Today sees the introduction of two new features to the Rockstar Social Club to help players of both the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable versions of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars enhance their play. First up is the Peking Duck Hunt, an arcade-style web-based game that allows PSP players to earn cash for their game while they aren’t playing, much like Mr. Wong’s before it. Then there’s the Chinatown Wars Guide Map, an interactive map that shows the locations of every Drug Dealer, Security Camera, Rampage, and Stunt Jump in town, tracking what you and your friends have accomplished to see who is the rightful owner of bragging privileges.

Rockstar has also added new papercraft models from the game, including Ling and Uncle Kenny, an assortment of weapons, and several vehicles straight from the streets of Liberty City.

Visit Rockstar’s Newswire page for full details on the new additions.

Assuming $25 is your idea of a steal for what is, all things considered, a pretty impressive go at squeezing a proper GTA game onto a handheld.

You can get it at Big W for that price until tomorrow.

Here’s the video. You can check out Totilo’s impressions of the game while you wait for it to release.

I never played the DS version of Chinatown Wars, and in a way I am glad I didn’t. Now I can play the PSP version when it drops on October 20th without having to obsessively compare it to the version released for Nintendo’s handheld. Still, I can’t help but compare the screenshots I’ve seen of both versions, and these PSP screens do look prettier by far.

Chinatown Wars is the new version of Rockstar’s 2009 return to top-down Grand Theft Auto gaming, rebuilt for Sony’s handheld. The DS version was the best-reviewed game on Nintendo’s portable (Read our GTA: Chinatown Wars DS review to see why).

Rockstar Games presented the PSP game to me as a more ergonomically friendly version of Chinatown Wars. I had played through the DS game happily and comfortably, with my thumbs on the d-pad and buttons and stylus cradled in my left hand, ready to be used at a moment’s notice. But some people literally couldn’t handle it. They’d have benefited from a third hand or the dexterity to wield their DS stylus with their teeth.

Chinatown Wars PSP, the Rockstar rep showing me the game told me, was engineered to allow players to keep their hands in constant contact with the PSP. No reaching for another control instrument for this game.

I expected that added comfort to come at a cost. I believed that the DS’ touchscreen gameplay, which I had found more charming than gimmicky, would not make a successful transition to the PSP.

The PSP has no touch screen, yet Chinatown Wars DS had included a lot of smartly-made touch-screen snippets that zoomed in during typical chaotic GTA action to force momentary concentration on a more focused goal: Flicking change into a toll booth; shocking a heart to keep it alive; smashing the window of a sinking car; rummaging through trash to find a gun.

The folks at Rockstar told me this content was adjusted for the PSP version, not cut. For proof, I asked if I could hotwire one of the game’s cars. I moved GTA CW protagonist Huang Lee toward a car and had hm break into it. If this had been the DS game, the lower screen would have switched to a close-up view of the dashboard and a touchscreen challenge would have begun to twist wires or punch in a code to deactivate the alarm system. On the PSP, a small comic-book-panel inset box emerged on the left side of the system’s screen, right next to where my thumb was on the analogue stick. Rotating arrows showed me which way to turn the stick to unscrew a panel on the dashboard and how to twist two wires together to get the car going. The interface was smooth. My apprehension about converting touch-based challenges to stick-based challenges diminished greatly.

I drove through Liberty City to see the sights. The metropolis is rendered as it was on the DS, still top-down, still with extraordinary detail and vertical depth, just in widescreen with better textures, sharper resolution and improved lighting.

The game’s map and missions haven’t been changed, the Rockstar rep said. But I found that the game will play a little differently. Interface tweaks enable the player to throw grenades while still maintaining control of their car. The presence of the mini-map on the same screen as the one your character or car is on is also a game-changer. I found Chinatown Wars DS hard to play without the option turned on to render GPS routes as coloured lines on the city’s roadways. Without it, I could barely tolerate having to glance away from the top DS screen where the action usually was in order to look at the lower screen to view the map. With the PSP’s mini-map on the same screen as the action, that aggravation is remedied — though I like the GPS option enough that I’d probably still use it.

Rockstar is adding six radio stations to the PSP game, though sticking to the all-instrumental style of the DS release. New rampage and other variations on Chinatown Wars’ side missions have been programmed for the PSP release. The most prominent of the new content may be the addition of video documentary maker Melanie Mallard. I played one of her missions, keeping her alive while Lee raided a drug warehouse. The first game had very few moments of indoor action; this new mission was full of it, playing out almost as a GTA-ized ode to Gauntlet. Mallard hung back with her camera; Huang Lee had to make sure she didn’t die.

The iPhone/iPod version of Chinatown Wars wasn’t announced yet when Rockstar showed me the PSP iteration, so I don’t have details on how its controls and content compare to the DS and PSP games. I also wasn’t able to get a clear answer from Rockstar yet about when the PSP version was greenlit. It is attractive enough and has tight enough controls that it doesn’t feel like a rushed port, whether it was one or not. What it does feel like is an appropriate modification of an entertaining and content-rich game, a return to GTA’s top-down roots that can soon be enjoyed by non-DS owners.

I had expected something a little clumsy with the PSP version of the game. Instead, GTA: Chinatown Wars, at first play, appears and feels to be smooth. The game will be out as a disc or download game for PSP on October 20.

While we were expecting Beaterator thanks to model Jacquetta Wheeler, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the iPhone comes as a complete surprise. Rockstar’s Sam Houser explains why these two titles are perfect for the iPhone.

“The simple, pick-up-and-play nature of Beaterator lends itself so well to the Apple platforms. We are happy to deliver an application that allows for such unprecedented sharing and ease-of-use.”

And what about Chinatown Wars?

“Chinatown Wars is a perfect match for the iPhone and iPod touch. We are very excited to bring this incredibly ambitious version of Liberty City, with this level of detail and immersive gameplay on Apple’s new gaming platforms.”

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was only recently confirmed for the Sony PSP. The iPhone version should combine that version’s enhanced graphics with the Nintendo DS version’s touch screen controls. The two great tastes that taste great together? We’ll find out this fall.

It looks like they’ve done a fine job of maintaining the top-down perspective of the DS version, while cleaning up the graphics and sprucing up the lighting effects to better take advantage of the PSP’s power. I actually think that the Chinatown Wars look might work better than trying to mimic the look of the console games like Rockstar did with the PSP Stories series.

Of course looks aren’t everything, so we have to wonder how it plays. Luckily we won’t be wondering long; we’ll have a full hands-on report on Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the PSP next week.

The official release for the new GTA was released on Rockstar’s official Twitter feed.

Rockstar has been quiet about how they are transforming the game that launched this past March on DS into a PSP game, maintaining for months simply that the Chinatown Wars will be rebuilt for the PSP.

But how will the game look in widescreen and on only one screen instead of the DS’ two? How will the touch elements of the DS game — which were used for everything from breaking out of a sinking car to dropping change in a toll booth to defibrillating a heart — be changed to work on the non-touch PSP? Will the non-vocal soundtrack get vocals for the PSP?

Nary a screen nor much answer has been released by Rockstar yet.

While announcing GTA: Chinatown Wars for PSP back in June, a Rockstar release indicated that the game will be “specifically built for the PSP platform with upscaled widescreen graphics, enhanced lighting and animation and including all new story missions.”

We hope to be playing the game at Rockstar soon and will have full coverage as soon as we’re allowed to spill details.

The game will be available on PSP both on disc and as a digital download. Notably, it will not quite be a PSPgo launch title, as Sony’s no-disc-drive version of the PSP will launch on October 1, 19 days before Chinatown Wars hits.

Rockstar’s other fall GTA content, the GTA IV expansion The Ballad of Gay Tony, as well as the compilation of that and an earlier expansion to GTA IV, will be released on October 29.

Kotaku AU Note: I’m checking in with Rockstar’s local office for our date. But expect it to be October 22.

Until August 30 you can score yourself a free copy of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars when you buy a DSi. It’s not one of those bundle deals where they mark up the console price either. You get the DSi for $298 and you can choose either Chinatown Wars or, er… Carmen Sandiego to go with it for not a cent more.

I’d go with GTA if I were you.

If you’ve spotted any good gaming deals, let the Bargain Hunter know now via the usual address.

Yes, that’s right, we’re now publishing reader reviews here on Kotaku. This is your chance to deliver sensible game purchasing advice to the rest of the Kotaku community. Thanks to the very kind chaps at Madman Entertainment, purveyor of all kinds of cool, indie and esoteric film, the best reader review we publish each month will win a prize pack containing ten of the latest DVD releases from Madman Entertainment.

This review was submitted by the prolific Ben Latimore. If you’ve played GTA: Chinatown Wars, or just want to ask Ben more about it, leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS)

The controversial series… on DS. Swords included. Fun?

Loved
Crazy, Crazy, Crazy – As always, the guys at Rockstar have put in a lot of stupid missions, such as driving a tanker truck fast enough to avoid leaking fuel which is on fire. Stuff like that.

Swords – They’ve put all the fun ones back in. Who doesn’t love picking up a sword and wreaking havoc? And since Rampages are back… Sword, please.

Drug Dealing – Who doesn’t love a little weed? Buy some and sell some to get extra money. It’s fun. More than you think. Not to mention random cars passing by, stealing it and cutting out the drugs from the door.

-New Physics: The game takes place in a 3D world from top-down, allowing the ability to (giggles) flip cars off jumps, go flying with a rocket, etc.

Touch Games – These are a lot of fun, if not repetitive. Making molotov cocktails using a pump is a blast to do (literally). Heck, sticking a fish in an air conditioner is awesome.

Usual Content Included – Street races, pedestrian missions (ala GTA IV), rampages, stealing random cars with red arrows? You always have stuff to do here. Including going insane with swords.

Hated
Story – I couldn’t keep up with the story at all, and next thing I knew, it was over.

Touch Control – It’s a bit hard to use the touch screen to switch weapons or throw grenades at the best of times. At worst, you’re being torn apart by a load of triads, and you drop a molotov.

It’s On The DS – The game won’t get the attention it deserves on the DS. Period.

Chinatown Wars is a full, enjoyable Grand Theft Auto experience. A must-buy. Oh, and swords.

Reviewed by: Ben Latimore

You can have your Reader Review published on Kotaku. Send your review to us at the usual address. Make sure it’s written in the same format as above and in under 300 words – yes, we’ve upped the word limit. We’ll publish the best ones we get and the best of the month will win a Madman DVD prize pack.