True Crime: Streets of L.A.

If there's a new way, I'll be the first in line.

A rogue cop takes on Chinese Triad pencil-necks and hairy-backed Russian Mafiosos in Activision?s overhyped cash-in on the Grand Theft Auto phenomenon. As Nick Kang, a cop with a Godzilla-sized bug up his ass and an arsenal of embarrassingly bad one-liners, you've gotta topple a money-counterfeiting operation using a combination of driving, gunplay, and fighting in missions ranging from discotheque shootouts and shower-room brawls to tailing crooked cops and dodging snipers.

How well you do in a mission affects the overall story. For example, outrun a carload of Russian mobsters, and you?ll get a tip that leads you to their underground spa hideout. Fail, and they?ll take you prisoner instead.

Cruisin' for a Bruisin'
If you want to get through the game quickly, you can stick to your primary missions. Alternatively, you can take time to locate VD-carrying hookers, fight sexually ambiguous mutant winos, or shake down pedestrians for dope in the game's free-roam mode to earn points that can be spent at a local firing range or dojo where you can learn new shooting skills and fighting techniques.

For that matter, you can just jack cars and fire at everything that moves if you so choose, but watch out?if your Good Cop/Bad Cop meter falls below zero, not only will the karma police come looking for you, but you also won't be able to take on certain jobs. Such destructive binges provide cathartic thrills, but ultimately, they got nothing on GTA's berserk rampaging as it takes forever for cops to get hip to you, and even then they come few and far between.

Practitioner of Many. Master of None.
The shooting elements resemble those of Dead to Rights?you can target two foes simultaneously, pick up and use dropped firearms, and use thugs as human shields?only the controls are sloppier. While the zoom-in precision-targeting system is helpful for taking down perps non-lethally, more often than not it winds up being more trouble than it?s worth. Fighting is limited at first, but as you unlock more moves, it gets much more engaging, though still sluggish. The driving aspects are hindered, too, by some wacked handling and vehicle physics.

If There's a New Way?
Despite its name, the game has its absurdly disbelief-suspending moments?Nick can punch his way through iron fences, every stripper in town fights like they spent quality time in the Shaolin Temple, and if you?re not careful, you may get carjacked by Martha Stewart. Flawed? Sure. Still, there?s something to be said for a game that hurls you head first into a double-fisted shotgun shootout with kamikaze butchers in a slaughterhouse to the hot licks of Megadeth?s "Peace Sells."

Also on the Xbox and GameCube

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