It’s just four more days to the official launch of Grand Theft Auto IV, and three major gaming sites gaming sites IGN, GameSpot, GameSpy and 1up, have yet again offered Q&A Interviews (as with any day this week) with the Rockstar Games and Rockstar North crew, as well as previews.

Let’s jump straight right in, shall we? IGN has posted Preview on Grand Theft Auto IV’s inter-character relationship system, which comes with 18 new screenshots, click here to read. Also, 1up, GameSpy and GameSpot also had their Q&A interview articles published, with even more screenshots! Click here for the 1up interview, here for the GameSpy article and and here for the GameSpot Q&A. You can read some quotes below, and the rest of the screenshots here. Enjoy!

1up: How was it for Natural Motion to be working on GTA?TR: It’s been a great experience, and an unbelievable title to debut euphoria in. I think our joint initial goals were a lot more modest than what we ended up with. Everyone, especially Sam, has been pushing the envelope further and further throughout development. We wanted to give people something they truly hadn’t seen before, and we ended up with much more euphoria in the game than originally planned: More behaviors, more characters, more crazy stuff. I think both companies and teams developed an excellent relationship through the development, and we’re really proud of what we’ve achieved together.The open world nature of GTAIV lends itself to moments of random brilliance — how does Euphoria play into the experience?

AF: Euphoria is perfect for an open world game. We can’t produce all the canned animation required to produce realistic results for all the huge variety of situations that GTA presents us with. Euphoria is able to do this as it can use the results from the physics engine to alter its behaviors to respond to the environment. Euphoria is one of the main sources of the moments of random brilliance now.

SR: The main thing that Euphoria adds is the ability for the characters in the game to react in a convincing way to any combination of situations that could happen in the game world, of which there are loads! Peds running across the road to get away and getting hit by a car, or someone getting shot while standing on a set of stairs and loosing their footing to tumble all the way down to the bottom are just two examples I can think of.

GameSpot: How many different weapons are there in the GTAIV?Imran Sarwar: There are 15 weapons in total, and you can now pick up objects from the street, such as bricks, and throw them. There’s a good amount included for all situations and playing styles.GS: For the RPG, particularly the way the trajectory spirals, how do you code for such seemingly random movement?

IS: The RPG projectiles are initially fired in a straight line, but they can ricochet and deviate from glancing collisions. The spiraling of the smoke trail is done in the visual effects system. We have a lot of power and flexibility in controlling the position and behavior of all particles, so we can give the trail a nice curling behavior while also adding gravity and in-game wind forces to each particle.

IGN: “The moment Niko arrives in Liberty City he is met by his cousin, Roman. This crucial relationship is just one of many you will develop while playing GTA IV. These friendships — either with the rough and tumble men of the city or its lovely ladies — evolve initially through the story. But it’s your decision whether or not to pursue these friendships beyond the story missions.”

GameSpy: “Mission Replays: One of the biggest complaints people had about the previous games concerned the mission structure, specifically what happened when you failed one. With a few exceptions, failing a mission would force the player to backtrack all the way to the original locale. Now, all you’ve got to do to replay a mission is bring up your trusty cell phone and open your text messages to find a handy “Replay Mission” option. Along with the taxi cabs, this bodes well for casual fans who were frustrated by the previous games.”

Plus, PlayStation fan magazine PlayStation World has given yet another perfect score of 10/10 to Grand Theft Auto IV. The issue also comes with Grand Theft Auto IV stickers and a “Making of GTA IV” booklet. Although I’m an Xbox 360 owner, I’ll definitely pick this magazine up. If you’re interested, you should too. I’m sure the stickers and booklet will be a welcome addition.

And, as if we haven’t gotten enough of Grand Theft Auto IV (although we’ll never get enough… it is seriously the best video game ever made!), images of the Special Edition boxart has emerged from Amazon. It will be longer than standard boxarts, due to it being a cardboard box holding all the Special Edition goodies in place, as metioned here The artwork on the PlayStation 3 box and Xbox 360 box is also different.

With only four more days left to wait, make sure you’ve subscribed to our feed to be updated on Grand Theft Auto IV news when they come out! Want to find out more about this great game? Check out the Grand Theft Auto IV section on the sidebar. Stay tuned!

Who needs poor quality YouTube videos of the leaked Grand Theft Auto IV introductory cutscene when you have a few hundred (There’s just 24 right below!) high-quality screenshots to savour on? I don’t know, the introductory cutscene was cinematic, but it wasn’t much of a spoiler then what most of us thought it would be.

Well, in case you’re still wondering what I’m talking about here, I’m talking about the leaked videos of Grand Theft Auto IV that emerged on YouTube yesterday after some lucky Australians got their hands on the game.

So, in case you think you’re missing out on something, it seems that the introductory cutscene is already mostly revealed by Rockstar Games in the second and third scene of the Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer 3, as well as in the video for Roman Bellic on the official site. However, if you do not really mind spoilers, go ahead.

Grand Theft Auto IV, from what we’ve seen, is a fairly minimalistic yet beautiful game. Does it make you feel like you want to get your hands on it? To satisfy your cravings today, we have even got Twenty Four new screenshots from IGN and 1up. Yes, 24 screenshots, it’s much better than those poor quality leaked gameplay videos!

As expected, both articles from IGN and 1up are interviews with the Rockstar North crew. You can view all of the 24 new screenshots right at the top and read some quotes from each article below. Enjoy!

GameSpot: GTA IV is Rockstar North’s first game for the new generation of consoles. What were the main challenges and opportunities that developing for more powerful hardware presented?Leslie Benzies: The new hardware brings a great leap forward in raw processing power and with it a lot of new technical challenges — especially the PS3 with all its custom chips and architecture. There are a lot of new tools and methodologies which we’ve had to learn and this all takes time. The complexity and amount of detail that every piece of the game must have to utilize the hardware is the biggest challenge. Systems that one person would code last gen now take 3-4 people.

Having this power does open up doors and allows us to create a more detailed world that we’ve only been able to imagine in the past. Characters are now more believable with the way they look, the way they move and the actions they take — this is a big part of creating a realistic world. The physics system is very accurate and almost every part of the city can be interfered with. We’ve always dreamt of making a convincing city and IV is a huge leap forward thanks to the new hardware.

1up: The explosions feel so realistic in GTA IV, how hard is it to create them? How do you map the trajectory of burning debris?Sandy Roger: We spent a lot of time tuning the way the forces are applied from the explosions to make the ragdolls fly through the air, props break apart, etc just right. A big part of it also comes from the particle effects. Our effects guy did a brilliant job with the explosions!

When every bullet leaves a mark in the environment, how do you cope with the sheer number of bullets that must fly around the environment in some of the larger gunfights?

Sandy Roger: The biggest cost of each bullet fired is actually the line of sight test that we have to do to see what it hit, so the RAGE guys spent a lot of time optimising that code to make it as efficient as possible.

Also, the song listing for the Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack CD, which is the same CD that comes with the Special Edition version of the game, has been revealed. It seems that Seryoga has an exclusive track on Grand Theft Auto IV. The Theme Song for Grand Theft Auto IV is also titled “Soviet Connection”. See below for more.

Grand Theft Auto IV Soundtrack CD - Track Listing:
• Soviet Connection (Theme from GTA IV) by Michael Hunter
• Dirty New Yorker by Mobb Deep (feat. Havoc & Prodigy)
• No Sex for Ben by The Rapture
• No Fraid A by Munga
• Where’s My Money by Busta Rhymes
• I Want You by C.J.
• Rocky Mountain Way by Joe Walsh
• Stand Up Jamrock by Bob Marley & The Wailers and Damian Marley
• Liberty City: The Invasion by Seryoga
• Vagabond by Greenskeepers
• On a Journey by Electrik Funk
• Nickname by Qadir
• Holy Thursday by David Axelrod
• War is Necessary by Nas
• Zombie by Fela Kuti
• 5:23 (Maiden Voyage) by Global Communication

There is just five days more left to Grand Theft Auto IV! How can you afford to miss out on any coverage on the biggest game of the year? Sign up to our RSS feed to be informed of updates, or check out more stuff over at the sidebar. Stay tuned!

Guys, there’s just six more days till April 29th 2008 — the release date of Grand Theft Auto IV. Hence, our Grand Theft Auto IV coverage will be nearing its end. Do, however, be stay tuned to us for future updates on the Grand Theft Auto series and Video games in general.

Today, just like any other day in this week, has been full of updates! GameSpot, IGN, Xbox World 360 and 1up has reviewed Grand Theft Auto IV. New photos of the Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition has also emerged!

First up, let’s talk about the IGN Multiplayer review. Click here to go staright in and read. It was mentioned that the Free Mode allows us to create our own game modes and you start in a standoff area to discuss plans. It was also mentioned in the article that Grand Theft Auto IV, like previous titles, lacks a traditional game menu.

IGN: “You begin in a standoff with the other players. Everyone spawns in a circle and there is, at least the first time you play Free Mode, a brief moment of surprise when no one does a damn thing. This lasts a few seconds before someone takes out a gun and shoots their neighbor in the face. But this standoff isn’t just to start the killing (and jump people around the city with their first respawn); it also allows players to talk about what they want to do in Free Mode.”

Next up, let’s go into GameSpot’s review, which was titled “Animating Grand Theft Auto IV”. Click here for the review. There was also ten new screenshots accompanying the article. Also, GameTrailers will be releasing a video review on April 27th 2008.

GameSpot: “With a game like ours, we not only have several movies’ worth of animation but we also have even more gameplay interwoven with the story. In terms of production there is a lot more to coordinate and integrate–”two masters to serve,” as it were. Ultimately, the two should go hand in hand to produce a singular experience for the player.”

1up has also gotten their fair share of Grand Theft Auto IV related coverage. It is a pretty long exclusive interview with Sam Houser. Click here to head straight in and read the interview. For those that are lazy to read a long article, we’ve highlighted one part of it for you to read below.

1up: “Getting things running on the PS3 initially was challenging. I think it was challenging for a lot of companies, but it’s also a machine where, now that we’ve got comfortable with it — I don’t want to say we’ve cracked it, but we’ve got comfortable with it — we know we can make our games. We’re at a point now where the games pretty much look identical side by side. There’s a slight difference in the way they look.”

Next, Xbox World 360 has given another shocking score to Grand Theft Auto IV - 98/100, the highest they have ever awarded to any video game, citing these reasons — Oscar-worthy dialogue, unfeasibly rich gameworld and inspired mission design. Quite possibly the best video game ever made!

Xbox World 360: “As a game, it certainly contains its fair share of flaws; yet as an experience it’s truly unparalleled, impossibly ahead of its contemporaries in nearly every single department. For that reason we’ve decided to bestow our highest ever rating on GTA IV”

Last but not least, an Australian video game retail store employee has taken and released several photos of the Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition and how they look like. It seems that the game case, soundtrack CD, art book, keyring and duffel bag will all be stuffed very tightly inside the lock box, which itself will then be inside an outer cardboard box which features a different artwork Also, do check out the Rockstar Games Social Club, which has been updated!

With just six more days left to April 29th 2008, which marks the release date of Grand Theft Auto IV, I’m sure you want to know as much as possible about possibly the biggest and best game ever! Do check out the Grand Theft Auto IV section at the sidebar! Stay tuned for more Grand Theft Auto IV coverage!

Aaron Garbut, the Art Director at Rockstar North, has recently been interviewed by IGN and EuroGamer. Plus, Twenty brand new Screenshots of Grand Theft Auto IV, including an artwork of Mallorie, has been released by IGN, 1up and EuroGamer.

Click here for the remaining of the Screenshots (and artwork)! Below, you can read a summary of the stuff covered in both interviews from EuroGamer and IGN. Thanks to GTAGaming for the heads up! Also, the Empire movie magazine and the Official Xbox Magazine has given Grand Theft Auto IV a 5/5 and 9.5/10 rating respectively.

IGN:

• In terms of land mass, GTA IV’s Liberty City is three times as large as GTA III’s, but this time around it’s much more dense and varied.
• When asked about how textures and details were done: “We took around a quarter of a million photos and a silly amount of video footage…I have 20 DVDs of traffic flows at random junctions at various times of the day sitting on my desk here as an example, and a few hours of footage of a night in a Russian supper club.”

EuroGamer:
“We never reproduce real world locations. We take interesting or representative elements and create something new from them. It’s about taking inspiration from real places and producing something that captures the essence of it. We’re trying to take our impression of New York and keep it as that, an impression, not a laboured reproduction.”

“I think the level of detail the cut-scene guys have achieved is intense. They have the characters interacting with the world, which is hard enough, but they also have added a lot of feedback onto the world. [...] Things like pillows and mattresses bending or bouncing a little under the weight of characters sitting on it, phone cords dangling and following the phones movements, liquid moving around in glasses. It’s pretty amazing.”

“There are no hard limitations on the number of active dynamic lights around the player. The real-time shadows are working across every object and surface in the game with everything self-shadowing and casting onto everything else, there’s ambient occlusion and emissive lighting on top of that. And then your standard next-gen shenanigans - light shafts, bloom, depth of field and motion blur, and of course it goes without saying everything’s rendered with HDR.”

Here for the interviews: EuroGamer and IGN. There’s only a week left to Grand Theft Auto IV’s release date! Have you pre-ordered your copy? What are you waiting for? Click here to pre-order the Special Edition if you have not! Stay tuned to us for more Grand Theft Auto IV News!

Variety has recently sat down with Rockstar Games’ Vice President of Creative, Dan Houser. Ben Fritz, the interviewer, has compiled an Interview, which discusses the Grand Theft Auto series, specifically Grand Theft Auto IV. Below’s a summary, courtesy of GTA4.NET for breaking the article up!

“…imagine him talking in his British accent as I present some extended excerpts from our interview. And when I say “extended,” I mean “extended.” This isn’t everything, but it’s a lot. Frankly, I just think everything in here is really interesting and worth sharing. I’ve got him talking why “GTA IV” is the first truly original game in the series, why storage capacity is more important than console power, why Rockstar doesn’t make first person games, why he doesn’t want to make a “GTA” movie, why he considers the upcoming episodic content an “experiment,” what he has to say to critics of “GTA’s” sex and violence, and why he thinks his games deserve to stand beside movies, not other videogames (amongst many other topics).“

Dan Houser, who has mostly kept a low-profile, has touched on many things regarding Video Games development, Rockstar Games and the previous Grand Theft Auto game incarnations, not just mainly Grand Theft Auto IV.

• Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas focused on removing restrictions, while Grand Theft Auto IV focuses ore on implementing things that make sense for the location or for the character.
• In GTA IV, Rockstar aims to recreate the feeling of jumping from GTA 2 to GTA III. It’s not just an improvement; it’s something completely different. GTA 2 to GTA III was a graphical revamp; GTA III to GTA IV is a phenomenal increase in detail (in story, character, city and relationships).
• The Euphoria physics in GTA IV make the game feel more alive; greatly improved graphics make emotions easier to convey. It’s all about making the game more natural.
• The story reflects the gameplay. The more realistic the game looks and feels, the more realistic the story can be.
• Rockstar [Games]’s dream with their games is to always make everything a flowing, completely integrated experience.
• The development process for GTA IV was professional yet unstructured. The team hasn’t really changed since GTA 3, so the process is largely intuitive.
• The original Liberty City (from GTA III) was never meant to imitate New York City; it was just “vaguely East Coast-ish”, as said before in earlier interviews.
• As with previous Grand Theft Auto titles, extensive research was done to capture the true essence of New York City.
• When coming up with the concept of Niko, Rockstar wanted someone that was tough yet foreign; he’s both battle-hardened and innocent at the same time.
• It took approximately six months to come up with a rough design of what represents New York City. Actually building that representation of New York (Liberty City, in this case) took years to complete.
• As the city is created, the story begins to develop with Dan bouncing ideas off of Sam and Leslie Benzies. The story begins to be developed, artists start to work on the characters, and the designers begin to break down the story into missions.
• Developing the actual Grand Theft Auto experience is a daunting task; although the game isn’t linear, Rockstar sets it up in such a way that any given situation is predetermined. From the article: “We know where you can move around the map. We know when you can unlock everything. So although the thing to you playing game is non-linear because at any point you might have 15 things you can do, we can track on a huge multi-tiered doc, where you can be. So we know at that point can’t see other things. We’re trying to tell a story, design a videogame and take you on a trip around the world all at the same time.“
• While San Andreas and Vice City took much influence from films, GTA IV does not. With the Rockstar team being based in New York City (and much of the team having lived there their entire lives), it makes more sense to base the game off of their own first-hand knowledge and experience of the city.
• The main reason that we haven’t seen multiplayer Grand Theft Auto in the past is technical limitations; the hardware just couldn’t handle the strain that a full GTA multiplayer experience would dish out.
• For GTA IV, the multiplayer experience isn’t meant to be revolutionary or completely innovative; it’s simply meant to be the best multiplayer GTA experience possible.
• Multiplayer recreates moments while singleplayer creates narrative; it’s all a very cinematic experience.
• The storytelling experience in GTA IV is far beyond anything we’ve seen in any Grand Theft Auto title to date.
• When we look at Niko’s situation in GTA IV, we see him as a serious individual with problems that he most overcome; the world that he’s stuck in, and the issues of those around Niko, are considerably ridiculous by comparison. It’s this tone that defines the game.

Dan Houser also talks about Rockstar Games and about its relationship with their parent company, Take-Two Interactive. Well, the full interview can be read here with no Block Quotes, if you’re starting to get impatient.

“There’s been so much drama over so many years and we’re still here. I guess we’re reasonably immune to it. Sometimes it gets irritating and sometimes you feel bad for the people involved because things get out of control.There have been so many CEOs since I worked here, some were fantastic and some not so. But it never stopped us and I don’t think it’s going to. I’m so used to it I can’t imagine any other environment. If I freaked out every time this is going on, we wouldn’t be coming up on 10 years. There must have been 20 dramas in that time. It’s what I associate with being in America: corporate drama.

The one thing that whoever is in charge of Take-Two [Interactive] has been cool about is understanding that we do good job of running Rockstar [Games].”

We may have written a lot here, but there’s more to it in the full article over at Variety. Still, do remember to leave your comments on this news item! Find it interesting? Do us a favor - Social Bookmark it. Stay tuned to us for more Grand Theft Auto IV News, Media and Information!

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!

On April 18th 2008, Lazlow was interviewed about Grand Theft Auto IV on the Opie and Anthony show, and he was playing it in the studio. There were some new information revealed regarding Grand Theft Auto IV.

For example, there are said to be different in-game News websites, which include liberal and conservative news sources. Annoying banners and spam mail will appear on the in-game Internet.
“Craplist” is said to be a spoof of Craigslist.

Also, it was mentioned that the Downladable Episodes, which are exclusive to the Xbox 360, will just be mission packs, new characters and new comedy. You will also get the chance to blow up a warehouse in Broker in one of the missions.

Light concepts are being brewed for Grand Theft Auto IV, and it was mentioned that the control tutorials take up at least the first 20 missions. Motion blur effects will also kick in when the screen is moving fast in order to enhance the realism aspect.

Thanks to Trooper Thorn from GTAForums for the heads up! There’s only 10 days left! Why not subscribe to our feed to get the latest in Grand Theft Auto IV news? Also, remember to pre-register to the Rockstar Games Social Club and pre-order Grand Theft Auto IV by April 29th 2008! Stay tuned for more Grand Theft Auto IV news right here!

Grand Theft Auto IV seems to have gone “gold” already. In Take Two Interactive’s annual general meeting, they have confirmed that that Grand Theft Auto IV’s development has been completed. “Trucks are rolling next week and there will be a lot of them”, the executive said.

This pretty much confirms that the Grand Theft Auto IV game boxes and discs will be making their way to stores next week, right ahead of the game’s actual release date on April 29th 2008. Grand Theft Auto IV pretty much complete, except for the Rockstar Games Social Club and some Official Website updating to do.

On the subject of the Rockstar Games Social Club, I would like to remind you guys to pre-register with the website, which opened its doors today. It was quite a frenzy, there was quite a lot of registrations. I was Member #13919, in fact. It was rather interesting to find out that it was a success.

However, the website only allows you to pre-register, and that’s about it. It states that those who pre-register before April 29th will be rewarded by being automatically entered to win a special once-in-a-lifetime prize for true Grand Theft Auto fans: your portrait custom drawn by Rockstar Games in the signature style of Grand Theft Auto IV’s artwork. Much of the website isn’t opened yet, though.

Although this piece of news did not come as a surprise to me, Microsoft has confirmed that it is investing heavily in the promotion of Grand Theft Auto IV, which is quite comparable to the Halo 3 launch campaign last year.

There has already been contests and advertisements in the US, UK and the Asian region funded by Microsoft. They are now going full force out to make sure the gamers grab the Xbox 360 along with Grand Theft Auto IV.

Also, most of the radio stations have been announced, including their hosts and music genres they’re playing. A article over at LionMix has revealed the host and two featured artists of the radio stations - Massive B Soundsystem 96.9, which was revealed in the OXM review earlier.

The article also mentions that the song “Real McKoy” by Mavado, which was featured in the forth Grand Theft Auto IV trailer, will be available in game along with a track from the artist Bounty Killer. The article also states that Bobby Konders, who together with artist Jabba make up the performance act Massive B Sound System, will be the host of the station.

Plus, Ricky Gervais has landed himself a starring role in Grand Theft Auto IV. In the free UK magazine Shortlist, Gervais says he performs three minute long, exclusive-to-the-game routines at Liberty City’s comedy clubs, and he’s very proud to be doing it. “Unfortunately they captured the whole horror, except I look slightly tougher. It’s seriously a big deal, though”, he says.

Do look at the Four Screenshots at the top of this post, courtesy of GTAGaming and Rockstar Games! Before you go, do remember to leave your comments! There’s only 11 more days to Grand Theft Auto IV’s release! Stay tuned for more news and media right here!

Yes, your eyes aren’t fooling you. The latest magazine to review the game, OPM UK (Offical PlayStation Magazine UK), was given special permission to play Grand Theft Auto IV for several days last month, and with such a good game in their hands, they have given another perfect score of 10 out of 10 to it.

Also, major fansites have recieved an exclusive screenshots of Grand Theft Auto IV, some of which are the first digital screenshots to feature the Heads-Up Display (HUD). We have uploaded all of them online, albeit with a watermark at the corners. View them below.

Well, back to the point - many new pieces of information were revealed in the magazine article, and you can read a summary of the information revealed below. Grand Theft Auto IV is indeed going to be a great experience! You can download the scans right below.

• One of the reasons Niko goes to Liberty City is to track down the man who betrayed his old army unit.
• Cars no longer catch fire at the slightest provocation.
• There are several points at which you make life or death decisions between key cast members.
• Comedy clubs feature real comedians.
• “Michelle” is the first girl that Niko hooks up with.
• Dimitiri Rascalov is Mikhail Faustin’s right hand man.
• “Other uses of the phone on missions include calling a target to make him come to the window and into Niko’s sniper sight.”
• There is a museum called the Libertonian museum, which features dinosaur fossils and exploding vases. Environments such as these have been created specifically for shootouts, so there’s plenty of cover.
• Groups include the Irish hoodlums, the depressed ex-cons and a paranoid lesbian coke dealer.
• One car is called the Corquette.
• Press L1 to order order a hotdog.
• You can hijack a van transporter carrying a convict.
• While dating Press Circle to try your luck or X to say goodnight.
• Two of the girlfriends are called Carmen and Katie.
• Leave Niko standing there and he’ll scratch his balls
• The name of every radio station is revealed:
  • WKTT - We Know The Truth (right wing talk radio)
  • San Juan Sounds (latin)
  • Integrity 2.0 (speech, hosted by Lazlow)
  • Liberty City Hardcore (punk/hardcore)
  • Liberty Rock Radio 97.8 (classic rock)
  • The Vibe 98.8 (soul/R’n’B)
  • PLR - Public Liberty Radio (call-in speech)
  • The Classics 104.1 (old-skool hip-hop)
  • Jazz Nation Radio 108.5 (jazz)
  • Vladivostok FM (eastern european)
  • Radio Broker (alt rock)
  • Tuff Gong Radio (reggae/dub)
  • Electro Choc (dance)
  • Massive B Soundsystem 96.9 (dance hall)
  • IF99 - International Funk (funk)
  • The Beat 102.7 (contemporary hip-hop)
  • K109 The Studio (disco)
  • Fusion FM
  • The Journey (ambient/chillout)

Here are the scans of the Official PlayStation Magazine UK’s Grand Theft Auto IV review article - Page One, Page Two, Page Three, Page Four, Page Five, Page Six, Page Seven, Page Eight, Page Nine and Page Ten. Enjoy reading!

Thanks to raidenraider200 from GTAGaming and GTA4.net for the heads up and the scans. For more stuff, check out the Grand Theft Auto IV section to the right on the sidebar. Also, do subscribe to our feed to be informed of any future news posted! Stay tuned for more!

TV Commercials have emerged on Irish Television channels, new wall murals have appeared in New York City, and new advertisement banners also made an appearance in the Los Angeles International Airport on the corner of Manchester Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard.

The Irish Television commercials include new footage of Niko Bellic “walking” shots around Liberty City and him hijacking a vehicle. The song played in the video is called “Get Innocuous” by LCD Soundsystem. Thanks DWASGTA from GTAForums, as well as the guys at GTAForums for this piece of news!

Lastly, it has also been confirmed that Grand Theft Auto IV copies in Australia and New Zealand will be censored. Gamers will now have to import Grand Theft Auto IV from Europe or the United States to play the original, uncensored version.

Do remember to pre-order your copy of Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition to recieve free Grand Theft Auto IV-themed gamer pictures for Xbox LIVE! Check out the links on the sidebar to the right for more stuff. Stay tuned!