I thought I remembered a thread on this game, but I couldn't find it so here goes. Trailer was just released today.

http://www.rockstargames.com/vicecitystories/



Drops next month.

Yay for jetskis!

9/6/2006 10:27:59 AM

i had a thread for liberty city stories but havent heard about this one

i wonder if they'll put it out on PS2

9/6/2006 10:47:46 AM

I own LCS for both PSP and PS2 and I think I've played them both for a total of less than an hour.

I don't know why I'm so pumped about VCS. Maybe because I liked Vice City so much better than GTA III.

Flyable helicopters have been confirmed for this.

9/6/2006 10:52:55 AM

i got LCS for PS2 but didnt play it much...after you've played san andreas for days and days it just doesnt do it for me

9/6/2006 10:57:59 AM

From IGN: An interview with Rockstar's Gordon Hall. Link.

Quote :

"IGN: Vice City is a living, breathing city. What have been the largest technical challenges you've had to overcome to create this sort of dynamic setting? Gordon Hall: One of the biggest technical achievements in Vice City Stories has been the enormous effort involved in making Vice City this incredibly vibrant, detailed and alive place. The detail seen in the city has been ramped up massively over Liberty City Stories. We now have double the number of polygons in a city block, with new features such as animated textures and neon light effects and an all-new radiosity lighting model. On top of this we had to push for an even greater draw distance, especially now that we have the addition of helicopters and planes -- it's a real blast taking to the sky in these things and seeing the city sprawl beneath you. And just for good measure, Vice City Stories is even faster and smoother than Liberty City Stories. IGN: How is this different from the system used in Liberty City Stories? Hall: A lot went into making this possible -- we're very proud of what was achieved with Liberty City Stories, but that engine just couldn't cope with these demands. Among a raft of tweaks and tune-ups, we've come up with new ways for the CPU and the graphics processor to talk to each other. This has freed up the CPU to do other things, and allowed us to push the graphics processor even harder, bringing the Vice City vibe to life with these incredible views stretching off into the horizon. A big part of the whole Grand Theft Auto experience is the ability to seamlessly stream in these vast cities without needing to halt the game to load in some data. Vice City is so much bigger it required a whole new streaming system to be developed, one which will cope with any size of world you care to throw at it. This has been a tough technical challenge - but once cracked it was incredibly liberating for the team. We've compressed and optimized across the board, both by hand in the creation of the art and in the code itself. For example, we've now got a lossless compression system for an animation, which has allowed us to have a greater variety of cars and pedestrians at once. And we have this greater complexity and variety alongside even faster loading times. IGN: We've seen in the trailer that there will be aerial vehicles this time. How well will the PSP be able to handle viewing an entire city from the skies? Hall: That's a great question. Vice City is a complete city, and we have utilized all elements of the physical space in this game, from the land to the sea to the air. Vehicles have been created with these very different spaces in mind. From a technical standpoint, perhaps our greatest accomplishment has been the issue of draw distance. We have created a system that increases the draw distance to the point where every element in the players view has been created on screen. When you are in the air, pedestrians, cars, and anything on the ground will scale down depending on how close or far the player is to them, much as they would in real life. It really takes the scope of the series -- creating living cities -- one step further, this time for your PSP. It's as ambitious as anything we have done on a console version of Grand Theft Auto. In terms of the vehicles, there are aerial vehicles that play a central role in Multiplayer. As for the vehicles themselves, fan favorites have returned, as well as a whole collection of new ones that we are really pleased with. IGN: Has your approach to the landscape of Vice City changed? Hall: Hugely so. Another area that we've concentrated on is the water surrounding the landscape. Vice City itself is surrounded by a whole lot of water, so we've gone to town here. We've enhanced the water and boat physics, programming an improved buoyancy model which really becomes apparent if you mess around with the new Jet Ski. What's the point of creating new water physics without putting in vehicles uniquely designed to take advantage of the environment? As always with Grand Theft Auto, the emphasis here is on fast, fun and fluid mechanics (pun intended). With the Jet Ski you can dive under water and come bursting back up, you can really feel it bounce off the waves as the weather conditions change, you can turn on a dime and really send the water spraying. The look of the water has been improved too, with better translucency, wake, spray and wave effects. You can look forward to some awesome stunt-filled water races in both single player and multiplayer. IGN: Will the targeting system remain the same mixture of manual and auto-targeting from Liberty City Stories, or have you made any major adjustments to the system? Has the combat system been changed at all? Hall: Like all of versions, we have tweaked the existing targeting system. I wouldn't call it a complete overhaul, but we definitely have taken a fresh look at it, particularly in regards to how it relates to the hand-to-hand combat system. The combat system has more depth to it than any other Grand Theft Auto game. The targeting mechanic has been tweaked, but the biggest change has been to unarmed combat - you can now perform grappling moves and throws, you can get on top of an opponent on the ground for ground domination, and more. IGN: Will players be able to use custom soundtracks right away? Are there any major improvements to this system? Hall: Custom soundtracks exist. You'll be able to add new music right away. However, I'm not sure why you would want to -- the soundtrack has over 100 tracks, and is probably the best, deepest collection of songs ever assembled for any one project -- TV, Film, or Game. IGN: What has been the goal in bringing the Grand Theft Auto experience to the PSP? Hall: It's been incredibly exciting seeing all this come together. The response to Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was phenomenal. With that game, we succeeded in redefining what's possible on a handheld. The challenge with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories was that we had to top ourselves, which is never an easy feat. I can honestly say we've smashed right through our own expectations. It's something truly special. IGN: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. Hall: No problem!"

Damn this looks like it's gonna be awesome.

9/10/2006 10:02:31 AM

It's out. And it's awesome.

[Edited on October 31, 2006 at 11:59 AM. Reason : and free. ]

10/31/2006 11:58:45 AM

Makes me want to get Vice City back for PS2, and play it over.

10/31/2006 12:00:37 PM

I'm at work now, so I can't really play it, but it's worth it just to put on the headphones and listen to all the new music.

10/31/2006 12:04:59 PM

any news on when this is getting ported to ps2?

10/31/2006 4:16:32 PM

Sony has said there's no plans to port this one to PS2, so typically this means 6-8 months.

10/31/2006 5:20:27 PM

Damn this game is awesome. I didn't care much for Liberty City Stories, but this one has been tweaked just enough to feel just right. I'm lovin' it.

10/31/2006 7:32:41 PM

I love CSOs and 2.71SE B' firmware Playing this now

10/31/2006 10:51:56 PM