Genre(s): Action, Adventure
Producer: Sam Houser
Developer: Rockstar North
Publisher: Rockstar
Console(s): 360, PS3
Rated: M for Mature

Since the days of Grand Theft Auto III the series has done nothing but exceed expectation and drive the free-roaming genre forward. Since then other developers have tried to copy, expand upon, and pay homage to this incredible franchise – and Rockstar North has been right there with them. With each successive title the GTA series has continued to evolve into something more action packed, more expansive, and - with the release of Grand Theft Auto IV - more cinematic.

Just like its fictional New York City backdrop, presentation is everything here in Grand Theft Auto IV. From the beginning of every cutscene, to the middle of every firefight, to the end of every car chase, each action-packed moment in this title has been planned out to give the most bang for your buck. And while this new level of detail does make for good storytelling, it has also transformed this sandbox series into a narrative roller coaster.

Given this new direction it was difficult to ignore the man behind the curtain. Every daring moment or narrow escape you pull off loses some of that rush when you realize that it happened by design instead of by chance. For instance, early on you’ll find yourself mixed up in a street brawl with some loan sharks who are after your cousin. After dispatching the thugs, a car chase will ensue, during which a garbage truck will pull out in front of you, thus forcing a narrow escape down an alleyway.

Now, let’s say you failed that mission and you’re looking to mix things up a bit by messing with the game the second time around. You spot the getaway car parked outside of where the mission begins and decide to pin it up against a tree with your own car so that the fleeing loan shark won’t have a set of wheels to make his daring escape in. It seems like a good enough plan until you start the mission and everything pertaining to that mission is reset. The mission starts, he makes a dash for the car, and there it is waiting for him as if you never touched it.

This will become a recurring theme throughout the game – try to wreck an important car and it gets reset, try to take out a key character too early in the mission and he’s invincible. The game has these great cinematic moments planned out of you, and by golly you’re going to enjoy them, no matter what.

Perhaps I wouldn’t mind so much if the game would mix up the formula a bit. Starting a mission continues the repetitive cycle: go to point X, kill Y number of guys, and chase down target Z. If the mission is to take out target Z, then just let me kill that guy! Allow me to tackle that mission in the style of my choosing, be it a stealth kill, full-on assault, or a sniper attack, instead of just leading me down the same predetermined path every single time.

For a series that made its fame by being so go-anywhere-do-anything, this latest installment feels incredibly linear; you go where the game tells you to go, do what it tells you to do, and any deviance from such will usually result in mission failure until you do it right. Perhaps in their pursuit to make this title a more sophisticated experience, Rockstar North lost track of their signature sandbox design. Grand Theft Auto IV is a step in a new direction for the series and it will be interesting to see where they take it from here.

Graphics/Sound:		3.5		Average: (3.3 stars)
Gameplay:		3.0
Design/Story:		3.0
Lasting Appeal:		4.0
Overall:		3.0

It should come as no surprise that Rockstar announced a PC release for Grand Theft Auto IV, which will be arriving on November 18 and 21 in North America and Europe, respectively. So far, all of the previous GTA iterations have received PC ports, and this one promises to maintain that same level of polish as the others. In their press release Rockstar hinted at some "newly expanded multiplayer" modes, exclusive for PC users.

As Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games, puts it: "We are very excited to be releasing the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV. The whole team is dedicated to bringing an amazing gaming experience to the PC. The game looks and plays beautifully on PC and we can't wait for people to play it."

Also, be sure to check back here soon for our review of this summer hit!

[via GameDaily]

Several things on the Internet are fake, and usually just simple musings to entertain, or tickle or tease the community of people who are involved. In this case, the groundbreaking Grand Theft Auto IV has been supposedly leaked and exposed by one YouTuber codenamed 'TonyWarner21,' by posting a video of GTA IV's intro. The post was made on April 11th, 2008 which was suspiciously the same day he joined. The user doesn't appear to have any previous videos, any information about himself. It's clear his business on YouTube was only to show the introduction of Grand Theft Auto IV to the world -- but mystery continues to ensue, and many questions are still unanswered:

1. How did he obtain this copy?
2. Is the copy real?
3. Is he real?

I'm not one to start controversy or conspiracy theories...actually, yes I am, so these are my thoughts on what this may be:

1. If it were real, there's only three possible ways, one of which is absolutely ridiculous. a) Rockstar is playing a prank on GTA fans and this all planned. Someone from Rockstar is pranking Rockstar and GTA fans. Or, finally, some punk just stole this copy.
2. It looks genuine, and unless someone made a exceedingly intricate burned CD that will run a fake intro on the 360 -- this could very much be real.
3. Obviously, he appears to be flesh and bones, though it's clear that he is trying to keep his identity a secret, which hopefully supports my above theories; note that there is 1 profile found on the Xbox 360 console, but he is logged off of it. Interesting, huh?

One other thing I would like to note: I'm sticking to my theories here, so answer my question: If you had a copy of GTA IV before every other normal non-game industry person, a video camera and the Internet...what would you do? Exactly: gameplay footage. Rockstar has been very, very secretive of gameplay footage, but if this video were genuinely some random dude who scarfed a copy of it, why would he just show us the introduction? Food for thought.

[via YouTube]

After months of delays and announcement-silence from Rockstar Games, the developer held a special preview of Grand Theft Auto IV this past Tuesday. MTV News' Stephen Totilo provided a rundown of the preview, and the overall opinion seemed very positive. We've compiled some of the highlights here in bullet form, conveniently appropriate for the GTA franchise. (Do you see what we did there?)

• Play as Niko, a recent immigrant who (in a new turn for the franchise) ends up in a life of crime and theft.
• You can hail a taxi and use it to get to your desinations legally and (with a bit of extra cash) quicker.
• Cars will have GPS systems that show the route that the player must follow.
• Your "stars" only appear when a policeman sees you perform a crime, and simply hiding will not make the stars go away.
• A circle will show up on your map, and while you are inside of it, the police will be after you. As you perform more crimes within the circle, it will grow in radius.
• A much-improved, more Gears of War-style combat and targeting system.
• Unscripted events such as unrelated car chases and uniquely generated dialogue scenes will add variety to every time you play.
• The ability to get drunk has been added, while getting fat and wearing ridiculous clothing have been removed.

[via MTV News]

Various game hacking websites have recently released instructions for hacking the PSP and Playstation 2 versions of Take-Two and Rockstar's controversial horror game Manhunt 2. These hacks allow users to turn off the blur effects which Rockstar added to cover up the hyper-violent "stealth kills" in the game. Without these blur effects, the M-rated game is essentially made exactly like the AO-rated version submitted to the ESRB in June, which caused a huge public outcry and a reevaluation of the game by the ESRB.

ESRB President Patricia Vance made a statement shortly after the conclusion of an ESRB investigation of the alleged hacks of the game. She confirmed that the hacks do indeed exist, and made the following statements, among others:

"Our investigation indicates that the game’s publisher disclosed to the ESRB all pertinent content in the authorized Mature-rated version of Manhunt 2 now available in stores, and complied with our guidelines on full disclosure of content.

What parents, and indeed all consumers, need to be aware of is that computer software and hardware devices are susceptible to unauthorized modification. Parents should be cognizant of whether or not their children are engaging in unauthorized modification of their games, consoles or handhelds, as those modifications can change game content in ways that may be inconsistent with the assigned ESRB rating."

It is good to see Take-Two not being held accountable for this hack, since that was the fear held by most gamers during the few days that the ESRB held their investigation. Manhunt 2 went through an agonizing series of events a few months ago (jokingly nicknamed "Black Tuesday" by employees) that eventually ended in a ban from multiple countries as well as a temporary retraction of permission to publish on Wii, PS2, or PSP.

This event also forcefully brings to mind Rockstar's "Hot Coffee" scandal, when a porn scene was found to be accessable through a cheat code in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. However, the enormous legal battle that followed was only because the game developers had intentionally left that scene, and it was not within the scope of the ESRB's review of the game. It seems as if Manhunt 2 may have finally reached the end of its troubles, though the coming months may still bring more controversy to the already embattled game.
[via GamePolitics. Thanks, Kahuna.]

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