtaposition felt very cool to us. It's almost like GTA in another environment.

"Nintendo wanted us to make GTA, and we wanted to make a game on their platform. They didn't want us to make a GTA for kids, and we weren't interested in making a game we wouldn't normally make. I mean, GTA is about stealing cars and shooting people – how could it not be an 18 rating? You couldn't do GTA without that 18 – it wouldn't feel like it's supposed to feel. I think Nintendo are excited to have a game unlike any other on their hardware, a game that might pull in an audience that want the content that maybe they aren't being offered at the moment."

All this information seems to indicate Rockstar is doing a remarkably good job with bringing a GTA game to DS. And adult DS owners will probably be glad to hear there'll be no watering down of any of its content just because of the format it's appearing on. We're looking forward to seeing more of it soon.

Kath Brice
Kath Brice
Kath gave up a job working with animals five years ago to join the world of video game journalism, which now sees her running our DS section. With so many male work colleagues, many have asked if she notices any difference.