Grand Theft Auto IV is Coming to PC - November 08

[DrRedFox]

game is looking, wasnt a fan of the other games, but this one is the best grand theft auto

[RKD]

Registration is open now 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.

Register now: https://socialclub.rockstargames.com/

[RKD]

Take Two Interactive just confirmed at the company's annual general meeting that Grand Theft Auto IV has gone gold. "Trucks are rolling next week and there will be a lot of them", the executive said, confirming that the game discs will be making their way to stores next week ahead of the game's release on April 29th.

http://www.gtagaming.com/gtagaming/news/comments.php?i=1298

HAHA FUCK YOU EA! they tried to stop it but they couldn't. Roll on Feb 28th (for me) haha

[Drag The Waters]

goddamnit i am so exicted.

i have loved gta ever since i first played it on the original playstation. 

[RKD]

SPOILERS AHEAD, select to read!

I asked a lot of questions that couldn't be answered, but one of the cooler Easter Eggs was shown to me. Towards the end of one particular mission, Niko ends up next to a burnt-out and run down mansion...the Salvatore's mansion from GTA3. Pretty sweet little egg for us super-dorks who've played all the games. Jeronimo said there were more recognizable features in the game for long-time fans, but he didn't go in to details.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/36401

I Can't believe they put it in, that is awesome

[RKD]

I Love that screen, Niko has gone through the windscreen head first into the grill of the truck and look at how taxi crumples up.

also a few excerpts from an article about the game sound:

Do you know how many individual sound effect files are in GTA IV?

MS: We have around four-and-a-half thousand individual sfx in the game, which are combined into around 19 thousand different combinations. That's ignoring the insane amount of dialogue, cutscenes and radio content. Rain sounds alone take up around a third of the entire audio budget for San Andreas!

How many speaking parts are there in the game?  How much dialogue?

WM: 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.

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/grand-theft-auto-iv-audio-qa/a-20080418152838249060

80,000 f'n lines. jebus!

[Ruiner]

All this and Ricky Gervais?

WHY ARE YOU TORMENTING ME?! :'(

look at play.com! xbox and the game for 199! i think im going to have to get it!

[Ruiner]

A shit load of new still are up on their site! (i;ve not been following this closely but i think the site has been updated just now)
http://www.rockstargames.com/IV

[roboaxl]

My parents have decided to come and stay with me the weekend of the game's release even though I'm trying to study for exams

But it means I'll get my bro to bring up my PS3 so I can finally play GTA

which would probably be even more detremental to my hopes of studing than my parents visit

[RKD]

A shit load of new still are up on their site! (i;ve not been following this closely but i think the site has been updated just now)
http://www.rockstargames.com/IV

unfortunately not, but it probably will be sometime this week.

anywho, Variety interviewed Dan Houser, here are the key points:

    *  GTA 3 through San Andreas focused on removing restrictions; GTA IV focuses on implementing things that make sense for the location or for the character.
    * In GTA IV, Rockstar aims to recreate the feeling of jumping from GTA 2 to GTA 3. It's not just an improvement; it's something completely different. GTA 2 to GTA 3 was 3-D; GTA 3 to GTA IV is a phenomenal increase in detail.
    * Physics in GTA IV make the game feel more alive; greatly improved graphics make emotions easier to convey. It's all about making the game more natural.
    * The story reflects the gameplay. The more realistic the game looks and feels, the more realistic the story can be.
    * Rockstar's dream with their games is to always make everything a flowing, completely integrated experience.
    * The development process for GTA IV was professional yet unstructured. The team hasn't really changed since GTA 3, so the process is largely intuitive.
    * The original Liberty City (from GTA 3) was never meant to imitate New York City; it was just "vaguely East Coast-ish".
    * As with previous Grand Theft Auto titles, extensive research was done to capture the true essence of New York City.
    * When coming up with the concept of Niko, Rockstar wanted someone that was tough yet foreign; he's both battle-hardened and innocent at the same time.
    * It took approximately six months to come up with a rough design of what represents New York City. Actually building that representation of New York (Liberty City, in this case) took years to complete.
    * As the city is created, the story begins to develop with Dan bouncing ideas off of Sam and Leslie Benzies. The story begins to be developed, artists start to work on the characters, and the designers begin to break down the story into missions.
    * Developing the actual Grand Theft Auto experience is a daunting task; although the game isn't linear, Rockstar sets it up in such a way that any given situation is predetermined. From the article: "We know where you can move around the map. We know when you can unlock everything. So although the thing to you playing game is non-linear because at any point you might have 15 things you can do, we can track on a huge multi-tiered doc, where you can be. So we know at that point can't see other things. We're trying to tell a story, design a videogame and take you on a trip around the world all at the same time."
    * While San Andreas and Vice City took influence from films, GTA IV does not. With the Rockstar team being based in New York City (and much of the team having lived there their entire lives), it makes more sense to base the game off of their own first-hand knowledge and experience of the city.
    * The main reason that we haven't seen multiplayer Grand Theft Auto in the past is technical limitations; the hardware just couldn't handle the strain that a full GTA multiplayer experience would dish out.
    * For GTA IV, the multiplayer experience isn't meant to be revolutionary or completely innovative; it's simply meant to be the best multiplayer GTA experience possible.
    * Multiplayer recreates moments while singleplayer creates narrative; it's all a very cinematic experience.
    * The storytelling experience in GTA IV is far beyond anything we've seen in any Grand Theft Auto title to date.
    * When we look at Niko's situation in GTA IV, we see him as a serious individual with problems that he most overcome; the world that he's stuck in, and the issues of those around Niko, are considerably ridiculous by comparison. It's this tone that defines the game.

http://weblogs.variety.com/the_cut_scene/2008/04/dan-housers-ver.html

[Ruiner]

Thanks for that!
im so close to buying that bundle from play but then i started thinking about metal gear
maybe if i wait off a few months till metal gear comes out they'll go a bundle with the PS3! but i have no idea how much it'l cost...if they don't i'll be stuck with nothing  :'(

[RKD]

Thanks for that!
im so close to buying that bundle from play but then i started thinking about metal gear
maybe if i wait off a few months till metal gear comes out they'll go a bundle with the PS3! but i have no idea how much it'l cost...if they don't i'll be stuck with nothing  :'(

although since it is an 80gb, expect it to be a bit more expensive.

[GGS]

If GTA IV comes out on a tuesday you'll be able to get it on friday before if you slip an extra bill or know anyone who works in the stores.

My mate and i do it often the only snag is you can't get a reciept and you got to keep it hush hush, I remember playing Snake Eater on the friday before it came out and laughing at people and spoiling the ending and Mario DS etc. Sometimes it don't work cause of shipping changes though.

Plus if you don't like it you can trade it in at Blockbuster cause there foooking clueless about games and you'll get almost cept 3 or 4 pounds full price credit for it.

I'll be lolling if i can get it on the friday and post pictures of me playing it LOOOOOOOL.

[Ruiner]

  thats awesome man! too bad i don't know anybody in gaming retail!

[RKD]

yea that is possible depending on what store you get it from. the bigger stores and non gaming stores obviously won't pay out before the release date regardless cos it'll be on the system but the smaller independant stores are alot more forgiving when it comes to releasing games early. i use A to Z Gamez in my town because A) i know the guy and B) every game that i've preordered from there, i've got early. from my first preorder there GTA San An which i got a day early to SDvsRAW08 which i got a day early whilst they were just coming in. and this will be the same. he told me the "official date" was the 29th but he'll probably be handing them out come the 28th when he gets them from his supplier.