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True Crime... Streets of LA. [ Games Spot Light ] Released Date : Dec, 2003
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Summary over game.

There may not be a new "Grand Theft Auto" game this year, but "True Crime: Streets of L.A." may help quench your thirst for free-form urban crime this holiday season. Today "X-Play" visits La-La-land to help clean up the streets. In some respects, "True Crime" is "Grand Theft Auto" told from the other side of the badge. You play loose-cannon cop Nick Kang, newly assigned to the Elite Operations Division of the LAPD. The EOD's job is to take care of special types of crimes, namely the ones that make for good action-movie fare. His investigations start small and end up entangled with the Russian mob, militant Korean nationals, and the depths of Chinatown's underworld. Kang the conqueror Nick's a talkative character. Witty and with just the right amount of cockiness, he's a direct descendant of Mel Gibson's character in the "Lethal Weapon" films. Being of Chinese descent, many of his lines refer to some kind of Chinese cultural item or other. In particular, at the beginning of gunfights he has a tendency to shout, "Oh sh*t, it's dim-sum time!" We still don't know what that's supposed to mean.


Nick's voice is supplied by Russell Wong , of "Romeo Must Die" fame. "True Crime's" other characters are voiced by even larger Hollywood luminaries. Gary Oldman , Christopher Walken , Michael Madsen , Michelle Rodriguez , and many others make aural appearances, and their performances are all top-quality.
I love L.A.

The most prominent supporting character in "True Crime" is the city of Los Angeles. The map is exceptionally detailed and covers all of Los Angeles County. It's so accurate that Los Angeles residents or those familiar with the city will have a distinct advantage in the game. Grocery stores are where they are in real life, as are video stores, friends' apartment buildings, and just about anything else you can think of. It's a beautiful recreation of the ugliest city in the world. Technically, you're supposed to go to the green glowing spot to advance the story line, but "True Crime" has plenty to distract you from your main goals. Red dots will regularly pop up on your mini-map to alert you that a random crime is taking place. This can range from a street race to a rape in progress to an armed robbery. Stopping these crimes will keep you playing for several hours. Learning the ropes Using badge points earned from police work, you can train in driving, firearms, and martial arts. Each training mission will give Nick a new ability in that field of expertise. The game can be completed without any training bonuses, but many of the abilities help a lot, and are a nice way to customize Nick to your tastes. It's difficult to finish the game as a good cop without the precision aiming skill. You'll be popping hostages in the head left and right, and that's bad karma. Yes, the methods you use to deal with criminals will affect your cop karma rating. Taking out two guys in a fistfight with headshots will net you some bad cop karma, for instance. Go figure. Get them to surrender peacefully with a flash of your badge and some handcuffs, and your karma rating with climb toward the "good" side. Control yourself, Kang It's highly recommended that you spend some quality time with Nick busting up random crimes. "True Crime's" controls are fairly complex and not very intuitive at first. Between the driving, gunplay, and kung fu, Nick has many abilities at his disposal, and it can take an hour or more before they all feel like second nature. Frustration is the name of the game early on, as even a brief fumbling with the controls often leads to Nick's grisly demise. When you do get the hang of the gameplay, "True Crime" is great fun. With practice you can bust crimes up without even leaving your car.

[ True Crime Image ]
Once you're proficient in Kang control, you can whip through the story mode in a few hours. There are three possible endings, but none of the missions are especially challenging. The story is engrossing, though, and the high-quality acting helps nail the atmosphere of a mid-grade action flick. At one point the game takes a turn for the seriously weird, and you'll find yourself battling demons and dragons in an underground lava cave. Seriously. Still, if there's anywhere in America where ancient Chinese dragons lurk beneath the earth, it's Los Angeles. Sir, I can't arrest you if you merge with the road The size and scope of the game is enormous, but "True Crime" doesn't skimp on the details, either. Characters are decent-looking and the city environments are accurate enough that Los Angelinos will recognize their surroundings often. Unfortunately, glitches plague the game more often than they should. Fleeing criminals clip through buildings, cars occasionally fall through solid onramps, and interrupted animations can lead to severe problems. During the very first random crime we attempted to bust, one of the perps actually managed to get stuck up to his ankles in the asphalt of Figueroa Street. Indoor missions also suffer from an extremely uncooperative camera that gets stuck on walls and doorways far too often to ignore.

Near miss "True Crime: Streets of L.A." is a solid game that manages to be more than just a "GTA" clone. It was clearly rushed, however, and the numerous bugs and glitches drag it down to a great degree. With a few more months of polish, "True Crime" would have been a contender for a five. It's a ride worth taking, but not quite perfection.



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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Revealed

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Rockstar moves the Grand Theft Auto franchise to the west coast...
Rockstar Games has officially named and dated the next instalment in the bestselling Grand Theft Auto series. Expect it this October, as a PS2 exclusive, going by the name of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas...

Scheduled for 19 October in the US and 22 October in Europe, San Andreas will arrive with a loyal and massive fanbase that encompasses a wide demographic, but Vice City will be a tough act to follow. Genuinely innovative, packed full of quality Hollywood voiceover work (Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds), and a killer soundtrack, Vice City has been aped unsuccessfully by many. It's a mouth-watering prospect to see how Rockstar will top its creation, but the publisher is confident of succeeding.

"In the past couple of years, we have an enormous amount of pressure on ourselves to ensure we do everything possible to exceed people's expectations with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," said Sam Houser, president of Rockstar Games. "Even though we have eight months to go, we are starting to become very proud of what we have achieved and we can't wait to get the game into player's hands."

Given the phenomenal success of the series so far - 30 million sales and counting - it was natural for the games press to leap upon any rumor involving the words 'Grand' and 'Theft.' Many possible titles, and thereby settings have been linked to the fourth full-game instalment, including Grand Theft Auto IV: Sin City, which did the rounds in January and led to speculation the game would be based in Las Vegas.

Which begs the question: what exactly will San Andreas be like? San Francisco is the apparent model, which would follow logically from the New York-esque Liberty City of GTA III and the virtual Miami built to represent Vice City. Less likely (though you can never rule these things out with Rockstar) is the real-life town of San Andreas, California. Population 2615. Capital of Calaveras County, home to the annual Jumping Frog Jubilee festival, San Andreas sounds like a sweet place. You can just see Tommy Vercetti sticking a straw up the poor amphibian and ruining things.

Considering the hostility of New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other political and law enforcement officers to Grand Theft Auto, we're hoping to obtain an official response from local Sheriff Dennis Downing about the arrival of Rockstar's mob in their little town.

Publicity-baiting Rockstar found it hard to stay out of the news last year with its release of the graphically violent (but underwhelming sales-wise) Manhunt, and a highly publicized protest from the New York Haitian community after it caught wind of a dodgy mission in Vice City. Regardless, Leslie Benzies, president of Rockstar North, was predictably upbeat about the series' future:

[ GTA, VICE CITY IMAGE ]

"We are extremely humbled by the success of the Grand Theft Auto series and it has made us push ourselves further than ever to create a title in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that will hopefully redefine the Grand Theft Auto series and revolutionize open-ended gameplay and video game production values."

There are no details as yet whether Vice City's leading man Tommy Vercetti will actually return in San Andreas. Indeed there has no been no indication of what time period the game will take place in either, but Vice City's 80's setting was both a brilliant marketing tool and gameplay device. Could we see a The Getaway-style backdrop for San Andreas?

As for San Andreas being a PS2 exclusive, well, Vice City had the same tag and yet turned up on Xbox and PC eventually. All that's certain is that all this uncertainty will just lead to even more months of fevered speculation, with Rockstar leaking out the odd treat to keep the fires of interest stoked.

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