Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Developer(s)	Rockstar Leeds Rockstar North
Publisher(s)	Rockstar Games
Platform(s)	PlayStation Portable PlayStation 2
Release	PSP October 25, 2005 November 4, 2005 PS2 June 6, 2006 June 22, 2006
Genre(s)	Action
Mode(s)	PSP Single player Multiplayer PS2 Single player

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is an installment of the Grand Theft Auto series, and as of July 2006 is the best selling game so far for the PlayStation Portable. It was released in the United States (U.S.) on October 25, 2005 and in the United Kingdom (UK) on November 4, 2005. The official site credits Take-Two Interactive companies Rockstar Games, Rockstar North, and Rockstar Leeds in the creation of this game. The game is to be followed by Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.

A port for the PlayStation 2 was released on June 6, 2006 in North America for a recommended retail price of US$19.99, June 22, 2006 in the UK and the rest of Europe for GBP £19.99 or EUR €29.99, respectively. The pricing of the PS2 port is less than half the typical price of a big name new release title (the first three PS2 installments of GTA debuted at US$49.99 each). The PS2 port does not feature the multi-player mode or custom soundtrack ripping capability of the original PSP version.

General

Story background

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 Grand Theft Auto III. Toni Cipriani is fresh back in the city after laying low for several years, having offed a fellow mobster 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 "Lucky" Cilli, and even Toni's own mother.

At this earlier time in the GTA lineage, Liberty City is slightly different. For example, Luigi Goterelli's Sex Club Seven is called Paulie's Revue Bar, and is instead owned by JD O'Toole, a pervert working for the Sindacco Mafia family (from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas), although the player sees how it becomes Sex Club Seven. There is also a Little Italy section of town that does not exist in the Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto III, although its fate is explained in this game. The way to get from island to island has also been tweaked. A ferry now runs from Portland Island to Staunton Island, and the tunnel that connects the islands in Grand Theft Auto III has not yet been completed - only the section of the tunnel that runs from north Shoreside Vale to south Shoreside Vale is open. The Callahan Bridge (the bridge that was blown up in Grand Theft Auto III) has also not been fully constructed yet. Only after the mission "Driving Mr. Leone", which occurs at around 19% completion, you can actually traverse the bridge as its construction progresses. In addition, motorbikes were previously permitted in the city. The official Liberty City Stories websites reveals that motorbikes were no longer in Grand Theft Auto III due to a public ordinance that banned them that was supported by the Maibatsu Corporation (which marketed the oversized Maibatsu Monstrosity in GTA III) in order to promote the use of automobiles in the city.

File:GTA Liberty City Stories scan explosion.jpg

Beta screenshot of protagonist Toni Cipriani in Liberty City.

Characters

Main article: List of characters in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Weapons

• Slot 1: Hand-to-hand combat; Fist, brass knuckles.
• Slot 2: Melee weapons; Knife, baseball bat, chisel, fire axe, katana, chainsaw, hockey stick, dildo (found in the police staton), butcher's cleaver, police nightstick, screwdiver, and machete
• Slot 3: Pistol; 9mm pistol (Glock 17), .357 Magnum (Colt Python).
• Slot 4: Shotguns; Shotgun, stubby shotgun (sawn-off shotgun), combat shotgun (SPAS-12).
• Slot 5: Submachine guns; TEC-9, MAC-10, micro-SMG (IMI Uzi), H&K MP5K.
• Slot 6: Assault rifles; AK-47, M4 carbine.
• Slot 7: Heavy artillery; Rocket launcher (RPG-7), Minigun (M-134 Gatlingun), M60 machine gun, Flamethrower.
• Slot 8: Explosives; Grenade, Molotov cocktail, remote satchel charge.
• Slot 9: Sniper rifles; PSG-1, and a basic sniper rifle.
• Slot 10: Detonator (for satchel charges), camera.

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. The ten radio stations are as followed:

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

Radio Del Mundo MSX 98 Flashback FM The Liberty Jam LCFR

Graphics

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". RenderWare has been the game engine behind every GTA since GTA III (which includes GTA III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas).

Multiplayer

The PSP version of Liberty City Stories has a multiplayer mode, for up to 6 players through wifi ad-hoc mode (same area). The game features 7 modes of wireless multiplayer gaming, in which various pedestrian and character models from the single player mode are available as player avatars. Rockstar decided to remove these modes from the PS2 version.

Easter eggs

• The Simpsons Reference: In one of Salvatore's missions on Shoreside Vale, Salvatore calls Toni and asks him to act as his 'lawyer' while speaking to the police. As cover, Salvatore refers to Toni as "Lionel". This may be a reference to a character in the hit tv series The Simpsons' Lionel Hutz, who plays Homer's attorney on several occasions, known for his heavy drinking and being notoriously poor at his job and hence the only lawyer in the town of Springfield the Simpson family can afford to represent them. This draws a parable with the plot in that Sal's not looking at Toni's lawyer credentials to get him out of jail.
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Reference: In the beginning of the "Biker Heat" mission, a poster above the bed that Maria is sitting on is of the imaginary rock band "Love Fist", the band which Tommy Vercetti befriended and completed missions for in Vice City.
• Bully Reference: wall to the north side of the hospital (facing the road) at Pike Creek, Shoreside Vale, there is a graffiti in red which reads "Bully", another game from Rockstar.
• Grand Theft Auto III Smiley Face Reference: There is a parking lot on the top southwest corner of Staunton Island. Look for a white staircase in between the parking garage and the parking lot entrances on the southside. Go up the staircase and jump on the short cement railing. Then turn east and jump up on the roof over looking the parking lot (Liberty Tree Building) and run across the roof to the other side where you will see a courtyard. Jump down into the courtyard and run to the very end of the courtyard to the northwest. Then on a wall at the end of a courtyard has a white picture of a smiley face and says 'Hello Again'. This is the same spot where in Grand Theft Auto III, where a sign says "You aren't supposed to be here." In the PS2 version, it says "You cant get enough of this alley can you?"
• Game of Death and Kill Bill Reference: After completing the "Crazy 69" mission, you will receive the "Dragon Jumpsuit" at your safehouse. This is the same article of clothing that Bruce Lee wore in the 1973 film Game of Death, and a suit in Kill Bill. The title of the mission, "Crazy 69", is also a referrence to the "Crazy 88", a team of martial artists from Kill Billwho thought 88 was a good number to call themselves (Bill says that there aren't actually 88 in the opening of Vol. 2).
• Madd Dogg's CD: At the Portland safehouse, there is a billboard advertising Madd Dogg (A rapper from San Andreas) and a rerelease of an old CD (The sign says "Digitally Remastered" on it).
• Candy Suxxx Reference: Billboards for "Let Me Bounce" can be seen around the city, starring Candy Suxxx, a prostitute-turned-porn star from Vice City.
• Graveyard Headstones: In the cemetery behind the church in Staunton Island, many of the headstones have names of characters who got killed earlier in the game.
• Toni's weight reference: In the game, many characters tell Toni he is too thin, this is probably why he is overweight in Grand Theft Auto III.
• ZIP: Random Landstalkers will spawn with ZIP boxes in the trunk.
• Chinese Food: After completing the "Wong Side of the Tracks" mission, there will be a cup of chinese food in the Portland Safehouse.
• San Andreas Reference: The mission Wong Side Of The Tracks is a reference to a San Andreas mission titled Wrong Side Of The Tracks.

Custom soundtracks

File:Rockstar Custom Tracks.PNG

Rockstar Custom Tracks

A special feature (only in 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. Many people posted on various internet forums asking how to use the feature. At one time, it was thought that these custom soundtrack abilities had to be unlocked, but this would have been very unusual since previous games didn't do this.

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 appears to be based on Exact Audio Copy.

In the application, songs from a CD are ripped, compressed, and converted to 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. This was met with much criticism among the fan community. However, fans have found a way to compress and convert MP3 files that are not burned onto CDs[1]. 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.

PSP exploit

In late 2005 a vulnerability was found in the way the PSP version of GTA: Liberty City Stories processes saved games. In December 2005 software was developed to execute unsigned code on PSPs with firmwares 1.50 through 2.60. In April 2006 firmware 2.70 was released and patched the exploit. Also, new copies of GTA: Liberty City Stories patched the exploit as well, preventing it from being executed on other firmware versions. Since then homebrew has advanced to the point that a copy of GTA: Liberty City Stories is no longer needed to run unsigned code.

Cheat Device

The GTA: Liberty City Stories Cheat Device is a mod or trainer which allows the player to manipulate gameplay in a multitude of ways, such as invincibility, or changing game constants like weather and water level. Created by Edison Carter, it can be found at his web site. It also includes a text file application in which the source code can be altered, allowing many different cheats to be put into the game, going as far as to create custom buildings and islands through means of spawning objects in a GUI called "Construction Mode." The last update to the Cheat Device was in May 2006.[2]

External links

Official sites

• Official GTA: Liberty City Stories Web site

Teaser sites

• Ammu-Nation – the ingame munitions store chain
• Lips106 FM – one of the ingame radio stations
• ElectronZoneRadio.com - Segment on LCFR (Liberty City Free Radio)
• Crowfest '98 - The music festival on its way to Liberty City
• Paulie's Revue Bar – the official site of the Red Light District strip club
• CitizensUnitedNegatingTechnology.org – Citizens United Negating Technology (C.U.N.T), an organization revealing the evils of the Internet.
• BathtubGinStill.com - A genuine replica authentic working Prohibition-era domestic Bathtub Gin Still.
• PastMaster - "The Future of Education about the past is Now"
• ItsVivisection.com - Boardgame/chemistry set for kids.

Fansites

A list of fansites can be found at Google Directory

Game resources

• Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories at IMDb
• Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories at MobyGames
• GTA: Liberty City Stories review at Gamestyle
• GTA: Liberty City Stories at StrategyWiki
• Trailer Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories at Insidegamer
• [3] - GT Video Review

Other

• GameFAQs secrets guide
• Gamewinners.com Cheat Codes