GTA IV – Multiplayer. Exclusive 360 Content. Details Here.

Plus, multiplayer features to be announced soon

Posted by Staff
No sooner than the first detailed preview of the year’s most wanted game, GTA IV falls into early subscribers hands, scans and details spread virulently across the internet.

It is, of course, SPOnG’s duty to keep you informed of all the latest must-know videogame news, so read on for all you need to tell your mates in the pub tonight.

Game Informer’s ten-page preview informs us that, as suspected, the game is set in a much-expanded Liberty City in 2007 and that the central protagonist's name is Niko Bellic - an Eastern European immigrant (it suggests Croatian or Serbian) who has come to Liberty City to live the 'American Dream'.

The other important tidbit gleaned from the preview is that GTA IV will have multiplayer, but it's not going to be a massively multiplayer online game, according to Rockstar Games' co-founder and creative VP, Dan Houser - which is hardly surprising news!

The preview merely states that Rockstar is trying to make something that is interesting, fun, progressive and which goes along nicely with the single-player game.

SPOnG spoke with a Rockstar rep earlier today, who told us that an announcement detailing the exact nature of the multiplayer elements in the game would be made in due course, so watch this space.

In the meantime, the other points of interest† are:

• The GTA IV equivalent of the Statue of Liberty is called the Statue of Happiness.

• DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) is known as BOABO (Beneath the Offramp of the Algonquin Bridge Overpass).

• Rockstar has recreated four areas of NYC plus parts of New Jersey:
Broker = Brooklyn
Algonquin = Manhattan
Dukes = Queens
Bohan = The Bronx
Alderney = New Jersey

• The map is smaller than San Andreas, but considerably more detailed. No countryside or desert, we are led to believe.

• Pedestrians sit on benches, smoke cigarettes (!), read books (!!) and generally act like any real pedestrian would, except that they're sitting, reading and smoking fags, so not technically pedestrians... but we won't go on. But this reading books thing seems highly un-GTA, and as for smoking cigs, that's outrageous.

• Rockstar insists that the game will only look better as the release draws closer. Well, duh.

• Niko's cousin Roman is the only person you know in Liberty City at the beginning of the game. The man is a liar, be warned as he is also one of your major connections at the start.

• Niko is tough. Roman is friendly but in debt to some baaad-ass chaps. The boys are constantly bickering - and not about whether Frank Lampard or Joe Cole should start for Chelski.


• According to Rockstar, the physics have also improved and character movements are more realistic.

• Rather than slavishly following commands, you can choose how you want to spend your time, for example "I want to hang out with him and her. I want to hang out with this guy because he always has fun things to do".

• GTA IV's storyline can be told in a number of different ways. Although these have not been detailed, you can see from the Xbox 360 demo (outlined at the end of this piece) that, for example, you can interact with other characters using your mobile - or, as is more likely, someone else's mobile that you've nicked (or Niko'd)...

• Rockstar consulted crime experts and ex-policemen when making the game.

• There are a great deal more of the fuzz (arresting a great deal more crims) in this version of Liberty City.

• There are no rollerblades, no unicycles, no jetpacks and no planes. There will be motorbikes.

• Both voice acting and soundtrack will feature less well-known artists. This is either because of 'realism', 'authenticity' and 'suspension of disbelief' or because R* couldn't afford anybody big. This will become clear in the long run. Either way, as long as the job gets done and the game's a good 'un, who cares?

• After an initial load sequence, the game will never load again. Not even during exterior-interior transitions (and vice versa).

• OK, now for some real suspension of disbelief: Both the (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions will "likely be identical". However, the Xbox 360 version will have exclusive downloadable episodic (sizeable) content. So, not identical at all then - what with there being exclusive content for the 360.

• Dan Houser compares the leap from GTA III to GTA IV, to the leap from GTA to GTA III - M'kay.

• The Xbox 360 demo begins with Niko outside the taxi depot, run by Roman in a converted industrial garage in Broker.

• Niko walks into the unoccupied living room of a brownstone house, pushes the door open, pulls out a pistol before going into the equally empty kitchen. Exiting the house via the back door, he smashes the window of a red four-door car using his elbow - he then unlocks it from the inside and hotwires it.

• The camera angle behind the car is closer to the vehicle than in previous GTA titles.

• After selecting a radio station, Bellic navigates to a section of the BOABO arriving at a dockside with a terrific view of the city skyline. Pigeons can be heard in the sky, and waves can be heard lapping the dockside. He pulls out his cellphone which has options for Phonebook, Messages, Organizer and Camera on its LCD screen. He selects Phonebook, and he is then presented with another set of options: City Contact, Docks Friend, and Cab Contact. He has a brief conversation ending by demanding that the person he is speaking to meets him at the docks.


† Source GTA4.net
Companies:
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Comments

Showing the 20 most recent comments. Read all 27.
config 12 Apr 2007 16:03
8/27
RUss wrote:
Erm...You don't have exclusive info here, you are reporting that a magazine has exclusive info. Then you give away naff all about the multiplayer.


If it read "Exclusive: 360 content", then I'd be inclined to agree, but it doesn't

RUss wrote:
misleading headline. bad journalism


Nope. The engineering's spot on, this is another case of pilot error.

config 12 Apr 2007 16:05
9/27
The jet pack was fun for a while, but in the end it killed the point of ground vehicles and left me just scouring the landscape for hidden pick-ups.

Dropping it travel is fine, IMO. It was useful with a world as large as San An, but it's just unnecessary for Liberty City, and would probably be damaging to the gameplay.

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AzaziL 12 Apr 2007 16:34
10/27
I kinda like these two points

• Rockstar consulted crime experts and ex-policemen when making the game.

• There are a great deal more of the fuzz (arresting a great deal more crime) in this version of Liberty City.

ive been waiting for realistic police since the first 3d gta and while I will admit that things got more difficult as the cops became more sensitive over the years, I always lost the thrill of the chase in some missions where I'd blow through a red right in front of a cop and nothing happens. Speeding too and while some may complain that it'll be too hard, I see it in another light, it actually makes the game more challenging and thus worth more then most games that can be beat with one rental at blockbuster. It just adds a whole new level of gameplay and realism which is what this title seems to be shooting for anywas. That and this is probably R*'s response to all the critics that say gta promotes violence, by making it much more difficult to break the law and get away with it.
darkbyte 12 Apr 2007 18:53
11/27
"The Xbox 360 demo begins with Niko outside the taxi depot, run by Roman in a converted industrial garage in Broker."

...360 Demo??!!
John 13 Apr 2007 09:03
12/27
U fools!!! Episodic content is NOT just for the 360 but also for the PS3!! U guys really need to shape up, after the xbox announced out of their ass that they will have exclusive content, 3 days later R* came out and said they will do the same for the PS3. And this was like 6 months ago. So I don't know u fools are getting yr info from.
tyrion 13 Apr 2007 09:09
13/27
John wrote:
U fools!!! Episodic content is NOT just for the 360 but also for the PS3!! U guys really need to shape up, after the xbox announced out of their ass that they will have exclusive content, 3 days later R* came out and said they will do the same for the PS3. And this was like 6 months ago. So I don't know u fools are getting yr info from.

That fact that the idea of downloadable content is being used on both versions doesn't stop the actual content you can download from being exclusive to each version.

Simple example, if Burnout 5 has downloadable cars (and I have no idea if it does or doesn't) then you may expect that the 360 version will have a 360-themed racer and that the PS3 version will have a PS3-themed racer. The downloadable content idea isn't exclusive, but the actual cars are.
config 13 Apr 2007 09:12
14/27
John wrote:
U fools!!! Episodic content is NOT just for the 360 but also for the PS3!! U guys really need to shape up

Where in that article does it say PS3 won't get episodic? It just states that 360 will get EXCLUSIVE episodic content.

You people really need to learn how to comprehend what you read.

Rutabaga 13 Apr 2007 09:46
15/27
I'm confused, does this mean the PS3 version won't get exclusive content?
config 13 Apr 2007 10:22
16/27
Rutabaga wrote:
I'm confused, does this mean the PS3 version won't get exclusive content?


There's nothing to say PS3 won't get it's own exclusive content, it's just that there some 360 content that will stay exclusive to 360.
Rutabaga 13 Apr 2007 10:38
17/27
Then don't you think this quote from the original article is incredibly misleading...

"• OK, now for some real suspension of disbelief: Both the (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions will "likely be identical". However, the Xbox 360 version will have exclusive downloadable episodic (sizeable) content. So, not identical at all then - what with there being exclusive content for the 360."
config 13 Apr 2007 10:40
18/27
No, it's just that at this time EXCLUSIVE downloadable content for PS3 hasn't been confirmed
Rutabaga 13 Apr 2007 10:57
19/27
I'm sorry, but I can't read that quote any way, other than sounding as if the PS3 WON'T have EXCLUSIVE content.
config 13 Apr 2007 11:07
20/27
It simply states that PS3 won't get 360's exclusive content.
Rutabaga 13 Apr 2007 11:20
21/27
So would it have been better to write that each version has there own unique EXCLUSIVE content.
config 13 Apr 2007 11:30
22/27
Rutabaga wrote:
So would it have been better to write that each version has there own unique EXCLUSIVE content.

Given that we have nothing to confirm that PS3 will get it's own exclusive content, that really would have been highly presumptuous, and food for the usual "meh, spogn maykes sh!t up" brigade. Equally, there's nothing to say it won't get exclusive content, but right now all that's been confirmed on the record is that there will be downloadable content for both PS3 and 360, and that 360 will have additional, exclusive downloadable content. At this time, anything else has been wrongly inferred.
Rutabaga 13 Apr 2007 12:10
23/27
I take your point that nothings been confirmed for the PS3, but will you not concede that you implied that the PS3 version won't have exclusive content with..
"However, the Xbox 360 version will have exclusive downloadable episodic (sizeable) content. So, not identical at all then - what with there being exclusive content for the 360."
Brakeline 26 Apr 2007 03:47
24/27
Maybe I will actually invest in a 360 now. I do hope that there is some online play, gang on gang, places to buy or take over, players to mug/carjack, etc. There is so much that can be done, hopefully it does not fall short.
config 26 Apr 2007 06:42
25/27
Brakeline wrote:
Maybe I will actually invest in a 360 now. I do hope that there is some online play, gang on gang, places to buy or take over, players to mug/carjack, etc. There is so much that can be done, hopefully it does not fall short.


Gang-on-gang online team play would be great, but I don't think multiplayer free-for-all would work as everyone want to cause mayhem that, while fun for a while, would really old, really quick.
Mj Polo 7 Dec 2007 05:50
26/27
I say that GTA IV Multiplayer should be Free Roaming around the citys online up to 16 or 64 players doing any thing like hijacking other player cars fight each other online and more.GTA IV should have a coop offline in a 2 players multiplayer offline splitscreen on niko's cellphone.In GTA IV Multiplayer should feature a 2 players online on the same console splitscreen with a friend.but i say GTA IV should be like San Andreas multiplayer up to 100 players online Free Roaming around the city of San Andreas doing any thing they wont, GTA IV should be like SA-MP.
PreciousRoi 7 Dec 2007 13:47
27/27
bah, sucked into posting in old thread...
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