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Outrage! UK media up in arms over DS games

Posted Sep 26th 2008 10:44AM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News

It's rare to see DS titles being held responsible by the mainstream media for society's ills. Usually, such treatment is reserved for home console releases, but in the last 24 hours two DS games have triggered a bout of misguided bleatings, both from British papers that amazingly aren't the Daily Mail. That's right, readers: two titles. Welcome to a special, double edition "Outrage!" post. Double the horror! Double the controversy! Double the irrational fear!

We'll start with the obvious one, then. We sensed there'd be a backlash against Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars as soon as we saw these shots, but even we were impressed by the speediness of The Sun's error-strewn report. Next to an incorrectly captioned picture of Grand Theft Auto III, the paper reveals how a game about selling drugs will soon be playable on the "family-friendly" Nintendo DS, and remarks that, "Experts predict the final edition is unlikely to feature explicit criminality." They're in for a surprise, then.

Next up in the stocks is a far more surprising scapegoat: the rather innocent Advance Wars. According to the Daily Telegraph, police investigating the stabbing of a 20-year-old who was also a massive fan of the game (to the extent that he ran an Advance Wars fansite) are now investigating whether the killer was a fellow "internet gamer." Of course, that's just one of several potential links being examined by the authorities, but the newspaper still leads with the Advance Wars angle. Why? OUTRAGE!

Source: Grand Theft your child's INNOCENCE [Via Game Politics]
Source: Advance Wars: Murder Weapon [Via Game Politics]

Gallery: So you like Advance Wars: Days of Ruin...

DS Daily: Has Chinatown Wars surprised you?

Posted Sep 25th 2008 9:00AM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: DS Daily

A bunch of new Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars details appeared yesterday, specifically the kind that would make the Daily Mail's hair stand on end. According to various magazine spreads, you'll be able to sell drugs (with their real names), tattoo fellow gang members, and hotwire cars. Rockstar itself has said Nintendo ruled out a GTA game for a younger audience.

As opponents of censorship in most cases, we were delighted that Rockstar has been granted such artistic freedom in Chinatown Wars, but also rather surprised. Anyone else with us, or did you expect such controversial content all along from Rockstar, even on the DS?

Be a drug dealer in GTA: Chinatown Wars [update]

Posted Sep 24th 2008 1:24PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News

Update: Screens! Past the break! Why are we yelling?!

We all love games. And if you're like us, you enjoy escaping the real world through gaming every now and then. Well, now you can escape into the life of a dastardly drug dealer.

Rockstar's Dan Houser has dropped a few deets on the upcoming DS game, GTA: Chinatown Wars. Following up what was in the latest issue of Nintendo Power, we now know the game will not only be following its mature roots (which means "Mature" rating), but Nintendo actually wanted Rockstar to make a mature game. They didn't push for a family-friendly, tone down title on the handheld. So what's all this drug dealing business about?

In this drug dealing minigame, players will be able to peddle six different types of narcotics and gain profit depending on how smart they are at selling. The "smart" selling (remember, kids: drugs are bad) comes in the form of recognizing market conditions, based on geographical location, and selling one of the six different types accordingly, with the aim being gaining the most profit possible. Confused? Well, basically, the game will tell you what drug is the most scarce and will fetch the highest price in any given terriroty, then all you have to do is sell accordingly.

Edge promises more details in their latest issue, so sadly this is all we have to go on for now.

Continue reading Be a drug dealer in GTA: Chinatown Wars [update]

Take a closer look at GTA: Chinatown Wars

Posted Sep 22nd 2008 4:54PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Screens

Courtesy of RockstarWatch, the November issue of Nintendo Power has been scanned and uploaded online. In case you missed it last week, it's the issue with all of the details and first screens for GTA: Chinatown Wars. With all four of the pages scanned, it's a wealth of information on the upcoming game that you likely won't want to miss out on. So head on over here to check out the scans.

[Thanks, Josh!]

GTA: Chinatown Wars details finally revealed? [update]

Posted Sep 19th 2008 12:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Rumors

Update: First screens! Check past the break to see them.

Some details on the upcoming portable GTA game, GTA: Chinatown Wars, have dropped in the latest issue of Nintendo Power. For one, it's apparently following the sandbox formula of previous games, and will have that M label slapped on the front of the boxart.

Due to hardware limitations, these details say the game will have an isometric camera angle and be a cel-shaded affair, complete with no load times. There will be dynamic weather effects and it's reported that draw distance and frame rate are sound. Liberty City will be scaled down quite a bit, though (and changed some), but there will be pedestrians and cars about, doing their thing. Oh, and there will be radio stations, although songs are going to be focused more on instrumental numbers.

As for controls, there will be an auto-targeting system that the player can utilize with the R trigger. They can also use the d-pad to aim and bust caps that way. There's also going to be "subtle" auto-steering for when you're in a car and players can use the touch-screen to navigate the in-game PDA, which will allow you to "email, contacts, the map, a music player, GPS, and stat-tracking (which allows you to upload stats direct from the game to Rockstar's Social Club website)."

And that's basically all that's being reported right now. Sounds like a lot for such a small cartridge, and until we see some screens, we're going to remain skeptical. What about the rest of you?

Continue reading GTA: Chinatown Wars details finally revealed? [update]

GTA: Chinatown Wars to bust caps this winter

Posted Sep 5th 2008 10:30AM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News

During an end-of-quarter conference call yesterday, Take-Two Interactive will be releasing GTA: Chinatown Wars this winter. That's a release window of November to January 31, 2009, according to Take-Two's fiscal year. One individual from the press asked if the game would release before Christmas, but Take-Two was quick to comment that they "didn't say that," further adding that they're "not confirming that."

So, with some hints at Wi-Fi play and a release window, we're starting to get a better idea of what to expect from the title. Next up, let's see some game footage!

See also: Point/Counterpoint: Should GTA be 2D or 3D?

Point/Counterpoint: Should GTA be 2D or 3D?

Posted Aug 22nd 2008 2:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Point/Counterpoint

That's right folks, it's that time again: two bloggers square off in debate over one subject in our Point/Counterpoint feature. This time, we're talking GTA: Chinatown Wars and whether or not the title should be 2D or 3D. So, without further ado, hit the button below and read the arguments.

NEXT >>

Rumor: Survey 'reveals' GTA Chinatown Wars details

Posted Aug 5th 2008 3:30PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News, Rumors

A UGO reader participated in an unspecified survey about an "upcoming game," which, judging by the kind of information presented in the questions, is definitely Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. For example, question 18 begins with the premise "The title of this new game is called Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, by Rockstar Games."

If this is a real survey, then it has backhandedly revealed previously unknown gameplay information about the new handheld version of the mega-popular franchise. However, that information is of the "glaringly obvious" variety that you could "learn" by pretty much imagining the game.

For example, one question asks responders to rate the importance of features like "OPEN WORLD" and "MATURE STORYLINE." To be fair, this question does go on to mention genuinely interesting new features like ad-hoc multiplayer, replayable missions, and stylus-based minigames, but if you're just now learning from this survey that GTA has "mature storylines," you'll be very excited to hear about its new "car theft" feature in which you totally steal cars.

Nintendo makes ridiculous amounts of money in Q1

Posted Jul 30th 2008 7:30PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News

Nintendo has to be a short step away from building an evil fortress in a volcano, because now they have super villain money. Like, the kind of money Dr. Doom could use to take over the entire world. Good thing Nintendo isn't evil and just wants us to play games.

During Q1 of this year, Nintendo earned nearly 1 billion dollars (107.2 billion yen). We can only imagine how many Deathstars that could build. Hardware sales showed the DS at 6.94 million units (which was down from 6.98 million year-over-year), bringing lifetime DS sales to 77.54 million units. As for DS software, sales were up, increasing by 2.33 million units to 36.59 million. With this slight dip in DS hardware sales, some analysts are showing concern.

Hiroshi Kamide, an analyst at KBC Securities Japan, commented to the AFP in Tokyo that "for the first time, we've actually seen DS hardware sales fall year-on-year. The DS has hit a bit of a high-water mark." If the opinions of gaming bloggers count for anything, we're going to go on the record and state that we aren't worried in the least. With a Grand Theft Auto game coming to the DS, along with the DS just being awesome overall, we think the handheld still has a fighting chance.

Take-Two CEO on the logic of GTA on the DS

Posted Jul 29th 2008 4:30PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News

It doesn't take the CEO of a massive corporation to figure out why Grand Theft Auto on the DS is a good idea from a financial perspective. Luckily for people who like stealing fake cars, Ben Feder, who is the CEO of Take-Two, has figured it out. In an interview with GameDaily, Feder offered the obvious motivation for GTA: Chinatown Wars.

"There are a number of things going on, but you can imagine we're really excited about one of the best franchises, if not THE best franchise in the business, mapped against the largest installed base in the business."

He also suggested that the company isn't planning to just drop GTA onto the DS as-is, which could be good or bad. "You need to create a game for that platform and that's what we expect to do with GTA: Chinatown Wars for DS." Games being rebuilt for the DS are just as likely to end up as minigame fests as they are Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword-style triumphs.

E308: DS Fanboy's E3 Endgame Evaluation

Posted Jul 19th 2008 11:10PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: Meta

In its second year as a diminished behemoth, E3 still manages to be packed full with news, media, and more. While there wasn't much from Nintendo themselves for the DS this year, third parties are still incredibly strong and we're faced with more games than we can possibly handle. We're also pretty sure we saw almost all of them at E3 this year. Relive the entire experience right from the convenience of this post!

Check out our choices for show highlights right here, or hit the break for the full rundown of our E3 coverage. Of course, we're still adding things, and will be over the next few days; keep up by clicking the E3 graphic in the sidebar.

GTA: Chinatown Wars shooting up the DS in winter!		Transfer data from Animal Crossing: Wild World to new Wii game
Highlights from Nintendo's keynote		Rhythm Heaven bumped by Cammie Dunaway's wrist
Konami booth tour		DS Fanboy reacts to the Nintendo keynote
Three DS news items you may have missed		Chrono Trigger's controls explained (and hands-on)
DS Fanboy enters the Retro Game Challenge		Rhythm Heaven is the best musical microgame collection at the show

Continue reading E308: DS Fanboy's E3 Endgame Evaluation

DS Daily: E3

Posted Jul 18th 2008 8:00AM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: DS Daily

As the sun sets on another E3, we thought today's DS Daily would be the ideal spot to round up all of your thoughts on the DS-related happenings of the last three days.

The biggest news -- insofar that it will probably interest the most people, anyway -- is the announcement of a Grand Theft Auto game for the handheld, a genuine bolt from the blue. Another Guitar Hero is relatively big (if totally predictable) news also, and we were personally delighted by the announcement of Wii-to-DS connectivity for Animal Crossing: Wild World, and the localization of Rhythm Tengoku.

What about you? Highlights? Lowlights? Favorite moments? Most shocking omissions? We like numbers, so give the DS's E3 a mark out of ten if you like!

E308: Nintendo keynote photo tour

Posted Jul 16th 2008 10:15AM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Screens

Click here to start the tour

So, we've had tons of content up for you all yesterday, because that's how we roll and we'll be damned if The Man is going to stop us! For those of you hungry for more, know that we're going to continue the flood of content, but we've also got a huge photo dump from the Nintendo E3 keynote for you. Within, you'll find all of our pics from the luxurious seats found in row 12. Missed some of the bits about how well the DS is selling? We got it in images. Want to see Shaun White's hideous Mii? We got you covered. Check it all out in our gallery below.

Gallery: E3 2008 Nintendo Keynote Photo Tour

DS Daily: How about GTA, then?

Posted Jul 16th 2008 8:00AM by Phil Larsen
Filed under: DS Daily

Nintendo themselves would be the first to praise DS populairty with children and kindly elderly folk -- the polar opposite target markets for anything related to Grand Theft Auto. However, Cammie smiled that big smile of hers on stage at E3, spoke about Animal Crossing, Pokemon and Wii Music -- then casually slipped in the announcement of GTA: Chinatown Wars.

Does the DS have a place for GTA? Or, more accurately, should the DS have a place for GTA? With such a family-friendly system, are you at all surprised that Nintendo has opted to include such adult material?

GTA Chinatown website opens, hints at online modes

Posted Jul 15th 2008 7:30PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News, Nintendo Wi-Fi

Well, that didn't take long. A mere few hours after it was announced on stage at Hollywood's Kodak Theater, an official site has materialized for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. A few logos aside, it's totally content-free at the moment, but one thing did catch our eye: the appearance of the light blue Nintendo WiFi Connection badge.

This means that Chinatown Wars has some kind of online mode, but what, exactly? Expecting online play is probably overly optimistic, so we'd lean towards DLC, or the ability to share content.

[Via Go Nintendo]

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