TouchArcade forum member Ozzytheking has been on a roll lately discovering cheats inside of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [App Store]. Each of these cheats are entered by moving the magnetic letters around on the mission replay board to spell out the various cheats. These mission replay boards can be found inside of any safe house.
Entering any of these codes will change your weapon load out:
LOADOA – Grenade, nightstick, pistol, minigun, assault rifle, micro SMG, and stubby shotgun. LOADOB – Molotov, tazer, dual pistols, flamethrower, carbine, SMG, and dual-barrel shotgun. LOADOC – Mine, chainsaw, revolver, flamethrower, carbine, SMG, and dual-barrel shotgun. LOADOD – Flashbang, bat, pistol, RPG, carbine, micro SMB and stubby shotgun.
Entering these codes have other effects:
CASHIN – Grants $10,000 extra cash. LIFEUP – Refills your life to full. SHELLY – Refills your armor to full. TRIPPY – Unknown COPIN – Raises your wanted level by 1 star. COPOUT – Lowers your wanted level by 1 star.
A cheat is successfully entered when the letters return to their original position and a message is displayed at the bottom of the screen. Other cheats are actively being searched for in this thread on our forums and for more information on Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, check out our review.
In the wake of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [App Store] our forums have been host to a great discussion surrounding the game, and something that has been popping up quite a bit of debating the merits of each of the different platforms that Chinatown Wars is available for. The iPhone currently holds the advantage when it comes to pricing, but without real physical controls or good targeting system for fighting, both the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP versions hold their own in this battle.
The DS obviously lags behind in the graphical department, but makes up for it with the second dedicated screen for navigation and stylus mini-games– All of which feel much more immersive than the button mashing alternative on the PSP. In regards to whether the PSP or iPhone is host to better graphics, it really seems to be a toss up. The textures in the PSP version appear more crisp and detailed, especially when looking at any signs and the PSP features better shadows, lighting, and reflections. The higher resolution (and seemingly higher quality) iPhone screen combined with the softening of textures and edges of in-game objects makes the iPhone a worthy competitor in visual quality, especially when combined with the high frame rate the game runs at.
Something that isn't immediately apparent until you're comparing the games side by side is how quiet Liberty City is without the pedestrian chatter. You can go rampaging through the streets and it seems everyone is yelling at you on the DS and PSP. It creates a noticeable lack of atmosphere on the iPhone when switching back from the other two versions.
Which version is the "best" is really a matter of personal taste. The PSP's higher quality textures can often look gritty at times, and while some may prefer the softer look of the iPhone textures, others could see them as blurry. It's hard to compare the DS, especially because of how different the game feels with two screens and how obvious it is that the touchscreen mini-games were designed for a stylus, not buttons or fingers. Also, neither the PSP or iPhone can compete with the requisite DS microphone gimmick of actually whistling to hail a cab.
So which version do we recommend purchasing? Really, you should buy Chinatown Wars for whatever platform you have with you the most when you want to play games. For many people this will be the iPhone, but if you prefer to conserve your battery and play 3D games on a dedicated gaming device, both the DS and PSP versions are totally worth having. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a great game, and it doesn't really matter what platform you're playing it on, as long as you're playing it. You really shouldn't miss this game.
Back in 1997 when the first Grand Theft Auto hit the PC, I doubt anyone at Rockstar (known as DMA Design at the time) expected it to spawn a series that would span ten different games and four expansions over the next thirteen years. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [App Store] for the iPhone is an excellent adaptation of a game previously only available on the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. These prior versions of the game were met with universal acclaim, and according to Metacritic.comChinatown Wars for the DS holds the title of the highest rated game available for the platform. On the PSP, Chinatown Wars is a close second, beaten only by God of War: Chains of Olympus by a single point.
The recently released iPhone Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars seems to be a hybrid of both the DS and PSP versions, with graphical quality that lies somewhere in between the two games, tutorial elements that reference PSP buttons, as well as some of the cell shaded graphics and all the stylus mini games from the DS. The main difference is how the controls have been adapted to the on-screen virtual joystick and buttons of the iPhone. Like other games that use a similar control scheme, there is always an inherent lack of precision without physical buttons that take a little getting used to, but this didn't hamper my enjoyment of Chinatown Wars in the least bit.
While on foot, a virtual joystick controls character movement, with a button for using whatever weapon you have selected (or your fists) as well as buttons to kick and leap over short fences. When you approach a car, a button appears on the bottom of the screen that you can touch to get in. If you're stealing a parked car, this will often trigger a timed touchscreen mini game where you need to turn a screwdriver in the ignition, twist some wires together, or even insert a PDA and crack the car's security system in order to get the car running without triggering its alarm.
These sequences are pretty neat the first few times you do them, and do an excellent job at adding suspense to police chases as you hastily hotwire a car before the cops converge on your location. Once you're in a car, one of five in-game radio stations start playing and the on-screen controls switch to buttons for accelerating, braking, firing your gun, and by default two buttons to steer right or left. Also available is an analog stick for steering, configurable in the game's options.
The biggest control hurdle new players will come across is learning how to cope with Chinatown Wars' driving assist system, which will automatically keep your car going straight down a road. This can be disabled, but without it perfectly lane splitting on a motorcycle seems to be nearly impossible. I've found myself preferring the default steering buttons over the optional joystick because very little control is required when driving. You really only need to hold a direction to turn, or just tap a direction to make minor adjustments to your position on a road. It feels a little strange at first, but after you make it through the tutorial missions you will be flying through Liberty City without issue.
The plot of the game is classic Grand Theft Auto, with an asian spin, made obvious by the game's title. You play as Huang Lee, the son of a recently murdered Triad boss who comes to Liberty City and unsurprisingly enough winds up knee deep in gang drama. Initially you complete tasks assigned by your Uncle, but it doesn't take long for you to meet other contacts who also require your services. The game continues like any GTA game with missions that involve killing people, stealing cars, driving people around, and other often illegal activities.
Of course, like other games in the series, once you complete the short array of tutorial missions you can disregard the main storyline entirely and instead spend your time roaming around the city, completing the various submissions, seeing how long you can survive with a high wanted level, and dealing drugs to increase your net worth.
Chinatown Wars is packed with a surprisingly fun and full featured drug economy that is highly reminiscent of the Texas Instruments calculator game Dope Wars (Originally a DOS game released in the mid-80's.) that I spent an embarrassing amount of my teenage life playing. As you drive around the city you will meet drug dealers, who are all selling or buying various drugs at different prices. Prices change depending on whose turf you're in, but you have to exercise caution because if you get busted with a car load of coke, you lose it all.
Drug dealing is just one of the many other activites that exist inside the game. Of course Chinatown Wars also has the standard taxi, ambulance, firefighter, and other driving games along with tons of secret items and locations to find. There are scratch off lottery tickets you can try your luck on, and random encounters with pedestrians who will also have various things to ask of you. The amount of depth in Chinatown Wars is unbelievable.
Since the inception of the App Store, quite a few developers have tried their hand at making an open-world crime game. Without much serious competition, most of these games seemed quite good– But even the best pre-Chinatown Wars iPhone games pale in comparison to a real Rockstar Grand Theft Auto. The level of depth is completely unmatched, but most importantly, Liberty City feels alive.
Games like Gangstar are far too sterile, with spotless city streets, stereotypical characters with no personality, and very little to make the environment the game takes place in feel like anything more than a basic sandbox. The streets of Liberty City are filthy, filles with cars, pedestrians, trains, people fighting, and emergency vehicles racing through the streets responding to randomly spawned traffic accidents. The mood and lighting of the city changes with the clock in-game, and even though the story and characters you come across aren't really anything revolutionary compared to other Grand Theft Auto games, the people you meet are usually amusing and of course the game is absolutely loaded with expletives and other racy material that the GTA clones haven't dared come close to.
There are a few issues with Chinatown Wars, the most serious being the lack of a solid targeting system. When you hold down the attack button to shoot or punch, you simply attack whoever you're facing. There isn't a way to cycle through targets, and the only way to stay locked on one target is by holding the attack button which often results in quite a few wasted bullets. It seems like there is a lot of lost potential in not having a touch-based targeting mode.
Chinatown Wars also doesn't have any kind of save state system to save your progress if you get a call or need to answer a SMS when you're in the middle of a mission. Instead the game just quits, and the next time you launch it you're back at your apartment. This can be annoying, but thankfully Chinatown Wars was designed to be a portable game, and as such the missions are usually never more than a few minutes long so the amount of progress you lose is fairly minimal.
One of my favorite things about Grand Theft Auto games is the soundtracks, but the radio stations in Chinatown Wars are fairly limited and it seems that all the pedestrian chatter was also cut. However, once you get sucked in to the game these problems fade away as you immerse yourself in Liberty City.
Chinatown Wars is a massive game, so much so that the few things I've mentioned in this review barely even scratch the surface of what there is to do and all the different features that help you to do them. An excellent in-game GPS system guides you around the city, periodic email messages tip you off to new missions and other things to do, safehouses scattered around Liberty City can be purchased once you're wealthy enough, and there's even multiple save slots so more than one person can play the game on a single device.
Performance on my iPhone 3GS is absolutely outstanding, and according to forum members, Chinatown Wars also runs without issue on the entire iPhone and iPod touch product line. The game is restricted and won't install on the first generation iPod touch, but apparently with a little tinkering can be played just fine. Something worth mentioning is while the download itself is only 188MB, Chinatown Wars requires a little over 600MB free on your device to install.
There is so much to do in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars that completing the whole thing will likely necessitate a trip to GameFAQs to consult the various guides and maps to find every hidden object and complete every mission– A task that will likely take days of concurrent playtime. For $9.99 App Store gamers can get their hands on a game that sells for two to three times as much on other platforms, representing a substantial value even at a price point reserved for "premium" games on the platform.
Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's vice president of sales and marketing described Chinatown Wars' sales on the DS as "frustrating", and sadly the PSP version didn't perform any better. In less than 24 hours following its release on the App Store, Chinatown Wars is already the #1 top-grossing app– Something that hopefully other giants of the gaming industry are noticing, as I doubt I'm alone in hoping even more of these "full" console games make their way to the iPhone.
If you're at all interested in open-world crime games, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is by far the best available on the platform and simply cannot be passed up. The sheer amount of content, the amazing graphics, and gameplay that will keep you coming back for more whether you choose to follow the story or rampage through Liberty City on your own is absolutely fantastic.
Now, if you'd excuse me, I've got $50,000 worth of heroin to unload.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [App Store] was quietly released into the App Store this evening. Chinatown Wars for the iPhone seems to lie somewhere in between the DS and PSP versions in regards to graphical quality, but as far as pure GTA gameplay, everything so far seems intact. (Complete with an awful lot of swearing.)
Much like other versions of the game, screenshots barely do it justice. Liberty City in motion on the iPhone is amazing, and all the jagged edges in the screenshots quickly fade away when you're racing down a street, under elevated train tracks, and through alleys as you escape the police. The realtime clock in-game also changes the lighting of the city, shifting from the orange glow of a sunset to the street lights turning on at night. It really looks awesome.
The basic premise of the game involves a man named Huang Lee, the son of a Triad gang boss who was recently sent to sleep with the fishes. He flies in to Liberty City with a heirloom sword his father won in a poker game, deciding to deliver it to his uncle. Of course things never go as planned, and not long after landing Huang finds himself in the middle of a gunfight and winds up getting kidnapped. After stealing the sword, the assailants assume Huang is dead, and looking to dispose of the body drive the car he's in off the side of a pier. In the same vein of other GTA games, story isn't really anything revolutionary, but it gets the job done.
Chinatown Wars is controlled very similar to Gameloft's Gangstar, with virtual buttons and a joystick that handle all the driving, running, shooting, and other activities in game. The iPhone port of Chinatown Wars retains the stylus minigames that filled the DS version, appearing in a little popups where you do things like tap to smash the window of the car you were trapped in at the beginning of the game, slide your finger around to turn a screwdriver to start a car you're stealing, etc.
When the Nintendo DS version was first released, I devoted hours to playing through the game. So far the iPhone port seems like a faithful reproduction with quite a few expletives. I obviously don't have the full text scripts of both games to compare, but everything I've come across so far has fit with what you would expect out of a GTA game, and it would appear that very little if anything was actually censored for the App Store release.
Chinatown Wars seems to be a complete GTA experience. You have your apartment that serves as your character's hub with a "Fruit" computer you can check emails on, a garage you can stash a car in, and when you're on the road there is a full GPS system with a map of Liberty City that you can plot your destination on to easily get from one side of the city to the other. There's all kinds of stat tracking that will tell you everything from how many bullets you've fired to how many fish you've fed and in-game options that offer all kinds of different tweaks to the interface and gameplay.
We weren't initially sure if this release was intentional, as we expected some amount of pre-release fanfare from Rockstar, but we are going to be working on a full review of this version of the game.
We're not entirely sure if this release was intentional, or another iTunes Connect fat-finger like Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II Discovery, but Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was released this evening in several European countries. We will have more details shortly, including a gameplay video.
For the time being, here are the screenshots from iTunes:
EA's much anticipated Need for Speed: Shift has zoomed into the App Store this evening. We took an extensive look at the game last week and found it to be a remarkable iPhone racing game.
With licensed cars, control options that should make most people happy, and a very cool yet mostly superfluous driver profile and performance tracking system, Shift is a must-have for fans of the genre.
The game comes with 20 real licensed cars that can have both their visuals and performance upgraded. In the visuals department you can add a body kit, change paint colors, buy ridiculously huge spoilers, and change out your wheels. If you care more about your car actually going faster than looking cool, you can upgrade its top speed, acceleration, nitrous oxide system, as well as tires and suspension. Each of these upgrades come in multiple stages and once you've hit a car's limit to remain competitive in races you will need to buy new cars.
In each of the 3 locales you can participate in seven different types of events which range from standard races to drifting competitions, time trials, and the driver duel which pits you against a single AI opponent. There are 18 different courses total that can be unlocked.
Need for Speed: Shift includes a range of control options from full assist all the way to expert mode where you can manually shift the transmission. Regardless of which control mode you choose, acceleration is handled automatically and touching the screen applies the brakes. Really, the biggest downfall of the game is that it shares a name with the very impressive console title, and is unable to deliver on the immersive sense of speed that those versions are known for.
Readers have been exploring the game ever since it started being released internationally earlier today and reactions have been generally positive. Forum member howiedeano was unsure at first but has become a fan :
However, after sticking with it through the early races, it just gets better and better, the cpu cars put up a really good challenge, you have to concentrate on your driving and winning races requires effort & skill. You'll find yourself hugging the racing line to try and get better scores/rewards after the race and as you get past the slightly on rails feel, the controls actually work extremely well, drifting feels good, the cars look beautiful. It's really a game that sneaks up on you, I'm really addicted, tweaking my car with upgrades, retrying races, knowing I can go faster and win next time.
We also enjoyed it in our preview and described as a "must-have" for fans of the racing genre.
Gameloft's Avatar was just released last night, and the early adopter response in our forums has been overwhelmingly positive. Avatar is an action adventure game based in the Avatar movie universe.
The game tells the tale of the events leading up to the movie as a sort of prequel to the film itself. Gameloft apparently had complete access to all of the assets behind the movie, as well as recording some original voicework by the cast for use within the game. Avatar appears to use an advanced version of the engine used in Hero of Sparta but with improved visuals and 3GS specific enhancements.
Avatar plays much like a 3D platformer throughout much of its course, but also manages to mix in other play elements. Platform jumping, swinging, climbing and basic fighting are represented throughout the early levels to a much greater degree than Hero of Sparta. Controls include a virtual joystick with on-screen buttons for attack, jump and special attack. Fighting, itself, remains rather shallow and is a matter of rapid fire attacking while maneuvering around enemies (at least on medium difficulty).
Later areas of the game offer a more open world in which you explore while performing quests for villagers, and even a segment where you are playing the back of a banshee avoiding obstacles and taking out enemies. Both these elements are shown in the second video below.
Total playtime is estimated at up to 7 and a half hours across 15 different chapters which is a sizable amount of play time for an iPhone game. One of our writers did run into some troubles with characters getting stuck in parts of the environment requiring a restart as well as some other bugs — though as far as we can tell these issues don't seem widespread. There are moments where you feel like the camera view or controls aren't cooperating properly, resulting in difficulties during the platforming portion. Generous checkpoints, however, prevent this from becoming a major issue.
While each of the individual gameplay elements isn't particularly groundbreaking, Avatar's major achievement is the sense of immersion and scale that Gameloft has managed to create in an iPhone game. Movie tie-in or not, this seems to be one of the most ambitious iPhone games to date.
If you haven't gone crazy with Avatar fever by now in the wake of what may very well be the most hyped movie in modern history, and are looking for a platforming adventure game set in the fantastic jungles of Pandora, an alien world inhabited by the blue skinned Na'vi, James Cameron's Avatar [App Store] for the iPhone may just be what the doctor ordered.
The game itself merely takes place in the Avatar universe, and tells the tale of the events leading up to the movie as a sort of prequel to the film itself. Gameloft apparently had complete access to all of the assets behind the movie, as well as recording some original voicework by the cast for use within the game– Creating an experience that (to this skeptic of movie games) was quite shocking.
Avatar somehow manages to stand on its own, and instead of feeling like a game that was created for the sake of yet another marketing avenue for a movie, it feels like a game that just happens to take place in the same world as the movie. Controlled using a mixture of a virtual joystick and on-screen buttons, there are portions of the game that are reminiscent of traditional 3D platformer games like Mario 64 or Crash Bandicoot, with a combo-friendly combat system straight out of games like Hero of Sparta.
The following video shows some highlights of the first couple levels:
Later in the game you come across a Na'vi village, ride some crazy six legged horse, and there's even a Panzer Dragoon-like flying level where you pilot a banshee which can be seen in this video (which regrettably doesn't have very good sound) that was shot at the Gameloft event in Paris:
We will have a full review soon, but in the meantime first impressions and other comments are being collected from forum members in this thread.
SEGA was one of the original developers recruited by Apple to provide a demo of what kind of apps might be possible on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Super Monkey Ball seemed like a natural fit to the platform with its tilt controls and became a massive success when it launched with the App Store. SEGA is finally returning to those roots and has just released a sequel to the game with Super Monkey Ball 2. We previewedSuper Monkey Ball 2 just a couple of weeks ago.
Super Monkey Ball 2 takes the original and offers new levels, local Wi-Fi multiplayer, improved 3D graphics and, notably, improved controls. One of the common complaints about the original version was the sensitivity of the original controls. When played side-by-side, Super Monkey Ball 2 is notably easier to maneuver and turn. That's not to say you'll be breezing through the courses immediately. It still take practice to properly play the game and I find with all ball-rolling games it's easy to get a little frustrated.
Check out our gameplay video with the improved controls and new levels:
One thing you can't fault SEGA for is the amount of content provided in the game. Like the original, there are a ton of levels (115) included with the game. Also included this time around will be mini games that have been so popular on the console versions. The first mini game that has been included is Monkey Bowling, with Monkey Golf and Monkey Target to be released in a later free update.
If you're a fan of the original title, you'll certainly want to pick up this new and improved sequel. Early impressions are also being collected in our forums.
If you were a PC gamer in the mid 90's, the very mention of Command & Conquer likely brings back memories of massive battles, elaborate bases, the cumbersome Westwood Online multiplayer, and best of all- The game coming with two discs to give one to a friend to play against without having to buy a second copy of the game. Westwood was eventually acquired by EA, and through numerous sequels and spin-offs there have been over 30 million copies sold across the franchise.
Command & Conquer Red Alert [App Store] like the other games in the Red Alert family takes place in an alternate universe where World War II never occurred thanks to some time traveling trickery by Albert Einstein which resulted in the Soviet Union rising to power due to the Allies never developing nuclear weaponry. Unfortunately, the iPhone game doesn't do much to convey this fascinating game setting, but other games in the series that do a better job of this are worth checking out if you're an alternate history fiction fan.
The controls in Command & Conquer Red Alert work shockingly well. I consider myself real time strategy fan, but there are not only few of these games on the App Store, but even fewer that have controls that make for fun gameplay. The user interface has remained constant since the preview we did early last month:
The screen is framed with all kinds of interface elements, and while seeming slightly cluttered, everything works well enough and I never felt like the controls were getting in the way of what I wanted to do in the game. The battlefield can be zoomed using standard pinching gestures, and to change your field of view you can either swipe your finger around the screen or touch the mini map in the top right corner.
Lining the right side of the screen are all the buttons and menus for building your base as well as training units. Just like the PC version, units can be queued up to train multiples at once. Placing a new building in your base is as simple as tapping it from the "build" menu, at which point a grid appears on top of the terrain and your building can be placed with familiar green and red highlighting indicating valid placement.
Once you've got your army built, you can organize units in to three squads assigned to the three buttons on the left hand side of the screen. To select units, you can either tap them to select individual units, or by tapping a button on the bottom left corner of the screen you can drag a selection box around units on the battlefield. From there, another button on the bottom of the screen allows you to assign your current selection of units to one of the three buttons on the left side of the screen.
The graphics and sound in Command & Conquer Red Alert are absolutely phenomenal. Everything is rendered in beautiful 3D graphics, and some of my favorite tracks from other Red Alert games have made their way in to the iPhone version. In these two categories, the game excels.
However, like most games from long-standing franchises that wind up on the iPhone, Command & Conquer Red Alert is substantially trimmed down. On one hand, this is without a doubt among the best RTS games available on the platform, but on the other, the game is very minimal and when I step back from my incredibly fond nostalgia of the Red Alert series, it seems like a $9.99 vessel to sell downloadable content packs.
The amount of content the game itself comes with is disappointing, to the point that I didn't mention it in the preview as I was fairly certain they were going to add more in to the game when it was finally released. Unfortunately, it has remained the same. Without looking to the in-game store, the content in Command & Conquer Red Alert is limited to two brief campaigns which feel more like tutorials and two skirmish maps you can play against an AI opponent.
The single $0.99 DLC pack which is available with the launch of the game offers six additional skirmish maps and a couple extra units. In the future EA plans on releasing a free update to add local multiplayer via WiFi or bluetooth, but currently you're stuck playing these maps against an AI controlled army that has no difficulty adjustment– likely creating gameplay that will be boring to veterans of the genre and frustrating to newcomers.
So in the end, how much you enjoy Command & Conquer Red Alert will largely depend on what you expect out of the game. For an iPhone game, EA does a great job with the controls and stellar music and graphics make watching and listening to the game much more fun. Unfortunately, the game does feel remarkably bite sized, with neither very much content nor much replay value without buying more maps via DLC. And launching a $9.99 game with a $0.99 DLC just doesn't sit well, especially when the downloadable packs don't feel as optional as they should be.
We generally try to avoid discussing game pricing, as everyone feels differently on what is and isn't an acceptable price for a game. It just seems to me, that if you're launching your game at the top-end of the App Store pricing spectrum, it shouldn't require an additional DLC pack for gamers to feel like they're experiencing a more complete game– especially in a Command & Conquer game which historically have come with an unbelievable amount of maps.
If you can get around feeling nickel and dimed buying what seems like something that should have been included in the initial version of the game, Command & Conquer Red Alert is great. Unfortunately, with how little content is included, I'd suggest waiting to see how the multiplayer updates pan out.
TouchArcade forum member Ozzytheking has been on a roll lately discovering cheats inside of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [App Store]. Each of these cheats are entered by moving the magnetic letters around on the mission replay board to spell out the various cheats. These mission replay boards can be found inside of any safe house.
In the wake of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [
Back in 1997 when the first Grand Theft Auto hit the PC, I doubt anyone at Rockstar (known as DMA Design at the time) expected it to spawn a series that would span ten different games and four expansions over the next thirteen years. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [
If you were a PC gamer in the mid 90's, the very mention of Command & Conquer likely brings back memories of massive battles, elaborate bases, the cumbersome Westwood Online multiplayer, and best of all- The game coming with two discs to give one to a friend to play against without having to buy a second copy of the game. Westwood was eventually acquired by EA, and through numerous sequels and spin-offs there have been over 30 million copies sold across the franchise.
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