When GTA was announced for the Nintendo DS way back at E3, most were surprised and indeed intrigued as to how it would work. Previously on the GameBoy there was a GTA version which was similar to the old 2D, top down view of yesteryear. With GTA III and GTA IV all being in 3D and the Nintendo DS not known for its processing prowess, how could it work?
Well it seems Rockstar has found a nice balance between graphical fidelity and gameplay balance by stating that the levels will still have the trademark sandbox experience but will also be shorter and sweeter, akin to an arcade experience so its perfect in short burts.
As you can see from the screenshots the camera angle would be of an isometric view and using cell shaded graphics to display the 3D world. The characters are also made up of polygons with black outlines to help them stand out during what we hope will be quite a busy screen and smooth framerate.
The scans are from the latest Nintendo Power magazine and these details have been noted:
- True GTA game - sandbox gameplay, open-world environment, gritty crime narrative.
- M-rating
- Isometric camera angle
- Cel-shaded polygons w/ black borders
- good touch-screen implementation - ‘tasteful’ minigames, streamlining interface
- UI based on a PDA - hub for email, contacts, map, music player, GPS, stat-tracking
- stats uploaded to Rockstar Social Club website via Wi-Fi
- finger-sized icons
- missions designed for shorter periods of play, arcade quality
- aiming with control pad, auto targeting with R button
- subtle autosteer
- if you fail a mission, you can jump back to the action sequence
- chain gun, flamethrower
- good portion of Liberty City is modeled in the game (different routes than console games)
- no problems with load times, draw-in or frame rate
- lots of pedestrians, cars, etc on screen
- Wanted system - objective is to disable police cars any way possible
- real-time weather effects, 24-hour day/night cycle
- lots of radio stations to listen to (more instrumentals than vocals)
- 800,000 lines of hand-optimized source code (hey, the people like the info, right?)
- no details yet on multiplayer/Wi-Fi features
From first looks it does seem pretty impressive and I’m sure the gameplay will be tweaked for the fans as best as the Nintendo DS can handle. What many people might not know though is that the Nintendo DS hardware is actually well suited for such cell shading but is not often taken advantage of. However Square-Enix has produced a stunning engine for their recent Final Fantasy games so perhaps this engine for GTA will pave the way for other developers to prove that the DS can render 3D to a suitible standard.
Hopefully though that if Wi-Fi isn’t possible then local multiplayer will be at the very least as it adds value to any videogame, especially one like this. What is interesting though is the mention of ‘tasteful’ mini games as the touch screen allows they type of control and feedback that other systems (bar the Nintendo Wii) don’t have. Can you think of any possible ‘tasteful’ minigames that could occur in the game? I’m sure a few will be suggested in the forums!
Not much else is known though, certainly in terms of release date but once we know anything, so will you!
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