PSP GTA like nothing else on handheld, says Rockstar

Rockstar has spoken out on the first PSP Grand Theft Auto title, GTA: Liberty Stories, claiming the title will be a complete removal from the traditional handheld oeuvre.

"We never looked at it like it was a portable game," a senior Rockstar rep told the American Official PlayStation 2 Magazine in a soon-to-be-published interview. "I would really be surprised if there were more expansive handheld games ever made, but content-wise, I can be very confident in saying there has never been anything on a handheld like this."

Another snippet from the interview regarding the free-roamer's transition to PSP concerns battery life considerations.

"The process of laying the data and code paths out to facilitate elegant streaming automatically ensures we are as battery-friendly as possible," the spokesperson said. There were no specifics on how long the battery would actually last during play.

As previously disclosed, players will again take on the jaw-heavy persona of Tony Cipriani from GTA III in GTA: Liberty Stories, three years before the now-classic console title. Liberty City has been reworked to represent the change in time-line, and vehicles have been altered over the third instalment in the blockbusting crime series.

GTA: Liberty Stories is slated for a September release.