GTA: Chinatown Wars hitting PSP Oct. 20

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Aug 25, 2009 5:24 pm PT

[UPDATE] Rockstar dates port of its critically acclaimed handheld Grand Theft Auto game; first screenshots inside.

The graphic-novel style panels will look crisper on the PSP.

Two months after it was first announced, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars has a release date. The PSP port of the Rockstar Leeds-developed DS game, released on March 17, will ship in the US on October 20, according to Rockstar Games' official Twitter feed. The game has not yet been rated or priced, but the original version is rated M for Mature and sells for $34.99 when it's not on sale. It will be available both as a UMD-based game and a digital download for the UMD-drive-less PSP Go, which goes on sale October 1.

Lighting and textures will also look better.

The original Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will go down as one of the great game paradoxes of 2009. Despite being the highest rated DS game of all time on Metacritic and GameSpot, the Rockstar Leeds-developed title was only a middling performer at retail. Despite the DS handheld's massive US installed base, Chinatown Wars sold less than 90,000 units in its debut month. However, it has cleared over 228,000 copies to date domestically, according to the NPD Group.

The HUD will also look sharper.

More successful were the two GTA games for the PSP, Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories, which have sold over 1.6 million units and 960,000-plus units in the US. (Both games were later ported to the PlayStation 2.) However, when Chinatown Wars was announced for the PSP, it perplexed many because it was unclear how the original's touch-screen-intensive gameplay and, by PSP standards, crude graphics would translate onto Sony's handheld. [UPDATE] Now, Rockstar has released the first screenshots, which show it will have sharper widescreen graphics, improved lighting, and a slightly tweaked HUD.

174 Comments

  • Liamguy01

    Posted Sep 2, 2009 6:47 pm PT

    For this type of thing, it's either amazing or a absolute disgrace to gaming.
    I am just going to sit back and wait for the reviews. It's pretty hard for rockstar to actually make a bad game, but there's always a first time..........
    That said, this game looks awesome and I'm totally crossing my fingers for another rockstar masterpiece, and I mean, hey, if rockstar can do it on the DS, the psp should be a pushover.

  • GBPackersrule

    Posted Sep 1, 2009 1:22 pm PT

    "gamespot, ign, and even metacritic all gave GTA DS a higher score when compared to the other two GTA titles that was released for the PSP."

    Did you ever consider that the DS didn't have any GTA game to speak of? It did critically well for the same reason The Conduit got the Wii fangirl community to cream their pants. It was the first of its kind. I can bet you $1,000,000 that if The Conduit was released as is on the 360 or PS3, it would have been nominee for worst game of the year. But since Nintendo didn't have anything like that, CTW seemed like the greatest thing since sliced bread. It clearly isn't.

  • GBPackersrule

    Posted Sep 1, 2009 1:16 pm PT

    Why do we get this terrible up top view? They made Vice City Stories and Liberty City stories feel like an actual GTA, so why do we get this watered down port? The DS owners don't want it so we get their scraps? Got it. If you are going to give us a port over, make it an actual GTA. Not this stupid up top junk. Unless they change it to the way LCS was, count me out.

  • Gatcho

    Posted Sep 1, 2009 6:29 am PT

    i usually do not engage with topics such as this one because it's usually a contest on who's the biggest fanboy and already there are numerous posts from those kind of people here. they laugh at the fact that CTW didn't sell well and automatically comes up with the conclusion that its because it's not a good game that was released on an inferior console. they have forgotten that the PSP is selling a lot less when compared to the DS. tell them that and they will say that is because a lot of kids have the DS, your graphics is lame, your games are meant for girls, i shoot guns while you use your stylus to cook, i'm a gaming dork with no life, wah-wah. fanboys will always be fanboys who measure their manhood based on the games that they play. they even call themselves a "real" gamer when they're the ones who limit themselves to specific games, genres, and console units. sigh!

    i used to enter quake and starcraft tournaments, i have GTA, tons of racing games, and street fighter on my PC. i don't know about you guys but i personally don't feel less of a man just because i use a console with a wider range of genres on-the-go. and this is pretty much it for me with this topic. you guys have a good one =)

  • Gatcho

    Posted Sep 1, 2009 6:29 am PT

    @ Kyuubi_Vegetto: yes those titles did. but that was not my point. like what I have said, the quality of the game(s) or unit itself cannot be measured by sales alone. even if other GTA titles on the PSP sold a lot more compared to CTW, that doesn't mean those games were better "gameplay" wise. you have to consider the target audience if they are actually interested with mature rated games (or if they will at least be able to get their hands on it), the price of the game, piracy issues, etc.

  • PrimusTool

    Posted Sep 1, 2009 1:15 am PT

    I didn't buy GTA Chinatown wars for DS at first because I thought GTA4 was disappointing. Once it dropped to $20 I bought it and ended up liking it more than GTA4.

    I can't imagine Chinatown Wars working as well on PSP, but it might.

  • ascalon94

    Posted Aug 31, 2009 7:02 pm PT

    I honestly dont think we need this on the PSP. Give us a real GTA like Liberty City and Vice City Stories, classic portable games....idk maybe San Andreas Stories... whatever just give me something worth my money. I mean this belongs on the DS

  • Tornado_Volcano

    Posted Aug 31, 2009 3:47 pm PT

    Chinatown Wars is a terrific game. It's just a shame that most DS owners are casual gamers that don't apreciatee good games...

  • Kyuubi_Vegetto

    Posted Aug 31, 2009 3:26 pm PT

    fps_d0minat0r
    maybe cus PSP is better then DS???

    Drop the crack.

    Gatcho

    gamespot, ign, and even metacritic all gave GTA DS a higher score when compared to the other two GTA titles that was released for the PSP.

    But at the end of the day those games had better sales than Chinatown Wars and system demographics had nothing to do with that.

  • fps_d0minat0r

    Posted Aug 31, 2009 4:25 am PT

    lmfao!!!

    "look better"
    "look crisper"
    "look sharper"

    maybe cus PSP is better then DS???

    atleast it will have real gameplay because the PSP is capable of offering more then 2d minigames to compensate for lame graphics.

  • beny_pimpster

    Posted Aug 30, 2009 11:49 pm PT

    haha hope sales goes well most of the ds users just dont feel the love for gta

  • Ghetto_Supastar

    Posted Aug 30, 2009 3:57 pm PT

    I'm ready for October 20 to visit GTA once again.

  • master_zidane

    Posted Aug 30, 2009 12:21 am PT

    Chinatown WARS! Finally on the PSP!

  • KrzyJoe

    Posted Aug 29, 2009 10:33 pm PT

    ooh yeah im gettin this

  • MariusGta

    Posted Aug 29, 2009 8:14 pm PT

    i just hope the camera won't be like the one in gta II ))) omg!!!! i want it like the other gta's and not like CTW

  • Decepticon_11

    Posted Aug 29, 2009 1:26 pm PT

    Better than the DS version

  • GOAT_DUDE

    Posted Aug 28, 2009 4:31 pm PT

    look anik786 when have you ever seen a crappy rockstar game?

  • tttttank

    Posted Aug 28, 2009 1:16 pm PT

    it is a good game, but they will have to get rid of the cool touchscreen minigames and generally slidy interface, theres no way you can replace that. what theyll have is movement via either the dpad or anouloge stick, and then while driving use one to throw stuff in any direction, so my geuss is the analouge will be used for throwing and d-pad for movement, sure the graphics will be better but the charm of the game is using the stylus for things, it just makes the missions less repetitive, i think the loss of the touch screen could make it a dodgy port

  • HendrixJ92

    Posted Aug 28, 2009 8:30 am PT

    I was hoping for a San Andreas Stories, but this game looks pretty good. I have the DS version of it, which is a suprisingly awesome game.

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