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Grand Theft Auto IV

Rockstar Games are bringing Grand Theft Auto IV to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on April 29, 2008.

Here is a short list of information tidbits regarding the game:

  • Main Character: Niko Bellic
  • Single Player: Yes
  • Multi-player: Yes, 15 modes including Hangman's NOOSE, Team Car Jack City, Bomb da Base, Bomb da Base II, Mafia Work, Team Mafiya Work, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Turf War, Cops n' Crooks, Race, GTA Race, Deal Breaker, Free Mode and one more unknown mode.
  • Episodic Content: Two pieces of content for Xbox 360 in 2008/2009, possibly PS3 later on
  • Graphics: Uses Rockstar Advanced Graphics Engine (RAGE)
  • Physics: Uses NaturalMotion euphoria
  • Location: Liberty City, broken up into five areas:
    • Brooklyn is Broker
    • Manhattan is Algonquin
    • Queens is Dukes
    • The Bronx is Bohan
    • New Jersey is Alderney
  • Sea/Air: Helicopters and boats but no planes

What does the American dream mean today? For Niko Bellic fresh off the boat from Europe, it is the hope he can escape his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity. As they slip into debt and get dragged into a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don't.

The Character: Niko Bellic

Niko Bellic is the main character and is described by Rockstar as "tough." His home was in Eastern Europe, and he likely may never have traveled to Liberty City if it wasn't for his cousin Roman who is described as a "friendly buffoon" by Rockstar. Life wasn't going well, and Bellic turns up in Liberty City because he's been receiving e-mails from Roman that are full of lies about how great he is doing in America. Roman is actually in trouble.

However, Niko knows that Roman is the only person he knows in America. Roman serves as one of his main friends, motivations, and connections at the start of the game. Unlike San Andreas, players won't get a chance to see Bellic in his homeland. You will see his life unfold from the moment he steps into Liberty City.

Why Go Back To Liberty City?

Dan Houser, the creative vice president of Rockstar Games had the following answer when asked why Liberty City was chosen for GTA IV:

"[New York City] is an environment we felt had never been done to the level we were envisioning it in a video game. From looking at all of the locations, this was the one that really stood out to us, and really had that impact. It has all of these iconic things that you couldn't put into a game before."

In another magazine article, Houser explained again with this:

"We've always wanted to do New York properly. With GTA III, we were dealing with so many technical issues and design issues about making a game like that, that we didn't really think that trying to make somewhere like a real place was important at the time and then we discovered later that that gave an added element of content to the place.

We've got a full time team of researchers and photographers in the office in New York who get emails from the artists in Scotland saying, "Hey can you find out what this building's like, or what the traffic flow's like around here?" or the designers want to find out how the law systems work. We wouldn't be as confident doing a next-gen game the way we wanted, somewhere we didn't have a base."

Make sure to use these sources of information/interest to your advantage:

These are three of the logos for the game:

      

How Was GTA IV Announced?

The game was announced at E3 2006 by Microsoft at their press event. Here is part of the press release:

Microsoft and Rockstar Games have entered into a strategic partnership to provide exclusive episodic content via Xbox Live. Two full downloadable episodes will be available a few months after the release of the game for the Xbox 360 version only, each with hours of new gameplay content. It will not be "just a car or player skin" and Microsoft claims it will be the "best downloadable content experience ever. We're talking about hours of entirely new gameplay."

"Through Xbox Live, we have a unique opportunity to reach out to our audience in new ways," said Sam Houser, executive producer and founder of Rockstar Games. "This strategic alliance allows us to craft experiences that fully leverage the on-demand distribution power and sheer size of Xbox Live."

Microsoft's Peter Moore announced the game at the E3 2006 Microsoft press event by rolling up his sleeve to reveal a GTA IV tattoo. Click the "play button" below to watch the video announcement or you can download the video.


Sam Houser's E3 2005 Speech

Sam Houser, President of Rockstar Games, spoke at the E3 2005 Sony Conference on video. While he didn't mention that he was necessarily talking about the GTA franchise, it was fairly obvious that he was. You can download the video or watch it below. Below the video window is the transcript.

"I think what we're most looking forward to creating in a PlayStation 3 game is a truly-realized, truly-immersive living, breathing world. This is what we live for. You know, every five or six years, these amazing companies like Sony comes along and gives you this wonderful new piece of equipment that allows you to start unlocking your vision and unlocking the dream that you've been having for however long. With Cell and with PlayStation 3, we feel very excited and very confident that we're going to be able to absolutely push the limits of what can be created and the experiences that we can immerse our audience in. We really know that we're going to be able to go to the next level in terms of realistic simulations and realistic immersion combined with incredible narrative...incredible storytelling, and those two elements combined are what are going to create the experiences of the future."

One year after this video was released, it was officially announced that, although GTA IV would still come out for the PlayStation 3, Rockstar Games began favoring Microsoft and the Xbox 360 by letting them make the aforementioned announcement as well as giving the console two exclusive pieces of episodic content which are due out in 2008.

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