Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

Unreleased

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories is an upcoming game for the Playstation Portable, it will be the second Grand Theft Auto game to appear on the handheld console. The game is being developed by Rockstar Leeds, and published and released by Rockstar Games. Take-Two Interactive announced the release dates would be October, 17th in the United States, and October 20th In the United Kingdom and rest of Europe. Suggested retail prices are $49.99 for the USA, and £34.99 in the UK.

As the title suggests, the game will be set in Vice City, as was Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and will feature a brand new storyline, according to a press release by Take-Two Interactive.

Details
On 1st August 2006, Gamepro Australia magazine published an article giving us the first detailed information on Vice City Stories, through an interview with Rockstar. The scans from that article are below, provided by JarJar from GTAForums.


 * Vic Vance will be the main character (playable protagonist). Vic is a 28 year old marine in peak physical condition.
 * VCS is set in 1984 and is "much" bigger than Vice City
 * Lots of familiar buildings that we see just entering development.
 * Animations have been improved massively from the other GTA games. It is now much more realistic and the character's emotions are are more true.
 * New Vehicles - Jetskis for example, are in the game.
 * Helicopters are flyable (unlike LCS)
 * Improved realistic bike handling
 * Vic does have the ability to swim.
 * The game will feature a multiplayer mode similar to that in LCS.
 * New weather effects including hurricanes
 * Less "A-B" missions, more unique style of gameplay
 * There is a new theme park on Ocean Beach - the star attraction of which is "Chunder Wheel" - a giant wheel which you can ride in first person view!
 * New water effects, shower the streets with spray from your jetski.
 * Vice City's radio stations will return with new songs
 * New loading system which means only slight pauses before missions
 * Trip Skips are back! (The little taxi that takes you back to the location of your last mission after you die)
 * NO Character and Vehicle Customization
 * NO Wall Climbing
 * NO seamless integration of interior and exterior areas (as seen in LCS)



Rumours
The following rumours and predictions are from before the above article was published, so may now be irrelevant.


 * A PS2 version hasn't been officially announced, but is likely to be released following the trend of Liberty City Stories.

Characters
After the release of the cover art, much speculation has spread. The woman leaning on the Infernus strongly resembles Laura Shrub, the wife of Alex Shrub, who can be seen on page 4 of the Vice City manual. Colonel Juan García Cortez is thought to be one of the men standing on the boat, along with right hand man Gonzales. The close-up appears to be Umberto Robina, noticed by adamcs at GTAVice. The biker was originally thought to be "Big" Mitch Baker, however, on closer inspection it would appear that he more closely resembles the NPC biker gang member in Vice City.

Setting
Vice City is obviously the city being used in the game, however it is unknown if any physical changes will be made to the landscape. It is likely small changes will be made, similar in size to the ones made to Liberty City in Liberty City Stories.

The year the game was thought to be 1983, following the trend of Liberty City Stories by setting the year of the game 3 years before its "sequel" GTAIII. In the recent Australian Gamepro it was revealed that the year of the game will be set in 1984, The suspected 3 year gap is now a 2 year gap, breaking the trend and setting a smaller gap between the two games.