It’s a GTA game.

But it doesn’t look quite as good.

And the controls aren’t quite as good.

And a lot of the post-GTA3 improvements have been brought over, but not quite all of them. It’s annoying not being able to jump up and grab the tops of walls and fences, for example.

I only did the first mission and then buggered about exploring for a while, trying to get used to the controls. It’s not easy, but I don’t think it’ll hurt the game too much, Certainly, the familiarity of the map is going to be the main hinderance to long-term enjoyment. It’s similar enough to GTA3 to be annoying, while being different enough to be, er, annoying. Haven’t found any hidden packages yet. If they exist. I think I may have seen one, but it seems to be somewhere impossible to get.

And I wanted the garage to have a Banshee in it, damn it!

It’s certainly a worthy achievement and I tip my hat to all the guys and girls that worked on it, but I’m not quite sure if I want a handheld GTA3. Maybe if I travelled more.

Oh, and having subtitles off by default is an odd choice, especially as I don’t think you can put them on during the first cut scene. How many people always have sound on when playing a handheld, eh?