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

i really want my 360 to die so i can get a new one already!

The only problem with that is - the "new" 360 they sent me back actually works worse (runs as loud, makes more weird sounds, crashes more) than the one I had before. I guess it was probably a refurbished one?

Do you get your DLC back?

With the red ring thing you detach your hard drive and power cables and just send in the box. So when you get your 360 back, you just clip your hard drive back on and you're pretty much good to go (just have to recover your gamertag, I think).

erm, ah. i think i'll get a ps3 then. lol.

might as well if you're not playing a lot of gamews, you have a bru-ray then as well.

A quick warning though - it might be worth it to wait a bit on the ps3 until they start bundling in the dual shock 3 controller (I think that happens before gta IV, right?), as it's a much better controller than the orginal pack-in (more solid feeling + rumble).

i was thinking about that but then i realized i was gonna get a second controller anyway so i ordered a dual shock from play-asia. or yes-asia. or something.

Oh Ste I just remembered, only the 360 version will have the exclusive "downloadable content" aka episodes you can download and add to the game a few months after release.

Anybody see that quite good-looking fake(?) intro that someone put on youtube today?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQWTijxy6x8

online mutliplayer details + screens

holy shit am i excited by this. like the single player isn't going to swallow my life on its own.

Yeah, surely we're all going to be multiplaying this lots, so the console ste should buy is the one that most of us have? Which is...what? I'd guess 360. That's what I'll be playing on.

meh, tried GTA multi mode on the San Andreas game, it's really an anticlimax.

I like to play GTA solo anyway, it's that sort of game for me.

(altho MultiTheftAuto is a lot more fun, but it's just vehicle based - no on foot action)

The multiplayer stuff here looks to be a lot more fully realized than earlier attempts. Time will tell, but I'm definitely looking forward to fooling around with those different modes this time around (never did before).

lol is that supposed to be a scan from an actual magazine?

360 = more single player once they release DLC! the choice is so easy!

So a new, and final, trailer is to be released tomorrow.

I have this awful feeling that they'll fuck something major up and make it unplayable. In both Stories games they managed to completely ruin vigilante missions by making them ridiculously hard (crims just shot the shit out of your car), these were one of my favourite parts of the game.

Have you decided on a console yet Ste? I love that you can jump in and out of multiplayer from single-player. ILG hoo-ridin'!

god no, and time is ticking away. What has everyone else got, or getting?

I think the majority on this board are Xboxers? If you're really buying a console as a GTA platform, seems like if you're a real nut for the game the episodic content is a dealmaker, since they're otherwise identical, and more of your multiplayer buds have it. Though if I were buying a system this year and wanted something futureproof I would probably opt for the PS3.

The thing about picking up a ps3 would be that you could also pick up Gran Turismo prologue, Metal Gear Solid 4 (in May, right), Wipeout HD (in June?) and Little Big Planet in the fall - and also free online. But if you're just buying a system for one game (and don't mind a noisier, somewhat clunkier machine), you probably save a little money if you pick up an xbox, plus like others have said, you can also only buy the extra content (whatever that will be) if 100 hours of game isn't enough for you.

http://kotaku.com/372415/gta-iv-street-map-leaked

Besides Gears 2 are there even any 360 exclusives worth knowing about this year? It really seems like it's the PS3's year.

From Official Xbox Magazine: "Jeronimo Barrera, a senior developer at Rockstar, says it takes testers playing 4 hours a day 'a good 2 weeks to get through the whole single-player game.'"

40 hours? That ain't very long for this kind of game, even if they're just playing right through.

I think 40 hours is about how long it took me to get through the last one

For me it was way longer, but I did a lot of fucking around and side missions along the way.

and you didn't have the pressure of getting the job done on you either :P

when you dick around at all when playtesting you don't playtest for long

Yeah, half the fun was just driving/flying/biking/fucking around. Trying to find weird little bits on the map like the ramp on the top of a mesa in the desert, where you could launch a 4-wheeler off of before pulling a parachute.

That kinda thing.

I forgot - has there been any announcement if the game will let you set up custom soundtracks?

See, I think dicking about has a lot of positive effects on playing the main game. Like you can discover short cuts, hidden packages give you weapons and in short you just get a lot of practice with driving or shooting.

GUYS:

On April 29th Rockstar Games will release the most anticipated game of 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV. In addition to the game, the company is launching the Rockstar Social Club, a new website that will extend your experience of Grand Theft Auto IV and all future Rockstar Games titles.
The Rockstar Social Club is more than just a standard gaming site. It features all of the statistical leaderboards that gamers have come to expect, and combines them with performance-based competitions and awards.

Registration for the Rockstar Social Club begins on April 15th and anyone can sign up with their Xbox Gamertag and/or a PlayStation Network ID.

GTA IV, the first game featured on the Rockstar Social Club, has exciting features beyond multiplayer leaderboards, including:

* 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.

The Rockstar Social Club doesn't stop there. With special competitions, leaderboards and challenges rolling out regularly in the weeks and months following the game's release, this is just the beginning of an on-going Liberty City experience and is a small taste of what's to come from Rockstar Games for GTAIV and beyond...

: O

* 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.

Imagine they took this info, and flipped it back on the game, making some areas of town more dangerous than others IN REAL TIME :O

New (final) trailer is up everywhere...

yeah, it's pretty lame too.

but still, can't wait. antexit, that all sounds pretty neat.

ya congratulations antexit.

Thank you all so much!

have they released the soundtrack yet?

only trouble with the 100% ranking is that most of those quick enough to get on will more than likely have cheated.

Its looking like a ps3 for me, the only reason to get the xbox would be for the downloadable extras and we're not even sure that they won't in future be available for ps3. Usually they are, I'm taking the risk.

And if they don't ever become available, meh, in a couple of years i'll just get a cheap 360 to play them on.

A thought towards the multiplayer.

Will it feature traffic and pedestrians? That would be mammoth programming task wouldn't it, for client pc's to deal with the same AI of non player characters and vehicles.

If it didn't include them it could be a bit shit though.

Might not be that hard if there's only a limited number and they ony behave pseudo-randomly. Maybe...

It's the vehicles more than the peds I'm thinking, say for instance you have a race situation and you the leader drive through some heavy traffic successfully. The guy behind you who might be just far enough away to not see this traffic yet, by the time they get to that position - will they be faced with the same 'random' traffic? Or will it have spawned new (perhaps not quite so heavy) traffic making things unfair.

if u follow.

(you the leader of course have already drove further on, effectually creating more traffic down the line)

I guess we could live with it even if the traffic remained random and only the same traffic would be encountered if two different players viewpoints crossed at the same time. But then what about sniper rifle scopes, that could pose some problems?

Go for a 360, 'cuz Fallout 3 is comin'

to be fair, i hadn't realised how much cheaper the 360 was. i could be back to square one here.

Go for a 360, 'cuz Fallout 3 is comin'

-- kingfish, Friday, March 28, 2008 2:10 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

for ps3 too!

It's weird how each trailer released for this game was less exciting than the one before (loved the first one), but I'm still looking forward to the game more than ever.

my favourite trailer was number two, but this was purely because of the boggs music