New GTAIV info from Game Informer Mag

CarefulNow

* The protagonist's name is Niko Bellic who is from somewhere in Eastern Europe.
* The GTA 4 equivalent of the Statue of Liberty is called the Statue of Happiness, and DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) is known as BOABO (Beneath the Offramp of the Algoquin Bridge Overpass).
Game Informer
* In Grand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar have recreated 4 of the 5 boroughs in New York, as well as part of New Jersey.
* The map is smaller than San Andreas, but considerably more detailed. No countryside or desert we are led to believe.
* Broker is the GTA IV equivalent of Brooklyn, Manhattan is now called Algonquin, Queens is now Dukes, the Bronx is Bohan, and New Jersey is Alderney.
* Pedestrians are far more realistic in GTAIV than in previous GTA games - they sit on benches, smoke cigarettes, read books and carry out various other activities.
* The screenshots in the preview are not representative of the final quality of graphics. The game will only look better as the release draws closer..
* Niko was persuaded to move to Liberty City by his cousin Roman, who claimed to have two beautiful women, fast cars, and lots of money etc, but he was infact telling a lie in order to hide his own failures. Roman is the only person you know in Liberty City at the beginning of the game, and he becomes one of your major connections from the start.
* Multiplayer is set to be announced...
* You can use a cellphone to call your contacts.
* Apparently there are no planes because there is only one city in the game.
* You have a lot of choice over what you want to do. You still have to take orders from people during missions, but you can also choose how you want to spend your time, e.g "I want to hang out with him, or her... I want to go see this guy 'cause he always has something to do..."
* The story unfolds in a number of different ways. R* is giving people more freedom, more choice and more sense of control over their destiny - the structure of the storyline is quite different to previous games.
* The demo which Game Informer played was for the Xbox 360 version of the game.

Source

I thought the map would be bigger than San Andreas but I'm glad they made it smaller.

po0k

Pity about the lack of planes.

Destructable game objects and environment would be a welcome enhancement.

Call Me Jimmy

SyxPak wrote:

Pity about the lack of planes.

Destructable game objects and environment would be a welcome enhancement.

Destructable environment? seriously? how do you mean?

Royale with Cheese

Lame

I knew this would happen though. They would have had nowhere to take the series if they'd featured all the elements of SA in GTA4 (large map, multiple cities, aircraft)

GTA3 was amazing because of how fresh and original it was at the time. This just seems like a remake with better graphics.

RobertFoster

I can understand no planes, but what about helicopters?

I wonder if there's a Dodo-esque plane like there was in GTAIII. Took a bit to handle, but once you got the hang of it it was fun

Slippin Jimmy

RobertFoster wrote:

I can understand no planes, but what about helicopters?

I wonder if there's a Dodo-esque plane like there was in GTAIII. Took a bit to handle, but once you got the hang of it it was fun

I could never get the bloody hang of the thing. From what I read of that source that the OP posted, it does look to be excellet. I would love to seemultiplayer in it, I would buy the game just for that. I had heard a rumour that in GTA3 there was signs of multiplayer being added, but the plug was pulled on that idea.

RobertFoster

I flew the dodo for about 18 minutes before I crashed into a bridge in bad weather :cool: It was funny, if you flew over a USJ you'd trigger it and the only way to get out of it was to land/crash.

The GTA4.net source states that:

GTA IV will have multiplayer, but it's not going to be a massively multiplayer online game, says Dan Houser. They are trying to make something that is interesting, fun, progressive and which goes along nicely with the single-player game.

Should be fun

Slippin Jimmy

RobertFoster wrote:

I flew the dodo for about 18 minutes before I crashed into a bridge in bad weather :cool: It was funny, if you flew over a USJ you'd trigger it and the only way to get out of it was to land/crash.

The GTA4.net source states that:



Should be fun

So then I take it that there is going to be no online gameing function at all? It will be more or less what we have on the psp at the moment?

MikeHoncho

I think when they say no planes they probably mean the commercial flights you were able to pay to take to another city. Id say there will still be helicopters and small planes for you to fly. The only actual reaso I can think why they would not allow you to fly planes is that people would be crashing them into NY city buildings which would have the parents groups up in arms about 911 references and how rockstar are training the terrorists of tommorrow.

Slippin Jimmy

MikeHoncho wrote:

The only actual reaso I can think why they would not allow you to fly planes is that people would be crashing them into NY city buildings which would have the parents groups up in arms about 911 references and how rockstar are training the terrorists of tommorrow.

That is a good reason, but surely this wouldn't happen.... would it?

I hope that the planes are still included in it, they were an excellent feature. There must be some form of air traffic at the very least, it just wouldn't be the same without it.

RobertFoster

I think the reason stated for not including planes is that they want "realism". Not everyone knows how to fly a plane...

Pacifico

In fairness the planes were fairly rubbish

Patricide

PLanes were great craic and a handy way of getting from a to b, it was also cool when you were being chased by the army/ cops in one.

py2006

Patricide wrote:

PLanes were great craic and a handy way of getting from a to b, it was also cool when you were being chased by the army/ cops in one.

I loved the planes in San Andreas! I will miss not having them in another GTA!

JFK airport in NY is fairly feckin busy. There is always planes flying over NY!

It has to be down the the whole 9/11 thing! Rockstar have had alot of negative controversy and if there is anything in the new game that goes too far they are facing a ban I reckon! There people out there waiting to hop on the smallest thing to blame GTA on all crime that happens in the USA

Stephen

I don't mind the presence of planes in the game, but having missions that require the use of them (such as the infuriating flight school in san andreas) drove me mental.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Yeah I was thinking that too... no planes = no plane missions.
And it'll make finding the hidden packages less of a nightmare... San Andreas was horrible for that... flying/swimming around for hours looking for them.

LegacyUser

no planes??? but planes were brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!