Grand Theft Auto entices gamers all across the globe, and everybody loves drooling about details, I scourged the Internet and was able to conjure tons of information about the new game before the second trailer hits the World Wide Web on the 28th of this month. The recent game according to a 1UP Podcast actually had a night and day difference, as compared to previous versions. The stuff covered is from magazines/websites who have had an opportunity to go hands on with various builds of the game.
The main character, Niko Bellic, is in his mid-thirties “on the run from a dark past”. He’s not customizable as it was possible in GTA: San Andreas, but you’ll be able to style him with different outfits. The reason for this is that after they got Niko’s physics and look “dead right”, it was difficult implementing features that will allow the customization of his body.
The borough, Staten Island, was not added to the game because the team decided that it would not be a fun location to play in.
Missions are more realistic, longer, varied, and will have multiple possible outcomes. (Moral choices play a role in the game).
R* is still deciding whether bridges will be used to cordon off certain areas. Dan states that it’s not a block for block recreation.
This time round they’re trying to make Liberty City feel more fluid, and there not being any “dead spots” or “irrelevant space” as you drive through it.
There are no more loading screens when crossing islands or entering interiors; certain interiors are see-through and you can move through them seamlessly.
The mob will be featured in GTA IV, just not as lead characters.
“Virtually none” of the characters from the previous games are returning, and a lot of them are dead anyway according to Dan.
More side-activities are promised, and pedestrians and traffic flow is different depending on the time of day.
Pedestrians are a lot more intelligent, realistic and diverse, using mobile phones, cash machines, eating snacks, reading news papers and interacting with each other through laughter, threatening remarks etc.
Your mobile phone can be used to set up deals or arranging ambushes – When selecting a contact on your mobile phone, a list of several commands are made available to the player, such as “meet me here” etc.
Driving and shooting is more organic, fluid, and precise.
Despite earlier rumors, the game isn’t trying to be photorealistic, but things such as artificial intelligence and the behaviors of pedestrians reacting to things such as a weapon being pulled out in front of them has been worked on a lot.
As stated before, there aren’t any planes, but players will be able to pilot helicopters. The reason being that there is not enough room for flying, and crossing the map will be too fast this way. One airport is confirmed to be in the game.
The goal of GTA IV is to make the city look more populated than anything else people have seen before in a game like this. Houser states that no-one has attempted to recreate a location of this size, and with so much detail, ever before. As expected, there’s no more pop-ups of buildings and trees as we’ve seen in the past.
The use of Sony’s SIXAXIS controller for the PlayStation 3 has not yet been decided on.
Work on the game started right after the release of GTA: San Andreas in November 2004.
GTA IV is currently 66% complete.
Rockstar’s humorous take on the number 69 makes an appearance yet again in GTA IV, the editors of the magazine saw a sign for a “69th Street Diner”. Another building called “Twitchins”, the GTA version of Brooklyn’s Domino’s Sugar Factory, is in the game.
Niko will be able to climb and descend exterior fire escapes and some meetings will take place high in the office buildings of skyscrapers. It’s said that from on top of them you’ll be able to throw people off.
Hand to hand combat is also being reworked on for GTA IV, and will feel “much more natural” than before.
One of the radio stations includes an “Eastern European-sounding” dancing station.
Players will be able to change their camera views whilst in a car according to their needs. This however is said to still being experimented on, and that Rockstar want to give better control and “immediacy” to players.
During the demo, Niko was seen approaching a bus stop. When he reached it, an icon appeared on-screen that enabled him to control the bus schedule. Is it possible to use the bus service similar to how you can with trains?
When Niko pulls out a pistol, a crosshair with a simple black cross within a circle shows up on the screen. This could be an indication of manual aiming being available in the game. Niko pulls out a weapon, the camera positions itself above his shoulder, and a view-finder appears at the centre of the screen. It’s possible to lock a target and move laterally to avoid incoming shots.
Stealing a car can no longer be done simply by opening the door and driving off. Now it involves Niko approaching the car sneakily, breaking the glass with his elbow, using the injection cables to start the car, and only then can he use it.
Philip Glass, the author of the GTA IV music, will be involved in the production of GTA IV’s soundtrack.
The graphical improvements are clearly evident when walking over a grating on the sidewalk.
During the demo, when Niko passed an ATM machine a message appeared on the screen indicating a button to press in order to access his funds. Nothing more official is discussed about this, though it would appear that you’ll likely be able to deposit and withdraw money from the various ATM machines across the game.
As part of GTA IV’s new physics, you’ll be able to hear/feel the base of vehicles passing by with their radio turned on.
Playing the single player game through co-operative mode is not possible, however there will be a co-op mode in addition to all the other unknown multiplayer modes.
According to Dan Houser, VP of Creative for Rockstar Games, they haven’t yet figured out if GTA IV is going to spark off another set of GTA games connected to it, and they’re currently just focusing on this single game. He does say he “would have a certain confidence” setting GTA outside the United States, such as England in the future.
There will be several different animation sets for breaking into a car, so far we know one of them includes Niko breaking the glass of the window with his elbow, then starting the car using the injection cables. We know there probably isn’t a lot of different other ways Niko can do this, but we suspect it will involve dynamic animations, and for instance Niko sometimes becoming suspicious in the middle of hotwiring a car, looking around to see if anyone suspects what he’s doing, then continuing. Rockstar previously said they want the animations to look less “canned”, so this would fit well with that goal.
Rockstar are using less non-realistic elements than previous GTA games, such as arrows and markers assisting and indicating things to the player. We already know the in-game mobile phone will play a big part in replacing some of these things, so perhaps we might see other helpful gadgets such a GPS system, though that is just speculation.
The city isn’t going to be the size of San Andreas, because that would be absurd, but if you take into account the level of verticality of the city, the number of buildings you can go into, and the level of detail in those buildings, then you’re talking about a game that is similar to San Andreas in terms of scope. So it doesn’t get much clearer than that, Liberty City is not the same size as (or bigger than) San Andreas, as many people had interpreted at first.
Liberty City will have every one of its streets named, and CVG were able to note down a few of these during their short tour of Liberty City. These were Masterson Street, Oakley Street, Tulsa Street, Cisco Street, Delaware Avenue, East Hook, and Rotterdam Hill.
To end the massive blowout, the recent podcast from1UP.coms says that the initial loading time will probably the longest ever seen on any console till date, expect the initial loading time to be close to 10 minutes, the level of realism in the game is astounding, it looks and feels as if the artists have been given a paintbrush to splatter their creativity. There will be another trailer due out in a couple of weeks after the one that is released on the 28th of June. Keep speculating till then.
–Neelesh Mukherjee
