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Thursday, November 20th, 2008First screenshots of The Lost and Damned released
Rockstar have officially announced the downloadable content now by way of a press release. The press release gives a few more details in addition to what had been disclosed to USA Today earlier.
Not your typical run of the mill DLC here, seems like R* are packing quite a lot of stuff into this. The press release also confirms a 17th February release date, and states pricing information and more details will be announced "soon".
Rockstar released alongside this the first screenshots of episode 1 of the downloadable content, The Lost and Damned. Of course it's running on the same game engine so no improved graphics or anything to look at. Also released was the logo for the episode, click that thumbnail for a stupidly high resolution version.
Enjoy!
The Lost and Damned features a new main character and plot that intersects with the storyline of Grand Theft Auto IV; new missions that offer an entirely fresh way to explore Liberty City with new multiplayer modes, weapons and vehicles; and a diverse soundtrack with additional music - all with the incredible production values that are the trademarks of Grand Theft Auto.
Not your typical run of the mill DLC here, seems like R* are packing quite a lot of stuff into this. The press release also confirms a 17th February release date, and states pricing information and more details will be announced "soon".
Rockstar released alongside this the first screenshots of episode 1 of the downloadable content, The Lost and Damned. Of course it's running on the same game engine so no improved graphics or anything to look at. Also released was the logo for the episode, click that thumbnail for a stupidly high resolution version.
Enjoy!
GTA IV DLC announced: "The Lost and Damned"
An exclusive USA Today article has finally revealed some details about the upcoming downloadable content for the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV. The episode will be called "The Lost and Damned" and will be released (presumably worldwide) on 17th February 2009. You'll be playing as Johnny Klebitz, and if you recognise the name, it's probably because you do meet him in single player a couple of times during the game, after which he is never seen again.
Sounds very interesting! The article goes on to say that in the original game, Niko did cross paths with The Lost several times, however in this, Niko only has a bit part. Dan Houser says:
Remember this is just the first of two episodes which will reportedly add hours of gameplay time. As quoted above there's no price set yet, we'll update you when we get confirmation on that but it's likely not going to be known until much nearer release. But there is a quote from Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter which says he:
Source: USA Today
This new episode, available Feb. 17 via download exclusively for those who own the Xbox 360 version (no price yet), stars Johnny Klebitz, a member of Liberty City biker gang The Lost.
"Johnny is a very different character than Niko, with a very different background," says Dan Houser, vice president of creative development for Rockstar Games. "I can't go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City."
The episode, titled The Lost and Damned, requires players to have the full version of the Mature-rated GTA IV (ages 17 and older) and an Xbox Live membership to download. It's likely to carry an M rating, too.
"Johnny is a very different character than Niko, with a very different background," says Dan Houser, vice president of creative development for Rockstar Games. "I can't go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City."
The episode, titled The Lost and Damned, requires players to have the full version of the Mature-rated GTA IV (ages 17 and older) and an Xbox Live membership to download. It's likely to carry an M rating, too.
Sounds very interesting! The article goes on to say that in the original game, Niko did cross paths with The Lost several times, however in this, Niko only has a bit part. Dan Houser says:
"The story is not directly impacted by decisions you took in the main game," he says. But "tons of details and mysteries from the main story get explained, so it will add a lot of color to the main story."
Remember this is just the first of two episodes which will reportedly add hours of gameplay time. As quoted above there's no price set yet, we'll update you when we get confirmation on that but it's likely not going to be known until much nearer release. But there is a quote from Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter which says he:
[...] expects a $20 price and says Rockstar could sell 2 million to 3 million downloads. "I see episodic content as a natural progression of the quality of downloadable content."
Source: USA Today
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008Official GTA IV PC website launches
Rockstar have launched the PC section of the official GTA IV website. The screenshot gallery features two brand new ones which we've added to our gallery, click the thumbnails below for the full versions.
The main bulk of the update is the announcement of R* Social Club TV. This is where all your video clip creations made using the video editor will be uploaded. The updated GTA IV website has a whole page detailing the features of the video editor, as well as 4 sample video clips and 9 screenshots of the editor's interface.
So check out all the links in this post for all the information you need. Also, here are those two new screenshots.
The main bulk of the update is the announcement of R* Social Club TV. This is where all your video clip creations made using the video editor will be uploaded. The updated GTA IV website has a whole page detailing the features of the video editor, as well as 4 sample video clips and 9 screenshots of the editor's interface.
So check out all the links in this post for all the information you need. Also, here are those two new screenshots.
GTA IV to be available via Steam, plus 8 new screenshots
Good news for gamers wanting to quickly acquire Grand Theft Auto IV legally over the Internet without the hassle of going to a store, the game is to be sold via Steam. The game's page on the Steam website gives the 'unlock date' as being the same as in store release dates, December 2nd and December 3rd for the US and Europe respectively.
Additionally, eight new screenshots were added to the Steam website, we've uploaded these to our own GTA IV PC screenshot gallery, go there or click the thumbs below to see the full screenshots.
Additionally, eight new screenshots were added to the Steam website, we've uploaded these to our own GTA IV PC screenshot gallery, go there or click the thumbs below to see the full screenshots.
Monday, November 17th, 2008New Chinatown Wars information
Spanish magazine Hispana has an array of new details regarding GTA Chinatown Wars. This is the same magazine that gave us details that the map would comprise of something similar to GTA IV - Dukes, Bohan, Broker, and Algonquin would be included, but Alderney would be left out. More details have arisen today following further translations of the magazine.
On a related note that I forgot to mention in the GTA IV DLC delay news, Chinatown Wars has in fact been delayed as well and will not be out in time for Christmas. Instead, we can expect to see it released by the first half of the fiscal year, which ends in April.
Source: Nintendo Everything
Thanks Evo for the heads up.
- Camera can swivel 360 degrees
- Trains will pass overhead in the city, cars will circle, pedestrians will be walking, etc.
- GPS seen on the touch screen while you move through the city
- PDA allows you to gain access to the map with more details as well as the goals of missions
- You can mark points that you want and the GPS will always tell you the shortest legal route to the destination with yellow or blue arrows
- New discoveries (such as gas stations) are added to the map
- Top screen brings you all the action, while the lower screen will let you control elements like the PDA, GPS, the radio, access to the people on the map, or using Motolov cocktails and grenades.
- Drugs have a big importance in the game
- Drug system can be compared to Drugwars
- You have to control the stock of drugs, buy them in one neighborhood and sell them in another - Good way to make money in the game
- You are given a map so that you know what people demand and at what prices
- Like other GTA games, in Chinatown Wars, you can catch a taxi - whistle into the microphone so the taxi will stop
On a related note that I forgot to mention in the GTA IV DLC delay news, Chinatown Wars has in fact been delayed as well and will not be out in time for Christmas. Instead, we can expect to see it released by the first half of the fiscal year, which ends in April.
Source: Nintendo Everything
Thanks Evo for the heads up.
Thursday, November 13th, 2008GTA IV nominated for eight Video Game Awards
Grand Theft Auto IV has been nominated for eight, yes, 8, SPIKE TV Video Game Awards. Of the 25 categories, GTA IV has been nominated in the following:
The sixth annual Video Game Awards will be broadcast live on 14th December, Spike TV Sunday, at 9:00pm ET/PT from Sony Picture Studios in Culver City, CA.
Link: Spike
- Game of the Year
- Best Performance By A Human Male (both Jason Zumwalt (Roman) and Michael Hollick (Niko) are nominees)
- Best PS3 Game
- Best Xbox 360 Game
- Best Soundtrack
- Best Action Adventure Game
- Big Name in The Game Male (Ricky Gervais)
- Studio of the Year (Rockstar North, for their work on Grand Theft Auto IV)
The sixth annual Video Game Awards will be broadcast live on 14th December, Spike TV Sunday, at 9:00pm ET/PT from Sony Picture Studios in Culver City, CA.
Link: Spike
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008GTA IV DLC delayed until 2009?
It seems everyone missed a bit of news that broke last week regarding downloadable content for GTA IV on the Xbox 360. As you were probably aware, a tentative release date for the DLC was before the end of 2008. According to the Gamespot article that brought this up, Microsoft said last month that the content would be ready before December 31 - nothing like leaving things til the last minute, though I'm not sure they meant actually releasing it then. Rockstar's Creative VP Dan Houser recently gave an interview to Variety, and the following is an excerpt from that, regarding the downloadable content.Variety: On another topic, I have to ask you about the "GTA IV" downloadable content you're doing. Do you still expect that to come out this year?
DH: I'm not sure. It's going well. But we don’t know a date. We hope to be announcing that in the next few weeks. We're still figuring out a few things. We're more focused on quality than dates, always have been. But the development is going really good. It's shaping up to be something we're very proud of. That was our goal
Variety: Do you think you'll talk at all about what the DLC will be and how it will fit into "GTA IV's" story?
DH: We want to give people a rough idea so their expectations are roughly in line. We don't want them to imagine it's this enormous thing that it can never be...
Doing a big digital launch is something we've never done before. It's virgin territory, but at the same time, we feel very exposed because there's no case history. No one ever came out with major DLC for a major game like this before.
It's new territory for everybody. We're making it up a little bit as we go along. That's always fun, but it makes you nervous.
DH: I'm not sure. It's going well. But we don’t know a date. We hope to be announcing that in the next few weeks. We're still figuring out a few things. We're more focused on quality than dates, always have been. But the development is going really good. It's shaping up to be something we're very proud of. That was our goal
Variety: Do you think you'll talk at all about what the DLC will be and how it will fit into "GTA IV's" story?
DH: We want to give people a rough idea so their expectations are roughly in line. We don't want them to imagine it's this enormous thing that it can never be...
Doing a big digital launch is something we've never done before. It's virgin territory, but at the same time, we feel very exposed because there's no case history. No one ever came out with major DLC for a major game like this before.
It's new territory for everybody. We're making it up a little bit as we go along. That's always fun, but it makes you nervous.
Good to hear they're focused on quality, which is always the case with Rockstar. The main point of the interview is discussing GTA IV's release in Japan, if you're interested (and it is actually quite interesting reading about the challenges R* face when releasing the GTA games there) you can read it in full over at Variety.
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008GTA IV PC hands-on preview from Eurogamer
In case you've missed any recent hands-on previews of Grand Theft Auto IV, you may like to check out Eurogamer's. There's no new information to be read but it goes in to detail about the video editing, filters and a couple of other new features.
Worth the read if you've missed any of last week's previews.
Worth the read if you've missed any of last week's previews.
Saturday, November 8th, 2008Rockstar confirm GTA IV PC delay
Rockstar Games yesterday confirmed the delay in releasing Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC. The important date for you to know is now 2nd December in the USA, and 3rd December in Europe.
In other news, some people have been receiving their 100% Key to the City. the7th_number over at PlanetGTA got his, as did GuruAskew at GTAForums, you can see pictures in both their topics. Have you received your key? If you have, post over in our forums.
In other news, some people have been receiving their 100% Key to the City. the7th_number over at PlanetGTA got his, as did GuruAskew at GTAForums, you can see pictures in both their topics. Have you received your key? If you have, post over in our forums.
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008Kikizo's GTA IV PC hands-on preview
Popular gaming website Kikizo have today published their Grand Theft Auto IV hands-on preview for the PC version. Well known for putting a hell of a lot of detail into their previews, Kikizo have once again written a great preview, cramming in all the details learned from their hands-on. Unfortunately though there's not really anything new to report. IGN's preview already covered the basics, while yesterday's preview by SPOnG focused on the powerful replay editor - something which Kikizo also talks a lot about, as well as all the enhanced graphical capabilities.
One minor new detail regarding the video editor is the fact it can output videos at 720p, 1080p, as well as (presumably) a fairly low 'Web' resolution. Unfortunately it can only render WMV files, though Kikizo weren't able to test how well the rendering worked as the functionality was not available in the build they played.
The article is worth the read, so head over to Kikizo and check it out.
One minor new detail regarding the video editor is the fact it can output videos at 720p, 1080p, as well as (presumably) a fairly low 'Web' resolution. Unfortunately it can only render WMV files, though Kikizo weren't able to test how well the rendering worked as the functionality was not available in the build they played.
The article is worth the read, so head over to Kikizo and check it out.
