Wednesday, March 26, 2008

PS3 - Grand Theft Auto 4 - Preorder Now (April 29, 2008)

The Ninth installment of the Grand Theft Auto Series, Rockstar has redone there game engine and promises this game will be the greatest in the series, with new characters (none or atleast nearly no one from the other series will be returning, as claimed by Rockstar games).

Nikolai "Niko" Bellic is Eastern European and has come to Liberty City to pursue the "American Dream". Niko was persuaded to move to Liberty City by his cousin Roman, who claimed in multiple e-mails to Niko that he was living a fabulous life, with a mansion, women, hot tubs and sports cars. Roman's claims turn out to be lies to hide his own failures, however, and in reality he only owns a small taxi business, which he wants Niko to work for.

Roman is the only person Niko knows in Liberty City to begin with, and is one of his major connections in the first part of the game. Niko is a tough character, whereas Roman is friendly. Roman is heavily in debt and a lot of people are after him. He desperately needs Niko's support, hence the reason he deceived Niko into travelling to Liberty City. They are constantly bickering. It is later revealed that Niko has also been avoiding other, as yet undisclosed, problems at home.

New Elements include:

* Niko will be able to perform a variety of new actions such as climbing telephone poles and fire escapes, pushing people who bump into him, calling women for dates, playing darts and bowling. Niko may become intoxicated by which the character stumbles and the blurry camera bounces about.
* The player will not be able to fly any fixed-wing aircraft. However, helicopters will be flyable. Francis International Airport (from Grand Theft Auto III) is confirmed to be in the game.
* It is possible to have multiple active missions, due to the fact that some missions will run over the course of several days and will require the player to wait for further instructions, etc.
* The use of the mobile phone has been expanded to perform multiple actions. When selecting the mobile phone, a zoomed-in version of the phone pops up in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and a list of several commands are made available to the player, such as "meet me here," etc. Retrying a failed mission can be performed by accessing the menu. The phone can be used outside of vehicles to listen to one of the 18 radio stations. The player can take photos with the mobile phone and upload them to the police computer. Niko can dial 911 to call the police for them to arrest an enemy/pedestrian that is fighting/shooting at him, or just to trick them into wasting resources on a false alarm. He can also contact the paramedics and the fire station.
* Stealing a parked car can no longer be done simply by opening the door and driving off. Now, it involves Niko approaching the car, breaking the glass, and hotwiring it; only then can he use it. The way Niko enters the car would look different each time depending on where and how he is in relation to the car. There will be several animation variations to sneaking up to a car and breaking its window. Because of the Euphoria engine, the way the character will approach the car will be completely random.
* Players will be able to choose from five different camera views while in a car, including a dashboard view, two outside views near and far from the car, a road view, and a cinematic view.[citation needed]
* All cars feature a standard GPS device while more expensive vehicles have voice-navigation GPS. Car damage physics have been greatly improved.[citation needed] When major collisions on motorbikes occur, the player's helmet is likely to fall off. Niko can lose health if he crashes. Vehicles will not explode if they are flipped over.
* When driving in a car the player will be able to smash the window with his elbow, free-aim, and fire out of the broken window with any weapon in Niko's arsenal.
* The gunfight system has been reworked to feel natural by using a cover system similar to that of Gears of War and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, the reason being that the combat system in previous games was awkward and cumbersome. The player can slide to cover, blind fire, and free aim. When locked on, the target's health is indicated by eight purple segments on the target circle. Players can now target individual body parts using a revamped targeting system.[22] Niko's health is represented by a green semi-circle on the left side of the radar, and a right semi-circle represents armour. If Niko gets injured, he can recover health by eating, sleeping or using medical kits. Body armour and actual health will play different roles. Health is more likely to be reduced by falls and going through the windscreen of a car when crashing, Body armour will be damaged more by gunshots and stab wounds.
* Notable weapons in this game other than melee fighting with fists and knives include pistols, Uzis, assault rifles, sniper rifle, rocket launchers, and molotov cocktails.

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