Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for PSP Reviews by Gamers

Let me start off by saying that I love the GTA series. I have been hooked since GTA III and usually pre-order every new one. They are a ton of fun, challenging, and keep you busy for endless hours if you want to get 100% completion. While each previous title has had its benefits and drawbacks, I can't say that I am overwhelmingly pleased with Liberty City Stories (LCS).
I am happy that GTA has made it to the PSP. But, GTA in any form is not necessarily a good thing. The lack of a second analog stick to move the camera around almost totally destroys the abilities of this game. This problem could be solved if the targeting system were better. As anyone who has ever played a GTA game knows, the targeting system is terrible. When you can't target the guy, standing 3 ft. away, shooting you with the AK-47, just outside of the camera angle, but instead target the policeman inside the camera angle who then begins to shoot you, or the person walking by who then starts beating you with a bat, you know there is a problem. Using the PSP analog stick to drive and move is hard at first but you get used to it...eventually. Missions are sometimes so ridiculously hard that it takes all my self-control to not smash my PSP into a million pieces. But that is typical of any GTA game.
All of these things aside, LCS is still a good game. There are few more rewarding things in video games than having an almost completely free ability to go anywhere, do anything, steal everything, and kill anyone in a variety of ways. The missions are challenging (if sometimes impossibly)and fun. The cut scenes have beautiful cinematics. The fun factor is at least a 9, maybe a 10. You will spend many hours trying to do everything.
If you love the GTA series, then you will like this game. It could be better, but the PSP is still new and game developers are going to need some time to make games that push it to its limits. Hopefully the next GTA will be an improvement on this one.