Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was the first GTA game released for the PlayStation Portable. Set in Liberty City in 1998, it is a prequel to the events of Grand Theft Auto III.

Storyline
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 it's 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, organized 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 his own mother stand in his way as Toni tries to bring the city under Leone control.

Forced to fight for his life in an odyssey that will shake Liberty City to its foundations, Toni must use any means necessary to secure his place in the leadership of the Leone family in a town up for grabs.

Liberty City in 1998
At this earlier time in the GTA lineage, Liberty City is slightly different. For example, Luigi Goterelli's Sex Club Seven is named 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 later becomes Sex Club Seven. There is also a Little Italy section of town that does not exist in the Liberty City from GTA 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 GTA 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 GTA 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.

Location
See Liberty City.

Vehicles
See Vehicles in GTA: Liberty City Stories.

Weapons
See Weapons in GTA: Liberty City Stories.

Characters
See Characters in GTA: Liberty City Stories.

Major Gangs

 * Leone Family
 * Sindacco Family
 * Forelli Family
 * Sicilian Mafia
 * Yakuza

Minor Gangs

 * Triads
 * Colombian Cartel
 * Diablos
 * Yardies
 * Southside Hoods
 * Liberty City Bikers
 * Avenging Angels

Controls
On the PlayStation 2, character movement is controlled using the analog stick and the D-pad being used to cycle through the available weapons. The Select button changes the camera mode. To target an enemy, the player holds the right trigger and can then cycle through targets using left and right on the D-pad. Whilst in a car, the trigger buttons can be used for drive-by shootings. While in the midst of a mission, all enemies (that is, those directly relating to the mission) are indicated on the radar by red dots. In the game's menu, the player can choose to reverse the functions of the analog stick and D-Pad.

The PlayStation 2 version of Liberty City Stories combines various gameplay mechanics from the PS2 versions of GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas. Camera control is similar to that of San Andreas, while on-foot movement and gunplay are closer to III or Vice City. However, third-person free-aiming is available in Liberty City Stories, which draws from the aiming mechanics of 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 removed these modes from the PS2 port of GTA Liberty City Stories.

The first is Liberty City Survivor, a tie-in to the radio advertisement found in GTA III of a fictional reality television show of the same name. In Liberty City Survivor, players fight for themselves in a deathmatch. The first player to reach a certain number of kills, or with the highest score when the timer runs out is the winner. Players can also play in teams, or "gangs". Ultimately players will be able to choose from over 60 different characters, and play on all three islands, depending on progress through the single player storyline, but from the get go, it is limited to Portland with a generous nine characters to choose from.

The second mode of play is Protection Racket, in which players attack an opposing player's gang base in order to destroy four limos while the other gang tries to protect its limos. When time runs out, or a gang destroys the other gang's limos, a new round begins with the gang roles reversed.

In Get Stretch, players try to steal the other gang's gang cars from their base and take it to their base. The game ends when a gang reaches the score limit or time runs out.

In The Hit List, players have to kill the Marked player as quickly as possible. Survive as long as possible when you are the Mark. In the first round, one player will be chosen randomly as the Mark, all other players must try to kill the Marked player as quickly as possible. Once a Marked player has been killed, a different player will be randomly chosen to be the Mark. Making a successful kill on a Marked player will award you with extra time that is added to your survival time at the end of the game. Once all players have been Marked and killed, the player with the longest survival time wins. The Marked player's vehicle will take damage over time.

In Street Rage players must drive through the checkpoints to get to the finish line first. Players are allowed to change vehicles and shoot other players to win the race. Players will be automatically re-spawned in a vehicle on the track after a short period of time if they do not have a vehicle or if they have been killed. The player that finishes the race first wins. The Sticky Tires powerup improves vehicle handling for limited time, while Instant Repair is just that, an instant repair for your vehicle.

The Wedding List is a free-for-all game where players must collect cars scattered throughout the city and deliver them to shipping crates. Only players in the vehicles to be collected will know the destinations of the shipping crates. Cash is awarded based on the condition of the cars when they are delivered. Once all the cars have been collected and delivered, the player with the most cash wins this game mode.

In Tanks for the Memories players have to be the first to the tank and try to survive the target Tank Time. Other players must try to destroy the tank before the Tank Time is reached. If this happens, the player who caused the most damage to the tank will occupy a new tank and, as before, it must be destroyed as quickly as possible. This continues until a player reaches the Tank Time; this player is declared the winner.

Music
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 follows:
 * Lips 106
 * Head Radio
 * Rise FM
 * The Liberty Jam
 * Flashback FM
 * MSX 98
 * Radio Del Mundo
 * K-JAH
 * Double Clef FM
 * LCFR

Custom Soundtracks
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. Because Rockstar Custom Tracks (RCT) only allow the ripping of songs that are from a store-bought CD, burning your downloaded songs onto a CD won't work. The only way to bypass this restriction is to use iTunes to put your music on a CD, as RCT recognizes iTunes-burned CD's as store-bought CDs. 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 CD's. 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.

Official sites

 * Official website

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 (also .com) – Citizens United Negating Technology (CUNT), an organization revealing the evils of the Internet
 * BathtubGinStill.com, Beer
 * PastMaster - "The Future of Education about the past is Now"
 * ItsVivisection.com - Boardgame/chemistry set for kids.

Fansites

 * GTAPSP.com
 * GTAPortable.com
 * GTALCS.net (The GTA Place)
 * GTALibertyCityStories.net (GTANet)