Rockstar are bringing the sunny 1980's world of Vice City to the PlayStation Portable, but it's not just a port of its big brother. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories tells a whole new story, set a few years prior to the events in the original.

Perhaps the biggest gameplay additions are the new abilities adopted from San Andreas such as swimming. The aquatic abilities of your character in Vice City Stories now allow you to explore the pseudo-Miami from the water with much more freedom than before. We take an in-depth look into the new aquatic additions to the upcoming handheld version in today's feature.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

Master stroke - how cool water is making GTA: Vice City Stories hot

The cool thing about Rockstar is that they keep you in the loop about the minutiae. Things you don't give a second glance to, when held under the scope, have a little bit of behind the scenes flavour.

Classic example - water physics. We loved them in Wave Race, couldn't give a crap about them later on. But when Vice City wanted to get its splash on, we decided to check out what it was all about.

Meet Vic, lead character from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories on PSP. Note: a GTA game where water isn't gangster kryptonite. Sweet. And yes, you could swim in GTA: San Andreas, but it wasn't exactly a regular requirement, so there.

You may also note Vic rocks a spring suit. The water isn't cold enough for a steamer. In Vice City Stories, the importance of swimming has been escalated. It's something you will do a lot more frequently than before as you play the game through. Below, Vic is working on a little nightswimming, presumably without Michael Stipe humming annoyingly in his ear.

The key difference this time around is that water doesn't behave like a slower form of land. Watercraft rock, leave a wake, and feel the effects of momentum and current. They don't skate all over the place with more traction than Turtle's cap in Entourage.

This doesn't mean you've got only got skiddy behemoths on the waves. If you crave a more responsive experience, step up to a jet ski. Think of them as akin to the motorbike of the water, but with their own rules about what works and what doesn't. Chicks dig a well dressed man on a jet ski. Remember Hitch? Eva Mendes? Say no more.

Rockstar Leeds also point out that you can also strafe boats and beachside punters from a jet ski. Not bad.

Jet skis are fine, but there is more offbeat water-related options at your disposal. Choppers of course make light work of travel over land or sea, and sea planes are also available. Intriguingly, there's even an all terrain PV that works on road or water. Think Bond...only more criminal.

Of course, the esoteric craft are all good, but it doesn't stop there. Coventional craft like yachts, speedboats and zodiacs (rubber duckies to us right thinking folk) mean you're able to splish splash with the best of them.

Unlocking water's potential makes for a great deal more flexibility in what players can do, missionwise as well as their run of the mill explore/pursuit/retreat options.

No longer does the land boundary constrict your play choices - which adds even more flexibility to how you attack your missions. Missions will also incorporate both terrain types on occasion, and in keeping with the open world ethos many times its lateral thinking about where you need to go that will save you time.

Side missions also get wet. In addition to racing challenges on boat and jet ski, Vic can even opt for rescue jobs. Sadly, no tow in surfing has been mentioned yet.

The fact that Vice City Stories is doing all this on PSP is a real wakeup call to the open world pretenders and contenders out there. By going heavy on the blue juice, Rockstar Leeds have once again edged the GTA franchise a little bit further from the competition. Stay tuned for when BigPond GameArena gets hands on with Vice City Stories, coming soon.