Grand Theft Auto IV (referred to as GTA IV or GTA4) will be the eleventh Grand Theft Auto game in the series. The game is being developed by Rockstar North, and will be published and released by Rockstar Games. Take-Two announced the release dates would be October 16th 2007 in North America, and October 19th 2007 in the United Kingdom and rest of Europe. The first trailer for the game was released to much excitement on March 29th.
Known info
- The game will take place in a redesigned Liberty City based on New York City, in 2007
- The protagonist Niko Bellic is of Eastern European descent and in his mid-thirties
- Immense new graphics and effects, along with the new RAGE engine, will dwarf all previous GTA games
- The new game increases on detail rather than size, being smaller than San Andreas but with no "wasted" open space
- There will be no planes in the game, as there is only one city and nowhere to go to, but helicopters will be there
Debut trailer
The first trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV was released on March 29, 2007 at 23:00 UTC. At the time the trailer was released, Rockstar's servers for the trailer's official website became almost immediately overloaded. The trailer is about 1:03 in length, and it reveals that the game takes place (at least partially) in Liberty City, a fictionalised New York City, and an immigrant with a heavy Russian accent, who appears to be the main character. The character has a brief monologue: "Life is complicated; I killed people, smuggled people, sold people. Perhaps here, things will be different." Then the trailer ends with the "IV" logo.
A screenshot of Niko Bellic in the trailer.
The trailer features many familiar New York City landmarks, including a location resembling Times Square and the "GetaLife Building," a parody of the MetLife Building. All of the cars and buildings seem to indicate a present-day setting. The trailer parodies Godfrey Reggio's 1982 documentary film Koyaanisqatsi as it used Philip Glass's original music from the film as well as emulated time-lapsed filming, similar to that used in the E3 trailer for Grand Theft Auto III.
Rockstar also revealed that all the trailer's footage is generated real-time via the game's engine RAGE, running on an actual game console, and that it was not pre-rendered. Whether the footage is running on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 has yet to be specified.
Magazine Previews
A street in Liberty City
The May 2007 GameInformer magazine contains an exclusive preview of GTA IV, including the name of the main character: Niko Bellic.
"Life is complicated. I killed people. Smuggled people. Sold people. Perhaps here, things will be different." These words, tellingly and optimistically spoken by Grand Theft Auto IV's protagonist, Niko Bellic, don't just speak of a tarnished soul that sees opportunity in a new city. They point directly to the future of the series.
Like Bellic, Grand Theft Auto is travelling to a place where many people have gone to find the so-called 'American Dream'. Some people call it the Capital of the World. Others have learned that it is the City That Never Sleeps. No matter what you call it, New York City is a place where anything can happen. It is the biggest stage in the world, and the perfect place to usher in the next step for the series.
Location
Liberty City recreates four of the five boroughs that make up NYC plus New Jersey in a smaller space than San Andreas, but with no wasted "dead spots" or "irrelevant space" such as expanses of desert or countryside. Brooklyn has become Broker, Manhattan is Algonquin, Queens is Dukes, Bronx is Bohan and New Jersey is Alderney. Staten Island, the only area of New York not recreated in Liberty City was left out due to Rockstar deciding it would not be a fun location to play in.
New York City is not designed for video games, and Liberty City is not designed for real life. GTA IV is meant to feel like the world but still play like a video game. "We are trying to make this something that is more fun, more believable, more alive than it's ever been". Dan Houser stated that no one has attempted to recreate a location of this size, and with so much detail, ever before.
GameInformer explains that this rendition of Liberty City is more like the real one than ever before, setting aside the wild rumours that it could be set in Europe, across the entire world, or even in space. Liberty City has the Statue of Happiness (Statue of Liberty), The Getalife building (Metlife) and BOABO - Beneath the Offramp of the Algonquin Bridge Overpass (DUMBO - Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass).
Technical Enhancements
A magnificent view across Liberty City
There will be a much wider range of pedestrians, with massively varied behaviour in context with their environment. Some peds smoke, some are on the phone, some are sitting down reading - much more realistic than peds just walking down the street and bumping into each other. The characters will also be a lot more multicultural than previously, exemplifying the metropolitan culture of NYC.
The visual effects of the game will be massively enhanced - the rising and setting sun will reflect off glass and light up details on buildings; the streets will have potholes and rubble. Variations in terrain are reflected in the way people walk over it. Rockstar have expanded massively on detail rather than size.
There will be no flyable planes in GTA IV because it is just one city, which you would traverse too quickly in a plane. Also, disk space is a factor in their omission. This may be also be to prevent the game being seen as a terrorism simulator. However, players will be able to pilot helicopters in the game.
The character Niko will not be customizable besides a wide range of clothing - Rockstar said they got Niko's physics just right and found it was difficult to implement character customisation with regards to this.
Rockstar haven't yet decided how to make use of Sony's SIXAXIS controller for the PlayStation 3 version of the game.
Aside from the initial startup, there is no loading in the game. Transitions between outdoors and indoors are seamless.
Texture Popping (where buildings and foliage load suddenly) will no longer occur, due to the completely overhauled graphics engine.
Plot
The basic plot is Niko Bellic coming to America because he believes his Cousin Roman Bellic on that he is living the American Dream. But when Niko arrives in Liberty City, he finds that Roman has been lying - he isn't rich, he isn't popular and he's actually in a load of trouble. Players follow Niko from the moment he steps into Liberty City. Niko has been duped to solve Roman's problems, and he ends up in trouble himself.
However, the biggest change from the GTA III Era is the completely free storyline. In previous games, a lot of things could be done at any time (or after being unlocked) but there was still a linear structure to the game - as in you had to follow the exact series of missions complete the game. In GTA IV, this will be much more free in the sense that the player can choose to perform any of a wide range of missions at any time. Many missions will even have multiple possible outcomes.
The mob will be featured in the game, though they won't be lead characters. Additionally, 'hardly any' of the characters from previous games will return. Dan Houser stated in the PlayStation Official Magazine UK that "most of the characters we liked were dead," meaning that a lot of the exciting characters and bosses died within the events of the GTA III Era, so bringing back a cast of only the surviving characters would not be as exciting as creating new ones. Although not confirmed, it is probably that only a small number of unimportant characters will return, and that we will not be seeing Carl Johnson or Tommy Vercetti in GTA IV.
External Links
- Official Website
- GTA-IV.net (Part of The GTA Place)
- GTA4.net (Part of GTANet)
- PlanetGTA
See also
Grand Theft Auto 4 Wish List