Morning Discussion

Hello Tuesday, and happy St. Patrick's Day to all! An entire day of green-tinted fun!

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars showed up here yesterday, and I have to say, I'm quite impressed by what Rockstar was able to do with the Nintendo DS hardware. It flat out feels like a Grand Theft Auto game--fancy cinematic opening, swearing and all.

My only complaint thus far is that some of the touch-screen mini-games (car jacking, in particular) seem to work better with the stylus than my pudgy finger, which means that I'm racing to pull out / put away the stylus every now and then.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
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    March 17, 2009 7:08 AM

    Yup I love the GTA on the DS too, and I just got to the drug dealing minigame all over the city, and it's rad to see this game be integrated in a GTA...

    Is this the first GTA to do this ? i haven't played one since GTA3 ....

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      March 17, 2009 7:13 AM

      The only game I've seen that with a splash screen full of cocaine or heroin...on the DS no less. That's ballsy

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      March 17, 2009 7:17 AM

      This will def. be my next DS game I pick up. Looks like a glorious return to the roots.

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      March 17, 2009 7:54 AM

      It's absolutely amazing. I didn't expect to be as thrilled with it as I am, but it's like an enhanced version of the first 2 games. The driving is a little iffy... I can't seem to find a street not packed with cars, but you just have to get over the fact that you're going to crash into everything if you want to drive fast. Some of the streets are a bit narrow as well as being crowded too.
      That's it as far as complaints, though. Getting email tips on drug deals is amazing... I've found myself putting off main missions just to drive around to all my dealers trying to buy low and sell high. Sold a bunch of coke for like $20,000 lol.

      I've gotten used to playing with the stylus in my hand. There's no way to play some of the mini games without it. That's always bothered me about the DS. Either be a stylus game or don't. Don't make me have to reach for it every 5 minutes.

      Great game, though. Most fun I've had on the system in a while and I'm still in awe that big N let them get away with everything they did.

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        March 17, 2009 7:58 AM

        what about the mini game to hotwire cars?

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          March 17, 2009 10:24 AM

          What about it? There's actually a few different ways to jack a car... a screwdriver in the keyhole, hotwiring and some computer thinga-ma-jig where you have to enter the proper code sequence at the right time. So far I really like all the little mini games, just annoying to have to scramble for the stylus ever time.

          Also, scratch cards are painfully addictive!

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      March 17, 2009 8:18 AM

      Where's the outrage over this game? The DS's core market is kids.

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        March 17, 2009 8:24 AM

        i think people are fresh out of GTA-related outrage

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        March 17, 2009 8:26 AM

        Is this a troll? I thought we had collectively moved beyond the whole NINTENDO IS FOR KIDS ONLY mentality.

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          March 17, 2009 8:29 AM

          kids and man-kids?

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          March 17, 2009 8:34 AM

          I wish Nintendo would move beyond that mentality. Their best selling games are generally their mass-appeal stuff, and yet they wouldn't still be a game company if the hardcore crowd hadn't supported the GameCube.

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          March 17, 2009 8:51 AM

          It is the truth though. Look at 90% of the software and shovelware for it. The thing is marketed at kids nearly all the time. The good thing is alot of other non-kiddie games come out for the thing as well. And they're uually great.

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          March 17, 2009 10:29 AM

          there is a lot of gimmicky shovelware for kids and the mass market. it's probably safe to say most of their releases are

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