

The mod for the game that is available on PSP allows the player to spawn helicopters and fly them freely. If he flies it more than a block or two away then the mission is failed and the player is spawned on the ground. There is one mission in which the player can drive a motorcycle up a set of stair past a mission trigger point and steal a helicopter. It was removed at some point during the development, but they remain in the game’s code and function to some extent. Helicopters were originally going to be included as vehicles that the player could use. In order to contextualize the lack of motorcycles in GTA III, despite Liberty City Stories taking place prior to that game, there are references to a campaign to have motorcycles banned from Liberty City due to the danger that they pose. The addition of motorcycles in unique for this rendition of Liberty City, allowing for new ways to explore the city with new shortcuts to take, and some more interesting stunt jumps. Motorcycles Bikes make for more spectacular stunt jumps in Liberty City. Since the manual/newspaper mentions Mayor Hole as a living character then we know the game ends after October 30. However, we know that the game begins before this since the Callahan Bridge is expected to be completed in May 1998. The manual for the game is the Octoedition of The Liberty Tree, the Liberty City based newspaper that is eventually purchased by Donald Love.

Like many early PSP games, Liberty City Stories was marred by lengthy load times. As a result Vice City Stories had longer mission design. They later found that most players didn’t mind longer missions since they could just pause and put the PSP in stand by mode. The theory being that players will be on public transportation and will only be able to play in brief spurts. Each mission is very short, normally between four and eight minutes in length.

Liberty City Stories missions were designed with portable game systems in mind.
