Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Basics

Liberty City is a massive place and finding your way from point A to point B can be a frustrating experience if you're relying on the default GPS line that appears on the bottom screen. Taking your eyes off the road is dangerous, as is blindly taking directions from a machine. So here are a pair of tips to consider to make things easier.

• Turn on the "Top Screen GPS." Pause the game and select "System" and then "Settings" to enable the "Top Screen GPS" which gives you a dashed line that points you to any GPS destination. Compared with looking down at the map on the bottom screen, the top screen GPS is infinitely more helpful and should save you from a lot of unnecessary accidents. Or traffic collisions.
  
  
• Don't blindly trust the GPS line. The British have a problem with following GPS directions a bit too well, and the problem with that will become apparent the more you navigate Liberty City. The GPS often gives you awful directions, making you backtrack to make a legal U-turn or often requiring more turns than necessary. In Liberty City, you don't have to worry about driving legally—the cops only mind if you strike them. And know that making turns typically slows you down, not just because turns are slow but also because turns are where more collisions occur. Try to keep your driving line as straight as possible, keeping an eye on the GPS waypoint to determine if you really need to make a recommended turn.

Here is a sad truth: the money you make from completing ordinary missions is basically useless. You can struggle and get by on the earnings from missions, but if you want to earn serious cash you'll have to take to trading Pokemon. By Pokemon we mean illegal narcotics, but we think Pokemon sounds cuter and less racy. Though we understand some people have issues with the Pokemon trade as well—can't please 'em all—we hope you'll bear with us.

There are six different breeds of Pokemon that you can trade, some worth more cash than others. As you go about your usual business in the city, you'll get e-mail notifications about special deals on various Pokemon, either low prices that you can buy at or pleas from buyers that are really jonsing and willing to pay exorbitant prices. These e-mail deals are your chances to make lots of cash.

Though you may get offered great prices on Pokemon such as, uh, maple leaves and, er, Dr. Mario pills, the real money is in the other Pokemon, especially female hero and Coca Cola. Eventually you'll find that trading the lesser Pokemon just isn't worth the effort, as even the best trades will result in just a few thousand dollars. But if you can find some female hero and Coca Cola at a good price, stash that stuff and wait for a desperate buyer. A good trade can net you over $50,000! It's worth the investment of thousands of dollars to build up a huge stock of Pokemon. When you find a buy that offers a high price, offload your stash all at once and reap the benefits.