Rockstargames Presents...

Nintendo is really pimping out the DS to anyone who wants a piece. The DS's newest client? Publisher Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto series. 2 Days ago at the Nintendo E3 2008 press conference, Nintendo announced that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be coming exclusively to the DS this holiday.

Developed by Rockstar Leeds in conjunction with Rockstar North, Chinatown Wars will take players inside the seedy underbelly of Liberty City's infamous Asian Triad crime syndicates. Players will use the DS' specific controls to guide their cars and characters on what is described by Rockstar as "an epic tale of crime and corruption." OK, good.

"This is a game that will deliver a rich, fast-paced and intense 'Grand Theft Auto' experience that will be truly unique to Nintendo's handheld platform" comments Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "Rockstar Leeds, along with the team at Rockstar North, has built upon a decade of progressive design on Grand Theft Auto, and has created something fundamentally fresh and immersive."

Look for additional information on Chinatown Wars to be posted shortly right here on Rockstar's official site. Launch dates are currently pegged at a tentative "this winter" in both European and North American territories.

And while the DS is a strange system for the Grand Theft Auto series to end up on, it's definitely great news for those who want more whorez instead of petz.

So DS GTA Fans get ready this winter for a new action.

Rockstargames Rulez**

Got GTA IV GAMEPLAY AND INTRO ON THE WEBSITE* I UPLOADED IT.

My friend got GTA IV he Pre-ordered it from UK. Lucky

So i was playing in his house*

Link* http://www.gamevee.com/viewVideo/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV/Playstation_3/GTA_IV_Intro_and_Gameplay_PS3/170872

Only 4 Days Left | GTA IV | Things Will Be Different

GTA IV Special Edition* Images

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GTA IV: Animating the World

Now that GTA IV has gone gold GameSpot has had time to interrogate a couple of Rockstar Games employees and has shared some new info in the article as well:

• Completely controllably skeleton (ex: can move all five fingers).
• The lighting in the game has opened the door to "more cinematic cutscenes".
• The animation team is double than San Andreas animations team.

There are some more technical details within this article if you care to read, there are also some new screenshots as well.

Link: Grand Theft Auto IV Q&A: Animating the World

OXM, Xbox World 360 review GTA IV, and more

Two more publications have reviewed the next installment of Grand Theft Auto, (which is only a week away from release), both of which have given the game amazing and near-perfect scores. First up was the U.S. version of Official Xbox Magazine (OXM), the review was obviously favorable. The final verdict was a 9.5/10. Their conclusion:

• + Wounderful environment with gajillions of great things to do.
• + Multiplayer is a deep, terrific addition to the series.
• - Would be even better with a little editing: it starts slowly, has a few too many "filler" missions.

Xbox World 360 (U.K.) scored the game a 98%/100%, which is said to be their highest score ever given. Their conclusion:

• + Oscar-worthy dialogue
• + unfeasibly rich game world
• + inspired mission design

Both reviews have quite a few mission and story details, and even include achievement details, Easter-egg details, and more. Be sure to check them out whenever you see them at your local shop.

In other related news, pictures of the special edition packaging of the game have surfaced. Lastly, it appears an ad for GTA IV which was featured on Chicago's buses has been removed. The official report from Fox News can be found here.

IGN: The City that Never Sleeps

IGN has posted up an article today with an interview with someone from Rockstar named Aaron Garbut. It is definitely worth a read, it explains Liberty City in full detail. He also explains how the game will be nothing like the other GTA's besides the general feel. The article also has some new screenshots up that will be shortly added to our screenshots section.

You may read the article here: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/868/868124p1.html

PSM3 France Reviews Grand Theft Auto IV

The French magazine PSM3 reviewed GTA IV in their latest issue. Expect the number of reviews to grow immensely as we approach the release of IV, with a little over a week left before it hits stores worldwide.

The review points do contain a minor spoiler (the description of another mission) so it will be displayed at the bottom of the list:

• On the PS3, the L2 and R2 buttons (LT/RT for the 360) are used to break and accelerate this time around.
• The underground subway is confirmed to be usable in IV.
• You are able to buy weapons at stores, but whether the stores are called "Ammu-Nation" as in previous GTAs is unknown.
• As is already known, you are able to buy clothes at various stores in Liberty City, just like in San Andreas. However, unlike San Andreas, when you want to try on an item of clothing, Niko won't go back into the changing room for a few seconds while the game loads the textures like CJ did. The new apparel will be displayed instantly.
• When rendering at 1080p, the game looks amazing and the city is so detailed that you could wonder around for hours at a time without an objective and find interesting new things
• Pay 'n' Spray locations will not affect your wanted level when you use them this time around, but they are still available for repainting your vehicle.
• PSM3 France called it the "Best game ever made" and gave it a perfect 20/20 score.
  
  MINOR SPOILER:
• Just like III, Vice City, and San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto IV includes a mission involving a bank heist. PSM3 said that escaping involves use of the subways.

The only grievance PSM3 had with the game was the aiming system. The magazine claimed that aiming felt 'heavy' at times, but because of how immersive IV is and how much of an improvement the controls are from previous games, that this is barely noticeable.

Games Aktuell review GTA IV

German magazine Games Aktuell have reviewed Grand Theft Auto IV and given their verdict on the game. The review is actually based on their preview sessions at R* earlier and not on the final retail version of the game, though they still include the review screenshots (seen in OXM and OPM).

• Graphics: 9/10
  The gigantic size of the city makes you forget the few graphical imperfections of the game.
• Sound: 10/10
  Best GTA soundtrack ever, and probably the most compelling feature in the game.
• Controls: 8/10
  Far from perfect but a big step from the previous GTA games.
• Multiplayer: 9/10
  Great concept and innovative integration with the single-player mode.
• Gameplay: 10/10
  We can't score it 11/10...
• Conclusion:
  GTA4 is by far the best action game ever created.

GamesRadar GTA IV audio Q&A

GamesRadar have managed to get themselves an audio Q&A with Matthew Smith, Craig Conner and Will Morton, three senior members of the Rockstar North Audio team.

The article talks about the ambient sounds in the game, pedestrian dialogue and the soundtrack of the game. There article is a pretty interesting read, here are some notable quotes from it:

• Most of the time what you hear is really happening - what's so great about GTA IV from an audio team's perspective is that you hardly ever need to fake anything – the world's so rich and so busy, that if you make individual things sound right, the whole ambience pretty much just appears by itself.
• Gunfire is a good example of how complex videogame audio has become; a single gunshot typically consists of around 10 individual components, whose volume and placement we control independently with distance, to create a bright, wide, punchy sound up-close, and a more reverberant, muffled sound at a distance. For multiplayer, we balance this 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• The DJS have far more AI than previous titles. They know what time of day it is, what the weather is like and what's going on in LC. They've even done their research on their playlists, some of their own tracks appears on them. In fact all the DJS are either famous singers or musicians (or both.) They have plenty to say about their chosen genre of music as they've lived it, loved it, or are living it.

The article also contains a number of brand new screenshots. You can see them over at GamesRadar.

GTA IV is gold, new information revealed

Grand Theft Auto IV is finally finished and ready to go.

During Take-Two's shareholder's meeting earlier today, it was announced that GTA IV has "gone gold," and according to Take-Two CEO Ben Feder,


[Grand Theft Auto IV is] in production and in trucks en route to retailers.

This is certainly good news as it ends any rumor of delay or intervention by Electronic Arts, who attempted multiple times to buy Take-Two to make a profit on Grand Theft Auto IV.

New information about the game was also revealed when Lazlow was interviewed on the Opie and Anthony show today:

• The Xbox 360's downloadable content is confirmed to contain new missions, new characters, and new comedy acts.
• You can use the in-game websites to go on dates with people in the game.
• If Niko is shot in the leg, he will realistically limp and bleed from the location of the wound.

Much more information is revealed in the show, listen to it below!

Sources:
Grand Theft Auto IV golden, already in transit
Part One and Part Two of Lazlow on Opie and Anthony

Rockstar Social Club now open for registrations

You can now pre-register for the Rockstar Social Club using your Xbox Live gamertag and/or PlayStation Network ID. The Social Club will fully open once GTA IV is released, and will provide all kinds of statistics on your game progress. There are even prizes for those who complete the game the fastest.
The website states that early adopters who pre-register before April 29th will be rewarded by being automatically entered to win a special once-in-a-lifetime prize for true GTA fans: your portrait custom drawn by Rockstar Games in the signature ****of Grand Theft Auto IV's illustrations. You'll need to be aged 18 or over, and reside in one of the following countries: United States, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom. For more details head to the sweepstakes page.

Link: Rockstar Games Social Club

Full GTA IV Xbox 360 advertisement now online

The full version of the TV advertisement for GTA IV we posted about yesterday is now on the official Xbox site. A number of the scenes shown were not in yesterday's video.

Link: Xbox.com

As you can see i changed me user icon

Made GTA IV Niko Bellic Icons for Gamespot* Check it out

Full Size of these GTA IV Icons*

200*200 Niko Bellic Icon

Gamespot Size 84*84

Click the link to get the size 84*84

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New Exclusive GTA IV Screenshot

Rockstar have just sent us this exclusive screenshot for All the GTA Fan Site, it's among the first digital shots to show the HUD.

New Zealand also getting censored GTA IV

Despite the fact New Zealand have given the game the R18 rating, the country will be receiving the same censored version of the game it's neighbour Australia is getting. The R18 rating means it's illegal for New Zealanders under the age of 18 to buy the game, so why they're getting a censored version is unknown. No previous GTA games were edited for New Zealand, only Australians have suffered that, due to the fact the current highest rating there is MA15+.

Rockstar still haven't confirmed what exactly has been cut, though they assure us it's nothing that will compromise gameplay. For any Aussies or New Zealanders wanting an uncut version of the game, your best bet is probably importing from the UK (if you require a PAL version).

Source: PALGN

Rockstar Social Club pre-registration delayed

The Rockstar Social Club website now displays an image saying, "Pre-Registration Begins 4.17.08," two days later than what we were told on March 27 (registration was officially set to start on April 15). We are unaware of exactly what caused the sudden, short delay, but we'll keep you posted!

GTA IV Reviewed by OXM*

OXM is available in the UK

Official Xbox Magazine is the first magazine to review Grand Theft Auto IV. Subscribers in the UK began receiving their issues today.

The verdict from OXM is:

• Amazingly realistic world.
• Stunning action set pieces.
• Genuinely engrossing storyline.
• Hugely entertaining multiplayer.
• Vast in every respect.

...and the final score given by OXM is 10 out of 10.

Some info from the Magazine (OXM)

In addition to this there's also a number of new screenshots on the article, including some which show off the game's HUD. Numerous other small bits of information are scattered around the article, below is a summary of the more interesting facts:

• > Skipping a trip in a taxi costs more than it would if you sat back and enjoyed the ride.
• > The Statue of Happiness is actually clutching a coffee cup, not a Sprunk/beer can as many had previously thought.
• > Some celebrity voice actors play themselves in the game.
• > Similar to Crackdown, hidden packages in GTA IV make a quiet sound as you get close to them, helping your search.
• > Sometimes your in-game email account will get spam.
• > Driving through flames will set vehicle tires on fire, causing them to degrade and burst after a while.
• > A mission similar to "Dead Skunk in the Trunk" from GTA3 is in the game, this time there are two bodies in the trunk, and if you hit a bump and it opens, you'll have to get out and quickly close it again before any pedestrians notice.
• > The mobile phone you receive at the start of the game is an old, second hand model capable only of calling and texting. You'll need to wait for an upgrade later in the story to unlock the full functionality that people get from more modern models.
• > Downloadable content is confirmed to contain at least 10 hours of gameplay.

So there you have it. There's a whole bunch of new screenshots including HUD shots, so be sure to pick up this issue if you can find it in your area.

Thanks to gizzuk for the info.

RockstarGames Social Club Opens Tomorrow

Registration will open tomorrow (April 15th) for Rockstar Social Club - a new website from Rockstar featuring all kinds of multiplayer leader boards and stat tracking. Here are some of the features mentioned in the press release that was sent out on March 27th:

• 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.

Rockstar say that additional features will be added to the website following the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, including competitions and challenges. You will be able to register with your Xbox Live Gamertag and/or PlayStation Network ID.

Link: Rockstar Social Club

GTA IV gets the Bad Cop Treatmeant!

While we have seen many overly positive previews so far, GTA IV certainly can't be perfect -- no game is. Luckily there are still some journalists out there who dare to have a slightly critical look at R*'s latest piece. Two of those are IGN's Patch Kolan and Cam Shea, who review the game's multiplayer component in Good Cop, Bad Cop ****

Amongst the things they aren't too happy about are clumsy camera controls, an imbalanced lock-on system, frame-rate hiccups and most worryingly the graphics:

Did Bob Ross draw GTA4's trees?

"The depth-of-field blur effect is far too heavily applied to the multiplayer game. Everything that is more than 50 feet down the street from you starts to pixelate and distort strangely, as if filtered through a haze of tiny droplets of vegetable oil."

That is indeed something many people are confused about. In most screenshots we can see blurry, low-detail buildings (not just in the distance), as well as heavy distortion -- especially in areas of water, foliage and shadows -- resembling a quality known only from paintings. According to a recent Kotaku article, those distortion filters are intended to actually improve the game's visuals:

"I suspect there's a filter involved, something that gives the world a touch of artistry. [...] Jeronimo Barrera tells me that Rockstar loves its filters. It helps, he says, fool the eye, masks some of the imperfections that games, no matter how next-gen, will always have."

Whether this is for better or for worse and impacts the gameplay noticably, remains to be something players will have to decide for themselves when the game comes to stores later this month.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Official Website gets updated: Multiplayer Section Launched

The official GTA IV website has been updated with a bunch of new screenshots and content, including the launch of the new multiplayer section. Here is the full list of updates:

• Bean Machine
• Electrochoc
• Goldberg, Ligner & Shyster
• Liberty City Gun Club
• Liberty City Hardcore
• The Men's Room
• Middle Park

• Playboy X
• ZiT
• Multiplayer section launched
• Music section updated
• Screenshots section updated
• New wallpapers - outdoor series
• MySpace profile themes

Link: Official GTA IV Website