Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

While this game isn't on the grand scale of GTA: San Andreas, it still holds true to the normal GTA style. Its missing the "RPG" aspects of GTA:SA, like improving skills and eating to stay healthy, but its a nice throw-back to the good ol' days of GTA: just shoot, steal, and stay alive. But it was originally a PSP game, and I don't have a PSP, so I'll just be grateful they ported it. I also hope they port Vice City Stories to PS2 at some point, even if its not for a year like with LCS.

One thing that's nice is that the game is set in the same old Liberty City as GTA III, but with the graphics quality of San Andreas. There's a cleaner, enhanced look to the buildings, vehicles and characters. Its nice to see a new face on an old city.

The only thing that bugs me is the lack of a good radio station. This game is supposed to be set in 1998, and I remember a lot of good music from those days, which is absent from the game. I just turn the radio off every time I enter a vehicle.

I give it an 9/10. Its not San Andreas and I'm not expecting it to be. I think its an excellent game in its own right, and the only thing better would be decent radio stations.

GTA: LCS is a prequel to PS2's GTA III. You play as the character Toni Cipriani as you help take control of LC with Salvatore, setting up the later settings of the city in the GTA III story.

At times it may get a little annoying not being able to play with two analog sticks (like for the PS2 versions), you do eventually get used to it.

If you are a fan of the Rockstar GTA series (GTA, GTA2, GTA III, GTA:VC, and GTA:SA) then you will love this game.

Tidbit of useless info: Although not the character you play as in GTA III, Toni Cipriani was voiced by Michael Madsen (Mr. Blonde from Reservoir Dogs) in GTA III.

For a while, I couldn't place just why Liberty City Stories, a game made 4 years after its parent title, looked somehow worse than GTA 3. Then it hit me: which has superior graphics is depatable, but III, though, had more realisitc (or at the very least, more detailed) textures. Not just that, but III had, oddly for the older game, a lot more vivid, immersive world-building detail: the reflective puddles on the ground when it rains, the shine on cars that reflects accurately when you turn; all living, breathing minutae that are oddly absent in LCS, which, on top of that, has a vaguely more murky texture somewhat closer to San Andreas. LCS was a step back for the franchise in other ways: gone was San Andreas' RPG element, as well as this other crazy new thing San Andreas introduced called Swimming (yup, we're back to sinking like a freakin' stone as soon as we step more than a couple inches into the sea). GTA 3 had a rough, almost hand-made charm to it, and this roughness made it feel authentic. This prequel (akin to having a darling indie movie that gets a Hollywood follow-up) has a lot more stuff to do, more gameplay elements tacked on, but feels slightly on the empty side when stacked against its parent.

All that out of the way, when compared to the imposing shadow cast by many other GTA titles LCS may seem a bit mid, it's still a damn good game in its own right (and for my money, boasts the best theme song so far in the series). A prequel set three years prior to III - and where many of the story missions revolve around setting up the events of - the player assumes control of a younger version of Toni Cipriani (a mission-giver introduced in the original title) as he works his way up from low-level foot soldier to made man to Leone family Don Salvatore's right-hand man. Along the way, you make enemies of pretty much every other gang - mafia and hoods - on the streets of Liberty (many of whose NPC's will attack you on sight afterward) as you vie to single-handedly shift the city's power dynamics and bring Liberty City under Leone influence. The plot is relatively stock and a bit uneven at times, some of the missions might be a dreck (but what game's aren't?), and, on the mobile port at least (where I played it), the touchscreen controls are at times garbage. More than anything, LCS was originally designed as a demo of Rockstar's capabilities on mobile platforms (back when the PSP came out) and wasn't really aiming too high. And that's fine, since what came out of it is still a helluva lot more than average, and is enough to keep me coming back. 7.5/10.

Rated M for Violence,Language and Sexual Content.

I recently got a PS2 which came with a controller,memory card,3 PS2 games and 1 PS1 game for a good price.I didn't play the GTA series when it first came out starting with GTA3 in 2001.I started loving the series in 2005 when I got GTA Vice City for Christmas.I loved it.I then got San Andreas and thought it was the greatest video game of all time.I had GTA2 as well.Now with my new PS2 I play Liberty City Stories which was originally out for PSP.This game costs $30.00 and it is definitely worth it.Remember this is a PSP port and PSP is not as good as PS2 so the game is definitely not as good as GTA San Andreas or even Vice City actually but it is still a good addition in the series.Liberty City Stories takes us back to Liberty City(where GTA3 took place).The year is 1998 and you play as Toni Cipriani.During the game you do various missions for different people just like in the other GTA games.When you are not playing missions you can steal cars,kill people and just plain be a cold-hearted criminal.The storyline in all the GTA games are good with Vice City having the best one.The storyline in this game is pretty good as well.There are some parts of the game that are not too good.First of all the soundtrack.Just like in Grand Theft Auto 3, aside from the classical music station and the 1980's station the other music is re-created.Not real music.It is re-created well but we want music that was popular for the time.Actually out of the whole series, this game has the worst soundtrack.Flashback FM is the best radio station in my opinion but there aren't that many good songs there either.Even in GTA3 the only good station was Flashback.It had some good songs from the Scarface soundtrack but there were so little songs.I like 80's music and GTA Vice City provided the best radio station with actual songs from the 1980's.San Andreas had classic rock from the 70's and great rap and rock songs from the early 90's.If the soundtrack was better the game would be on-par with GTA Vice City.Anyway Liberty City Stories is a good addition in the GTA series but don't expect that much since its a port from PSP.

10/10

Rockstar Games along with Rockstar North and Rockstar Leeds present Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories. Yes, this was the setting for the classic GTA3. Now, there has been a lot of confusion that this is just like GTA3. Well, whoever says that, they're wrong. This game has a completely new storyline and characters. And new side missions, like going to Capital Autos in Harwood to sell cars or taking pictures of people at famous Liberty sites before their flights. A new addition is Muitiplayer! Yes, several multi-player games are now ready for those eager PSP owners, like The Wedding List and Liberty City Surviver. Overall, this game is a 10 out of 10. Everybody loves Liberty City. Congrats to Rockstar for such a great game.

EDIT: Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories is now out for the Playstation 2.