The result is an exaggerated version of 'reality' that is unlikely to be taken out of context by the intended mature audience.Īnyway, where were we? That's right, Liberty City. This is mostly because their darker elements are balanced by stylised, cartoon-like graphics, and a witty script that cleverly caricatures the serious gangster films the games emulate. Then shoot them until their car blows up. If pedestrians take his side, squash them too. One button press and its owner is lying on the floor, with you now behind the wheel. Drug trafficking, corruption, extortion, prostitution, murder: if it's illegal, it's in and at your disposal.įancy that car that's just stopped at the traffic lights? Take it.

That's because the GTA games are huge virtual playgrounds, where you live an absorbing alternate existence free from moral restraints.

You'll need to complete them to see the end credits, but more time is spent between missions than undertaking them. Some structure is provided by plot-tied missions involving the kind of activities you'd expect of an Armani-clad, Beretta-loving Mafiosi, but here's the thing: the missions aren't a crucial element. The GTA games offer you a life on the wrong side of the law, by placing you within vast three-dimensional cities where you cause as much mayhem as you can handle while rising up the ranks of the criminal underworld. GTA has completed its compression from PlayStation 2's DVD to the PSP's UMD. 'I'll sue,' snapped the third.īetter call off the lawyers. 'What, the Grand Theft Auto experience – the current bastion on the TV consoles of open-ended, go-where-you-like gameplay, and one of the most expansive videogames around – on the PSP?' they asked incredulously, and possibly less eloquently. So when the announcement was made, the cynics had a field day… Like squeezing Marlon Brando into a tuxedo or forcing a horse into a bedroom, there are limits to what you can cram into a finite space.

Psp gta liberty city stories