Grand Theft Auto IV -- It might feature crime and prostitutes.

Wow, that is very similar!

i remember these, and now i only just realise Philip Glass did that ultra strange version of Bowies - Heroes. I heard it on an Aphex Twin album.

A lock box?

The idea that you're supposed to buy this sixty dollar game then buy two more episodes six months later to actually play the "complete" game is something that's really starting to grate on me. How much is this shit actually going to cost if you want to play the "full" game? 120 dollars?

Welcome to the next level of "high budget games"

See also: the insane rise of low-cost, "casual games" market. Coincidence? I think not.

Can somebody PLEASE confirm that there are no missions in this game where you have to use a forklift to load crates into the back of a truck?

lol OTM

Hahaha, I was drunkenly talking to a mate earlier tonight about fork lift truck missions! I purposely chose my real life job to avoid that sort of thing. I don't need it in my favourite games! See also the "airing books" section of Shenmue 2.

Plz to also avoid missions that involve aiming either rocket launchers or miniguns with a ps2 controller.

I would like that lockbox!

Delayed to somewhere between February and April 2008 :(

yep, just came here to say that.

http://ir.take2games.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=258238

I'm disappointed, but I guess I feel like there are so many other interesting looking games coming out this fall / winter, that it's not too big of a deal

Bioshock hits this month, so that ought to take care of some needs

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7278970&postcount=195

:( :( :(

bums

If I were God, I would have given the developers this idea: Once you complete 100%, then you unlock a PLAYSTATION in ur base that lets you replay any mission.

If I were me, I'd point out that NYC does not actually have brown air

That's such a damn good idea. There was a mission in San Andreas where you're jumping barrels in a plane, and if you fall out, it shows you landing on a car. I finished the mission in one go, so I've never been able to see this.

I hear the computer bar where you check your e-mail in IV is called tw@.

they almost cottoned onto this in Vice City Stories, where for the first time they let you replay the Rampages.

it would be a good idea though, saves me having to replay the whole game again. not that i'm complaining about that too much :)

So with a new trailer coming out in a week or so, do you think this game is back on track for a release in early 2008 (maybe by April)? Or are they going to drag this thing out till this time next year?

Was it ever off-track? i thought they made a statement just recently reiterating the timeframe. Not that they didn't do that in like August of this year, too. Occasionally I think about what it'll be like if this game comes out and it's broken or it sucks or it's been trumped by other games that came out during the delay... And I am really, genuinely embarrassed by how disappointed I feel by even the THOUGHT. Like, it hurts my feelings.

I am a grown man!

I'm very curious to hear some details on what kind of multiplayer stuff they're putting in there too. No info has been dribbled out so far, right?

What about the save system? Have any of the previews talked about that at all? Is there any chance that they've come to their senses and inserted a quick save - or at least checkpoints on the longer, multi-part missions? It really isn't fun having to completely repeat twenty or thirty minute long missions (speaking as somebody currently stuck on repeat with the last san andreas mission) over and over

Didn't San Andreas kind of do this, actually? You can skip past the earlier parts of long missions that you have to retry. And there's a checkpoint on the last mission too, although it's a long way in.

I only hit one checkpoint on GTA:SA, the mission with the Russians. There weren't even any taxi cabs with the arrows pointing to them.

Am I wrong in thinking that all you can skip is the drive to the mission (in SA? on ps2). When I die I almost always just reload, so you can't do the skip trip, but then it's quicker anyway since one still has all their weapons and everything (you lose 'em when you get out of the hospital, and then you still have to make your way back to the mission starting point too, I thought). It would be funny if just now I learned I was playing the game wrong - making it harder than it need to be. I've been trying to finish this game up finally, but now that I've finally made it to the last mission I'm losing the will. This morning was only my third try at it (first time died clearing out the third floor, second time died in the fire on my way back down) & after twenty five mnutes of work (not fun) I got to the point where you have to catch smoke dropping off the back of the firetruck and just couldn't catch up. Not sure I want to go through all that again (and possibly again and again)

you were so close...

Many of the missions have checkpoints. On the last mission, the checkpoint starts at the point when you're in the car, chasing the firetruck.

So if you hadn't reloaded, you could skip all of that stuff.

On the ps2? are you sure? how do you load to a checkpoint then?

I got to the firetruck. The last level was so long that, by the time I'd get to the firetruck, I would fail and then say "FUCK THIS GAME", and then automatically turn the PS2 off ... so I never discovered that the game had a checkpoint there. Oops.

Yeah SA had a couple of checkpointed missions, for sure on the last mission at least.

Vice City Stories also had a new checkpoint feature on the sub games (thank god) after every five levels, so if you got to level 6 on the Paramedic and then failed - it would restart you on level 5 the next time you got into an ambulance.

I like being able to save and get rid of all my wanted stars - would they still let you do that if you could just save anywhere? It seems like the game would be too easy. You can't put a tank in the pay and spray and normal cars don't spawn when you've got 5 or 6 stars, so I think I'd prefer the save points the way they work right now. Although they could place them in more convenient spots.

Jeff - find Katie in San Fierro (she's hanging round the country club with a blue arrow pointing at her). Once you start dating her, and you don't need to actually go on a date, you get to keep all your weapons when you die.

Having to hightail it to a save point with the cops after you is so much a part of the GTA experience I doubt they'd change it. I mean, I think that's the thing I associate MOST with playing GTA games. But there's got to be some compromise between losing your weapons every time you die and there being no penalty for death or getting arrested. Everybody just restarts every time they die. Maybe the replacement of Ammu-nation with the gun dealer is more of a move toward taking the weaponry you need for a mission and just carrying a handgun or something the rest of the time?

Vice City Stories also had a new checkpoint feature on the sub games (thank god) after every five levels, so if you got to level 6 on the Paramedic and then failed - it would restart you on level 5 the next time you got into an ambulance.

Man, this was such a big relief.

tell me about it, i think i did a backflip on the sofa when i discovered it.

I really don't want them to include a quick save, this would ruin a lot of the gameplay for me (stuff that's already been mentioned)

But there's got to be some compromise between losing your weapons every time you die and there being no penalty for death or getting arrested

I think dieing is punishment enough, especially if you were in the middle of a mission. Having said that, again VCS brought something new along - having to buy back your weapons after being killed/busted.

Fuck - the checkpoint on the final mission is good news - hopefully next time I try it I won't need to use it and will just cruise thru perfectly :)

V- for whatever reason, if I remember right (it was a long time ago), when I ran into Katie she wouldn't date me - I think she said I was too skinny!!!

She's the one in the driving lessons building or something? Yeah you have to get fat.

btw antexit, v - I agree that running from the cops and having to make it back to a safehouse or through some stars is an important and fun part of the game. the way I would implement quick save into the series, would be more the way they use it in half-life - if you use quick save it just saves everything about your game exactly where you are - so if you go back to that save, you're still in exactly the same (possibly) fucked-up/wanted situation - that way you could still have safe houses and all that to save at as well, that would knock off your stars and everything. the main thing a quick save feature would improve are those longer missions where you've done a ton of stuff right only to keep fucking up at the same (or nearly the same point) and having to go through a ton of (repetitive) stuff again. That's fun on a game with a really refined control scheme like super mario bros - but on a more dynamic game with kind of clunky controls, like gta, those repeated sections get to be a drag

Anyhow, I doubt they're changing anything about the system, but I think it would make the game more fun and playable - less repetitive and frustrating

Any chance tomorrow's trailer will list the new release date?

I would think so!

Two new screenshots btw:

http://media.gtanet.com/images/3763_gta_iv.jpg
http://media.gtanet.com/images/3764_gta_iv.jpg

The one in the driving school = Michelle, not Katie. Katie's usually hiding just behind a bush (and yeah, just eat something/go on a treadmill/find a sexier car if you're not good enough for her).

Oh, many more screenshots.

http://media.gtanet.com/images/3756_gta_iv.jpg

http://media.gtanet.com/images/3760_gta_iv.jpg

http://media.gtanet.com/images/3761_gta_iv.jpg

http://media.gtanet.com/images/3757_gta_iv.jpg

http://media.gtanet.com/images/3755_gta_iv.jpg

http://media.gtanet.com/images/3759_gta_iv.jpg

dudes i never found any of the missions in gta hard! the ones with the model planes in SA were frustrating as fuck, true. but in general my big criticism of the whole series is that most of the 'difficulty' is in completism -- it takes so fucking long dinking around getting all the secrets, but the actual story you can blast through in like 45 mins. harder missions plz!!

Some of the races were pretty hard.

i cant beat that dirtbike race in vcs right now!

gff pls to come round to mine and complete radio controlled planes mission for me thx

One mission I remember having a particularly hard time with was "Just Business" - an early one where you have to kill a bunch of mobsters inside a building, then outside a building, then (here's where I remember it getting tough) a really long motorcycle chase, where you had to do several things just right.

Also for some reason, the flying mission "N.O.E." where you have to stay below radar and drop off a package and then land back at the airstrip - actually caused me to give up on the game for about five months (until I recently picked it up again & did it on my second try).

Also was never able to do the zero mission shooting down those toy planes (ten or more tries) - luckily it's an optional mission...

But yeah - the hardest thing about the game is just the length. And all the new things you have to keep learning, like flying and landing the hydra only to have to use that knowledge on that one mission. Also when I finally got to the end of that one and was about to land, I panicked and hit the eject button instead of the landing gear down (doh - twice)...

It's too bad so many people give up on the Zero missions. The third Zero mission is one of my favorites in any GTA game. The second Zero mission is really fun too, but definitely the hardest mission in the game other than the final mission (sans checkpoint knowledge).

my trick for getting the races done -- and some of the flying missions iirc -- is to switch to 1st person view. it's a good idea in some of the missions where you have to drive a fast but fragile car, too.

also if i remember right: the last RC plane mission is kind of a crapshoot. you have to get the nearest one first and the furthest one last, and it's just kind of luck if they end up in open areas where you can shoot w/o other shit getting the way or turning around too much

Wow, do most people really just restart every time they die? I don't think I've ever done that. It's not like it takes that long to just go to Ammu-Nation and get new gear if you need it.