Dan Houser interview

[Slamman]

I don't normally have an excuse to look at any Nintendo magazines, but I highly advise keeping an eye out for Nintendo Power, likely the best preview thus far. A story on the game and several pages of Q and A with Mr. Dan Houser. I found it most enlightening.

Sorry, scans are now against the rules, but ask away, any questions that I might recall answers.

 

Dan says the graphics are what Rockstar refer to as Isometric view.

Also that the game was in development for some time, and Wii is excluded because Rockstar Leeds is adept at the portables and even though they met with a console game proposal, they are entrenched in portable game design, for Rockstar.

 

NOTE:

I see this was posted with info from another site, then confirmed. I saw the magazine last night on the newstands, it has the two stories, one on the game and the DH interview section following that.

Dan comments that the main thing is the feel of this being a GTA game as well as car control being operated with the buttons. He states that the 3D breathing city of GTAIV cannot be realized on the DS, but that all the GTAs contributed to the knowledge that helped them built it.

 

I don't recall the section on destroying police cars to get rid of wanted levels, and that sounds hard. Dan mentions that a real kick for him is getting out of a car and gun fights explode, literally. Action of more then a few peds interacting. He wants mainly to avoid the Ghosttown feel that resulted in their first Gameboy Advance port of GTA.

 

Another question centered around if Chinatown in IV was left out story wise for Chinatown Wars, Houser said this was not likely the case, but he's not entirely concrete about the main reasons for the lack of storyline in the main PS3 Xbox360. Which is an odd look behind the scenes, because it shows the scope of development, not even a key Rockstar head can explain all the facets.

He did help write the plot storyline, as before with the Leeds Stories series.

Balancing it with the designers so the story mates to the graphical areas and what can be done. This relates in the same manner that missions are built around the pre-existing Liberty City that they design early on.

 

Dan also said that this will stay a Mature title and that working with Nintendo on this has been 'fun', there's no strain being put upon them, which I found odd given the kid/parent friendly aspect Nintendo has long prided itself on.

 

Rockstar Leeds staff worked on GBA's Max Payne and they say the results are akin

Edited November 15, 2008 by Slamman

[Coolyfett]

I always thought that getting rid of cops should be consistent with the other games and not use a new system. Hopefully it is still maintained.

 

Did the article give a release date?

[Smiley001]

Removing your wanted level requires you to blow up cop cars... How are we supposed to gain wanted levels then?

Ok there tons of other stuff but this was the main route to attracting the army!

[W1ckeD-]

I always thought that getting rid of cops should be consistent with the other games and not use a new system. Hopefully it is still maintained.

 

Did the article give a release date?

No release date is announced.

Not even to the Game Stores, so we will just have to wait.