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Shippin' Out April 27-May 2: Grand Theft Auto IV

Rockstar Games' highly anticipated open-world action game finally arrives at retail, scares off most of the competition.

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While Mario Kart for the Wii and a big-budget movie tie-in like Iron Man might headline the Shippin' Out column on any other week, the end of April belongs to Rockstar Games' much-anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV.

Arriving three and a half years after the last major installment in the series--Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas--Grand Theft Auto IV is the franchise's current-generation debut and takes place in a warped re-creation of New York City called Liberty City. Set for a Tuesday release, many locations of retailers like GameStop and Best Buy will be opening their doors at 12:01 a.m. for midnight release events.

The competition appears to be giving Grand Theft Auto IV a bit of breathing room. The aforementioned Mario Kart Wii enjoyed a traditional Nintendo Sunday launch, and the other big release of the week, Sega's Iron Man, comes out on Friday to coincide with the Robert Downey, Jr. feature film.

Beyond that handful of offerings, SNK Playmore has a compilation of Neo Geo arcade games coming out on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, while Konami launches Let's Yoga and Let's Pilates on the DS. Even the downloadable services are lighter than normal, as the Xbox Live Arcade will go without a release of any kind, and the Wii Virtual Console will welcome only one title this week--the NES beat-'em-up Double Dragon--instead of the typical two new games.

APRIL 27, 2008 (Sunday)
Mario Kart Wii (Wii)

APRIL 28, 2008
Double Dragon (Wii Virtual Console)
Let's Pilates (DS)
Let's Yoga (DS)

APRIL 29, 2008
Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360, PS3)
SNK Arcade Classics Volume 1 (PS2, PSP)
Baseball Mogul 2009 (PC)
Toy Shop (DS)
Brain Voyage (DS)

APRIL 30, 2008
There is no Xbox Live Arcade game scheduled for release this week

MAY 1, 2008
Great War Nations: The Spartans (PC)

MAY 2, 2008
Iron Man (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, DS)

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