Arts & Entertainment
The Minaret | April 10, 2009
New Grand Theft Auto Steals Top Spot In Gaming
By Austin Ashby Staff Writer
Drugs, racism and attempting to make your own personal genocide. Well, it seems like a new Grand Theft Auto game is out. This time it is out on the Nintendo DS. While the majority of GTA games have alway been of high caliber, whenever it got involved with a Nintendo product, it’s become not so well-received. Does GTA: Chinatown Wars break the curse that the series has over its predecessor? Hell yes it does. Seeing the top-down perspective when I first threw the SD card, I was surprised. Being introduced to GTA III, I never had the opportunity to play the roots of
the series. Chinatown Wars brings back the old style and refines it so it ages extremely well. New gamers will not be turned off the retro style, and will even love it. Except for GTA IV, horrible combat has always been a tradition to the GTA franchise. With the cleverness of autolock on for the DS, that problem has been remedied. The combat still isn’t fantastic, but it is certainly playable. Even on a portable system, Rockstar still tries to find way to innovate their games. This time, your main character can buy and sell drugs (he cannot take them). I finally realize how actual drug dealers make so much cash now. In GTA drug dealing is
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the only way to make true cash to buy ammunition. The appearance of the game is simply astounding. It is obvious how many details Rockstar puts into this game. It truly pushes the limit of the hardware of its technical performance. With very few slowdowns, this is easily the best looking game on the Nintendo DS. Even graphic whores of the consoles version and PSP version will be impressed by the appearance of Chinatown Wars. When simply working on the story, the average length will take around six to eight hours, pending on the players skill. Even when the story is over, there is much more to accomplish in Liberty City. Racing, drug dealing, murdering civilians of the fair city, the fun does not simply stop after finishing the game. When accomplishing everything in the game, expect 20 hours of gameplay from this gem. The only true downside to the game is the audio quality. While everything else is of high caliber, the audio is simply not. This could be blame on the size of the DS cartridge. Unfortunately, there is no voice-acting in the missions briefing, which would
have given the character so much more personality when delivering their crazy, messed up lines. The radio station is all instrumental now, though they are fantastic instrumental replacing the humorous dialogue and songs on the console counterparts. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a must buy for anyone who owns a DS looking for a new game. There is no excuse to not purchase this game over any other DS titles. I’d give this masterpiece a: 9/10. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Concept Art Photo Manipulation By: Alex Vera
9 Upcoming Event Who: Benjamin Grossberg When: April 16 @ 8 p.m. Where: Reeves Theater Famous poet Benjamin Grossberg will hold a Q & A and book signing session as well as read passages from his new book.
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