Grand Theft Auto IV Factsheet

[GTA4 Factsheet]

Grand Theft Auto IV Factsheet

 

JarJar originally created this topic for 2 reasons, both co-inside with each other. First off, Medallion Man, the creator of the original one has not been online for over 6 months. And secondly the original one is extremely out of date. We still haven't made this one as up-to-date as we wish to have it, so if you have any information you think would be worth adding. Drop us a line over PM vie the GTA4 Fact sheets account or in here. Thanks.

 

Due to JarJar's recent banning from the forum, Kippers and Seddo have decided to take it upon themselves to continue what he started and update this topic with all the confirmed facts of GTA4 up till its release in October of this year (and beyond?) Anything not in this topic is just a rumour and not officially confirmed by Rockstar themselves.

 

 

• Games Official Name:

 

The game has been entitled Grand Theft Auto 4/Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA4/GTAIV). It was expected, and has been confirmed by many other facts and news reports that have arisen. Such as the official website for Grand Theft Auto IV being http://www.rockstargames.com/grandtheftauto4/ as well as the game being announced as "GTA4" by many game developers, Rockstar employees and game magazines. Now the '4' does not stand for the 4th GTA game. Because as we know, the officially 4th GTA game was GTA Vice City. The game series is worked as follows:

• Grand Theft Auto 1 - GTA 1, GTA London 1961 and GTA London 1969
• Grand Theft Auto 2
• Grand Theft Auto 3 - GTA III, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas - GTA Liberty City Stories and GTA Vice City Stories could also be included in this.
• Grand Theft Auto 4

So it can be put simply as 'a series of games on a new game engine with a new compilation of stories that clash with each other'. This means, GTA 3 was a series of games on the new 3D engine containing 3 games (5 if you include LCS and VCS) that all had there own story. When played together, you noticed them clashing together where you meet people before/after another game or visited places that you had or would soon do business in.

 

Another way of knowing that this is currently confirmed is to look at the official site and see the logo:

 

 

As you can see, the name "Grand Theft Auto IV" has been registered and is now a Registered Trademark of Rockstar Games and Take2Interactive. So it is near certain the game will be called Grand Theft Auto IV/Grand Theft Auto 4 and will be a series of new GTA games that run on a new game engine, with a new compilation of stories that will clash together, exactly the same as the Grand Theft Auto 3 series of games.

 

• The Box Art:

 

On Monday, 29th October 2007, Grand Theft Auto fans from across the world got a little surprise from Rockstar when they released three box art covers for the new upcoming Grand Theft Auto game for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 which then we thought of as the official covers.

 

 

But only after one day the short dream was over as Rockstar confirmed that these weren’t the official box arts for the game and that they were just teasers that will sit on the pre-order shelves of your local gaming stores.

 

Rockstar - “We have always kept the final art under wraps until shortly before the official launch of the game”.

 

On Wednesday, 28th of November Rockstar finally released the final box art cover for GTA 4, which you can see below.

 

 

Aswell as releasing the box art Rockstar also released a short clip of the box art being spray painted, you can view the video here.

 

• Setting and Theme:

 

Yes, the location of Grand Theft Auto 4 has been officially confirmed as of March 29th 2007. Shortly after 11pm GMT hundreds, if not thousands, if not millions! of GTA fans crashed the internet for a whole hour, waiting for the world premiere of the Grand Theft Auto 4 Trailer eager to see the first little glimpse of the location of GTA4.....

 

Liberty City in the year 2008

 

GTA3 you say? LCS i hear you cry? GTA: Advance i hear you wailing in shock? Appears so, the official location of GTA4 seems to be non other than New York City, the same location for all three games mentioned above. But is it New York? Well it's not exactly New York but Rockstar have gone back to Liberty City in the year 2007 for the latest game in the GTA series, although Liberty City wont be layed out exactly like New York Rockstar are going to take a big chunk of New York and make their very own city which is going to be very like New York.

 

After everyone has been looking at screenshots time after time and viewing the trailers over and over again it's looking like GTA 4 is set in 2007 as the cars in the game and clothing items the pedestrians are wearing, it all looks very modern and if your still unconvinced that GTA 4 will take place back in Liberty City, then here's a few more clues from the first trailer.

• Liberty City signs -In this image you can clearly see the Liberty Tree newspaper advertisement, look a bit further down and you will notice the 'Welcome to Liberty City' sign and then just to the right of that you can see the 'i love Liberty City' sign.
• Liberty City Ferry Terminal sign - In this shot you can see the Liberty City Ferry Terminal sign which has the letter 'L' and the letter 'T' missing from the word 'Liberty', also far right you can see the word 'Liberty' again on the boat.
• Platypus ship - Here you can clearly see 'Liberty City' under the word 'Platypus' at the end of the ship.
• LCPD police car - On the far right of this screen you can see the initials 'LCPD' on the side of the white police car, LCPD obviously standing for Liberty City police Department.

Now in a topic in the forums found here a member noticed that in the trailer between two buildings that you could see the hearst-tower and since the building was only finished in 2006 it looks like GTA 4 will be set in the year 2006 or later.

 

In the May edition of Game Informer magazine it gave us the names of the main areas in Liberty City.

• Queens is called Dukes
• The Bronx is called Bohan
• Manhattan is called Algonquin
• Brooklyn is called Broker
• New Jersey is called Alderney

Staten Island seems to be missing from the list of Rockstar parodied areas of New York. A little later Rockstar said they didn't think Staten Island would be a interesting area to explore in GTA 4 so that was the reason they left it out.

 

Rockstar are planning on naming every single street rather than parts of cities. Giving a more adapt view of the map, and makes the reuse of a single city, more realistic. The name of each street will be displayed in the bottom right part of the screen as you travel through them. Whilst the GTA 4 demo's have been played the following locations have been revealed so far:

• Presidents City, Chinatown, Lancet, Hatton Gardens, Middle Park East, Lancaster, Ruby Street, Cod Row, Denver Avenue, Exeter Avenue, Northwood, East Holland, Silicon Street, Quartz Street, The Triangle, Easton, Rotterdam Hill , Diamond Street , Calcium Street, North Holland, Ruby street, and Silicon street.
• Rotterdam Hill is where Niko first meets Little Jacob and it is located in Alderney

During the 3 trailers and several magazine previews, there have been quite a few landmarks spotted.

• TW@ Internet Café: Located in Algonquin, near Middle Park. Available for you to access a limited internet. This one returns from Grand Theft Auto III, located on Stauton Island. Read more about that in the "Factsheet - Gameplay Facts".
• Middle Park: Located in Algonquin, Liberty City´s equivalent of "Central Park". Note the name change; It used to be Beleville Park.
• Star Junction: Located in Algonquin, Liberty City's equivalent of "Times Sq.".
• Goldberg, Ligner & Shyster: The law firm of Tom Goldberg, this is where you send your fake résumé/CV to via the TW@ Internet Café. Involves with the first set of missions. Read more about that in the "Factsheet - Gameplay - Missions". At this point it's unknown where it's located, but seeing as it's one of the first missions it could be located in Broker.
• Roman's Cabs: This is where your incredibly rich cousin "Roman" works at. He's been lying around about his life, just to get Niko(you) to the United States. It's speculated that Roman's Cabs is located in Broker.
• Getalife: LC's equivalent of "Metlife". It's located on Algonquin, obviously. As Metlife's located on Park Ave, Manhattan.
• BOABO: Beneath the Off ramp of the Algonquin Bridge Overpass. The replacement of the DUMBO, Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass.
• Statue of Happiness: The smiling replacement of "The Statue of Liberty".
• Booth Tunnel: Located in North Alderney.
• Steinway Beer Garden: Located in the North area of Dukes.
• Majestic Hotel: Found in North Algonquin

The Liberty City map was shown briefly during the preview session. Kikizo describe it as containing a large island in the middle (Algonquin) with Alderney to the left (similarly sized) and two islands to the right - a small one (Bohan) up north with Broker and Dukes underneath. Here's a map from the Kikizo January preview.

 

On the 8th February 2008 Rockstar released the new GTA 4 website which showed the new GTA 4 map, as seen below.

 

 

A speedboat journey around (approximately) half of Algonquin took 5 minutes. So that will give you a brief idea of how big Algonquin will be.

 

Only one island (Broker/Dukes) is unlocked to begin with. The other areas are blocked with police blockades. The second area (Bohan) will open up "sooner than it has in previous GTAs." The other islands are blocked off initially due to a "terror threat".

 

• Main Protagonist:

 

The main protagonist for the next installment of the Grand Theft Auto franchise is to be an Eastern European male who is in the age bracket between 28 and 32 by the name of Nikolai 'Niko' Bellic - (Bell-ich) - who comes to Liberty City after his cousin Roman persuades him to travel Liberty City. The main protagonist was nameless for a short while until the May edition of Game Informer Magazine confirmed the protagonists name.

 

Niko Bellic - magazine confirmation in link

 

Niko is not customizable as it was possible with CJ in GTA: San Andreas, but you'll be able to style him with different outfits. Rockstar said the reason for this was that they got Niko's physics and looks "dead right", it was difficult implementing features that will allow the customization of his body. During the three trailers and the screenshots that have been released Niko’s hair seems to be different lengths, whether this is just Rockstar playing with the character to get him just right or that hair customization is possible in GTA 4 is yet to be known.

 

Not much is known about Niko’s background at this moment in time but Niko is an old soldier who spent time in third-world prisons, Niko is also a master at Krav Maga, a fighting style the Israeli Special Forces use. His name does seem to be Croatian. Whether or not Rockstar will confirm Niko’s nationality is yet to be known until then we’ll have to keep with the guessing.

 

• Characters and Voice Actors:

 

 

Character	Voice Actor	News Source	Character Info
Niko Bellic	Michael Hollick	Here	Niko is the main protagonist in GTA 4, from Eastern Europe he travels to Liberty City looking for a better life and by being persuaded to come by his cousin, Roman. Niko is guilty of committing previous crimes in his life before he comes to Liberty.
Roman Bellic	Jason Zumwalt	Here	Roman is Niko's cousin, he is the reason why Niko travels to Liberty City as Roman says he's living the high life with fast cars and woman.
Elizabeta Torres	Charlie Parker	Here	Drug dealing for 10 years by managing to kill the right people and staying under the radar. As the police tighten up on drugs in Liberty, her drug use has spiraled out of control making her one girl you definitely don't want to mess with. She also appears on a GTA 4 artwork which was released.
Little Jacob	Coolie Ranx	Here	Little Jacob is a Caribbean arms dealer who sells Niko weapons out of the trunk of his car, the weapons he has up for sale are 9mm, a shotgun, a SMG and an Micro SMG. Little Jacob is also good friends with Roman.
Francis McReary	Thomas Lyons	Here	Francis McReary is a corrupt police officer, who has dirt on Niko's past. He knows about a felony Niko committed, and threatens to expose it unless Niko runs some errands for him. In the mission "Call and Collect," McReary asks Niko to retrieve a memory stick with sensitive data which was stolen from him. McReary comes from a tough neighbourhood.
Patrick McReary	Ryan Johnston	Here	Patrick is an Irish hoodlum, who is related to bent cop Francis McReary. Those who know him refer to him as "Packie" for short. Patrick lives with his mother and sister (though he doesn't seem to like them much) and is a good friend of Elizabeta's.
Gerry McReary	--	--	Not much is known about Gerry as of yet. All we know is that he is an ex IRA member.
Brucie Kibbutz	Timothy Adams	Here	A Caucasian male with a shaved head and a Chinese character tattooed on his chest. Living the good life. He has nothing but the finest cars and woman, and he's not afraid to shout it from the rooftops. As an occupation, Brucie runs a garage just around the corner from Roman's Taxi Depot.
Manny Escuela	Berto Colon	Here	A transformed man. Once a hoodlem of the streets now wants to clean up the neighborhood and sort everything out. He is making a documentary of himself to record his struggle.
Vlad Glebov	Misha Kuznetsov	Here	A man with a one track mind. He thinks of himself as the all supreme, powerful gangster, taking nothing for no one. But back in the real world he's a lowly Russian hood who's looking for power from those higher up in the criminal family tree. He also runs a small time protection racket.
Playboy X	Postell Pringle	Here	All that is known about this character at the moment is that he owns a mansion in the Algonquin area and is introduced to Niko through Elizabeta. He will be one of your mission contacts throughout the game. He used to do business with a pal called Dwayne Forge, who was recently released from prison, but Playboy has since moved on without him.
Yusuf	--	--	A wealthy Arab whom Playboy X is aiming to impress.
Dwayne Forge	Devin Richards	Here	A friend of Playboy X's, who just got released from prison. He feels that Playboy and the whole world for that matter have moved on and left him behind.
Mikhail Faustin	Karel Roden	Here	One of the game's many hardcore Eastern Europeans who you meet early on in the game. Niko goes on to develop a working relationship with Faustin as the story unfolds..
Dimitri Rascalov	Moti Margolin	Here	Dimitri is one of Mikhail's associates who you meet early in the game.
Tom Goldberg	--	--	Goldberg is a lawyer working for Goldberg, Ligner & Shyster, a law firm based in Liberty City, in one of the early missions Niko kills Goldberg in his office.
Phil Bell	Frank Bonsangue	Here	Phil Bell is an Alderney businessman and mafia goon. He agrees to help Niko look for someone, but in return Niko must run some errands for the mafia. Phil works with another mafioso individual known as Ray Boccino.
Ray Boccino	Joe Barbara	Here	Ray Boccino is an Italian mobster who is trying to help Niko look for someone. In return, Niko must run some errands for the mafia.
Bledar Morina	Gregory Korostishevsky	Here	An Albanian thug and fitness enthusiast.
Bryce Dawkins	--	--	Deputy Mayor of Liberty City.
Karen	--	--	The receptionist at Goldberg, Ligner & Shyster, an Algonquin law firm. She arranges an appointment for Niko to meet Tom Goldberg.
Mallorie Bardas	Elena Harvey Hurst	Here	She is currently dating Roman Bellic.
Michelle	--	--	Niko first meats Michelle during one of the early missions and becomes Niko's first girlfriend.
Lola	--	--	Lola is Mikhail Faustin's hooker.
Ruslana	Ruslana Lyzhicko	Here	Ruslana is voiced by herself and is the host for Vladivostok FM

•Storyline:

 

You start out as a low life, Eastern European immigrant going by the name of Niko Bellic, persuaded to travel to Liberty City by his cousin, Roman. Roman claims to be all up in riches, living the good life with 15 cars, 4 hot tubs and plenty of beautiful girls to go around. Turns out Roman isn't what he seems to be making himself out to be....Nothing he's said is true. Even though they don't always get along and are constantly bickering, Roman becomes an important guideline for you at the beginning. Being the only person in the entire city that you know, he becomes the main source for connections at the start.

 

Roman is in fact in a lot of trouble with a lot of people who are after him for unpaid money and various other forms of debt, and he needs Niko's help!

 

The story will be delivered in a variety of new ways, allowing, and i quote; 'The player to create their own destiny' this clearly means missions will have several possible outcomes, all of which ultimately effect the outcome of the game and the relationships between Niko and the supporting cast.

 

• Platforms:

 

So far Grand Theft Auto has been announced for the Playstation 3 (PS3) and the Xbox 360. A PC release has not been announced, although one is expected. If there is a PC release, it will not be until around June-July 2008. If you wish to have your say on whether you believe there should/will be a PC release or not visit Xcommunicated's poll and topic on it located here.

 

Please note that there is currently NO WAY of telling whether one platform will have benefits over the other. According to traditional marketing, it is VERY unlikely that either platform (360 or PS3) will have content that will cause one version to be sold more than the other. It is in the publisher's interests to sell as many copies for both platforms as possible. Those that also say that either the 360 or PS3's game discs will not be able to hold the full game is FULL OF SH*T. If there was going to be any problems publishing the game for either platform, Rockstar would never have announced they would be releasing for said platform. Please remember this is a professional organization with years of experience in producing and marketing video games, not a battery of chickens that flutter about this forum reading fabricated hardware incompatibilities they had no idea existed.

 

The new DualShock 3 controller has been confirmed to work in GTA 4 as the new controller come sout around the same time as GTA 4. The PS3 version of GTA4 will use the Sixaxis controller's motion-sensing abilities "in a way that makes sense," is all Houser will say.

 

To view the Xbox 360 achievements names, descriptions and pictures, then follow this link

 

 

Cheat Code	Cheat Action	Achievement Disabled
482-5550-100	Increases Health	Disables 'Cleaned the Mean Steets'.
362-5550-100	Gives Armour	Disables 'Cleaned the Mean Streets'.
486-5550-100	Weapons Tier 1	Disables 'Cleaned the Mean Streets'.
486-5550-150	Weapons Tier 2	Disables 'Cleaned the Mean Streets'.
267-5550-100	Removes Wanted Level	Disables 'Walk Free'.
267-5550-150	Add's One Wanted Star	None.
468-5550-100	Changes Climate	None.
359-5550-100	Spawns Annihilator	Disables 'Walk Free'.
938-5550-100	Spawns Jetmax	None.
625-5550-100	Spawns NRG 900	None.
625-5550-150	Spawns Sanchez	None.
227-5550-100	Spawns FBI Buffalo	None.
227-5550-175	Spawns Turismo	None.
227-5550-142	Spawns Cognoscenti	None.
227-5550-168	Spawns SuperGT	None.

Controls

 

In the controls menu you have to the option to choose between ‘Standard’ which is the new configuration of the buttons or ‘Classic’ which gives you the old button configuration from the previous games which some of you may prefer.

 

Also in the controls menu you have the option to toggle the vibration, Auto Aiming, Invert Look on and off aswell as being able to choose whether you want to change the Sniper Aim between the left stick or right stick and being able to change the sensitivity.

 

 

360	PS3	On Foot	Driving
Right Trigger	R2	Fire Weapon	Accelerate
Left Trigger	L2	Target Lock/Free Aim	Brake/Reverse
Right Bumper	R1	Take Cover	Handbrake
Left Bumper	L1	Pick Up/Context	Fire Weapon
A	X	Run (Hold to Sprint)	Alt Handbrake
B	Circle	Push/Shove	Cinematic Camera
Y	Triangle	Enter Vehicle	Exit Vehicle
X	Square	Climb/Jump	Toggle Headlights
Right Stick Click	Right Stick Click	Look Behind/Zoom Aim	Look Behind
Left Stick Click	Left Stick Click	Crouch	Slow-Mo (cinematic Mode)
Right Stick	Right Stick	Rotate Camera	Look Around
Left Stick	Left Stick	Move Niko	Steer Vehcile/Aim Weapon
D-Pad Up	D-Pad Up	Brings up Mobile	Brings up Mobile
D-Pad Down	D-Pad Down	Exits Mobile/Skip Convo/Zooms Radar Out	Exits Mobile/Skip Convo/Zooms Radar Out
D-Pad Left	D-Pad Left	Prevoius Weapon	Prevoius Radio Station
D-Pad Right	D-Pad Right	Next weapon	Next radio Station
Back	Select	Change View	Change View
Start	Start	Enters Pause Menu	Enters Pause Menu

Fighting Controls

 

 

360	PS3	Button Action
Left Trigger	L2	Lock on
B	Circle	Punch
Y	Triangle	Alternate Punch
X	Square	Kick
A	X	Dodge
B or Y after dodging	Circle or Triangle after dodging	Performs Powerful Counter Move
Dodge and then B or Y	Dodge and then Circle or Triangle	Disarms opponent

• Episodic Content:

 

During Microsoft's E³ press conference in 2006, Peter Moore announced that Rockstar Games were working on two downloadable content packs which will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 and would be downloadable via Xbox Live. Peter Moore's described these extra packs as 'epic episode packs' and wouldn't just be the extra feature such as a few cars or clothing items but hours of entire new gameplay, these downloadable packs would be released a couple of months after the full game had been released. This had all been confirmed by Rockstar.

 

On the 15th of June 2007 Take-Two released a statement saying that the Grand Theft Auto 4 Episodic Content will be Xbox 360 Exclusive. Although how many things stay exclusive these days.

 

On the 20th February Microsoft confirmed that the first part of Xbox 360's exclusive episodic content will arrive sometime in August 2008.

 

"In its GDC keynote extravaganza, Microsoft confirmed that the first downloadable "episode" for GTA IV will be coming this August, exclusively to Xbox 360.

 

Grand Theft Auto IV: Episode One, as it's being called, is presumably the first in the previously announced two downloadable episodes for Rockstar's sequel. They've been rumoured to have cost Microsoft a fair few pennies too."

 

Take 2 Statement confirming Episodic Content release year

 

Also, according to the Take Two Second Quarter 2007 Fiscal Report It reports that Microsoft have paid Take Two 50 Million Dollars for 2 episodic episodes (25 million dollars each!) Both coming exclusive to the 360 in 2008.

 

• Multiplayer:

 

Ever since we had the first preview from Game Informer way back in May 2007 it was confirmed that GTA 4 would have multiplayer which would be accsessed via Xbox Live and PSN. The multiplayer will be accsesed via Niko's mobile phone.

 

There are 15 multiplayer game modes in GTA IV and the game rules are determined by the host of the match (Vehicles types, volume of traffic, number of pedestrians, police presence, weapons and weather can all be controlled). The multiplayer games supports upto 16 players in each room. You are unable to use Niko for the online mode but your online character is fully customizable, You can alter you characters race, sex, hair, clothing etc. The map used in multiplayer is the same map that is used for single player, the full Libert City.

 

"For multiplayer, we balance [the sound of gunfire] so that guns only really sound dangerously beefy when they’re at a distance you can be hit from, so it’s intuitive what’s threatening and what’s someone else’s private war."

 

Team Modes

 

• Team Deathmatch (2-8 Teams) - Players work as a team to rub out other teams for money - and the crew with the most cash at the end of the round wins. Take the other crew down. Remember to loot the cash dropped by deceased players. That's the way to get ahead.

 

• Team Mafiya Work (2-8 Teams) - You're a member of a crew doing contract work for the mafiya - including such plum gigs as escorting wanted men, picking up MacGuffins and stealing cars. Work as a team to complete contracts before the time period ends and get the rewards. You'll probably want to do your best to scupper the other crew's work as well. Each contract you complete gives your team cash, and the crew with the most cash at the end of the round wins.

 

• Team Car Jack City (2-8 Teams) - Cars spawn parked around the map and the teams must steal them and take them to a drop off point. The cash teams get for dropping off stolen vehicles depends on their condition - teams get less cash the more damaged they are. The exception to this are special bonus cars, stuffed with drugs, which give a set amount of cash on delivery no matter how damaged they are. Your crew has to get hold of whatever vehicles the boss wants. Whichever crew makes the most money wins. Simple.

 

• Cops 'N' Crooks (2 Teams) - A team-based mode in which the Crooks must get their Boss to safety, while the Cops have to take him down. The Boss is marked with a cross hair. This mode has two sub-modes: All for One and One for All.

 

1. In All for One, one team is made up of Crooks and a Boss, and the other team is made up of Cops. The Cops are trying to hunt down and kill the Boss while the Crooks are trying to protect him. The Cops win by killing the Boss and the Crooks win by getting the Boss safely to the getaway vehicle and escaping.

2. One for All is similar but there is no Boss. Here, the Cops win by killing all of the Crooks and the Crooks win by filling up a getaway vehicle with members of their team. Only 4 people can escape in the getaway vehicle. Players cannot respawn in this mode.

 

• Turf War (2 Teams) - A timed capture-the-base mode. There are a number of bases around the map that you have to take by standing on them for a short period of time. The more players that are on a base, the faster it can be captured. The more bases that your team owns, the faster your team's cash score increases. If the rival gang is on or near a base, you won't be able to take control of it - so do what you can to try and ... displace them. The team with the most cash at the end of the round wins.

 

Cooperative Modes

 

• Hangman's NOOSE (2-4 Players) - Single player mission that features co-op play. Mafiya boss Petrovic has illegally flown into Francis International Airport, and someone has tipped off the cops. The objective? Escort Petrovic to safety while being pursued by the Liberty City Police Department's NOOSE (SWAT) division.

 

• Bomb Da Base (Unknown) - Details coming soon.

 

• Bomb Da Base II (Unknown) - Details coming soon.

 

Competitive Modes

 

• Deathmatch (2-16 Players) - It's a complete free for all! Anything goes, and you can use any tactics you like to kill off the competition. Confined to specific areas of Liberty City in order to keep the action intense.

 

• Mafiya Work (2-8 Players) - Working under the direction of Kenny Petrovic via. your cellphone, you will compete against other players in a series of mini-missions. You might have to pick up recruits for the firm or take out a target, or even find and then dispose of a dozen severed heads.

 

• Car Jack City (Unknown) - Details coming soon.

 

• Deal Breaker (Unknown) - Details coming soon.

 

• Free Mode (1-16 Players) - Like single-player, except playing with your friends. Complete free for all. No rules, no objectives, no score. You're free to do whatever you wish.

 

Race Modes

 

• Race (1-16 Players) - Race to the finish through each checkpoint in order: If you take a wrong turn or mess up in some way, you can respawn your vehicle on the last checkpoint you passed. There is a large selection of races for cars, boats, and helicopters - you can choose laps and vehicle class/type. This mode has two sub-modes: Free Race and Cannonball Run.

 

1. Free Race are point-to-point races. First one to reach the end point wins.

2. Cannonball Run are races where you have to traverse several checkpoints any way you can.

 

• GTA Race (1-16 Players) - Similar to the orthodox Race, but with the added element of combat. Race and fight your way through the checkpoints in order and then hit the finish, but this time you can also pick up the weapons spawned en route to help take out your opponents. You can also exit the vehicle during the road races.

 

• Technology:

 

RAGE Engine:

 

Rockstar have confirmed that they will be planning on using their new 'RAGE' engine to power up their latest installment of Grand Theft Auto, A preview of this engine can be seen in Rockstar's latest game 'Rockstar presents table tennis' and if these graphics are anything to go by fans will not be disappointed in the next generation of Grand Theft Auto.

 

RAGE, short for Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, is a custom-developed visual engine that excels at rendering elaborate animations, particularly cloth texture. This is already evident in Table Tennis, as the clothing of the player’s swishes and sways realistically with their movements.

 

Rockstar's main use for the RAGE engine is to increase the look realism throughout the city. From the menial things such as the way smoke flows from chimneys in the direction of the wind, to the way the pedestrians move about and react to each other in the hustle and bustle of the streets.

 

With the use of the RAGE engine Rockstar are able to add many things to the game and add unprecedented level of realism and interactivity throughout the game.

 

• New sunlight and weather effects which give the city a whole different appearance as the time of day progresses.

• Volumetric lighting effects allow sunlight to stream realistically into dusty interiors. Police spotlights will likely benefit from this effect as well when helicopters kick up debris.

• Normal (bump) maps will provide much more detail in models than the underlying polygons, as well as giving materials more texture and depth.

• Road and building textures are more varied than in previous GTA's. On some roads you will find potholes, metal plates (etc) where the road has been dug up.

• Modern pixel shaders give water, glass, cars, etc.. more realistic reflections and shininess than the earlier games.

• In cars, you can see real reflections on the rear and side-view mirrors.

 

Euphoria

 

In a latest issue of an Australian Xbox 360 magazine it had some news about Euphoria and what has been integrated into Grand Theft Auto IV. This will add unique game moments into the game with the way that different characters and objects interact and move around Liberty City. Euphoria is a fully procedural animation package created by Natural Motion. The core technology is the Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS) system.

 

• Variations in the terrain are met with realistic changes in the walking animation.

• Unique game moments. Animations are created on the fly, so each player's experience will be unique. Gamers are no longer subjected to pre-recorded animations. Surroundings are more interactive (bullet holes from gunfire, environment reacting to explosions, etc).

• Characters will react realistically to being hit with gunfire, cars, and melee weapons or fists. Pedestrian reactions are more true-to-life than in previous games.

• Players will be able to push people out of the way, rather than "floating" past them as in older games.

• Falling/thrown characters will react as in real life- They won't simply be limp, lifeless ragdolls.

• Characters (and players?) will be able to hang on to helicopters and trucks, which will swing them around as the vehicle moves.

 

To find out a bit more of Euphoria, head over here to get a better idea of euphoria. Also a bit more information on the Xbox magazine article can be found here.

 

You can also watch a newly release video showing you the difference between Dynamic Motion Synthesis and ragdoll, go check it out here.

 

• Gameplay Facts :

 

The HUD (Heads Up Display)

• Health is represented by a green semi-circle on the left side of the radar, another semi-circle represents armour on the right side of the radar. You can restore health by resting, by using medical kits, and by eating.
• When you commit a crime, and a police officer has spotted you. Your radar will be flashing red and blue. With a circle called "The search area", when you leave this area the police will abort trying to find you. But if you're spotted trying to leave the area within the circle, the circle will move along you for as long as you're still being followed. The more wanted level you'll gain, the larger this "Search Area" becomes. If you’re trying to exit the search area and are spotted by a police officer then the search area will re center it self and you have to try and escape all over again.
• The six-star-wanted level is back.
• The game doesn't mark targets off with a huge arrow above him, instead now there's a small circle above them with a red circle on the radar.
• There is a GPS system in the car, and the recommended route shows up in yellow on the radar at the bottom left of the screen. The more "expensive" cars have better GPS systems than poor ones. The high end cars also have GPS systems that actually talk aswell.
• As opposed to the traditional 1 minute = 1 hour system from previous games, in GTA IV, 1 hour is now 2 minutes, but this could likely be changed by Rockstar for the final build.
• You can pause and select a destination on the full-size map, which is then reflected on the radar. This marks the route out in blue.

Gameplay Involving Niko

• Whether you like it or not girlfriends are returning in GTA 4, hopefully it's used better than San Andreas.
• You can't gain weight, nor can you get yourself muscled. You can alter your look like hairstyle, facial hair and clothing.
• Niko is able to climb ladders, escape ladders, and telephone poles and is also able to climb fences and walls just like in San Andreas.
• Niko is able to swim in GTA 4, although he can't dive or go under water, Niko can only swim on top of the water. So that ends the debate that white characters can't swim in the GTA world .
• Niko can order taxi cabs, and either hit the trip skip button(Y)/(Triangle), or he can just take a look from inside the cab and take the full time to get to his destination. Which features a "Cinematic Camera" like setting. Niko is also able to call up the police as he does in one of the missions that's been revealed.
• A fare meter appears on-screen as soon as Niko enters a cab, and the camera pans around it as it drives.
• In taxis, you can ask the driver to change the radio station by pressing D-pad left or right.
• When Niko purchases clothes, he has to pick them separately from shelves rather than the "Walk-in Closet in Stores" from San Andreas. The clothes are all hung up and walking past them promts the option to try them on by pressing the 'LB' button on the 360 and the 'L1' on the PS3.
• Just like in past GTA's the auto aim feature is returning, Niko is also able to go into manual aim. Lock-on always targets the chest area, but once locked on you can fine tune aiming with the right thumbstick for specific body parts. Free-aim is available in both drive-by's and foot gunning.
• On shooting, the magazine states that: "the cover system borrows elements of Gears of War, and Rainbow Six: Vegas." It also says that "the aiming is a Resident Evil 4, over the shoulder style." The new targeting system was described. There are eight purple segments in the target circle that make up someone's health, which you get when you're locked on - during free aiming you don't get the indicator. The combat rests somewhere between Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War in terms of style, allowing you to roll, find protection and blind-fire from behind cover, police officers and gang members are able to do the same.
• For the new melee-combat system, Rockstar consulted a UFC master of the Israeli special-forces martial art, Krav Maga. Whist your not locked on to a person you can do a push/shove Assassins Creed style but when locked on to a target you have the option to kick, punch and there's also an alternative punch. There is now also a dodge button and you are able to disarm opponents.
• Tapping up on the D-Pad brings up the phone where you can access text messages, an organizer, multiplayer modes, a camera, and contacts list, which becomes updated automatically as you meet people. Tapping up a second time will bring up the keypad to make calls. There's also an 'options' menu on the mobile which enables you to change ring tone, text message size and other options.
• When selecting your mobile phone, a zoomed-in version of the mobile screen pops up in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, where you can use its address book to pitch for "jobs" with gang contacts among other things.
• Niko can enter the Police Database in any stolen Police car, and search by photo on the LCPD computer, using photos taken on your mobile phone.
• The internet is available for Niko to use in the game also. Niko can use the internet to gain information about contacts or people he needs to kill. their location for example. There will be over 100 fictitious websites that can be accessed via Liberty City's net cafes. One of these is GolderbergLinerAndShyster.com, which helps you with an early mission.
• GTA IV's in-game internet is ridiculously extensive, featuring spoofs of liberal and conservative news sources with coverage of your in-game antics, as well as spoofs popular blogs and websites (craigslist, for example). Irritating pop-up banner ads also make an appearance and Niko can hook up with a wide range of girls via dating websites.
• Niko is able to watch TV, each channel has a quite a few programmes.
• The 360 EZine reports that time based missions are definitely in the game. It also mentions 'time limited actions.' For example: If a train leaves at 10.00pm and you arrive an 10.01pm, you fail the mission
• Shooting different parts of the body has different impacts (e.g shoot a security guard in the foot at the top of the stairs, and he'll come tumbling down, you may also see gang members trying to crawl away from fire with their last bit of strength)
• Little Jacob (a Caribbean arms dealer) is a good friend of Niko's cousin. When you buy weapons from him (which are kept in his trunk) you can scroll through them like you did in Ammu-Nation in the previous GTA games. The weapons on offer by Little Jacob included a 9mm, a shotgun, an SMG, and a micro SMG also the rocket launcher makes a return (A distinct tube-shaped weapon strapped to the underside of Little Jacob's trunk hatch).
• For those of you who were thinking GTA 4 would go with the realsitic approach and only allow you to carry certain weapons at a time or showing Niko actually carrying the weapons will be slighty dissapointed. Kiklo said in one of their articles that guns would appear magically like past games. "as we're armed with a rocket launcher (which like all weapons collected is magically hidden on Niko's person in good old convenient video game style)."
• In GTA IV you have to develop relationships with other characters. Your relationship with Little Jacob, for example, is maintained through phone calls and loyalty. Developing good relationships with different characters can provide different rewards.
• Building relationships with characters is important. During the preview, Jacob comes to meet you rather than vice versa. This is only possibly once your friendship with Jacob has developed to a certain stage. Relationships can be damaged if you (for example) fail to turn up for meetings. Pool, eating, darts, and bowling are just some of the 'friend' activities possible in GTA IV. The cell phone is used to access these activities.
• The WASTED! system is still intact. If you die, you end up at the nearest hospital (minus your weapons) the next morning.
• Parachutes will not be returning in the game, no more bailing form aircrafts and using the parachute to fall to safety.
• A big head-on crash will cause you to go flying out of the windscreen to serious injury and possibly death: Niko has'nt got time for seatbelts.
• You can resist arrest when getting busted by tapping A/X. This however will reward you an additional wanted star
• When you die, the screen fades to black and white and the camera shifts to a first-person view of your final resting place, it is quite affecting, and again, not a small bit cinematic.

Vehicle Gameplay

• Boats and Helicopters are both confirmed. So, Liberty City's waterways and airway's can both be explored. For a full list of found vehicles head over to GTA4.net to see Suction Testicle Man's brilliant car list.
• Cars have an all-new animation when being "taken", Niko slams the window in. And tries to hotwire the car after. Doesn't take alot longer than the usual "Oh, the keys are in the ignition" animation. There's up to five different animations, but this is the only known one at this time.
• Airplanes are not in the game, Rockstar mentioned it would be pointless having airplanes in Liberty City as it's only one city unlike San Andreas where there were 3 states.
• There is no bicycles in GTA 4.
• Tanks are not returning in GTA 4, no more rampages around the city blowing everything up.
• During the 2nd trailer you can see that Niko shoots at a car and the bullet holes are actually visible on the car (screenshot here), a few seconds later you can see that the window screen on thee car shows the bullet holes and the glass actually cracks when the bullets go through the glass (screenshot here).
• The default camera angle is slightly over to the drivers' side. Different angles are available however. You can move the camera aswell, but if you're not touching it, it will remain at the more central position leaning towards the drivers' side. The camera viewsavaible are a cinematic view, front bumper view, a close up view and two other views that zoom out slight from each other.
• When drivers in other vehicles pass by with their radio on. You can hear it muffled, and feel the bass off it through vibration.
• Even though flyable airplanes aren’t in the game, Liberty City will still have a Airport named Francis International Airport and yes you guessed it, it's the very same name given to the airport in GTA 3.
• It has been confirmed that the Pay and Spray will be returning this time round but spraying the car will not get rid of your wanted level. Ammunation hasn't been confirmed to be in the game, also Niko has to call arms dealers on his mobile to deliver weapons to a certain location.
• One button press will get you into a car. A second button press is required to start up the car's engine.
• Niko wears a helmet while riding motorcycles and major collisions on motorbikes cause the helmet to fall off. You can see it fall onto the ground.
• You can drop grenades and molotov cocktails out of the car window at high speed.
• You cannot store items/objects inside vehicles.
• Unlike previous GTAs, drive-bys are no longer random. Aim and fire while driving for a more accurate killing spree.
• Cars are not customisable, but you can still save them at safe houses, instead of a garage, Niko's personal garage will be a Parking space in the street outlined by a yellow box, anything parked in this area will be saved until removed.
• Rockstar says that the usual GTA driving controls have been tremendously tweaked and enhanced.
• If cars take on too much damage, the engine may stall, requiring you to escape on foot and Tires will shred apart when they are shot. When there is enough damage to the car smoke and flames start to emerge from the front of the car and the wheels.
• Headlights can be set to full beam or dipped, but they can't be turned off. Holding down a button will enable you to switch between the disered lighting.
• Emergency vehicles respond in real time from their stations around the city. Calling the police can be a handy trick when you need to obtain a police car for a mission - pick one up at the station when no one is around.
• Bulletholes and dirt are permanent on cars.
• When a car alarm is triggered, police units in the area will be aware of it.

Miscellaneous

• The GTA4 weather system does not feature seasons, which means there is no snow.
• On December 21st Gametrailers posted a video with an edited version of the third trailer (move up ladies) with some help from Rockstar called 'GT Pop-Block' which can be found here. The video confirmed billiards (pool) will be a minigame in GTA 4. A little later on in the January previews in a few news articles it was also confirmed that Bowling will be a mini game in GTA 4. Also darts will be appearing in the game.
• The map is ¾ the size of San Andreas, including desert, country and rural area.
• There's no country side whatsoever.
• Dan Houser also mentioned that Liberty City will become a whole city on the island. Nothing will go to waste on open spaces.
• There's a subway system, covering Broker and Algonquin. You know, the Manhattan Subway System. MSS, crossing over to Brooklyn. There's no other information on this, yet.
• Missions can now be restarted by sending text messages via mobile phone to the correct contacts.
• Heavy fire will scar and permanently destroy parts of the environment.
• Dropped weapons and other items have a yellow halo around them, and the mission markers are now yellow arrows floating in the air, pointing at the ground, as opposed to the cylinders we are used to in previous GTAs.
• Interior walls can be greatly damaged, "ripping chunks out of the plaster with gunfire."

[GTA4 Factsheet]

• Missions :

• A feature which seemed as though it would have a permanent absents in the GTA franchise has been introduced for the first time. Auto saving. Instead of having to make your way back to a safehouse after doing a mission, the game now saves automatically after every mission. Now there's no worry about forgetting to save and redoing tough missions. Safehouses are still in the game. The auto-save feature is also enabled to be switched off.
• Mission "marks" like targets, or cars you're supposed to tail are no longer indicated by a large arrow above it. Now you've got to find tactics to discover who your target is.
• For several missions, you'll have to use the Grand Theft Auto Internet, in Internet Café's around the city. (e.g TW@)
• You can arrange ambushes, attacks and such with your cell phone. You can use "friends" you've made earlier throughout the game as allies for missions.
• Once you die and end up in hospital, you receive a text on your phone offering you to retry the mission.
• Mission dialogue varies after any failed attempts.

Mission 1 - 'Call and Collect': Next in the demo, Niko pays a visit to somebody called McReary, at Castle Gardens, a coast-side hangout overlooking the Statue of Happiness. McReary has had a memory stick stolen from him which contains sensitive data, and he wants Niko to retrieve it for him.

 

Mission 2 - 'Final Interview' In the demo, Niko receives a call concerning "shady lawyer" Goldberg, of Goldberg, Ligner & Shyster (GLS) Niko needs to get an interview with Goldberg, so he can 'dispose of him.' Niko uses the internet to his advantage.

 

New missions were revealed to previewers on January 23rd 2008:

 

Mission 3 - 'Search and Delete': Given to you by Brucie, he wants you to find Rivas, a police informant, and deal with him. Also known as kill.

 

Mission 4 - 'Deconstruction for Beginners': The newly introduced character 'Playboy X' takes you to his Penthouse apartment, where you'll also meet the just released convict Dwayne. The task is to take out the Russian Mafia involved in union dealings on a nearby construction site.

 

Mission 5 - 'Truck Hustle': This mission which sees you being introduced to two new characters, Ray, a Mafioso character, and Bell, involves two Italian gangsters meeting you, who urge you on to keep an eye on a bunch of Triads looking to offload a 'cursed' batch of heroin.

 

More misisons were revealed to previewers on February 9th 2008:

 

Mission 6 - 'To Live and Die in Alderney': This mission is the second part to 'Truck Hustle'.

 

Mission 7 - 'Jamaican Heat': This mission acts as a tutorial for the new cover/targeting system. It will probably be like the mission 'Nines and AKs' from San Andreas.

 

Mission 8 - 'Jacob's Ladder': No information on this mission as of yet.

 

Mission 9 - 'Harbouring a Grudge': Other than this being the mission where you first meet Patrick McReary, there is no other information on this mission as of yet.

 

Mission 10 - 'Concrete Jungle':After a call from Vlad, Niko is asked to meet up with him. Rockstar didn't allow any of the previewers to find out the contents of the mission as they were asked to ignore it. This can only mean it involves the storyline in some way. We'll just have to wait and see i'm afraid. Although apparently the mission was playable behind closed doors at GDC...

 

Mission 11 - (not name): WE're not given a anme to match the description of the mission, but we do know it involved Niko and Little Jacob approaching a drug dealer residence that's hostile towards LJ. The mission's main purpose is to get the user familiar with the cover, targeting and shooting system.

 

Mission 12 - 'Final Destination': Niko meets up with some Russian mafia types who are based around Broker. Niko is introduced to someone called Michael via another man going by the name 'Dimitri' and they start talking about their police trouble, tapped phones and feds being all over them. They aren't sure who they can trust so Niko has to prove to himself that he isn't a rat and is asked to get rid of Dimitri's cousin's boyfriend, Lenny,, the only other possible snitch...

 

Mission 13 - 'Three Leaf Clover': As of yet, there has been no information about what the mission entails.

 

For a more in depth look at the missions such as mission scripts head over to here.

 

• Radio Stations:

 

There have been 18 radio stations confirmed to be in GTA 4, so that's a huge selection of music to switch between each other whist crusinga round Liberty City and it can all be accsessed via Niko's mobile phone, so your never away from the tunes even on foot. There are over 100 radio commercials in the game.

 

 

Radio Station	Info	Host
The Classics 104.1	Go back in time to the birth of Hip-Hop and listen all the old skool classics. Again!.	--
Beat 102.7	Contemporary Hip-Hip	--
Electrochoc	Francois K rocks the most discerning of contemporary dance floors with cutting-edge sounds only on Electrochoc.	Francois K
K109 The Studio	Join DJ Karl on a journey back to the heyday of Liberty City when disco never died and electronic music was born.	DJ Karl
Liberty City Hardcore	Hardcore lives on in the city where it all began. Jimmy Gestapo hosts a selection of the best punk and hardcore classics.	Jimmy Gestapo
The Vibe	Soul/R'n'B	--
Vladivostok FM	Eastern European community radio, broadcasting from Hove Beach across the greater metropolitan area. Bringing you popular music from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and beyond	Ruslana
WKTT Radio	Become one of Bastion's buddies by listening to Richard Bastion show and agreeing with his clear thinking ideas on what is wrong with the country and the liberal agenda that dominates it. Or listen to other shows on WKTT that teach you how to afraid, angry and eager to kill strangers.	--
Integrity 2.0	There appears to be plenty of room in Liberty for talk radio. They just don't shut up, especially with Lazlow in control of the mic!.	Lazlow
Public Liberty Radio	More Talk!	--
Radio Broker	Liberty Cities first choice for Alternative Rock.	--
San Juan Sounds	A radio station dedicated to Latin music.	--
Tuff Gong Radio	The home for everyones favourite Reggae and Dub music.	--
Liberty Rock Radio	Rock out brother!!...But, Classicly.	--
Massive B Soundsystem 96.9	Dance Hall music.	--
Jazz Nation Radio	--	--
Fusion FM	--	--
The Journey	Relax on those long journys with a selection of Ambient and Chillout songs. Just don't fall asleep behind the wheel.	--

• Release Date:

 

29th April 2008

29th April 2008

29th April 2008

 

Due to the way Rockstar/Take Two's fiscal year breaks down, combined with their need to please the shareholders, the accepted wisdom is that the next 'real' GTA will touch down on April 29th 2008. After being let down by the previous promise of an October 2007 release, it looks as though Rockstar are literally leaving it to the last second of their Quarter 2 deadline to make the game as perfect as possible.

 

Rockstar Games announced that GTA IV will also be available as a special edition on April 29th in North America and again April 29th in Europe, the same day as the regular edition comes out.

 

The Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition will be presented in a customized Grand Theft Auto metal safety deposit box. The box will contain:

 

• The Grand Theft Auto IV Art Book, featuring never-before-seen production artwork from Grand Theft Auto IV

• Selected soundtrack CD from Grand Theft Auto IV, featuring new material from top artists, only available on this release

• An exclusive Rockstar keychain for the safety deposit box keys

• Completing the collection is a limited edition Rockstar duffel bag.

 

• Cost:

 

Normal Edition

• Australia - 108.50 AUD

• America - $59.99

• UK - £39.99

• Europe - €61.99

Special Edition

• Australia - 149.95 AUD

• America - $89.99

• UK - £69.99

• Europe - €108.49

 

• Game Age Rating:

 

On Thursday, March 20th the ESRB officially dropped the 'Rating Pending' emblem and stamped the "M for Mature" badge on GTA 4. For the Europeans we will be seeing the ever to familiar '18' badge stamped onto the game cover.

 

ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board/US) - M-for-Mature(17+).

PEGI (Pan European Game Information/EU[/i]) - [18+]

OFLC (Office of Film and Literature Classification/AU-NewZ) - MA15+

 

The Mature rating for GTA 4 has been based on:

• Partial Nudity

Strong Language

Strong Sexual Content

Use of Drugs and Alcohol

Blood

Intense Violence

• Miscellaneous Section:

• Returning brands in GTA 4 are Sprunk, Clucking Bell, Burger Shot and METV which was found in Vice City Stories and San Andreas. In the May edition of Game Informer in one of the screenshots it shows the logo of the 24/7 shop which has been seen in past GTA's, so it looks like that is returning. In the 2nd trailer that got released it showed the store Binco, and this time it sells suits.
• As guessed there's going to be a few new brands in GTA 4 aswell, one which was mentioned in the GameTM preview named 'Perseus.' Which sells menswear and suits amongst other things. In the second trailer there’s a take away stand visible selling Frankfuter Sausages. Near the end of the third trailer a new drink brand is seen which is called Jo Jo’s Diet Cola. Others that have been noticed throughout the GTA trailers are Whiz which seems to be a mobile phone company. Krono which seems to be a watch brand.
• The faux-beer brand "Piswasser" takes a jab at Budweiser, including a radio commercial sung by Anthony himself.
• Also in the trailer you can see 'Americas next top hooker' which is a spoof of the American TV show 'Americas next top model'. There is also 'Max Render' which could be a spoof of 'Max Factor' which is a brand of ladies make-up cosmetics by a company from New York City. Also there was a Max render magazine in CJ's house in San Andreas.
• Now this 'Heavy Weapons X' film advertisement could be spoofing the film 'XXX' but the man on the advertisement looks similar to 'Just Cause' main character Rico Rodriguez.
• The Metalife building is called Getalife, the Statue of Liberty is called Statue of Happiness and DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) is now called BOABO (Beneath the Off ramp of the Algonquin Bridge Overpass). The GTA 4 equivalent of the Lincoln Tunnel is known as the Booth Tunnel.
• There has been a hint from Dan Houser that returning characters might appear in the game, when asked by Reiner, Dan gave a smile and replied 'virtually no characters returning, so it is possible we could see atleast one return in GTA 4.
• According to several previews with different magazines it seems to be a confirmed fact that Niko will be living a tougher life than he thought, against the LC law. Comments made in the magazines confirm that pedestrians in the street will remember previous events that occurred within the game, and appear to run off at the first sight of you for no apparent reason. Police officers will also remember what you look like. Looks as though you'll now have a permanent criminal record.
• During the second trailer just before showing the Liberty City bank and the police raid, there are character artworks from GTA 3 all over the wall, a screen shot can be found here.
• On July 13th Rockstar sent out emails to all their news subscribers, linking them to the WKTTRadio teaser website. This marks the release of the first of presumably many, IV teaser sites that we can expect in the follow up to the games release, Upon calling the number on the site
  Typical Rockstar humour!. Credit to GTAPlanet.com for the audio.
• One of the billboards seen during the demo advertised "Shark Credit Cards," while others advertised "Pirate Music" and "The Whiz" ("The Whiz" is the type of phone that Niko uses.)
• Characters also often look different each time you see them instead of perpetually wearing the same clothes like in previous GTAs.
• In this demo, the cell network is called Badger, whereas in the last demo it was called Whiz.
• Mist and Blood will spray onto the screen.
• Your cell phone acts as an organiser and will remind you of appointments and things you've made in previous missions. You can take photos with the mobile phone and upload them to the police computer.
• You can get drunk and drive intoxicated with the screen going blurry and such, could be similar to the mission in Vice City where you had to drive Phil to the hospital.
• When night, ten thousands of lit up windows can be seen in Liberty City.
• In GTA IV there are strip joints and, more unexpectedly, comedy clubs, which have been incorporated in a manner that is "enough to make your head spin."
• Jets and planes fly through the airport, and have visible pilots inside them. The tester drove alongside a jet, only to have a 4-star wanted level appear.
• The car paint jobs are noticeable from newer cars being gleaming and spotless, to old cars being rusted and dull.
• Jeronimo Barrera, a senior developer at Rockstar, says it takes testers playing 4 hours a day "a good 2 weeks to get through the whole single-player game."
• Announcements on the subway system will randomly alert you of spontaneous police harassment, security checks and searches.
• "We also decided to make the pedestrian dialogue more realistic in GTA4. As an example, peds in previous games would walk around and randomly chat to themselves if they weren’t doing much else. In real life, people (generally!) don’t go around talking to themselves, so we dropped this behavior from GTA4. However, we realized that the random chat of old GTA games was a good way for the player to pick-up on what sort of personality a ped has, so we created the cell-phone conversations in GTA4 as one realistic way of portraying personality."
• "It’s difficult to quantify how many speaking parts there are, but at our last count there were over 740 unique voices in the game. There are over 80,000 individual lines of dialogue, more than 7000 of which are Niko’s lines. If you were to listen to each line back to back, it would take over 29 hours. Also, these figures don’t take the radio, TV, and mo-capped cut-scene dialogue into consideration."

 

• Official Website - grandtheftauto4.com

The official website for Grand Theft Auto IV by Rockstar Games. Also located at www.rockstargames.com/grandtheftauto4/.

 

• Rockstar North

Scottish Game Designers Rockstar North's official website. Creators of the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

 

• Rockstar Games [ Flash | HTML ]

Rockstar Games official websites, featuring all their games, downloads and more...

 

• GTA4.net [ GTA4.net | GTANet ]

GTANet's Grand Theft Auto 4/Grand Theft Auto IV fan site, part of the GTA Network.

 

• WKTTRadio

Grand Theft Auto IV's first teaser website.

 

• Rockstar Games Social Club

This new website will apparently feature all kinds of multiplayer leaderboards and stat tracking such as:

• LCPD Police Blotter - A virtual map and tracker of single-player criminal activity logged in Liberty City from the aggregated data of millions of connected players - showing the most dangerous areas of town, most commonly used weapons and more.
• The Story Gang - This special single-player leaderboard recognizes players who complete Niko Bellic's main story arc of Grand Theft Auto IV - The leaderboard ranks players according to the total amount of playing time it's taken to complete the story, as well as a historical rank by who has completed it first. Members of this club will receive special online widgets and merit badges marking all of their in-game accomplishments.
• The 100% Club - Watch to see who will be the first to complete 100% of the game. The first ten people to be identified on the Social Club as reaching 100% will be sent an ultra-rare commemorative 'key to the city' to mark their accomplishment. In the future, the 100% Club will then carry a historical leaderboard showing rankings of who has completed 100% of a game in the shortest span of playing hours.
• The Hall of Fame - This area will dynamically recognize those singularly elite players who have reached the top of the hill on various statistical leaderboards, and will also contain a personal awards display of special in-game landmarks and successes in Social Club competitions.
• The Liberty City Marathon - A ranking of special physical milestones achieved in the game - from the amount of miles walked, driven, or swam - to the number of bullets fired and stunt-jumps jumped. There will be additional special marathon-based competitions in the future from this area as well.

Edited April 25, 2008 by GTA4 Factsheet

[beanmachine43]

Dude, wtf, "extreamly" is not a word. Geez, you are horrible, delete this topic right now.

 

All jokes aside, I also noticed Medallion Man not being on for quite a while, thankfully no more major developments have happened during this time, or you would have had a tough job to do. I like the layout too, especially the huge green/red font for those who have trouble reading in-depth posts.

 

*Rates topic good*

[Mclenz]

The date is confirmed on the official website as October 16th, look:

 

 

There yah go, check the main site for proof if you want more.

[All-Blacks]

 

Then theres others going to such measures as believing the game will be based in a city/state with 8 letters.

 

AUCKLAND (in NZ for you who don't know geography ).

[Seddo]

Well this topic wont be getting updated anytime soon

[Greene]

Well this topic wont be getting updated anytime soon

Thats true.

It's pretty much useless now that it can't be updated.

[adamcs]

If anyone is interested in running this topic, let me know.

 

[Blackadder.]

I would like to help run it, but with jarjar's help ofcourse (via MSN) It's fine with him, he asked me to do this for him. Thankyou!

[Vanilla Shake]

I'll lend a hand if it's posible.

[Nick Papagiorgio]

I'll pitch in now and then. If that's OK.

 

EDIT: Maybe you could add this in the related links section. It's just the GTA series website.

 

El Linko

 

Edited January 12, 2007 by Gman91

[TheDude5000]

I really think you need to post about the story/timeline.

 

A lot of people are going around expressions opinions as facts, which leads to confusion amongst newer members.

 

They keep saying GTA 3 Trilogy means the storyline in those 3 games are confined to those 3 games, and that GTA 4 will take place in another universe. And trust me, every single time I ask them to provie evidence, they never provide it. Why? Because it doesn't exist. And the term GTA 3 Trilogy is obsolete, we have 3 other games that take place in the same universe already, and I'm pretty sure GTA IV will continue the trend.

 

-Rockstar have no reason to wipe the story now. They have established a well known story, characters, events, etc. They didn't do that with GTA 1, 2, and the expansions, which is the only reason they restarted the story with GTA 3.

 

-GTA 3 Trilogy as a term never pertained to a timeline. It was just meant to describe all the GTA games released this gen(really last gen, now with Wii, 360, and PS3).

 

-Give them the benefit of the doubt. They've never talked about a story reboot, don't act as if they're going to do that when all signs show they won't.

 

 

You really need to add: "Story/Characters: Unconfirmed" and state that R* never sai d they were planning to do a story reboot. I'm really sick of having to make the same post over and over because people have been misinformed.

 

 

[SwitchBladeJones]

I wonder when more info will come out. E3 isn't until July. I like others speculate they have a strong enough reliance on the sheer namesake of GTA to hold off on releasing more press until then. I'd like to know how many pre-orders they're already counting. Anyone want to pull the freedom of information act on Take2 and obtain some vital presales figures for GTA IV?

 

Personally I think it would be outstanding if we didn't know anything about the game at all before playing it in October. How many pre-orders does it take for them to not pay a web designer to finish the game's web site, or provide travel accomidations for an employee to go to LA in July to show a few screenshots and a plot to a few press hounds ?

[totti868]

when is this gonna be updated?? 1,2 months still the same,rockstar can release a picture each week at least!

why are they making their fans wait so long?

[Pommimies]

Finally, I found something new about GTAIV.

I've heard rumours, that Lazlow Jones and another voice-actor will return in GTAIV. The another one played Dwayne in SA and VC. But this is even better:

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0802999/

 

"Young Maylay - Carl 'CJ' Johnson" wtf?

[TheDude5000]

It's not rumored, it's confirmed I believe.

 

This is another point that shows GTA IV will take place in the same universe, obviously since Lazlow is returning.

 

 

[Pommimies]

I now checked, the third returning voice-actor is Navid Khonsari. He played 'Killer Bees' Caller in GTAIII, Dwayne in VC and Dwaine in SA. Dunno if those are same characters. Lazlow will most likely be a host in one of the radio stations and I think that he will be the writer of the radio stations.

[Pommimies]

And here's something else I found from ign.com. I didn't find this posted so I put a link to it:

 

http://ps3.ign.com/objects/793/793799.html

 

There was something interesting in the Game Details:

 

"Number of Players: 1-2"

 

I think that's purely speculative and hasn't been confirmed. But who knows? It would be nice to have at least a multiplayer deathmatch or something like that.

 

And, many people have been asking the same question; "When do we get information of GTA4?" Well, I checked from ign.com when they got their first info of GTA: SA.

 

First screen was added May 11, 2004

First video was added in August 20, 2004

And more confirmed info was released around May, so we can excpect more information in May '07, maybe sooner. Who knows

Edited February 8, 2007 by Pommimies

[jnzooger]

I feel I should add that GTA London was 1969 and 1961, but never 1964. Hummm.....GTA London Stories set in 1964...

[GTA4 Factsheet]

I feel I should add that GTA London was 1969 and 1961, but never 1964. Hummm.....GTA London Stories set in 1964...

Yeah thanks for that, don't know why we never noticed it before

 

Cheers anyway

[Slamman]

I've returned after a long absence... Gone laptop' wireless! Anyway, I read several magazine stories accounting the increased size, detail, cross platforms and I hope for once, some info and graphics can leak out, but I wouldn't hold my breath, Rockstar has one heck of a tight lipped camp!

With Xbox 360 on the used market at $200 to $350, and PS3 at $500-$600, it makes some sense to consider the Xbox platform for the game, however, also consider that Saint's Row is now coming to PS3!! Wow, lots to look forward to.

Bill Slamman Schwenke

[s-paco]

nice! had some facts i didnt know about...

[The-Exploited]

 

It's not rumored, it's confirmed I believe.

 

This is another point that shows GTA IV will take place in the same universe, obviously since Lazlow is returning.

 

So it is confirmed CJ will be in the game?

[Ottae]

Finally, I found something new about GTAIV.

I've heard rumours, that Lazlow Jones and another voice-actor will return in GTAIV. The another one played Dwayne in SA and VC. But this is even better:

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0802999/

 

"Young Maylay - Carl 'CJ' Johnson" wtf?

I hope not.

 

I very much doubt he'll be in it again...

[Greene]

Imdb isn't a reliable source. During VCS's development, they added a bunch of Voice Actors to the cast who turned out to have nothing to do with the game.

Ignore it

[rebalrouser]

if CJ IS in it i hope it is only a cameo

[Picolini]

Hmm... looks like there isn't any good info on this game yet...

Lazlow being in it sounds great, his talk show was great in GTA3.

 

Should be getting some new stuff very soon is my guess, well less than a year until it's release. My guess is by summer we'll have some pics of it.

[stu jones]

it says its being released for ps3, but no mention of the ps2?? when will this game be out on ps2 does anybody know?? will it even be out on ps2 at all??

[ExtermelySmartMan]

it says its being released for ps3, but no mention of the ps2?? when will this game be out on ps2 does anybody know?? will it even be out on ps2 at all??

NO

[Freebasser]

 

 

Sorry to go off topic, but could you tell me the name of this font? I've been looking everywhere for it since I saw it, but haven't stumbled across it yet