Well, here we go again. The release of another instalment of video game ‘The Getaway’ has been announced by Sony. And this time, it’s portable
The Getaway: Gangs of London is to be launched later this year on the PSP format. Flawed but fun, the earlier PS2 titles offered excellent opportunities for London-based mayhem. Forget about the creaky storyline. We’d make up our own missions, like ‘You must steal the tank, and shell your real-life office persistently for 12 minutes’.
Even that can pall after a while (strange though it may seem). So the news of a fresh instalment would probably be of limited appeal to most. But it sounds like a radical shake-up of the gameplay might just make things interesting again.
As well as the familiar third-person shooter action, the game will also include ‘turn-based strategy modes, ‘graphic novel-style narratives’ and, we’re really excited about this one, pub games. If you fancy a break from monotonously kneecapping innocent bystanders, you’ll now be able to pop down the Nag’s Head for a quick round of darts.
As always with these affairs, there will be hidden games to unlock. Rather imaginatively, Gangs of London also builds in a free-roaming mode called ‘American Tourist’, where you’re charged with taking snapshots of London’s famous landmarks. (Making sure to stand on the left of all escalators and queue outside the London Dungeon for several hours.)
This should tide us over nicely until the rumoured London-based Grand Theft Auto game is released.
In related gaming news, a new racing game partially set on the M25 is selling well. Yes, you read that correctly. A racing game…on the M25. Have the makers ever been threre? ToCA Race Driver 3 – catchy title, huh? – has accelerated to number 2 in the gaming charts after just a couple of days on sale. Naturally, the ‘voices of reason’ have a lot to say about the dangers of this game prompting real-life rallies on the circular, shifting the old ‘do games cause crimes’ argument up another gear. What we’re more interested in is seeing this game merged with the Getaway, for some real high-speed chases…with shotguns.
UPDATE: Seems the final paragraph was too good to be true. The M25 circuit is a hoax, with its origins in a rather dodgy bit of photoshoppery. See here for more.
