Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

For the 2009 compilation title, see Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Developer(s)	Rockstar Leeds, Rockstar North
Publisher(s)	Rockstar Games
Distributor(s)	Take-Two Interactive
Series	Grand Theft Auto
Platform(s)	PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2
Release date(s)	PlayStation Portable NA October 24, 2005 EU October 28, 2005 AUS December 2, 2005 JP July 26, 2007 PlayStation 2 NA June 6, 2006 EU June 23, 2006 JP September 6, 2007
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, Open world
Mode(s)	PlayStation Portable: Single-player, multiplayer PlayStation 2: Single player
Rating(s)	ACB: MA15+ BBFC: 18 ESRB: M OFLC: R18 PEGI: 18+ USK: 16(cut)
Media/distribution	UMD, Download, DVD
System requirements PlayStation Portable: Memory Stick Pro Duo PlayStation 2: Memory card

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (commonly abbreviated as GTA: LCS, GTA: Liberty City Stories or Liberty City Stories) is a 2005 action-adventure open world video game developed by Rockstar North and Rockstar Leeds. It is the ninth game in the Grand Theft Auto series. The game is the prequel to Grand Theft Auto III, was preceded by Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and was succeeded by Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. It was published and distributed by Capcom for the Japanese release.

A port for the PlayStation 2 was released on June 6, 2006 in North America. At the time of release, the recommended retail price of the PS2 port was around half the price of the PSP version. The PS2 port does not feature the custom soundtrack ripping capability, in comparison to its PSP counterpart. It was released on October 1, 2009 as a downloadable game on the revised PSP model PSP Go.

Gameplay

Liberty City's layout is largely similar to Grand Theft Auto III, while it also incorporates elements found in GTA III's successors, such as more indoor environments, clothing changes, and motorcycles. In addition, in keeping with recent GTA games, the player has more flexibility in terms of moving the camera around for viewing surroundings (GTA III is noticeably limited in that respect). Two innovations from the previous game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that are omitted from this game are the ability to climb and the ability to swim - contact with deep bodies of water is instantly fatal in this game. The overall sandbox play area, as it is based upon the original Liberty City layout, is considerably smaller than that of San Andreas.

In addition, motorcycles are permitted in the city during this game, as earlier-released games (set later in the GTA universe chronology) do not allow this. The official Liberty City Stories website reveals that motorbikes were banned by the turn of the 21st century, due to a public ordinance supported by the Maibatsu Corporation (which marketed the over-sized Maibatsu Monstrosity in GTA III) in order to promote the use of automobiles in the city. Though airplanes and helicopters can be found in Vice City, usable airplanes and helicopters cannot be found in Liberty City Stories.

Multiplayer

The PSP version of Liberty City has a multiplayer mode, for up to six players through WiFi ad-hoc mode (same area). The game features seven modes of wireless multiplayer gaming, in which various pedestrian and character models from the single player mode avatars. Rockstar decided not to include these modes in the PlayStation 2 version.

Synopsis

Setting

The game is set in Liberty City (the same city featured in Grand Theft Auto III). However, it takes place in 1998, three years before the events of GTA III. Both games share an overall common plan and feature many of the same locations. there are significant differences in street layout and buildings between the two versions of Liberty City; for instance the Callahan Bridge is under construction and Fort Staunton has a thriving Little Italy district which has been since replaced by a construction site by the time of GTA III.

Toni Cipriani is fresh back in the city after lying low for several years, having killed a made man as a favor for Don Salvatore Leone. The grateful Salvatore puts him straight back to work. During the course of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, players can accept a variety of missions from many people, including Salvatore, Salvatore's wife Maria, JD O'Toole, wise guy Vincenzo "Vinnie" Cilli, and even Toni's own mother. Players may also accept missions from the "Avenging Angels", similar to the Guardian Angels, earning special vehicles and wardrobe rewards.

The game features a club named "Paulie's Revue Bar" which is later taken over by the Leone family and renamed "Sex Club Seven". In the PSP version, as in all subsequent versions than the beta version you cannot go in the club. Although Liberty City Stories is set in 1998, the introduction DVD for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which takes place in 1992, shows the club as "Sex Club Seven". This is likely a continuity error as Liberty City Stories was not in development when the San Andreas introduction DVD was released. San Andreas' events lead up Grand Theft Auto III where the club was also named "Sex Club Seven".

Grand Theft Auto series fictional chronology
GTA era 1961 – London, 1961 1969 – London, 1969 1997 – Grand Theft Auto GTA 2 era 1999 – Grand Theft Auto 2 GTA III era 1984 – Vice City Stories 1986 – Vice City 1992 – San Andreas 1998 – Liberty City Stories 2000 – Advance 2001 – Grand Theft Auto III GTA IV era 2008 – Grand Theft Auto IV The Lost and Damned The Ballad of Gay Tony 2009 – Chinatown Wars GTA V era TBA - Grand Theft Auto V

List of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories characters

Plot

There are a million stories in Liberty City. This one changes everything. Once a trusted wise guy in the Leone crime family, Toni Cipriani was forced into hiding after killing a made man. Now he's back and its time for things to be put right.

The streets of Liberty City are in turmoil. Warring mafiosi vie for control as the town begins to self-destruct under waves of political corruption, organised crime, drug trafficking and union strikes. No one can be trusted as Toni tries to clean up the mess of the city's chaotic underworld. Deranged hit men, morally depraved tycoons, cynical politicians and even his own mother stand in his way as Toni tries to bring the city under Leone control.

Development

As stated in an IGN preview, "Rockstar dropped Renderware in favor of a brand new in-house engine to best utilize the resolution, texture density and particle effects of the PSP". Until the release of Liberty City Stories, RenderWare had been the game engine behind every 3D game in the GTA III era. Liberty City Stories used Image Metrics for the game's facial animation.

Soundtrack

Radio stations

Main article: Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories soundtrack

Liberty City Stories features ten radio stations, which comprise a mix of both licensed music and tracks created specifically for the game, plus one talk radio station. The ten radio stations are as follows:

Head Radio Double Cleff FM K-Jah Rise FM Lips 106

Radio Del Mundo MSX 98 Flashback FM The Liberty Jam LCFR

Custom soundtracks

A special feature for the PSP version of the game is the ability to listen to custom soundtracks. Previously, only Grand Theft Auto games on the Xbox and PC were able to implement custom soundtracks. When Liberty City Stories was released, the custom soundtracks option was featured in the "Audio" section of the menu (by pressing Start in gameplay) but did not have any use.

A few days after release of the game, Rockstar placed the application called "Rockstar Custom Tracks v1.0" on the official site under the "Downloads" section. This then gave people the chance to use the custom soundtracks feature. The application is based on Exact Audio Copy.

In the application, songs from a CD are ripped, compressed, and converted to .Wav files that can be read by the game. Rockstar Custom Tracks (RCT) only allows the ripping of songs that are from a store-bought CD. However, fans have found a way to compress and convert MP3 files that are not burned onto CDs. The Custom Tracks are just .Wav files renamed to .gta. RCT can also look up and use the names from the Freedb server if there are no names for the song(s). There must be at least one save file in order for RCT to work. It is thought that this will be used for other games Rockstar will release on the PSP from the name. More details can be found in the PDF in the file downloaded from the official site.

Reception

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	87.54%
Metacritic	88/100
Review scores
Publication	Score
Eurogamer	9.0/10
G4	4/5
GameSpot	9.0/10
GameTrailers	9.1/10
IGN	9.0/10
Official PlayStation Magazine (UK)	9.0/10

The game received very positive reviews, with a 9.0/10 from IGN. In the United States, the PlayStation 2 version of Liberty City Stories had sold 1 million copies by February 6, 2007; as of December 27, 2007, the PSP version has sold 1.83 million copies and the PS2 version has sold 1.32 million in the United States alone. As of March 26, 2008, Liberty City Stories has sold 8 million copies according to Take-Two Interactive.

External links

• Official GTA: Liberty City Stories Web site