Tag Archives: gta

Talking at a session with investors at the William Blair & Company’s 28th Annual Growth Stock Conference, EA CEO John Riccitiello said that EA’s Redwood Shores studio is at work on a sequel to The Godfather game.

“It’s a game that I think we’ll be talking a lot about this fall,” said Riccitiello.

“You can play this game both at the street level, much like a GTA-style game, but you can also play it top-down, almost like you’re in an RTS, controlling the strategy of the boroughs so you can see what’s going on.”

Riccitiello also added that EA’s Hunter Smith, who worked on two EA James Bond games will be executive producer on The Godfather II.

Thanks, Next-Gen.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking at the Game Education Summit in Dallas last week, Junction Point CEO Warren Spector said he’s “so tired of making games about guys in black leather carrying guns,” and admitted he believes long games are tomorrow’s dinosaurs.

“Game costs are going to be $35-40 million, even $100 million, and the expectations are huge. You have to differentiate yourselves. One-hundred hour games are on the way out,” he said.

“How many of you have finished GTA? Two percent, probably. If we’re spending $100 million on a game, we want you to see the last level.”

Loads more Spector at Gamasutra.

By Mike Bowden

The first online review of GTA IV’s gone live, and IGN’s given the game a perfect score. As ever, the piece is 16 years long, but you can see the verdict here. The last bit:

I could go on and on about why Grand Theft Auto IV is one of the best games we’ve ever seen and why even folks who are easily offended should play it, but that would be pointless. The only thing you need to know is that you have to play this game. Period.

Everyone else is going live with their reviews on Sunday. If anyone gives it a nine they’ll probably be lynched, so good luck with that.

US retailer GameStop’s released a giant list of all its stores that are opening on Monday night for the midnight release of Grand Theft Auto IV. Even if you’re not American, you probably need to look at this just for the sheer massiveness of it.

Here’s the list of Best Buy’s doing the midnight opening thing, in case you missed it.

Please, stop. We cannae take any more. Speaking to 1up, Rockstar boss Sam Houser has admitted that the two versions of GTA IV do have visual differences.

“There’s a slight difference in the way they look,” he said. “I think that’s to do with really low-level technical stuff that I’m not the guy to explain. The 360 games have a certain look to them; PS3 games have a certain look to them. I like the way [the PS3] renders.” He concluded, “There’s a certain kind of softness without being blurry – some warmth to it – and then there’s a certain more clinical element to how the 360 looks.”

It’s out next week. Then we can start talking about the DLC and linking to walkthroughs.

Thanks, Evil Avatar.

Rockstar will not be impressed. According to GTAGaming, the American OXM has given GTA IV a paltry 9.5/10, saying the game has too many “filler” missions to be granted a perfect 10. This is the first non-10 review score, as far as we’re aware.

Oh dear. Could it be that GTA IV isn’t perfect in every respect? We refuse to believe it. The game’s out next Tuesday, very obviously.

Microsoft Europe is preparing a giant marketing push for GTA IV, the company confirmed this morning, with a spend on a par to Halo 3′s advertising budget last year.

“We can’t wait for the game on Xbox 360, and with recent reports stating consumers should go for the 360 version over the PS3 and talk of the GTA launch being ‘the biggest entertainment launch of all time’, we’re complimenting it with a launch campaign along the same lines as Halo 3 last year,” Steve McGill, head of gaming and entertainment, Xbox UK said in a statement.

“Microsoft sees GTA IV as a fantastic title to showcase how great Xbox 360 is, what with it’s amazing graphics and gaming experience, coupled with playing with your friends on Xbox Live, Achievements and of course the exclusive extra episodic content for GTA IV that will be downloadable this autumn and will only be available on Xbox 360.”

Media overload starts this Friday this week so batten down the hatches, close the curtains and lock the front door – the MS hype train is coming to an orifice near you.

By Mike Bowden

According to PlayThree.net, the CVG GTA special is out and claims that the Xbox 360-only DLC for GTA IV could contain an area as significant as Vice City or San Andreas.

From the magazine:

“Of course, to call games as vastly ambitious as Vice City or San Andreas mere ‘expansion packs’ seems childish, but nevertheless, the downloadable content (DLC) coming for the Xbox 360 version of IV has repositioned those games in just this way. DLC so far has meant the odd new car, jumper of bit of horse armour, but GTA IV is set to completely redefine the idea with expansions that are to GTA IV what Vice City or San Andreas were GTA III. Yes, Rockstar is clearly hinting at new downloadable cities; and the chances of them being London, Vice City or SA again are slim to none. So that’s new as in brand new. GTA IV’s Liberty City is the beginning. Think about that and be excited.”

Blimey. Not long to go now!`

According to Shortlist magazine, Ricky Gervais makes cameo appearances in GTA IV. Apparently Gervais appears as a comedian in The Comedy Club, giving three-minute performances that should soak up some off the time between all the drug-running and prostitute killing.

Apparently he pops up in other locations in the game as well. Only eleven-and-a-half days to go!

This could be very funny. “Skip” – Andrew Pfister, the writer of 1up’s GTA IV preview – has posted on Neogaf saying that the PS3 version of GTA IV features a five-minute mandatory install. Unsurprisingly, teh internets have gone grade A crackers for it.

We’re also reliably informed this morning that the 360 version features an “optional install” as well. We’ll drop Rockstar a note asking for confirmation.

These have been floating around in various places for the past couple of days, but MTV’s got them all together, which makes life easier. You can see all the GTA IV New York billboard ads here, should you feel the need. Very nice that are too, to be honest. Only 12 days to go!

As reported by IGN, Rockstar’s made a statement about the Australian OFLC 15 rating given to GTA IV and the fact its been forced to make edits to the game down under.

The Australian version of Grand Theft Auto IV was rated by the OFLC in December 2007 as MA15+. Unlike the US and Europe, Australia still lacks an R18+ rating for video games and as a result many games are edited for release in Australia, including most previous Grand Theft Auto releases.

While there are some minor differences between the Australian and US/EU versions, they are not significant and we do not believe they take away from the level of scope and detail that make GTA IV such an incredible experience. We would not release the game in Australia if we believed these differences compromised the quality of the game in any way.

We strongly support the OLFC and will continue to work within their guidelines; however we believe the government needs to bring games in line with other media by introducing an R18+ rating, or edits to games will continue to be necessary. We encourage consumers to let their politicians know that they support an R18+ rating for games.

This Gametap playtest of GTA IV’s multiplayer looks legit. Loads of info there about the various modes. Better read it quick: as far as we’re aware this is the first one published. If someone’s been a bit trigger happy it won’t be there for long.

Gamerevolver has a shot of the contents of the GTA IV Special Edition, should you care. It looks pretty cool, actually. Just something else GTA IV-related to want before April 29.

Here’s what you get:

• RockStar duffle bag
• The Art of Grand Theft Auto IV book
• GTA IV Limited Edition DVD
• A copy of the game
• A GTA IV AmmoBox

GTAForums has them, but you’d better be fast. Gamekult posted them first but they’ve already been pulled.

Hudson Square analyst Daniel Ernst has predicted sales figures for what he believes will be the biggest selling games of 2008, coming to the conclusion that GTA IV will top the lot with 13 million sold this year. Ernst’s top five, from Gamedaily:

1. GTA IV (13 million)
2. Wii Fit (10 million)
3. Super Smash Brothers Brawl (9 million)
4. Final Fantasy XIII (8 million)
5. Madden NFL 09 (7.5 million)

Good luck with seeing FFXIII this year, Dan. Hit the link for more huge numbers.

According to this, GTA IV contains almost eight hours of cutscenes. All the cutscene material was apparently delivered to the BBFC for rating.

GTA IV is supposed to have around 100 hours of play it in, a fact that will no doubt delight our new friend Giles Whittell. All that time up in smoke, eh Gies? Roll on April 29.

Here. The UK mag speculates that GTA IV will “heavily support” Home with a sponsored space and DLC in the form of character clothes and the like. We’d be fairly astonished if this wasn’t true in some shape or form, to be honest. Only a month to go.

Get it here. You have to watch it. It’s GTA IV. The next time you see this it’ll be running on your TV, so get excited.

Update: You can watch it after the link now.

More »

Rockstar has created a new website called the Rockstar Social Club, a stat tracker to chart your progress on GTA IV.

Compatible with both Live and PSN, you can register for the service as early as the April 15.

It will make a record of all the things you’ve seen and done in the game, all places you’ve been and all the innocent victims you’ve run over, in something called the LCPD Police Blotter.

Every step you take,every move you make, they’ll be watching you [Fired - Ed].

Full press release after the link.

By Mike Bowden

More »