In my first hour of playing Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, I:

• Physically abused pedestrians.
• Broke all sorts of traffic laws.
• Intimidated a salesman of presumably illegal chemical substances into doing his job.
• Got a mission briefing from a guy taking a dump.
• Killed three guys who had wasted the dealer.

I could be way off on this but I get the impression this is not a civic-minded game.

The mission-based gameplay didn’t make an immediate impact. It seems a tad simple but hopefully, it will get a lot more deeper and immersive as I play more.

It took me a while to get used to the controls. Driving around with the PSP’s analog pad was initially a bit of a pain and the game was not shy about pointing out I drove like a bitch. Once I did come to grips with the controls, however, I did have fun. It was entertaining simply riding around the city weaving in and out of traffic on a bike.

That’s mainly because the game environment is outstanding. Liberty City does feel like an actual city with citizens going about their daily lives as opposed to being a bunch of NPCs standing around conveniently waiting for the player to talk to them.

I haven’t played the game all that much but GTA:LCS has already provided my most surreal gaming moment to date. There I was, speeding in a stolen taxi to save a group of fellow gangsters when a Hindi song starting playing on the in-game radio.

I almost expected to see pedestrians performing a perfectly choreographed dance number.