Grand Theft Auto IV. Oh how long we’ve waited for this day. Ever since the game was delayed (not surprisingly) from last year to April 29^th 2008, we’ve been on the edge of our seats staring at fake boxarts, scant pictures, and no gameplay reveal whatsoever on GTA IV from Rockstar. The time is now, and it’s finally here. Let’s finally head into Liberty City for the first time, the fictional counterpart To NYC, and indulge ourselves in a splendor of an atmosphere that would make us want to yell at the top of our lungs.

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Niko is a very mysterious man as we have all come to know. He’s pragmatic, realistic, and quite possibly one of the most real characters we have ourselves come to know. The final GTA IV trailer/debut trailer is here. Let the music by the Broken Social Scene-esque take you in.

News comes this way that UK retailers are getting stock. Well, the smaller ones anyways. Last week they were kinda pissed.

We’ve had about 45 copies of GTA IV cut, so we’re having to disappoint plenty of customers. -Ashley Parks of Console Inc.

All isn’t well in the water though. They seemed to not receive this extra stock surprisingly.

It looks like the big multiples are receiving extra stock at our expense.

It all changed.

We ordered fifty games per store, but then got a call saying it would be cut to 35 and we couldn’t believe it. But we were then told we’d get an extra 50, giving us more allocation than we originally expected. -Stuart Benson Extreme Games

Good to know Stuart. Good to know.

MCV

Check it out. They broke the street date. Everyone riot! Asda has been indicated as the retailer to have broken the date, but many others in the UK are breaking it according to our UK correspondents.

This is an isolated incident, we had a clear message to stores not to sell early, and so any copies that have gone on sale are minuscule. We have no policy to sell before the street date, and we’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again. - Asda’s Duncan Cross

Doesn’t happen again. Right. Isn’t this the second time they broke a game’s release date? First was BioShock. Oh. Sorry, people forgot? Hah. Not me pal. Not me.

It seems the scene people who love pirating stuff have uploaded the NTSC version of GTA IV now. What a shame. 13,000 Seeders and 17,000 leechers.

.xxXX’ . . XXxx
.xXXX7′ .xX7′ . . . . 7Xx. 7XXXx
./XXXXX.XXXX.xX’ . . Xx.XXXX.XXXXX

Xl’ X XX. Grand Theft Auto IV (c) Rockstar .XX’ X’
X: X. .X’ ‘
X’ ‘ .
l Region : USA/NTSC Genre : Action/Adventure .
: Company : Rockstar Size : 79 100Mb :
. Platform : Xbox 360 Rel. Date : April 29, 2008 X
..xXX
.
// R e e a s e
// n f o r m a t i o n //

: What does the American Dream mean today? For Niko Bellic, fresh off
. the boat from Europe, it is the hope he can escape his past. For
his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find
fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity. As they
slip into debt and are dragged into a criminal underworld by a series
of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality
. is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and
. status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare
: for those who dont.
.
/) / o d a y ‘ s
// / e c t u r e //

: We weren’t sure that anyone was waiting for this one, so we took our
. time with it. Hope you don’t mind Still, five days early ain’t bad
is it? Enjoy

Tested this on our Xbox 360 and it worked fine (burned). Stealth, of
course. We advise you don’t try to play this game online, especially
Rockstar claimed to be monitoring it if they’re full of sht we don’t
know, but not worth the risk

Buy this game. It rocks, and is worth every penny. Seriously

This is pretty much a one time deal, so don’t be expecting much more
from us old retired sceners. Perhaps for the next huge game release

And forget “Bush Lovers.” Vote Obama

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i:. / / .:i
.- i: . / Watch, Listen, and Learn. .’ :i
:i :’ i: / :i : i
-’ .:’ : . :. -
.d/ / b.
Xl / / : lX
X: : / / :X
X..’ / ..X
” . : ./
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‘ o n e z e r o o n e

( 2 o o 8 / /
: /
/ Greets to ELEGANCE ‘04-’05

We’re just sure they will all pay once they see how amazing GTA IV is.

Tidbit: To see how amazing GTA IV is, make sure to come back when the timer is finished to see our review on this year’s most anticipated title with quite possibly the best review around.

The unbelievable club is now open, and it’s time to party. Rockstar Social Club is now open for pre-registration and aims to extend the crazy worlds of Rockstar titles to come . One such confirmed title is already Midnight Club L.A., approaching soon.

The Rockstar Social Club will combine incredibly detailed, diverse and sometimes amusing leaderboards and player statistics, and combine them with performance-based competitions and awards for players of all skill levels.

Pre-registration for the Rockstar Social Club is free for anyone, and players will be able to link it to their Xbox Live Gamertag and/or PlayStation Network ID. Grand Theft Auto IV, comes with some crazy features :

* People who register for the Rockstar Games Social Club BEFORE April 29th 2008 will be rewarded by being automatically entered to win a special prize for true GTA fans: your portrait custom drawn by Rockstar Games’ in house art team in the signature art style of Grand Theft Auto IV’s illustrations.

* LCPD Police Blotter — A virtual map and tracker of single-player criminal activity logged in Liberty City from the aggregated data of millions of connected players - showing the most dangerous areas of town, most commonly used weapons and more.

* The Story Gang — This special single-player leaderboard recognizes players who complete Niko Bellic’s main story arc of Grand Theft Auto IV - The leaderboard ranks players according to the total amount of playing time it’s taken to complete the story, as well as a historical rank by who has completed it first. Members of this club will receive special online widgets and merit badges marking all of their in-game accomplishments.

* The 100% Club — Watch to see who will be the first to complete 100% of the game. The first ten people to be identified on the Social Club as reaching 100% will be sent an ultra-rare commemorative ‘key to the city’ to mark their accomplishment. In the future, the 100% Club will then carry a historical leaderboard showing rankings of who has completed 100% of a game in the shortest span of playing hours.

* The Hall of Fame — This area will dynamically recognize those singularly elite players who have reached the top of the hill on various statistical leaderboards, and will also contain a personal awards display of special in-game landmarks and successes in Social Club competitions.

* The Liberty City Marathon — A ranking of special physical milestones achieved in the game - from the amount of miles walked, driven, or swam - to the number of bullets fired and stunt-jumps jumped. There will be additional special marathon-based competitions in the future from this area as well.

Take out those martini’s boys. We’re here.

Grand Theft Auto IV is coming out to consoles soon. To online retailers even sooner. To celebrate? I thought it would be beneficial to all of us, before we go around running over people in each of our GTA IV virtual worlds, to discuss the reception of such a title. The GTA series is known for one thing among mainstreamers. Violence. Ah yes, you can run around and kill anything you want in many different ways, ride tons of vehicles, the sky is the limit. Of course, to use game journalists and gamers in general, it’s the progress of the optimizations of our technology through the world of gaming consoles. But, that shit doesn’t speak volumes. No, the awful stories we all hear and the misfits that run lose in our community blaming their ‘expertise’ in murder on a video game or virtually even a one toothed Llma are what gain the most prospective value.

It’s at this point that we know the following responses in terms of the GTA series:

1. All crimes are blamed on the GTA series from 1-4 years starting from each titles beginning.
2. The Corporate Media fill the cup of shit to the utter brim just to hash out a story.
3. Mainstreams are negligent in that which makes themselves seem any more capable of actions than a man claimed “dangerous” with a Fruit Roll-Ups that has one bad day, even if they’re the most hideous.
4. Consensus among these who should be typified as such Neanderthals that not buying a game would suddenly prevent anyone from actually caring about a game or caring about the effect of a game itself. Especially when that care is ill diagnosed. In other words, Jeremy’s Mom next door is a spanking dumbass.

Now that the necessaries are over, let’s step into the heart of this article. Cops. As I recall, bad boys don’t know what they’re going to do. And in fact, they might not even know what they would do when the cops come for them. Oh…right. RUN! Run like Niko and all the other previous GTA characters you fucking sharks. Turn right. Turn RIGHT. Sure, bad boys eventually figure out what to do when they are about to be hauled to jail. As the mainstream would make you believe…thanks to Grand Theft Auto! But what about our dear friends. The cops? The team which always gets the short end of the stick, even in GTA. What about them? Do they think anything of the launch of GTA IV, or GTA IV in general? I headed over to a couple of different departments and called up my police buddies for a luncheon.

We had to settle for Indian food, leaving the discussion way tastier.

It would seem that GTA IV isn’t only making a huge debut in Canada and New York alone. Passing by a very common street near the LAX, a viewer noticed today that GTA IV ads went up literally everywhere. Making the Ihop a central GTA IV meeting place now.

A few weeks back, Rockstar revealed GTA Race, Cops N Crooks, Team Deathmatch, and Hangman’s NOOSE. Now, via their official site, they reveal the rest of the amazing modes.

There will be five total team modes which allow up to 16 players to engage online after they’re done touring the city in singleplayer. There are two racing modes, and the number of cooperative modes and competitive free-for-all modes are still a mystery.

Team Mafiya Work (2-8 teams)
You’re a member of a crew doing contract work for the mafiya — including such plum gigs as escorting wanted men, picking up MacGuffins and stealing cars. Work as a team to complete contracts before the time period ends and get the rewards. You’ll probably want to do your best to scupper the other crew’s work as well. Each contract you complete gives your team cash, and the crew with the most cash at the end of the round wins.
Team Car Jack City (2-8 teams)
Cars spawn parked around the map and the teams must steal them and take them to a drop off point. The cash teams get for dropping off stolen vehicles depends on their condition — teams get less cash the more damaged they are. The exception to this are special bonus cars, stuffed with drugs, which give a set amount of cash on delivery no matter how damaged they are. Your crew has to get hold of whatever vehicles the boss wants. Whichever crew makes the most money wins. Simple.

Turf War (2 teams)
A timed capture-the-base mode. There are a number of bases around the map that you have to take by standing on them for a short period of time. The more players that are on a base, the faster it can be captured. The more bases that your team owns, the faster your team’s cash score increases. If the rival gang is on or near a base, you won’t be able to take control of it — so do what you can to try and… displace them. The team with the most cash at the end of the round wins.

Race (no teams)
Race to the finish through each checkpoint in order. If you take a wrong turn or mess up in some way, you can respawn your vehicle on the last checkpoint you passed. There is a large section of races for cars, boats, and helicopters — you can choose laps and vehicle class/type. This mode has two sub-modes: Free Race and Cannonball Run.

Free Race are point-to-point races. First one to reach the end point wins. Cannonball Run are races where you have to traverse several checkpoints any way you can.

We got a chance to get our readers to ask all the questions they’ve ever wanted for Rockstar’s action adventure title: GTA IV. And now, let the most asked questions be revealed.

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The world went on flames as a result of finding out that Rockstar’s GTA IV would be edited for content in Austalia, since it hit the MA15+ rating where it is common for games to be edited to be appropriate according to OFLC standards. Okay, maybe not the world as it IS just Australia so far. To satiate the pain of the people in Kangaroo-Land, Rockstar issued a notice:

The Australian version of Grand Theft Auto IV was rated by the OFLC in December 2007 as MA15+. Unlike the US and Europe, Australia still lacks an R18+ rating for video games and as a result many games are edited for release in Australia, including most previous Grand Theft Auto releases. While there are some minor differences between the Australian and US/EU versions, they are not significant and we do not believe they take away from the level of scope and detail that make GTA IV such an incredible experience. We would not release the game in Australia if we believed these differences compromised the quality of the game in any way. We strongly support the OLFC and will continue to work within their guidelines; however we believe the government needs to bring games in line with other media by introducing an R18+ rating, or edits to games will continue to be necessary. We encourage consumers to let their politicians know that they support an R18+ rating for games.

See, it’s not that bad. What’s no blood here and there? Oh right…this is GTA IV. Shivers rush through me.