This weekend the big secret was revealed – Grand Theft Auto is going multiplayer.
TotalVideoGames, Euro Gamer and 1UP tell us about it:
“Easily accessible at any time, the Multiplayer mode allows six gamers to battle across seven different gametypes, including the aforementioned Deathmatch, a Capture the Flag based mode called Get Stretch, and a team-only game entitled Protection Racket. Before we dive into the various aspects of the game however, it’s worth noting this: whilst we played the single-player mode via a PSP running off a development kit, the multiplayer game was being played out across Wi-Fi. One of the guys at Rockstar was hosting the game on his PSP and therefore the load times for the multiplayer aspects, which were quite short, were probably close to the eventual final build of the game.”
Total Video Games
“Perhaps the only potential drawback we noticed in our hands-on time with the game was how large the environments were. Because each game takes place in an entire city from the single-player game, there’s quite a lot of room to move around. Naturally, the faster cars will help you zip around the city with ease, but it can be a daunting task to get from one side of town to the other quickly. Plus, given the size of each location, it seems likely players will be able to find good hiding places where they can go and sit with a rocket launcher. To counter these concerns, Rockstar has added a special ability for multiplayer where players can run forever without getting tired, and there are various power-ups strewn about (such as “mega damage,” bullet-proof vests, and radar invisibility) that should help with the gameplay balance.”
1UP
“Let’s start with the stats: up to six players can join in a wireless multiplayer game, either as teams or with every man fighting for himself. Or lady for herself – there are nine characters to choose from initially, including mobsters, hookers and a friendly-looking old lady. Who’s not so friendly-looking when she’s got a giant rocket launcher pointed straight in your abdomen.
Euro Gamer
Here’s a quick summary of the Euro Gamer preview:
- Liberty City Stories “ties various things from previous GTA games together”.
- When targeting, you have the option to auto-aim or free-aim.
- The radio stations are the same as in GTA3 except for a few additions, including a world music station.
- Graphically, Liberty City Stories is better than GTA3. Draw distance has been increased and reflections have been added.
- As you progress through the game, you can unlock more characters for the multiplayer games. There are over 60 in total, and you can earn new outfits for them.
- A map in the bottom left hand corner shows the position of your opponents and the locations of various weapons/pickups. Green is for shotgun/armour, pink is for sniper rifle, orange is for AK-47 and so on. Pickups are represented by red stars, and include “invisibility mode”, which means you won’t show up on your opponents radar but still appear in-game, and mega-damage which makes your weapon 4x more powerful. There is also “Frenzy”, which gives you a rocket launcher and unlimited ammo, but only for a short time.
- As for loading times: The initial load will be about 20 seconds, and the load between one island to another is about 12-14.
- A new fully charged battery will last you 4 hours.
Read More: 1UP, TotalVideoGames, Euro Gamer (Thanks to Adriaan for this one)
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