Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Interview, screens

[Endless]

When Rockstar announced that their next Grand Theft Auto was heading to DS, lots of people had questions -- would it be 2D or 3D, would it play more like GTA4 or the classic GTAs, etc. And while some of those have been answered in bits and pieces over the past few months, we recently had a chance to open the floodgates via an exclusive interview with Gordon Hall, head of developer Rockstar Leeds.

1UP

[donkey show]

Haha, I like what I see. Where's Ricky Tan though?

[Zombie James]

I like it's visual style, but top-down gameplay... GTA's just gone too far beyond that for it to be appealing to me.

[Oneself]

I guess it must look better in motion...

[travisbickle]

Picking up rubbish to find/hide weapons?

[DeaconKnowledge]

I like the art style.

Kinda burnt out on GTA though.

[AranhaHunter]

I don't like the way it looks.

[Ysiadmihi]

If this was following San Andreas I could probably ignore the awful art and take comfort in knowing Rockstar knows what they're doing.

[Cow Mengde]

I'm not excited. Give me a new Shock Trooper for the Neo Geo instead. SNK should consider doing that on the DS.

[dark steve]

What exactly are the alternatives for making the game visually coherent on the DS?

While playing, some of the guys here have managed to bail out of their car whilst jumping a ramp, having the car blow up a police helicopter in midair -- these are the kind of moments game designers and players alike love.

Now that is what I want to hear.

[dragonlife29]

Wow, that looks pretty nice!

[KR3W]

Cool. I didn't know that Will Smith was in this game.

[AlphaSnake]

Haha, I like what I see. Where's Ricky Tan though?

That's Ricky Tan? Hey! Hey Ricky! Come on, man, pack yo shit, I'm takin yo ass to jail. Come on, man. Let's go!

[donkey show]

That's Ricky Tan? Hey! Hey Ricky! Come on, man, pack yo shit, I'm takin yo ass to jail. Come on, man. Let's go!

LEE!
CAHTAH!!!
LEE!
CAHTAH!!!

[RBH]

That's Ricky Tan? Hey! Hey Ricky! Come on, man, pack yo shit, I'm takin yo ass to jail. Come on, man. Let's go!

That Ricky Tan?

That's a midget in a bathrobe!

[AlphaSnake]

That Ricky Tan? That's a midget in a bathrobe!

Hahahaha, I forgot that line. Been a while since I've seen the movie. Ja'mon!

[Peronthious]

I think it looks decent enough, but I'd like to see it in motion. Most of that looks like it could get unwieldy in actual play. Wonder how the camera will end up behaving, with them saying the whole game is actually in full 3D.

[Bizzyb]

Wow....I'm liking what I'm seeing!

[Shapingo]

Calling all Cars?!?

Looks good

[A Black Falcon]

Great article, this really is a big effort... two years of development time, for a DS game? That's major.

1UP: How long do you estimate this game will take to complete? GH: It really depends on what type of player you are. I can spend literally days just building up my criminal empire without touching a mission at all. But that aside, in classical terms, I think, for an average player, we've got around 20 to 30 hours of gameplay just to complete the story missions -- that gets you through about 28 percent to 30 percent of the total game. The narcotics dealing takes up much more of your time, and we have more side missions, odd jobs, and one-off characters with their own mission strands to meet around this world than you'd ever expect. I'd say to get to 100 percent stats complete, you'd be looking at around 70 to 80 hours of play. This still doesn't mean you've seen everything. You still have multiplayer and the entire online and Social Club content to dabble with.

Pretty long too, particularly for a handheld game. Sounding very good...

I like it's visual style, but top-down gameplay... GTA's just gone too far beyond that for it to be appealing to me.

1UP: How'd you come to the decision to go with an isometric camera view and cel-shaded art style? GH: Actually, the game isn't really isometric; it's true 3D through and through. What we've done is place the camera pretty high up during most of the gameplay. There are many reasons for this -- some visual so you get a sense of movement and scale, some regarding the technicalities of the hardware and how many polygons the DS can display -- but the main reason for this decision is one of gameplay. Right from the very start, we decided to make the game as fun as possible for the platform, even if that meant it lent more toward an arcadey experience, as we all agreed this would work best on a DS. With this type of hardware, we felt it was important that the player had a good view of the action at all times. On a big screen, having a camera behind the player's head works perfectly; however, on this machine, with its relatively small display, you get a much more appealing experience if you can see all of the crashes, chases, and combat in true third-person. Once we had the initial testbed working in a basic cop-chase scenario, we all realized we'd made the right decision to use this perspective. The cel-shading gives the game its own art style. We wanted something that ensured the onscreen vehicles and characters really "popped." I think, to go for a style similar to the other GTAs would've been missing an opportunity. Our aim was to bring the spirit and energy of GTA to the DS, and to do this successfully, we knew we had to make a game that would work and play well on the DS. This cel-shaded look is just one example of this happening. Another is the graphic-novel approach we took with the animated 2D cut-scenes. They're very GTA, yet feel almost Japanese in their style. It's been a joy to be able to mess around with the look of this game; I think we've created something that feels very familiar, yet quite unique. That was certainly the goal, anyway.

on the DS, we've gone for the graphic-novel approach, but we still work with the same guys creating the stories, characters, and dialogue, so it's still GTA in spirit. In other areas, having the touch screen has enabled us to push the player's experience further than could ever be done on other hardware. In one mission, you have to make your way up to a rooftop and take a guy out with a sniper rifle. It's so satisfying building the rifle from a suitcase of parts with the touch screen; it rounds off the whole feel of that mission. The DS isn't that powerful in CPU terms. Several times during the development of the game, the framerate dropped below 30 frames per second. Whilst almost all console games suffer this kind of framerate constantly, we knew we couldn't let that happen on the DS. Many times, I had to call a halt to most of the content creation in order to get most of the coders back on optimizations. If we ever wanted to add a feature that had a framerate hit, we always did it and took the consequence of added optimization time. The results are plain to see. If, for example, you decide to follow people around the game world, you'll notice they have real-world behaviors. They go to work, shop, eat, sleep, and drive their own cars. It's staggering how detailed this world really is. If we'd built the game around a preconceived notion of the limiting nature of DS development, we wouldn't have created the living world this game became.

We'll see how well it turns out, though. Hopefully it will be good... it certainly could be.

[Fantastical]

This is really impressive for a DS game. There is online multiplayer, right? In the interview it sounds kinda cryptic, but they have confirmed it in the past, right? Or did I just imagine that?

[Neomoto]

Looks pretty cool. Seems like a great deal of content is in this handheld game :) I'd love to see it in motion.

[shagg_187]

This is still in the game, right?



If not, then... Never forget!

[voltron]

Why the fuck? Just make a proper one on the PSP and be done with it. This top down shit will get old in half an hour tops.

[cw_sasuke]

Why the fuck? Just make a proper one on the PSP and be done with it. This top down shit will get old in half an hour tops.

need more tears....

[AlternativeUlster]

Why the fuck? Just make a proper one on the PSP and be done with it. This top down shit will get old in half an hour tops.

Says the person who didn't play the first 2 Grand Theft Autos. I think the gameplay looks like Postal which makes me want to have Postal on the DS.

[voltron]

need more tears....

[VicViper]

It might have worked in 2D.

[Roi]

Huh, didn't knew that GTA was coming to Wii!!

Niicccee!

[Icomeinpeace]

The artwork is really wonky, it looks like it was made by someone on deviantArt. The game looks really fun though.

[DieNgamers]

Don't know about that one...but I like the idea of a high budget cel shaded GTA5

[Flakster99]

I like the art style. Kinda burnt out on GTA though.

Same. I also expect a SE-like tax price as well. Things to ponder...

[MrTroubleMaker]

looking pretty good :)

[hobbitx]

Man, I wish they would have just went 2d, a sprite based GTA on the DS would have been sweet. I can deal with an isometric view as long as it controls somewhat like the newer games. I hope since it is in 3d there will be multiple viewpoints.

[Haunted]

FORTY NINE US DOLLARS



If it plays anything like GTA2, I'm so there. If it's a mess a la GTA GBA Rockstar can fuck themselves.

Actually no, at that price they can go fuck themselves anyway, but if it's good I'll get it when it's cheaper. :p

[JoeMartin]

FIFTY US DOLLARS.

Obviously brand taxes have been working out great so far on the DS, so R* decided to up it a notch.

[MoogPaul]

not sure why people are clamoring for a more 3d GTA. if anything, rockstar has taught us that they don't have the goods anymore for that.

[Night_Trekker]

The touchscreen stuff looks terrible : \

Looks great otherwise, though.

[Glix]

FIFTY US DOLLARS. Obviously brand taxes have been working out great so far on the DS, so R* decided to up it a notch.

Either this or....


a peripheral? I'm only thinking this because GH cost 50 bucks as well... What kind of peripheral could a game like this use?

[Acid08]

This game is an abortion.

[Haunted]

FIFTY US DOLLARS. Obviously brand taxes have been working out great so far on the DS, so R* decided to up it a notch.

Can't wait for SE to pick up the gauntlet. FFV DS remake will be 60$, believe.

[Gamecocks625]

I know it's a bit old, but I just read the article. For the first time, I'm actually kind of interested in this GTA (or any GTA for that matter). Looks like Rockstar has put a lot of effort into this one. I'm definitely looking forward to gameplay footage.

Oh, and what's the deal with the $50 talk? It's $35 at both Gamestop and Amazon.

[Odrion]

Looks nice, but if it's 3d then can't we have a behind-vehicle camera please? :(

[human5892]

Looks nice, but if it's 3d then can't we have a behind-vehicle camera please? :(

Would probably kill the framerate, even though I'm with you on that wish :(

[Kintaro]

I need to see some videos. It looks interesting though...

[Ranger X]

Looking good but I sure can't go back to top view. Ever. It's impossible. Sorry.

[BishopLamont]

Can't wait to try this out, hopefully it's as good as GTA 1&2. Do we have a release date at all?

[WickedLaharl]

Oh, and what's the deal with the $50 talk? It's $35 at both Gamestop and Amazon.

back when this thread was posted the pre-order price was $49.99

[cw_sasuke]

Just got the latest issue of N-Zone ( german nintendo mag ) with a Chinatown Wars Preview, sounds really awesome... here some tidbits...

- Multiplayermodes online and offline
- Item-exchange and Stats via Inet + Rockstar Games Social Club Support ( Archievments)
- Chat-function
- Day/Night Circle, different weather effects like rain...
- you will be able to pick already played story-missions,mini-games ( police/taxi/firefighters) and sidequest from your hideout (perfect for a handheld game) to play them again and get a better mission rating ( bronze silver, gold for every mission )
- awesome graphics for ds, the city with his citizen feels very much alive
- controls works perfect....


The whole preview sounds really awesome, potential HHGotY .....can`t wait for a first trailer...

[Fatalah]

The whole preview sounds really awesome, potential HHGotY .....can`t wait for a first trailer...

OH SNAP! I have high hopes for this game-- I mean, how can they possibly screw up an overhead GTA game? It's not like an overhead GTA game hasn't been done before.