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Need any more proof that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is the best GTA game you’re not playing? Rockstar has just announced the official opening of the Mr. Wong’s Laundromat browser game, which allows players to earn in-game money and unlockable costumes that can be sent to the DS cartridge.

Once you’ve logged in to the Rockstar Social Club and linked your game to the service, you can start playing the web game, earning “up to $10,000 per day working for Mr Wong, a local Chinatown ‘businessman’ who’s helped more than his fair share of cash trickle seamlessly and undetected through the streets of Liberty City over the years.”

The game itself is pretty simple — just catch money and jewelry as it tumbles out of washing machines, and dump it into Mr. Wong’s van. It’s an enjoyable diversion on its own, especially with included leaderboards. But as an online supplement to the DS game, it’s even more interesting! Too bad about the “If it ain’t Wong, it ain’t white” slogan, which is not only potentially offensive, but a near-complete ripoff of something that was already taken off the market for being offensive.

Mr. Wong’s Laundromat provides online money laundering for GTA Chinatown Wars originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 12 May 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As one of the few M-rated games on Nintendo’s DS platform, and the only Grand Theft Auto game, you can bet that game industry insiders are keeping an eye on sales of the recently released Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Alas, NPD numbers won’t be available until later this week, so we’ll have to leave it to the analysts to predict the Chinatown Wars sales trajectory. But what are we to do if, as MTV reports, even the analysts can’t agree?

According to MTV, Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter is predicting that the title sold a whopping 450,000 copies. Meanwhile, Jesse Divinich of EEDAR expects less than half of that figure, predicting around 200,000 copies. It’s chaos out there, folks, and proof that people just don’t know what to make of a high profile, M-rated game on Nintendo’s cash machine. We suggest you get inside, lock the doors and board up the windows until we have official March NPD numbers to quell this storm.

Analysts can’t agree on predicted Chinatown Wars sales originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As of right now, according to aggregate Metacritic scores, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is the best game on the Nintendo DS. There are currently four 100-percent review scores on the list. It looks like Rockstar may have done the right thing by treating this as a real game and not just simply outsourcing a cheap spinoff. After all, it’s one of the most popular game series ever, on what is by far the most popular platform this generation. There is a bit of sales potential here. We’ll include just one of the 100s here, from Eurogamer’s Tom Bramwell.

• Eurogamer (10/10): “Those hoping for another gritty, complex narrative spine bound in the flesh of an openworld action-adventure may be disappointed by the rather more frivolous and silly antics of the Chinatown Wars cast, but even cynics should be converted by the huge, densely packed action playground we’ve been given instead.”
• IGN (95/100): “Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is tried-and-true GTA design. Rockstar Leeds took nearly every aspect of the console design and jammed it into a Nintendo DS cartridge, tweaking the presentation to fit the restrictions and limitations of the Nintendo hardware.”
• 1UP (A-): “In bringing GTA to the DS, Rockstar Leeds makes an installment that’s less about exploration and more about the actual, structured game that’s underneath. On the surface, it’s not so different: pull up to a location, get a new mission, and do the job (be it shooting down some rival gang members, following someone to a secret spot, or just racing cars for respect). And it helps that missions in GTA games have always been generally bite-size, so it translates well to Chinatown Wars — pick the game up, clear a few missions, then come back to it later.”
• GameSpy (4.5/5): “When we think of GTA, we think of blockbusters built to massive specifications. Chinatown Wars proves that much of the stuff that really draws us to these games can be realized without expending millions of dollars and man-hours.”

Metareview — Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Imagine: a world of Nintendo products — a Nintendo World if you will. New York’s Nintendo HQ is playing host to yet another launch event. Although the venue may be the same, the atmosphere will stray far from the norm. The M-rated Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars deserves its own mature-themed party.

DJ OhNo will be on hand providing music throughout the night in an event “all fans ages 17 and up” are invited to. The first 25 fans that purchase the game will be given a chance to get some exclusive, limited edition swag, such as GTA Kubrick sets. A limited edition customized Chinatown Wars DS Lite system will be on display, and “even more surprises” are being planned for the evening’s festivities.

The event takes place the evening of March 16th, from 11:59PM to 2AM. Let us know if you can make it. For those of you outside of NYC, take this new trailer (after the break) as a consolation prize.

Continue reading Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars launch party at Nintendo World Store (plus: new trailer)

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars launch party at Nintendo World Store (plus: new trailer) originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Analyst Dough Creutz of Cowen Group believes GTA: Chinatown Wars is as much a test for Take-Two as it is for Nintendo. Gamasutra reports on Creutz’s bullish investor note, where he expresses that the title will reveal Take-Two’s “ability to make inroads” on Nintendo’s platforms.

On the flip side, he expresses that Nintendo wants Chinatown Wars to succeed because it appeals to core gamers, whom Creutz apparently thinks Nintendo still gives a Yoshi’s turd about.

Analyst: Chinatown Wars a test for both Take-Two, Nintendo originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sales

If you’re the type to never pay retail on anything, especially video games, the like-minded misers at the Cheap Ass Gamers community have found two worthwhile Wii deals for you:

• Bully: Scholarship Edition - $26.99 (Amazon)
• Castle of Shikigami III - $19.99 (GameStop)

If you haven’t looked into shoot-em-up Castle of Shikigami III before, make sure you check out the videos we posted a couple of months ago — there’s a flying butler! Amazon also has CSI: Hard Evidence on sale for $19.99, but we have a feeling that not many of you will be too excited to pick up this video game adaptation of a poor man’s Law & Order.

[Via CAG]

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Filed under: News

A lengthy, to-and-fro legal battle between the BBFC and Rockstar prevented Manhunt 2 from being released in the UK, with the BBFC eventually giving up and granting the game an “18″ certificate in March. Having won its right to lop limbs clean off be released in Britain, it was no surprise that the title appeared in Nintendo’s latest European release schedule this morning.

But wait, for there’s another twist to this twistiest of sagas! A Rockstar spokesperson contacted Eurogamer earlier today to reveal that it “has no confirmed release date set for Manhunt 2 in Europe.” Ho boy. If any Europeans out there are beginning to feel particularly indifferent about Manhunt 2 at this stage, we can’t say we blame you.

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Filed under: News

Over the years, the games industry has developed the irritating habit of cramming all of its best software into the last three months of the calendar year. The inevitable result of this is the dreaded post-Christmas lull, whereby the first quarter of the following year is severely lacking in noteworthy titles.

Despite this trend, Q1 2008 content on the Wii looks good. Like, really good. And as if No More Heroes, SEGA Superstar Tennis, The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return, Harvest Moon Heroes, SEGA Bass Fishing, and some Nintendo fighting game you may have heard something about weren’t enough to placate the Wiimote-wielding masses, now GameStop has Rockstar’s Bully: Scholarship Edition listed for a U.S. release on March 3rd.

Which is awesome news, if it turns out to be true. Now all we need to do is convince Take-Two that the Wii is worthy of receiving some GTA lovin’.

[Via Go Nintendo]

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Filed under: News

Some high-profile U.S. Senators, including Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), have made attacking the ESRB their new pet project. The cause of this controversy is, of course, Manhunt 2. You may recall that Rockstar was forced to revise the game in order to remove the "Adults Only" rating given to it by the ESRB. These tactics may have worked in the U.S., but the British Board of Film Classification was unimpressed and still refused to issue a rating for the title.

The Senators are pretty ticked off at the ESRB for not being as censor vicious as the BBFC. But the ramifications of the Senators' attack on the ESRB go deeper than Manhunt 2, and may affect the video game industry in general if the ESRB is put under the "thorough review" that they are demanding.

Even worse, the Senators are calling for more extreme ratings on the Wii, due to the console's motion-sensitive controller. They argue that the Wiimote "permits children to act out each of the many graphic torture scenes and murders."

Of course, they don't acknowledge the fact that children shouldn't be playing Manhunt 2 at all, since the game was given a "Mature" rating by the ESRB, and one of the few ways they can even play the game is with parental permission. If children playing mature games is really their concern, perhaps the Senators should be putting parents under review, and not the ESRB. Those old enough to play violent games can differentiate between using waggle and using real weapons, making separate Wii ratings unnecessary.

At times like these, we really yearn for Stephen Colbert to make a political comeback.

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Filed under: News

You may already know that Rockstar's Bully is going to be ported to the Wii (and Xbox 360), but aside from it being a "port-plus," the game is now also boasting an award winning script. It seems that Bully (the original, that is) managed to win the "Best Videogame Script" title at the Writer's Guild of Great Britain Awards 2007.

We're not going to argue over the prestige of such an award, but keep in mind that since it's for the Writer's Guild of Great Britain, only writers from the UK can be nominated. Bully faced off against another Rockstar game, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, as well as Charles Cecil's Broken Sword: Angel of Death.

For those of you who have already played Bully, you probably know whether or not you're interested in this Wii port. Yet, for those of you who haven't, this may (or may not) be a reason to put Bully: Scholarship Edition on your radar.

[Via GoNintendo]

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