Tag Archives: Rockstar

As part of the lead-up to the Undead Nightmare DLC for Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar Games has gotten into the spirit by releasing a trailer featuring John Marston, zombies, and… John Marston killing zombies.

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Console gamers occasionally had to saddle up on invisible horses, but at least they got to see the rest of Red Dead Redemption.

PC gamers, though, not so much.

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Hi Ho, Silver! Away!

Silver? Silver?

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Ever since their respective launches, GTA IV’s two DLC episodes have kept the GTA experience from going cold only on the Xbox 360. But no more. Today, Rockstar announced that GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City is bringing a double-helping of DLC to PS3 and PC this March.

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The ESRB seems to have sprung a leak the size of Sony, yet game publishers keep letting it in on all their darkest secrets. And hoo boy, does this one look dark. According to an ESRB listing, Rockstar’s set to release an AO version of Manhunt 2 on the PC.

So, what makes this new version so rough and tough that even the extreme maturity of a 17 year-old can’t handle it? “Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs” — you know, the usual suspects, but probably without that weird strobe thing that used to happen when you killed people.

Thanks, Joystiq.

It appears that GTA: Chinatown Wars’ Japanese jaunt won’t be quite as uneventful as originally planned. According to Siliconera, the game will be the first to have its hide branded with a CERO Z rating, the equivalent of an AO in the US, or an 18+ in Europe.

Monumental though it may be, the news isn’t really all that surprising, as it’s only inheriting GTA’s Japanese mantle. Thus far, all GTA games have been rated CERO Z in Japan.

This doesn’t bode all that well for Chinatown Wars eventual sales in Japan, though. After all, the audience that visibly brightens every time someone mentions “Brain Training” probably isn’t much into splattering said brains on the pavement. Chinatown Wars, will you ever find a loving home?

After sales unbefitting of a GTA game in both Europe and North America, GTA: Chinatown Wars is taking its cel-shaded, dual-screened brand of automobile thievery to Japan.

Cyberfront’s publishing, but hasn’t announced a release date yet.

Here’s hoping the game’s plight fills Japan’s gaming population with sorrow, giving rise to a new influx of sales. Chinatown Wars is great, people. Please buy it.

Thanks, Tiny Cartridge.

A Windows Live update released this weekend apparently gave Liberty City a case of the hiccups. No more, though, because Microsoft smoothed things over lickety-split.

“Thanks for your patience, a new update is available that addresses the stuttering issue with GTA IV. Just log in and apply the new update,” said a Microsoft rep.

You heard the man. Go steal cars and shoot things. Or steal things and shoot cars. Or something. Enjoy!

As seen on MTV, Rockstar’s $20 GTA IV expansion is adding at least $20 worth of family-wrecking devil music. Maybe even enough to wreck two or three families, if you’re lucky.

Radio stations Liberty City Hardcore (death metal), The Beat (hip-hop), Radio Broker (indie), and Liberty Rock Radio (take a guess) will all add new songs to their rotations, while The Beat and LCH will also employ new DJs in these Tough Economic Times, those generous souls.

Rockstar’s still keeping the full list of new tracks under wraps, but we’ll make sure to let you know the magic eight-ball stops reading “Ask again later.”

The link holds all the knowledge. Go look at it.

GameTrailers has posted an interview with Rockstar’s Jeronimo Barrera discussing upcoming GTA IV DLC, The Lost and the Damned.

There’s essentially nothing new in it, although Jeronimo did confirm that new multiplayer modes will be included.

The video also features the first look at the new Left 4 Dead “Survivor Mode” DLC, where your jaunty group of four zombie-slayers attempts to survive endless waves of attack over 12 different maps.

Sounds harrowing.

Video posted after the jump.

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Oh man, go check out this trailer. We’d say more, but GTA: LAD’s subtle combination of motorcycles, heavy-metal, and gruff, gun-toting Manly Men has us feeling the need to chomp on nails and bend things. A need which absolutely cannot go unsatisfied.

Check it out after the break.

By Nathan Grayson

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Rockstar has requested that US site Destructoid remove details of GTA IV’s multiplayer compenent. Following the launch of Rockstar’s GTA IV website yesterday, the site posted some rumoured information about online play. The word “multiplayer” was seen for the first time on the game’s site, tantalisingly ghosted out.

“We’ve been asked by Rockstar to wait until the game is closer to launch before giving up all the goods,” said the site “Just as we respect our anon tipster’s wishes to remain out of jail we’re also willing to work with the game company’s wishes. The less lawyers involved the better, so some of the details from this post have been removed so some people can sleep soundly tonight. Go home, lady!”

Unfortunately for Rockstar (and its lawyers), Kotaku got to the news first. According to the site’s coverage of the story, “a rumored tagged report from Destructoid, citing an anonymous source,” says “a suite of multiplayer options are planned, including death match, co-op, team based head-to-head battles and online races.”

The game’s Xbox 360 achievements list is also known to be in circulation. That addage about death and taxes being the only certainties in life missed a third: “you can’t beat the internet”.

Following this week’s news that wary glances are being cast behind the scenes of Tanja Byron’s upcoming report, British national daily The Guardian is this morning carrying, “Ministers plan clampdown on ‘unsuitable’ video games” as its main headline.

The story mirrors earlier reports this week in that it claims the Byron Report is to recommend a legal classification system for all games, but goes into further detail about plans to advise parents to not allow children to play games in their bedrooms and to only let them use computers and games consoles in places where the screens are clearly visible.

According to the piece, “A legally enforceable, cinema-style classification system is to be introduced for video games in an effort to keep children from playing damaging games unsuitable for their age… Under the proposals it would be illegal for shops to sell classified games to a child below the recommended age.

“At present only games showing sex or ‘gross’ violence to humans or animals require age limits. That leaves up to 90% of games on the market, many of which portray weapons, martial arts and extreme combat, free from statutory labelling.

Ministers are expected to advise parent to keep computers and games consoles away from children’s bedrooms as much as possible, and ask them to play games in living rooms or kitchens facing outwards so carers can see what is being played.”

The report doesn’t mention the BBFC as being the body to handle a new classification system, instead leading with a strap of, “New rating scheme devised.” Currently, only a handful of games are classified by the BBFC, with most in the UK carrying the voluntary PEGI rating.

The Byron Report, due next month, includes a lengthy review of studies into the effects of games on children, and has been discussed with the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Ministers are now said to have a “sense of the report’s direction”, said the Guardian’s piece, on which the article is based.

Here. It’s a montage of gameplay, cut-scenes, choppers, car crashes and m0t0r81k3s. Both PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are dated for April 29. Expect to see a hell of a lot more on this before then.

Rockstar’s started billing “wanted” posters for GTA IV’s lead character Niko Bellic in New York. The poster advises the public that he’s wanted for assault with a deadly weapon and should be shot on sight. The bit saying, “We’re going to take all your money and launch one of the biggest games in history so you’d better get used to seeing this face” was probably written in invisible ink.

Rockstar boss has pointed towards a more mature iteration of Grand Theft Auto in GTA IV in a demo here, saying the upcoming title’s plotline generation is to be a step beyond that seen in previous games in the series.

“We wanted to make the storytelling more sophisticated and more organic,” said Houser. “We give you choices to really recreate the experience of an immigrant moving to New York in the present time and emulate walking down the street and meeting the freaks that you meet. It’s largely streamlining and adding to the ideas that were there before.”

“If the graphics are slightly cartoony, we make sure the writing is slightly cartoony to match that,” he added. “Obviously, the graphics have gone closer to realism, so we wanted everything else to be closer to realism as well.”

GTA IV will release for both PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 29, and is expected to sell over six million units in six months. Even the confirmation of the game’s release date was enough to heavily boost Take-Two’s shares earlier this week.

According to this AP report about positive trading on Take-Two’s stock today, “the company’s contract with Sam and Dan Houser, the heads of its Rockstar Games studio, expires in early 2008, and has yet to be renewed.”

The news will certainly raise eyebrows considering the proximity to the launch of GTA IV, now confirmed for release on April 29. The Houser’s are the notorious drivers of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, renowned by those in the know for keeping a very tight hold on Rockstar’s reins and being fiercely protective of the brand and its properties. And their mother was in Get Carter. They told us so 10 years ago.

Maybe the big men are looking for a change? Sam and Dan were original Rockstar founders in 1998, along with Terry Donovan and Jamie King. Back then the Housers were touting the top-down GTA2 (we interviewed them at E3 that year) and everything was very bed-of-roses compared to the megalithic creation we see today in the 3D GTA. Is enough enough, chaps?

Don’t expect official comment any time soon.

US analyst Eric Handler has upgraded Take 2 from “underweight” to “equal weight” on the news that GTA IV will hit on April 29, and has raised his price target for the stock to $19, up $2. Shares in the company rose 3.2 percent in pre-market trading today, up 50 cents from Monday’s closing price of $15.75.

Handler said the release date announcement was a “major plus” for the company and predicted sales of over 6 million units in the first six months, equatable to $1.25 per share profit.

“The recent successes of ‘Bioshock’ and ‘Carnival Games’ demonstrate Take-Two is beginning to see improving results from its studios other than Rock Star,” he said.