Xbox 360
During Microsoft's 2006 E3 press conference on 9 May, it was announced that Rockstar Games will offer exclusive episodic content via Xbox Live for the Xbox 360 version of the game. Peter Moore, the then head of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division announced that Rockstar games is working on two GTA IV downloadable packs exclusively for the Xbox 360, which will be released after the full game.
Moore described downloadable content as "epic episode packs", and not just extra cars or characters. A press release during the conference said that the packs would add "hours of entirely new gameplay" to the games. The official Xbox website states that these episodes will last a minimum of 10 hours. The Episodes are compared to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in scope,CVG reports "the downloadable content (DLC) coming for the Xbox 360 version of GTA IV has repositioned those games in just this way. DLC so far has meant the odd new car, jumper of bit of horse armour, but GTA IV is set to completely redefine the idea with expansions that are to GTA IV what Vice City or San Andreas were GTA III. Yes, Rockstar is clearly hinting at new downloadable cities"
Jeronimo Barrera, Vice President of Product Development for Rockstar Games, has said that the episodes are an experiment because they are not sure that there are enough users with access to online content on the Xbox 360. Details on the pricing of these downloads have not yet been revealed, though it would almost certainly not be released for free, as Take-Two Interactive's former CEO, Paul Eibeler, has said numerous times that these downloads would provide "additional revenue streams" to the company, but Microsoft has said that it will be up to Rockstar on whether or not they will charge for it. Take-Two Interactive's Chief Financial Officer, Lainie Goldstein revealed that Microsoft was paying a total of US $50 million for the two episodes. On 20 February 2008, it was announced that the extra content will be introduced starting August 2008.
PlayStation 3
Downloadable content for the PlayStation 3 was reportedly said to be "likely" by Jeronimo Barrera, in the May edition of PlayStation World Magazine. The form that the content will take was not stated.
games Community and online features
Multiplayer
GTA IV will be the first games in the GTA series to include online multiplayer on a console with goals of supporting up to 16 players and has been confirmed that multiplayer will be open-ended gamesplay that allows players to explore the whole city. Later revealed in an issue of PSM, GTA IV will have 15 modes of play and support up to 16 players, with the player using a customisable character to play as, with a choice of gender, race and clothing. The modes of play include several varieties of deathmatch and racing, with a cooperative single player mission and free mode. Other multiplayer modes include Mafia, in which players try to complete an objective before their opponents, and Cops 'N' Crooks, in which one team of police officers must stop the other team of criminals from escaping. The map used in multiplayer will be the same as the single player map and the host of the games can control many variables like traffic, police reaction and laps in races. Rockstar has left one games type unknown and not explained some.
During a hands on preview with major review sites several new details were revealed. Gameplay in multiplayer is identical to the single player; players will be free to roam the map during multiplayer games, although weapons and spawn points will only appear within a pre-defined area. The host of the games has a great degree of control over the game and can specify where, when, and what weapons may be used, police presence and more. Voice chat is supported and the player may chat with individual players by calling them on the mobile phone.
The online games are split into two types, ranked and unranked. The reward for the ranked gamesplay will be cash. The amount of cash a player has will determine their rank.
Social Club
Rockstar games Social Club
Rockstar games Social Club is a web site that will display the gamesplay statistics of registered users and feature competitions and awards based on player activity within the game. The Social Club web site was announced on 27 March 2008 and launched on 17
The Social club will initially consist of five parts, including the LCPD Police Blotter, The Story Gang, The 100% Club, The Hall Of Fame, The Liberty City Marathon and The Zit
games Music downloads
Following a partnership between Rockstar games and Amazon.com, players will be able to purchase real world MP3s through GTA IV's in-games mobile phone. Players will be able to 'mark' radio songs that they like by dialing ZIT-555-0100 on Niko's phone. They will then receive a text message providing the name of the song and the artist. If a player is registered on Rockstar's 'Social Club' website he or she will also receive a real world e-mail with a link to an Amazon.com playlist where all of the player's marked songs will be listed and available to purchase.
Initially, this service will only be available in the US.
games PlayStation Home
In an interview with Playstation World Magazine, Rockstar mentioned that they will "heavily support" Sony's Playstation Home, a community-based service for the PlayStation Network. Rockstar also mentioned that visitors to their Playstation Home apartment would receive 'goodies' such as clothing for their avatar and items and decorations for their own Playstation Home apartment. In addition to this, users can earn PlayStation Home trophies for their home space (similar to the achievements that Xbox 360 users enjoy).
games Soundtrack
Dan Houser has said that Rockstar is "certainly evolving the way the radio works". According to Official Xbox Magazine, one of the radio stations includes an "Eastern European-sounding" dancing theme. Other music announced as a placeholder for the press includes Russian and East Coast hip hop. The range of music in GTA IV will span different decades and genres, the first track shown to the media was "Sorrow Tears and Blood" by Fela Kuti, and while there is no official word on whether it will be in the final release of the game
Grand Theft Auto IV: Special Edition
GTA IV: Special Edition contents.Grand Theft Auto IV: Special Edition was announced on 21 May 2007 for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. It will contain the following:
A customized metal safe deposit box.
A Rockstar key chain for the safe deposit box keys.
A limited edition Rockstar duffel bag.
Production artwork in the Grand Theft Auto IV Art Book.
Selected soundtrack CD from Grand Theft Auto IV.
A specially packaged version of the game.
Controversy
Jack Thompson
In 2007, Jack Thompson, a Florida lawyer who had previously campaigned against other Grand Theft Auto games, stated he would take various measures to prevent the sale of the game by Rockstar to minors. On 14 March 2007, Rockstar's parent company, Take-Two Interactive, filed a lawsuit against Thompson in Florida in an attempt to pre-emptively block him from trying to declare its games a public nuisance. It would be a crime to sell games declared to be a public nuisance, effectively banning such games, which they believe would be a violation of First Amendment rights. Thompson responded by filing a countersuit, accusing Take-Two of violating federal RICO statutes (the charge was later dropped), committing perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiring against him with third parties to deprive him of his civil rights.
On 20 April 2007, both parties reached a settlement and agreed to drop their respective lawsuits. Under the terms of the settlement Thompson is barred from suing to block the sale or distribution of any future games published by Take-Two or any of its subsidiaries. He will be restricted to communicating through Take-Two's attorneys on any future matters. Thompson will still be able to maintain his outspoken stance against the publisher's titles, as well as still being allowed to act as counsel in lawsuits brought against Take-Two by other parties. For their part, Take-Two agreed to drop its contempt of court lawsuit against Thompson regarding alleged improper conduct during the Bully court hearings in Florida, which, if found to be in contempt, would have resulted in Thompson seeing jail time.
On 18 September 2007, Jack Thompson filed a document with a federal court in Florida that claims that the assassination target of a mission in GTA IV is a lawyer character based upon himself. When the main protagonist enters his office and pulls a gun on him, the lawyer yells "Guns don't kill people! Video games do!" Thompson has threatened that unless the similarities to himself are removed from the game he will "take necessary and proper means to stop release of the game".
Mural ad for the game on a wall in New York City, July 2007.
New York City officials
After the release of the first trailer, New York City officials were appalled with the choice of their city as the inspiration for the setting of Grand Theft Auto IV, and said that a games like GTA does not represent the city's crime levels accurately. A spokesperson for Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, "The mayor does not support any video games where you earn points for injuring or killing police officers". As a response, Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association, accused New York City officials of double standards, for criticising video games but not other forms of entertainment, such as books, films and television shows, which use New York City as the setting.
Edited version for Australia and New Zealand
Despite confirmation in February 2008 that the Australian version of Grand Theft Auto IV would not be edited in any way, Rockstar has now told The Sydney Morning Herald journalist Jason Hill that the Australian version will be edited.
Grand Theft Auto IV was awarded an MA15+ rating on 11 December 2007. In a post on his blog, Jason Hill stated that a Rockstar spokesperson confirmed to The Sydney Morning Herald's video games section, Screenplay, that the company had produced a special version of Grand Theft Auto IV to comply with the Australian classification system. The spokesperson would not comment on what has been cut from the games.
It was announced on 15 April 2008, and subsequently reported across the Internet, that the New Zealand release will be the edited Australian version.
gameplay | Discountedgame
It is considered a discounted game since the price has dropped from $59.99 to $45.25 (starting price). Click gameplay | discountedgame astore for games detail.
Reception
Official Xbox Magazine 9.5/10
Official Xbox Magazine (UK) 10/10
Official PlayStation Magazine (UK) 10/10
Official PlayStation Magazine (Australia) 10/10
Empire (UK) 5/5 (Xbox 360)
Xbox World 360 98%
The May 2008 issue of Official Xbox Magazine (UK) published the first Grand Theft Auto IV review, giving the game the maximum score of 10/10. The magazine also stated that the game has an "amazingly realistic world; stunning action set pieces; genuinely engrossing storyline; hugely entertaining multiplayer;" and that it is "vast in every respect."
The June issue of Official PlayStation Magazine (Australia) gave Grand Theft Auto IV a perfect score of 10/10, explaining in their verdict: "The scope and scale of GTA IV is beyond anything gaming has ever had to offer". Throughout the review they refer to GTA IV as "a living and breathing world where anything is possible".
PlayStation Official Magazine (UK) also gave the games 10/10 in their May 2008 issue. Giving the game it's highest award, the gold award, and describing the game as "A masterpiece that improves on all GTA's best bits."
The British newspaper Daily Star, also gave a positive review, praising: "This could be a console defining title, one that in years to come people will remember as the stand-out of the era.".
The film magazine Empire gave the game a perfect 5 in its game reviews section, calling it "damn-near perfect".
Xbox World 360 gave the game a 98% rating, mentioning: "everything we were entitled to expect, and yet somehow impossibly more
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment