PSP GTA Stories spun on Web

With the release of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for the PSP less than a month and a half away, details of the top secret project are beginning to surface in media outlets. Now, Rockstar is letting gamers fish around the Net themselves to get the dirt on one of the most anticipated PSP games yet.

The controversial developer has launched the official Web site for the game, and it remains true to the style of previous Grand Theft Auto Internet destinations. In addition to giving the scoop on the basics of the game's premise, a few screens, and the premiere of the game's trailer, there are several links to outside Web sites that bring gamers into the world of late 1990s Liberty City.

The Web site details several of the "stories" in Liberty City Stories through a mock e-mail inbox. All the e-mails are addressed to a reporter, Ned Burner, for the Liberty Tree, the city's newspaper. Corruption, payoffs, and scandal abound in the letters, with accusations of radio disc jockeys lacking moral fiber, proof of tax evasion by high society members, and threats from an informant demanding a payoff for ratting out mob members.

By following links, visitors to the Web site will also be led to the "official" sites for GTA satires. Among them are Lips 106 FM, which has the slogan "Making Sure American Radio Sounds Awful," the Citizens United Negating Technology for Life and People's Safety, a group with an X-rated acronym that strives to expose the evils of the Internet, and Paulie's Revue, a strip bar that "is in no way connected with any form of the Triad group" but does not mind inquiries regarding "business opportunities."

Liberty City Stories is in development by Rockstar Leeds, in conjunction with Rockstar North. The game takes place three years before Grand Theft Auto 3, and it follows the crime-dealing exploits of mob man Toni Cipiriani as he attempts to put the Leone crime family in control of the city.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories has not yet been rated and will retail for $49.99 when it's released in late October.