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

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

more on multiplayer

the game is doomed by my expectations for it, which i don't seem to be able to mitigate or control at all.

A friend of mine sent me a mysterious message a few days ago that I have three weeks to come up with $2500...

Turns out it's so I can buy a TV and PS3 and this game in order to be wheel man for his drive-bys.

Wow, you could buy that stuff for $1500, easy. Less, even. Your friend is mental.

I think he's planning on me rolling a big BRAVIA. Plus, wait he doesn't have a PS3 yet either!

Regardless, we're definitely both mental.

do we know if you can really climb lamp posts?

and why

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/hes-finished-gta-iv-and-mgs4/a-2008040914415107076

"I blew through a crosswalk just as a guy was – I was kind of going through fairly slow – but he was holding his coffee cup, the car came really close and he kind of jumped. I mean, the reaction – because they're using the Natural Motion engine – the guy sort of reacted to the car. He jumped back, dropped his coffee, starts bitching about dropping his coffee and, you know, you just go by. But the whole sort of movement and interaction between the person and the car looked like what would happen if you went too close to a guy carrying a cup of coffee on the sidewalk. "

"One example was that, as I was failing a mission and I was retreating, I got like a two-star warning, so I’m trying to get out, and I rear-ended a taxi. All of a sudden it bursts up into flame, fire started coming out. I was like, "oh crap," so I drove a little bit further out of the way, and it was in an intersection with a lot of other cars. Then a few seconds later, a guy stumbles out of the taxi in flames. So then the first car explodes, and another car that was right next to it catches fire.

"So I actually felt kind of bad about this. I mean, the poor guy’s running around on fire. So I pull out a telephone and I call the fire department. So a few seconds later, a big fire truck comes up, parks too close to one of the cars that explodes right as it gets there... and then the fire truck explodes. Six or seven cars ended up going up in flames and exploding, and people are running around on fire. It was all sort of this dynamic setup that I kind of triggered by one tiny event: I rear-ended a car."

sounds like just another typical day in Theft land really

Shoulda left a note.

Played the shit out of Vice City last night, the pedestrians are hilarious. There was a guy who was just giggling and farting, he ended with a 'look at those great titties' remark which just made me bawk with laughter.

yeah, IV will need some "I need some titties ta squeeze" type comments

They've released official multiplayer info

http://www.rockstargames.com/IV/#?page=multiplayer

I'm very excited about multiplayer, perhaps more than I am about the main game. You should all make sure you have me on your Xbox Live lists, ready for release! I'm Jimdoo.

(Ste, have you chosen between 360 and ps3 yet? I'll feel cheated if you choose sony and I don't get the chance to shoot you)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV_soundtrack

does anyone know if this will work on ps2?

aw

god i need to swap my xbox360 for a ps3 quick.

oh and i saw the trailer for this on afternoon tv a week or so ago.

Seriously i'm considering just waiting until this comes out on pc in which time I'll have purchased a super duper system, and it'll probly be twice as shit hot than either console versions.
I'm finding it real hard to come to terms with coughing up that much money for a ps3/360 + HD telly for just one game.

i'll make my choice after hearing u guys review it on April 29

anyone else taking a sick day/vacation day on April 29?

anyone else feel ashamed of what they've become?