The hugely anticipated trailer crashed the internet as fans the world over clamoured to see the next-gen GTA. It may have been a teaser but it was laced with clues that show what an incredible cocktail of gangstas, violence and saucy innuendo Rockstar have in store for us...
Read part 1 of this feature here.
26. BROKER (PART 2) A rundown corner of this district of the city will be your first home, sharing with your brother Roman, while you work your way up the career ladder. Perhaps you could even set up your own bloc party - streaming music direct to the game's revellers via the custom soundtrack and your PS3's hard drive. That would be pretty cool.
27. Trading Places? Here's some more Wall Street antics to think about. Imagine that midway through the game you enter a mission that strips you of your money and position, leaving you destitute and roaming the streets trying to work out how it all went so wrong. The aim would be to track down your swapee, nab back your riches and be gently moved by the moral of the story - just like in our all-time favourite Wall Street movie, Trading Places.
28. American Psycho Of course, what would a pastiche of New York's rich be without a slice of American Psycho? We'd imagine GTA IV will borrow some of the new stealth technology developed for Manhunt 2 to introduce a yuppie serial killer to the city. How about a vigilante trawl of the city's rich list - sneaking up on the psycho killer as he lectures his prey on the merits of Phil Collins while poised to sink a gleaming stainless steel axe deep into his skull?
29. Crime and punishment Rockstar has spent more time researching crime for this sequel. After speaking with many crime experts, it appears being a criminal is harder these days than back in the '80s and '90s. This transfers to GTA IV with a larger, more intelligent police force and it's likely we'll be seeing plenty of NPCs being arrested in streets for petty crime, too - just to give that feeling of being in a real, living world.
30. Build the Dream Develop your own skyscrapers, and buy, build or customise your own tower blocks so every resident of Liberty City knows who's the new daddy in town. Of course, these landmarks could have more realistic uses, such as running Godfather-style shootouts across the rooftops and down fire escapes. Hopefully, base-jumping should return from San Andreas, and Worms-style rooftop multiplayer battles should make online play essential. Now where did we put that luger?
31. Shoreside Lift Bridge Some eagle-eyed detail-spotters may have noticed a cable car moving across the bridge featured in the trailer. Originally we believed this to be a PS3 incarnation of the Shoreside Lift Bridge from GTA III's Liberty City; however, it's more likely to be a recreation of the Manhattan Bridge, or the Algonquin Bridge in GTA IV. We can expect this to connect the Manhattan-like bustle of Algonquin to the leafy suburbs of Alderney (Shoreside Vale in GTA III). This would also suggest the return of Francis International Airport; maybe you shouldn't cancel that ticket to Vice City after all. Maybe you can fly abroad.
32. The Population Part of getting to grips with every new GTA game means learning to live with the freaks and creeps that populate each new episode. The recently released trailer shows Liberty City is packed with life. These new pedestrians carry their groceries and books - this suggests that ploughing through them will result in a mess of squashed fruit and torn pages.
This could be the most visceral game yet seen on a console! Interestingly, these characters will do everything us real people do, including smoking, sitting on benches, and reading books and papers. It's clear from the snippets released by Rockstar that GTA IV will be a more vibrant city, bursting with life.
33. Liberty Tree The city's premier paper is returning in GTA IV and that may mean a number of things. Firstly, the crime lords of the city are going to take offence at what's being written about them and will, no doubt, plot some form of revenge on the hapless hack responsible - so you'll be firebombing those offices seen in the trailer.
Secondly, perhaps you'll get the chance to work for the rag - ditching your criminal career to prove the pen is mightier than the sword, living out your Clark Kent fantasies knee-deep in the sleaze of GTA's newest metropolis. Don't forget to visit www.rockstargames.com/libertytree in the coming months either. After the release of GTA III, this site began to publish live news articles on events occurring in the city.
34. sixaxis control We've been able to fly in GTA since Vice City and San Andreas introduced jet planes, so what can GTA IV offer? Well, us PS3 owners should have the unique opportunity to fly our Learjets using the Sixaxis controller. Tilting our way through the skyscrapers of Liberty City should be a huge leap forward for the series. Problem is, Rockstar has stated there won't be any jet planes in GTA IV. This doesn't mean we shouldn't dismiss the idea of flight altogether; helicopters will surely make it into the new game.
35. Rail network One of the most stunning sequences in the GTA IV trailer was the railway station montage. Clearly modelled on New York's art deco classic, Grand Central Station, these scenes demonstrate the RAGE engine's ability to diffuse light and deliver a smoky atmosphere, as sunlight streamed through the stained-glass dome and steam and smoke floated over the platforms. As regards gameplay, this clearly means that the railway system in place for GTA III will be ramped up, creating a broader network between districts and, who knows, perhaps out into the forests beyond the city.
36. Going Underground There were underground stations in GTA III, but these were largely cosmetic as tracks and trains didn't connect in a real way, but rather formed portals to move between zones. On PS3 we should expect a fully operational underground system, complete with stations, trains that never run on time and communities of tramps living below the city, feasting on rats.
37. Taxi Danny DeVito reprises his role as the repugnant taxi firm boss Louis from TV's Taxi - and all is well in the world of GTA. Seriously, the new-look Liberty City is the perfect setting to develop the taxi missions of past episodes. The trailer shows a bustling, vibrant city with most of its inhabitants all busy going somewhere. This city could be the best we've seen in a videogame, and in this way, taxi missions may form a fundamental part of getting around. It all fits too, when you take into account Niko's brother Roman owns a taxi firm.
38. Moonlighting Walk the thin blue line between cop and robber as a Private Eye in the big city. Set up an office with a slutty secretary, then wait for the jobs to roll in. Rockstar's GTA world could have lots of fun with a series of PI side stories. Let's not forget either that Rockstar has just such a game in development at Team Bondi - LA Noir would gift Rockstar North with plenty of tech advice on how to develop spying moves for a GTA detective character.
39. GTA Connections Rockstar has a real knack for re-using technology developed in other games.
MANHUNT 2: This sequel to 2003's stealth game should offer plenty of new ways to behave in Liberty City. We'll have greater freedom to interact with the game in more realistic ways - like smashing lights to darken rooms. Can we expect cat burglar missions too?
THE WARRIORS: This game has features that would work well in GTA IV. Not only are the combat controls an improvement over those in the GTA series, but the gang command system would perfectly suit the world of Liberty City.
40. Seinfeld Signs Up The biggest show to come out of New York since Chicago would sit wonderfully in a GTA take on the Big Apple. Perhaps GTA IV will feature a bunch of misfits that continuously pop in and out of your story, screwing up your missions. What has Jerry Seinfeld done since 1998?
41. Off Broadway What better way to hide some cash and massage the books than ploughing a stash of dodgy money through a Broadway musical? Let's hope we'll be able to put on a show and see our stars in action. Or perhaps escort Robert Downey Jr to the stage? Or even kill Robert Downey Jr. Whatever Rockstar chooses to do, you can bet it'll be cool.
42. PSP connectivity A unique feature must surely be connectivity between PS3 and PSP. Rockstar has revealed there will be new ways to connect to the GTA IV world, using a cellphone, PDA and email, for example. If we can view the city map on our PSP, using it as a virtual PDA, then the world of GTA IV will be a seamless one. More interestingly, it would be great to receive phone calls and emails direct to your PSP rather than on screen.
Perhaps you could even receive emails via Wi-Fi and keep playing when you're on the train? Also, Rockstar recently announced the violent-sounding Beaterator for PSP. This music-sequencing game enables you to sample and mix beats, then replay them to friends and even Wi-Fi them to other PSPs. It would be great if we could mix tunes in Beaterator and take them to a Liberty City club to party the punters.
43. PS3 Vs Xbox 360 The PS3 hard drive and CPU should deliver a smoother GTA IV than on Xbox 360, not least because of texture streaming. Less loading, more detail and a vibrant colour palette should make PS3 GTA IV stand head and shoulders above the Xbox 360 version. But what about the Xbox 360's exclusive episodic content? Well, chances are, the PS3 will have similar downloads at some point in the future. If not, we should have PSP connectivity and multiplayer to look forward too. In your face, Microsoft!
44. New physics The movement of your character Niko will no longer be determined by pre-created animations but by real-time physics instead. When Niko moves over different terrain the RAGE engine will calculate where his feet should fall and how his body weight will be affected - and the result should be the most realistic GTA game yet, with a real sense of weight to every move you make in the game world. This, coupled with destructible environments and cars, will ensure that the shootouts in GTA IV are bound to be incredibly exciting.
45. Times Square Shopping The past three GTAs on PS2 have all featured shopping malls in some form, but on PS3 we should expect something bigger. The San Andreas customisation should return, and this time offer limitless opportunities to dress like a pimp and strut your funky stuff, or whatever floats your fashion boat.
Of course, we should expect the classic brands to return, including Burger Shot and Cluckin' Bell to build up the bulk. And who would begrudge a newcomer to the city a spree through the shelves of Ammu-Nation to pick up an Uzi 9mm? We're off to watch Zoolander on loop until October 16 to snatch some fashion tips.
46. Team Play San Andreas packed in a simple basketball sim, so why shouldn't GTA IV manage a series of sports? How about finally seeing what the Liberty City Cocks and Beavers soccer teams play like? Can we take our Cock and Beaver skills online? We hope so. What's clear is that Rockstar is committed to a massively multiplayer online experience.
47. Love Fist Will our favourite scuzz-rockers and all-round neo-reprobates Love Fist be making a triumphant comeback after years in the studio putting the finishing touches to their third killer album? Or will they have split to go solo? Has Jezz actually kept off the smack, avoided an overdose and escaped the clutches of the Epsilon Program cult?
48. Radio Days The role of the radio was absolutely crucial to the whole GTA III experience, so we fully expect some old stations to make a return to the airwaves, including Head Radio, Rise FM and Lips 106 FM. Top of the list must go to Flashback 95.6 and DJ Toni, who's choice of music aptly included the soundtrack to Scarface.
49. Soundtrack A GTA soundtrack is as important to the game as how it looks. What would Vice City be without A Flock of Seagulls? The music made the missions timeless and addictive. So what can we expect in GTA IV? The trailer uses the track Pruitt-Igoe by Philip Glass, who has worked with Bowie and Eno. Glass is a modern-day Morricone as celebrated for his film scores as he is for influencing Coldplay. Add in some modern tunes from the likes of The Strokes plus a custom soundtrack option, and we could be rocking this party.
50. The cast GTA III's killer talent included Michael Madsen, Michael Rapaport, Joe Pantoliano and Kyle MacLachlan. So who should be in GTA IV? We want to see...
Jerry Seinfeld: What's more 'New York' than the millionaire behind America's most popular show?
Danny DeVito: A chance to revive his seedy, morally corrupt Taxi persona would be perfect.
John Travolta: He's still got all the moves and enough baggage to bring weight to any GTA mobster.
Jean Reno: Reno would give a French take on Rockstar's pastiche of American life.
Konstantin Khabensky: The Russian star of Night Watch would make a great Mafia boss.
Carl (CJ) Johnson: Young Maylay, the star of San Andreas which was set before GTA III, may return.
Kyle MacLachlan: He played rich kid Donald Love, a key character from GTA III and a powerful businessman. Love's an ideal candidate for Mayor and a killer trader on Wall Street.
36. Going Underground There were underground stations in GTA III, but these were largely cosmetic as tracks and trains didn't connect in a real way, but rather formed portals to move between zones.
Umm i dunno waht GTAIII you where playing but there was a full Subway network, you could actually drive cars down it and stuff.
43. PS3 Vs Xbox 360 The PS3 hard drive and CPU should deliver a smoother GTA IV than on Xbox 360, not least because of texture streaming. Less loading, more detail and a vibrant colour palette should make PS3 GTA IV stand head and shoulders above the Xbox 360 version. But what about the Xbox 360's exclusive episodic content? Well, chances are, the PS3 will have similar downloads at some point in the future. If not, we should have PSP connectivity and multiplayer to look forward too. In your face, Microsoft!
Urgh PS3 fanboys! god THEY ARE GOING TO BE EXACTLY THE SAME!
43. PS3 Vs Xbox 360 The PS3 hard drive and CPU should deliver a smoother GTA IV than on Xbox 360, not least because of texture streaming. Less loading, more detail and a vibrant colour palette should make PS3 GTA IV stand head and shoulders above the Xbox 360 version. But what about the Xbox 360's exclusive episodic content? Well, chances are, the PS3 will have similar downloads at some point in the future. If not, we should have PSP connectivity and multiplayer to look forward too. In your face, Microsoft!
oh lord no, what exactly are you supposing the PS3 version will do... have an installer? get real
harddrive wont mean s**t, CPU wont help texture streaming as much as a higher GPU processing speed and memory, and hell, where have you got the "more detail" from... seriously. someone in "part1" criticised how half of these "50 reasons" are just ideas pulled from out of your bottom. Now i agree, hopefully they will have someone with a bit more talent reviewing so they can find the true quality and not just blag things up.
to prevent being called a hypocrit i will refrain from saying "both versions will be exactly the same" until i have played both versions. I suggest you do the same
"internet crashes several times when sheep attempts to post a new comment, sheep is suspicious of CVG"
"is impressed that they were able to find 50 reasons to buy the game based soely on a trailer"
"reads the article"
"is unimpressed that the majority of the resons given to own the game are infact not based on the trailer, but are instead pure speculation and not based on any real facts"
"agrees with the above comments that the article does seem to faour the ps3"
"states again that he believes that GTA is massively overated and didnt really care much for the sitcom taxi"
Lol, makes me laugh how every topic I read around here has comments about PS3 fanboys. You say one good thing about the PS3 and you're a 'fanboy'. Sure, the article may be geared towards PS3 - a fair criticism. But let's face it... the developers even said that developing for Xbox 360 too has created 'limitations', largely because Xbox 360 only uses DVDs. I know you all still haven't got over the PS3's price - and if you can't afford it there's nothing wrong with an Xbox 360 - but I'm afraid it's just a fact that you'll have to accept that PS3 IS a more powerful machine, with a nice fat hard drive, and a blu-ray player. For big games like GTA IV, all that extra capacity is very handy.
In light of these facts - perhaps you should be the ones being called Xbox fanboys. A shame the only thing you can keep churning out is "PS3 is crap... fanboy". Where has positivity and excitement gone about good new games! Always has to come down to MS vs Sony these days
I felt the need to read it because they said that I needed the game and wondered if they could provide any information that could persuade me that they were right.
Just because they are from playstation world doesnt meant that they should be biased. they are journalists and while they arent reporting on big issues like war and poverty etc, it doesnt meant that they dont have a duty to provide an unbiased look at whatever they are reporting on.
GTAIII sold a ton of PS2s. It made an incredible amount of money for Sony. Sony managed this by cutting Xbox out of the game. This didn't help anyone except (greedy) Sony. Now they have lost their exclusive advantage, but they're still trying to market GTA as better on on their system. Then why are all the GTA4 demos coming from 360 machines? Why is it that every developer to date has stated that the 360 is easier to work with? The PS3 may be more advanced in some respects compared to the 360, but not as much as the original XBox is to the PS2. (I still prefer GTA on the PS2.) The article is obviously horribly biased, but what do expect from a member of the PlayStation World staff. What I get a laugh from is that they're talking about how great the PS3 version is while showing pictures from the 360 version. -ha
Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to this game, but this article seems to some extent idle speculation. True, the stuff it has evidence for (such as the art deco station in the railways bit) sounds cool, but why mix this kind of stuff up with musings and guesswork? Why, if I didn't know better I'd call it cynical...
This article should be re-named "50 things we'd like to see in GTA4 but aren't actually going to get". Over half the list is a "wish list". No real concrete reasons, just based on what was/wasn't in previous versions.
Just because they are from playstation world doesnt meant that they should be biased. they are journalists and while they arent reporting on big issues like war and poverty etc, it doesnt meant that they dont have a duty to provide an unbiased look at whatever they are reporting on.
But they are hardly going to go on about how much better the 360 version will be. Format specific mags are always going to be biased towards they platform the represent. Hence the reason I never buy them.
28. American Psycho Of course, what would a pastiche of New York's rich be without a slice of American Psycho? We'd imagine GTA IV will borrow some of the new stealth technology developed for Manhunt 2 to introduce a yuppie serial killer to the city. How about a vigilante trawl of the city's rich list - sneaking up on the psycho killer as he lectures his prey on the merits of Phil Collins while poised to sink a gleaming stainless steel axe deep into his skull?
30. Build the Dream Develop your own skyscrapers, and buy, build or customise your own tower blocks so every resident of Liberty City knows who's the new daddy in town. Of course, these landmarks could have more realistic uses, such as running Godfather-style shootouts across the rooftops and down fire escapes. Hopefully, base-jumping should return from San Andreas, and Worms-style rooftop multiplayer battles should make online play essential. Now where did we put that luger?
PMSL, WOWEE!!! We get to build sky scrapers and talk about Phil Collins before we hack axes into peoples bonces! I never knew that! Thanks again for some great journalism. Now you have told me that, I MUST get this game, no question. Cant wait to go down fire escapes in mid gun battles, have huge multiplayer sessions across rooftops etc.
So CVG, please do tell us, where DO you get your info from!?
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I was reading this article, when it hit me how much they kept saying "With GTAIV on PS3" completely irrelevently. Then at the end I saw it was written by PSW. I'm sorry but as it is a multiplatform release and I found this clear bias to detract from the article. It would be the same as this article was written pro-360, its just not necessary.
I was reading this article, when it hit me how much they kept saying "With GTAIV on PS3" completely irrelevently. Then at the end I saw it was written by PSW. I'm sorry but as it is a multiplatform release and I found this clear bias to detract from the article. It would be the same as this article was written pro-360, its just not necessary.
agreed, I thought the article was pointless.
People can debate about PS3s big HD and Blu Ray giving it more power, but this is frankly nonsense when you consider even the bigger PC titles at the moment rarely go beyond 10Gb, and having a hard disk doesn't make anything notably much faster other than map loading times (on PC).
If games are compressed and streamed properly its amazing what they can squeeze onto a DVD, just look at GoW2 on the PS2, its amazing how they got that on a PS2 disc! And I haven't read about any concerns from developers regarding 360s lack of hard drive or blu ray.
gta iv is gonna be on top of the list of games cos is going to rock the world from what i just listened of the game this time its going to be one big game lots of real things to do .Another thing i want to say this thing that xbox is having all the games that ps3 has really sucks get your own games xbox ...
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