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Vice City Stories PS2 port plugged, then pulled from PlayStation.com
A PlayStation 2 listing for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories briefly appeared, and then disappeared on PlayStation.com, mimicking happenings on the ESRB website last week (VCS is no longer listed there either). As to be expected, Rockstar remains coy, having neither reiterated nor reversed its previous claim that the PSP exclusive would not be ported to PS2. Eurogamer supposes that there are still some financial issues to work out, namely retail price, before Rockstar and Take-Two go public with the port.On the flip side, the VCS port could also be in the process of getting canned. Letting fans starve a little will help build anticipation for GTA IV -- not that it's needed. Pulling the plug on the port would more likely signal that Rockstar is concerned about diluting its key franchise.
PSP downgrader: 3.03 to 1.50 in 8 simple steps
Just days after Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was again used to compromise Sony's PSP firmware (v3.03), a new downgrader application has been released. Those wishing to return -- perhaps for the first time -- to the storied glory of firmware v1.50 need only this trusty guide, Eboots of firmwares 1.50 & 3.03, and an original (unpatched) copy of GTA:LCS (not worth $400).Downgraders will likely make a quick upgrade to Dark_AleX's custom firmware for a far less restricted (but piracy-prone) PSP experience. Sony is no doubt working quickly to re-secure its porous handheld.[Via PSP Fanboy]
Today's raddest game video: GTA San Andreas bike stunts
It takes a brave man (or woman) to try his hand on the dangerous streets of GTA:SA, and an even braver man (or woman) to try those streets on a motorcycle. Then to go above and beyond that, and drive like a complete and total maniac? Fugeddaboutit.Thankfully, someone else has done all the work for you, slapped a thrashing soundtrack to it, and uploaded it to YouTube. All you have to do now is sit back, hit play, and enjoy. Better yet, watch it, and then go out and try it all yourself. Virtually, that is. Please don't try this at home. Unless you're trying it on your console. We don't mean standing on your console, we mean ... ah, forget it. Just watch the darn thing.
How much would you pay for an unpatched GTA?
With the 3.03 downgrade now available, many gamers will undoubtedly be on a frantic search for an unpatched GTA: Liberty City Stories. The copies that are available in stores are patched to prevent the downgrading exploit from working, meaning it may be nigh impossible to find a hack-compatible version.One seller on eBay is attempting to capitalize on this demand and is selling his unpatched copy for a whopping $400. Surely, this must be a doomed auction? I hope so: you could buy yourself twenty copies of the game at that game. Chances are, you'll find an unpatched one eventually.So, how about you, PSP Fanboy reader? Are you desperately searching for the exploitable GTA?[Via PlayStation]
Scarface bound for Wii
Just so you know, it took every ounce of energy to resist the obvious headline, "Say hello to my Wii friend." The implication of such an unfortunately predictable line of text would be that Vivendi's Scarface is being ported to the Nintendo Wii. The latest issue of British magazine, Ngamer, subtly revealed the news by placing Tony Montana on the cover and asking, "Is this the closest thing to Grand Theft Auto on Wii?" As you might expect, the Wii version features point-and-shoot Wiimote controls, along with motion-sensitive (and delightfully limb-severing) chainsaw waving. Coupled with The Godfather's love for violent flailing, it seems the Wii is truly living up to its family console image. It's about time somebody put the "laughter" back into "manslaughter." [Thanks Ross.]
Ask PSP Fanboy: Volume 4
Every Saturday, PSP Fanboy will answer your burning questions. If you have a question for the team, send an e-mail to andrew @ pspfanboy.com with the subject "Ask PSP Fanboy."Q: With news of the recent "Hello World" N00bz exploit for 2.81-3.03 PSPs, word is that an un-patched version of GTA: Liberty City Stories will be required for the future downgrader. How can I explicitly tell an un-patched GTA:LCS from a patched one?A: Hope this image from DCEmu helps:The unpatched version seems to feature different pictures. As a general rule of thumb, you'll have to look for the oldest copies you can find, so they'll most likely be used. When you pop in the disc, make sure the game offers a 2.0 firmware upgrade, not anything higher. Good luck.See more questions after the break.
Shocker: Vice City Stories listed for PS2
A search for "grand theft auto vice city stories" on the ESRB website now yields two results. Surprised? Didn't think so. Despite Rockstar's insistence that Vice City Stories would not go the way of Liberty City Stories (that is, be ported to PlayStation 2), it appears as if the company is again being tempted by the potential gains of a double-dip. Can you blame 'em? (Perhaps the better question: Can you resist them?)
Vice City Stories no longer a PSP exclusive
Vice City Stories to be PSP exclusive? Many doubted Rockstar, considering how Liberty City Stories made the jump to PlayStation 2. Well, looks like the doubters were right: A look at the ESRB website reveals a listing for a PS2 version of Vice City Stories. If it follows the footsteps of its Liberty City brethren, it will launch on PS2 for a measly $20, sans multiplayer.Considering the relatively low sales of the latest GTA, it makes sense. Now, a whole new audience will be able to play with Phil Collins.[Via IGN]See also:PSP Fanboy review: GTA Vice City Stories
Alive and gaming in Baghdad
"We can't go outside, so I prefer to keep inside and keep myself alive."The words are from Wisam, a gamer living in Baghdad. Wisam is a rarity, and listening to his story on Iraq blog / vlog Alive In Baghdad explains why. Wisam, a recent graduate of the Baghdad University English Department, explains that he spends upwards of $200 on electricity each month -- partly from a local generator that runs 4 p.m. until midnight and partly from the fuel he buys for his personal generator. That's a hefty sumWisam said he learned his English from games such as Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy. MTV News' Stephen Totilo has a thorough piece on Wisam and the crew of Alive in Baghdad. Among the game-related topics discussed, Wisam talked about the decline in interest for war shooters like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty. "We hate the attacking, the gunfire in games," Wisam told MTV News. "We started to hate it."In a sad note, Wisam described how Grand Theft Auto is much like Baghdad right now. Omar Abdullah, who interviewed Wisam for Alive in Baghdad, concurred, telling MTV News that "it was very, very similar to Baghdad. We were like, 'Oh my God. These are the same actions that happen in Baghdad.' There are some places that are divided. For each place, there is a gang ruling that place. You can go down the street and drive any car. If you want to jump on a motorcycle, you can do it."With all the news that circulates about Baghdad, include tonight's U.S. Presidential address, it's thought-provoking to see a often missed perspective on the region.
Nintendo holds key to franchise longevity, profitability
As noted earlier, a list published by UK newspaper The Independent reveals what many already assume; Nintendo's Mario is the best-selling franchise of all time. Coupled with the second best-selling franchise Pokémon (also a Nintendo property), the two series, which have sold a combined 348 million games worldwide, account for nearly 34% of the total sales of the top-twenty best-selling franchises; which include two additional Nintendo IPs ranked in the top ten, Donkey Kong and Zelda. So what's Nintendo's secret?Cross-culture appeal, spin-offs (e.g., racers, sports titles, puzzlers), brand saturation (e.g., apparel, card games, TV shows), and E-ratings all appear part of a profitable formula built for the long haul.
Thompson threatens Microsoft over GTA4, ignores Sony
Everybody's favorite lawyer is at it again, this time sending a heads up letter to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates promising to "undertake various means to prohibit and stop the sale of [Grand Theft Auto 4] to minors." The letter, a copy of which was sent to Joystiq, warns Microsoft against "participating in any fashion, directly or indirectly, in such sales to minors." We can only guess than indirect participation would be simply allowing the game to be released on the Xbox 360, and we doubt that Microsoft will be willing to give up its day-and-date bombshell just because of a vague threat from Thompson. In the letter, Thompson cites an Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility report which shows game retailers like Target and Best Buy are actually "doing a better job of controlling sales of violent video games to children." Wouldn't a study that shows retailers doing a worse job have been a better choice? Also, wouldn't such a letter have been more effective going to a retailer than a console maker that has little to no control on point-of-purchase sales ratings enforcement? And why is Thompson targeting Microsoft while ignoring Sony, which is also planning to host GTA4 on its system later this year? Last year Sony was public enemy No. 1 for allowing GTA in Japan. Has the PS3's launch-time troubles made them a less attractive target?
SEC filing reveals 3mil Take Two shares unloaded
Hedge fund Glenview Capital Management have revealed in an SEC filing that it sold exactly 3 million shares of Take Two stock over the course of six transactions on December 21 at $19.25 each, amounting to $57.75 million. Glenview also disclosed that it held a 6.7% stake, or 4.88 million shares, of the controversial publisher. You might be quick to think something rather shifty is going on behind the scenes with such a large quantity of sales, but remember that GCM is a hedge fund with a fiduciary responsibility to its investors, and Take Two's stock has been on a steady rise since the FTC concluded its investigation of the Hot Coffee incident in June.[Via Seeking Alpha and Dubious Quality]
Destroy All Humans started as a joke, launched a "dance" career
Matt Harding was designing Xbox games for Pandemic Studios Australia when a family-friendly game he had been working on was cancelled. Piqued, he pitched a game to management about "blowing up everything and killing everyone" as a comment on the games industry's obsession with violent games like Grand Theft Auto and Halo. When publishers saw the proposal, they responded enthusiastically, "Yeah! That is exactly what we want, we want a game about killing everyone!" And so Destroy All Humans was given the green light, despite the fact that it had been conceived as a joke. Matt wasn't too thrilled with the idea of making that sort of game, so he emptied his savings account and embarked on a 17-country, six-month trip around the world. At some point during the trip, he got the idea of filming himself dancing in each location. Many of you have seen the results, but just in case you h'ain't, you can watch the videos here and here. Who said violent games do nothing positive for the world? Without GTA, Matt might have never have embarked on his magical dance journey, and we'd all be the poorer for it.
The Political Game: Censorship in Beantown
Each week Dennis McCauley contributes The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games:I don't much care for Grand Theft Auto.Aside from occasional review duties, I don't play Saints Row, either, or Reservoir Dogs or Scarface. Crime games are just not my thing; however, I don't dispute your right to enjoy those titles.In Boston, though, political pressure has forced the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) to agree that it will no longer carry ads for GTA or any other M-rated game. This came about after an organization known as the Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhood objected to subway ads for GTA Vice City Stories on the MBTA's Green Line.Faced with a politically tenuous situation, the transit authority folded, deciding that it could ban M-rated game ads under the same rationale by which it refuses ads for X-rated movies. This is the games-as-porn approach that failed so miserably in Louisiana recently.
Boston transit system bans M rated game ads
The MBTA, Boston's public transit system authority, has decided to ban advertising in the system for all M and AO rated video games. According to The Boston Herald the transportation authority believed that if "X-rated movies" are banned from advertising, so should M and AO rated games. We're a little tired of trying to explain what The Boston Herald means in Boston. Let's leave it at they helped hype Susan Linn's Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood who said, "We are thrilled that the MBTA has been so responsive to community concerns ... The children of Boston can now ride the MBTA without being targets for advertising that glorifies violence." Meanwhile the MBTA continues to promote alcoholism with entire train cars full of Tanqueray and Bud Light advertisements. Obviously MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas finds video games a much greater concern to the community than alcoholism.
Public transportation and GTA: Vice City Stories
GamePolitics has a roundup of the Portland, Oregon public transportation system removing GTA: Vice City Stories advertisements. They've also linked to The Oregonian's columnist Jerry Boone's editorial about how GTA might cause a small percentage of gamers to go on "stealing, killing and raping binges." At the end Boone says the transit system lost $71,250 removing the ads, but the value of a cop's life is "priceless." Boone is right, a small percentage of gamers might kill cops, because it never happens the other way around. Wonder how much the life of a dead unarmed kid and his bullet filled dog are worth? On the other coast, the head of Boston's public transportation system told the politicians to go take a long walk off a short Boston pier. The GTA ads are staying up. The outrage in Boston was pretty faux and created by the local tabloid paper The Boston Herald. Maybe The Oregonian made the whole crisis up to sell papers like The Boston Herald did. Sadly, the Portland public transportation directors have no spines and blew over like a house of cards to "media issue of the week" pressure.Meanwhile, in England ... GTA: Vice City Stories is advertised on a double-decker bus.
PSP dominates on list of games for parents to avoid
The National Institute on Media and the Family has just released their annual Report Card, and are advising parents to avoid buying certain games for their kids. All of the titles feature "M" ratings, but meh... parents are too busy to actually look at ratings! Here are the games to avoid, with PSP titles bolded: Gangs of London * The Sopranos Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories * Reservoir Dogs Mortal Kombat: Unchained * Scarface: The World is Yours The Godfather: Mob Wars * Saints Row Dead Rising Just CauseThis list tells me one thing: the PSP really is for the mature crowd. Four of those titles are either exclusive, or enhanced on the PSP, making this system easily much more evil than the childish DS counterpart. At least the Institute recommends Loco Roco for the holidays, which should distract the kids from downloading porn onto their systems.[Via Joystiq]
Boston Herald created GTA controversy, politicians followed [update 1]
The Political Game piece by Dennis McCauley of GamePolitics helped highlight a little story from Boston this week about controversial advertisements on the MBTA public transportation system, known as the T, for GTA: Vice City Stories. As a Boston native and resident it behooves me to give a little more context to the T and, more importantly, The Boston Herald who hyped this story.None of the organizations or politicians demanding the T pull the ads have a leg to stand on without admitting to massive hypocrisy. GTA: Liberty City Stories, released last year, had advertisements all over the T and nobody said anything about it. There is also a profusion of liquor advertisements and far more potentially "objectionable" advertisements on the T. The head of the T, Daniel Grabauskas, promised to begin the process of amending the MBTA's advertising guidelines to prohibit M- and AO-rated games in the future. How are liquor ads promoting something that can only be purchased by someone 21+ appropriate for the public transportation system, but games for 17 year-olds and older inappropriate?A little context probably needs to be given to how this story got to this level. The Boston Herald and their reporters pander to the lowest common denominator and have been the ones pounding the drums of war on this issue. The Boston Globe may initially report on a story, but The Boston Herald sensationalizes it. If you live in a two newspaper town you know there is typically one standard paper (The Boston Globe) and one white-trash yellow-journalism fear-mongering newspaper (The Boston Herald). The Boston Herald is dying, having laid off most of its staff, and in its death throes hypes trash to gain attention, attempting to sell bundles of newspapers nobody will buy, which are then given away for free on the streets to keep circulation numbers artificially inflated. As long as Boston politicians finally learn to ignore The Boston Herald -- the same way the readership and citizenry of Boston has -- then issues like this will not occur again. What's even better is for all their faux outrage now, in early November The Boston Herald said GTA: Vice City Stories and GTA: Liberty City Stories "may be the most entertaining games available for the PSP."(Update 1: Fixed a few minor bits of the grammar)
Hijack PSP Fanboy's 1500th post, win GTA
About two months ago, I was in a bar, having a few drinks, thinking about how awesome my blogging experience was going to be at PSP Fanboy. Then, I blacked out. I woke up, with a mysterious mark on my neck, and then learned that my super power was to blog profusely. In just a little over two months since our 1000th post, we've reached yet another milestone: our 1500th post. And like before, it's time to give away some swag! We're giving away a bag full of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories goodies, including the game, a t-shirt and a sticker. All you have to do is threaten us... GTA style. Imagine me playing my PSP, and you're telling me to give you GTA... or else! Think of your funniest/most intimidating threat, and post it in the comments section. Watch your language, though. Simply offensive comments will be deleted and disqualified. The best entries will be the ones that don't resort to such low-brow measures. Giveaway ends on 11/23/06. Random winner will receive their prize after 12/8/06. Limit 1 entry per person. P.S. Expect a review of GTA soon. Also, thanks for all your support. Our readership has been growing steadily, and I'd like to thank all of you for reading the blog. Please, spread the word and help PSP Fanboy continue to grow! Thanks.
Crackdown gameplay, co-op explored [update 1]
Crackdown, from GTA creator Jason David Jones, is an interesting game. Go find an interview with a Microsoft executive and find the part where he is inevitably asked what 360 games he is looking forward to. Crackdown is almost always on that list. And yet, if you read internet chatter, the first thing out of many people's mouths is, "this game looks like crap." Whether or not you can deal with the (slightly) cel-shaded graphics, one thing remains clear: the game sounds like a lot of fun. Shacknews recently got a chance to sit down with the game, exploring both the single player game and co-op. Crackdown places players in the shoes of an agent, a genetically enhanced super soldier deployed in Los Muertos, a city where regular law enforcement just doesn't cut it anymore. The ultimate goal is to remove all the gang activity from the city -- destroying 21 gang leaders to do so. The game has no set, linear way in which to reach this goal, but does employ some MetroidVania style impediments to point players in a suggested direction. For instance, if you don't have high enough agility to jump over a certain wall, you probably aren't ready to deal with what's on the other side. Of course, there are multiple ways to reach a given destination (including vehicles that drive up walls). Players will slowly gain new abilities as they level up the game's five skills: agility, firearms, driving, explosions, and strength. Firearms and explosions are self-explanatory. Agility governs how high you can jump -- over buildings once it's high enough. When leveled up, strength will allow you to throw cars and other huge objects at deserving miscreants and thugs. Driving, curiously, affects what sort of badass machine your Agency car morphs into.Co-op, always a welcome feature, allows you and a friend to join up online and take down kingpins together. Of course, you could just shoot each other, but where's the fun in that?Update: The name of GTA's creator is David Jones, not Jason Jones. Jason Jones is the co-counder of Bungie. Guess I have Halo on the brain.[Via Evil Avatar]
