GTA: Chinatown Wars detailed

GTA: Chinatown Wars, the new Grand Theft Auto game for the Nintendo DS, has finally been properly unveiled according to Nintendo Power Magazine where the first screenshots and snippets have leaked out about Rockstar's latest ultra-violent sandboxer.

According to the developers, Chinatown Wars will use a cel-shaded art style similar to the promotional artwork for Grand Theft Auto IV, as well as a 3D isometric viewpoint half-way between the view used in the original and latest GTA games. These changes will allow Rockstar to make the most of the DS' rather limited hardware.

What's more amazing of all though is that Chinatown Wars is set to be as mature as any other Grand Theft Auto game apparently, despite Nintendo's reputation for blocking or censoring too-violent games on their platforms.

It's also been confirmed that Chinatown Wars will feature some cool new updates and tweaks such as a full day-night cycle, as well as having a PDA-like interface very similar to the way the mobile phone is used in Grand Theft Auto IV. Functions like GPS, e-mail, music and contacts will be constantly at your fingertips.

Importantly, Rockstar has redesigned the way the missions are handled too and re-focused the pace of the game to take shorter play-periods into account. Failed missions now no longer have to be restarted from the point the mission was accepted, instead you can jump back into the game where the action starts.

The Wanted system has also been tweaked to make the idea less run-and-hide and much more run-and-blow-up-cars and the main way to reduce your Wanted level.

The game will be out at the end of the year.

Do all those changes sound good to you, or is [i]GTA DS a failure in the making? Let us know what you think in the forums.

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