Grand Theft Auto IV - GamesRadar & PSM3 Reviews

First, let me apologize. We have gone offline for a day, but let’s start off with new reviews of the game! PSM3 (PlayStation 3 Magazine) France has just given the game a full 20/20 score! Scans will arrive soon. Meanwhile, GamesRadar has also been given an exclusive Q&A/Review.

GamesRadar was given a chance to interview Rockstar North’s Audio Team executives. There were many interesting points to note. Click here for GamesRadar’s Q&A with Rockstar North’s Audio Team. Here’s the summary of both the articles below.

GamesRadar Q&A
GamesRadar: Do you use a generic city sound, or is the background thrum made up of individual sounds from individual, identifiable sources? i.e. if I hear a police siren does that mean there is a police car in the next street, or is it just generic city noises?

Matthew Smith: What’s so great about GTA IV from an audio team’s perspective is that you hardly ever need to fake anything – the world’s so rich and so busy, that if you make individual things sound right, the whole ambience pretty much just appears by itself.

• Sounds can appear muffled - a car horn coming from a tunnel 100m away sounds very different to a car horn right next to the player, instead of just being quieter as it might have been previously.
• We have around four-and-a-half thousand individual sfx in the game, which are combined into around 19 thousand different combinations.
• A single gunshot typically consists of around 10 individual components, whose volume and placement we control independently with distance, to create a bright, wide, punchy sound up-close, and a more reverberant, muffled sound at a distance.
• There were over 740 unique voices in the game. There are over 80,000 individual lines of dialogue, more than 7000 of which are Niko’s lines.

PSM3 France

• The immensity of the city is almost frightening.
• The graphics are very cared for whatever subject or detail. Everything shines, everything is beautiful!
• Walking in San Andreas with no aim in the streets was sometimes boring. The beauty of Liberty City and its animation makes walking a real pleasure.
• It’s Roman that motivates Niko to start missions by always reminding him the big plans of the family Bellic.
• Weapons stores will be in Liberty City.
• You’ll be able to take the subway to travel around Liberty City.
• During the missions, Niko could put to good use his abilities to climb and infiltrate quietly.
• In a mission, Niko and his friends had to steal the trunk of a bank using explosives. This was followed by a race with the SWAT, helicopters, and Niko had to take refuge in the Underground subway to gain $250000.
• In the clothing stores, you choose your clothes and you try them directly.
• The Pay ‘N’ Spray is not being used to evade the cops, just to paint your car.
• The only bugs noticed by the journalists are the camera and the heavy motions of the character.

The Daily Telegraph (a UK newspaper) has also just released an interview with the man himself, Dan Houser! New information was also released, including the addition of in-game TV! How awesome is that! The interview here!

Months ago, it was reported that there would be the feature walkabout radio in Grand Theft Auto IV (The ability to listen to radio on your cell phone while walking). Unfortunately, EGM has now confirmed that this feature has been removed from the final version of the game. Thanks to KARL IV, joey0010, The Killa, LemKo and El Patron from GTAForums for the heads up.

That’s all for today! Remember to subscribe to our feed and to pre-order your copy of Grand Theft Auto IV! Don’t wait anymore, there’s just eight more days! Stay tuned for more Grand Theft Auto news, media and information right here!

Click Back to the Home Page for more News!