The Grand Theft Auto series is about to take its second bow on the PlayStation Portable with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories shipping at the end of this month. The game takes everything that Rockstar established in the first PSP incarnation, Liberty City Stories, and turn it up to 11. We had a chance to sit down and try out some of the game's multiplayer modes recently to get a taste of what's in store for us all.

All of the multiplayer game types that we saw in Liberty City Stories are back in Vice City Stories, though some have been tweaked or updated a bit. For example, some of the street races are now classified as "Quadathlon" races, wherein you'll change vehicles multiple times per race. So while you may start in a car, you may then need to switch to a boat, then a chopper and then perhaps back to a car before the race is done.

The one new multiplayer mode (there are four new game types) that we had a chance to get our hands on is entitled Might of the Hunter. If you know your way around GTA's history and vehicles, you may recognize that this name refers to Vice City's high-powered helicopter, replete with dual rocket launchers.

In Might of the Hunter, it's an every man for himself game with each "round" opening with a race towards the lone Hunter helicopter on the map. Whoever reaches the chopper is then free to rain down hellfire on their opponents and score a point for everyone he or she kills. Everyone begins the game with a rocket launcher, so once someone is airborne the others are all gunning for him.

The catch here is that you only ever earn points for either taking down the chopper or killing others while in it. That is, you can't roam about the city and take out other grounded players and hope to rack up on points. This means that one strategy you'll want to use is to always have an accessible vehicle nearby before you start gunning for the chopper so that you're able to speed towards the next spawn point quickly.

Source: www.ign.com