IGN has just released a whopping 11-page interview with Rockstar Games’ Vice President of Creative, Dan Houser (right) and Rockstar North’s Art Director, Aaron Garbut (left) about the making of Grand Theft Auto IV.

The first part of this interview has already been released, and it discusses the origins of the storyline, the creation of Niko Bellic, the new dynamic relationship system, and lastly the setting - what went into building Liberty City.

“The fundamental other change, it’s difficult to talk about this because people get very confused about what we’re saying and to think it’s multi-branching… There are plenty of sections of the story when you manipulate outcomes and have choice over the outcome as the player, some of which fundamentally change the story, but it’s not like there’s 10,000 different options because, again, that wouldn’t make sense for the character, where he is in the world because he’s fundamentally being pushed around by more powerful people. But you have plenty of good points where it makes sense logically, in terms of the choice you’re given and narratively, you get to make choices and that’s kind of a fun twist on a GTA game.”
- Dan Houser

Other surprising and interesting points were mentoned, too. For example, Grand Theft Auto III’s Liberty City was only loosely based on New York. It had also contained elements from other cities on the East Coast such as Boston and Philadelphia.

According to Houser, the primary aim of Grand Theft Auto III was to create a 3D world, and not to create an accurate representation of New York City - which is what they’re trying to do now with Grand Theft Auto IV.

Read the interview right here: IGN: Grand Theft Auto IV: Building a Brave New World. The second part of the interview will be released on Monday and it will contain discussions about the gameplay aspects of Grand Theft Auto IV.

Plus, another new Grand Theft article has also been posted over at IGN. It isn’t about Grand Theft Auto IV, but rather, about the History of Grand Theft Auto IV. Click Here for the article, a must read for any Grand Theft Auto fan!

Also, it seems that three new artworks has been released for Grand Theft Auto IV over at Game Wallpapers. While it seems fake and fan-made (Niko Bellic’s face doesn’t look right), the guys over at GTA4.net confirmed it official (what were they thinking?). Anyway, just take it with a pinch of salt.

Do remember to leave a comment, or subscribe to our RSS feed if you don’t want to miss out on any piece of Grand Theft Auto IV News which comes out. Stay tuned for more Grand Theft Auto News, Information and Media, right here!

This is the day, guys! The fourth trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV, entitled “Good lord what are you doing?” (AKA “Everyone’s a rat”), has been released. While it’s not very long, it’s the final trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV, and the one with the best graphics too!

Also, here’s a screen capture of the Grand Theft Auto Trailer 4, released by Rockstar Games! You can see it right below! Click Here to view the new trailer! It’s in the Videos section of the Grand Theft Auto IV Official Site now! Screen captures of the new trailer can also be found in our Image Gallery.

Another thing is, it seems that Rockstar Games have just announced the Rockstar Games Social Club. On April 15th 2008, you can sign up with your Playstation Network ID/Xbox Live Gamercard and share your stats and more! Below is the full list of features included with the Press Release.

• 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.
• Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack - Amazon Music Download Service — Any currently playing track in the game can be ‘marked’ for future reference, by means of the personal assistant / mobile phone gadget in Niko’s possession. As we have highlighted previously, the mobile phone will be one of the main ways of keeping contacts and receiving missions in the game. A dial at any time to the number ‘ZIT-555-0100′ will return the title of the track that is currently playing. Users registered in the Social Club network will also receive a link to download the track, free of DRM protection, from Amazon.com. None of those tracks, however, are accessible outside the game, and that’s where GTA IV’s model really takes off. Rockstar has boldly proclaimed that GTA IV’s soundtrack is “the biggest in the history of entertainment,” and with over 200 tracks, we’re not prone to argue. In addition to high-profile tunes from popular artists, the developers are aiming for music geeks by handpicking rare, hard-to-find songs such as Electrick Funk’s 12-inch treasure “On A Journey” and Elton John’s “Street Kids” off his relatively unheralded Rock of the Westies. Some artists have even contributed brand new songs written exclusively for the game, including “Vagabond (Liberty City Mix)” by the Greenskeepers and “War is Necessary” from iconic rapper Nas.

Have fun, but don’t forget to leave a comment before you go! Or, if you don’t wish to miss out on some of the latest in our Grand Theft Auto IV coverage, you can subscribe to our RSS feed to be informed about the latest updates when they get posted. Enjoy the trailer!

Well, there has been two four minor updates this week on Grand Theft Auto IV, and I thought it would be a great idea to sum up all the points we have missed or left out in previous posts into one post. Not to worry, nothing will be missed out on our Grand Theft Auto IV coverage!

Firstly, before anything else, we have for you guys a special Grand Theft Auto video treat - a professionally-done San Andreas fan-made film, named “It’s Been Good”. Set to the tunes of The Who’s Baba O’Riley, it features top-notch editing and professionally choreographed San Andreas footage from every angle imaginable. You can give it a look here, it’s simply breathtaking!

Also, back to the point, it seems that the ‘Weazel News’ widget from the official Grand Theft Auto IV site has been updated, as well as a voice actor being confirmed for Grand Theft Auto IV. First and foremost, let’s touch on the ‘Weazel News’ widget update. Nothing really new, but there’s standard Rockstar Games humor, and a Grand Theft Auto IV screenshot thumbnail that’s really too small to see anything.

Polyhedral sex toy banned
Deputy Mayor Bryce Dawkins announced today that his new Family Values Task Force has fined numerous adult stores in the area for failing to remove a recently banned polyhedral sex toy, claiming that MMORPG games, board games and online teen chat rooms lead to trouble.

Plus, the latest KING Magazine contains a one-page long article which reveals about Sean A. Malcolm and his part in Grand Theft Auto IV as a minor voice actor. Playing the part of a “Jamaican rude bwoy looking down the barrel of the gun,” Malcolm was asked to recite lines such as “Don’t shoot! Me nah wah die!”.

Do really check out the Image Gallery! It has been updated with many screenshots, most of them released in an article over at xboxworld.nl, plus those released by Evil Avatar and MTV. Unfortunately, there weren’t new information, although there were many screenshots in the article, significantly those with actual Multiplayer gameplay.

Lastly, the OXM Magazine has been released, with new information and eight brand new screenshots! In the article it was revealed that Grand Theft Auto IV takes testers playing 4 hours a day “a good 2 weeks to get through the whole single-player game.” More information below.

• Rockstar’s Steve Hahnel says the ambition of GTA IV is the reason the game was delayed. Multiplayer was one of the main things responsible for the delay. Gameplay needed to be balanced, and “an authentic Liberty City had to be created for 16 players to explore and destroy simultaneously.”
• In multiplayer, as stated previously, the host gets to decide on a number of options such as weather, vehicle types, spawn location, etc. The host also gets to decide if auto-aim can be used.
• Health, armour and cash pickups are available during multiplayer. The cash determines your online rank - from 0 to 10. Kill people and steal their money to boost your online credibility.
• You can wander anywhere during multiplayer, but if you die you will respawn in the area that the host has set.
• You can’t play as Niko during multiplayer, but you can create your own character (male or female) using different clothing.

There’s really nothing more, however. Just don’t forget that there will be a final Grand Theft Auto IV trailer to be released two days from now! But before you go, do remember to leave a comment! Or, if you don’t wish to miss out on some of the latest in our Grand Theft Auto IV coverage, you can subscribe to our RSS feed to be informed about the latest updates when they get posted. Enjoy!

It’s time to make merry, Grand Theft Auto fans! Jack Thompson is now barred from being a lawyer! Also, we have a new Multiplayer hands-on preview from PLAY Magazine, plus 4 new screenshots! Read below for a summary of the main points covered in the article.

• The maximum number of players allowed in each game on some multiplayer modes were finally disclosed:
  • Deathmatch + Team Deathmatch: 16 players
  • GTA Race: 16 players
  • Mafiya Work: 8 players
  • Team Mafiya Work: 16 players (in up to 8 separate teams of 2 players)
  • Cops n’ Crooks: 16 players (in two teams of up to 8 players each)
  • Hangman’s Noose: 4 players
  • Free roam: 16 players
• Grand Theft Auto IV will use the Eastern European/Russian spelling of Mafia - “Mafiya“
• Also, differences between the PS3 and XBOX 360 versions of the game are undetectable “with the naked eye”
• Multiplayer games are accessed from the in-game cell phone in a similar manner to that of Burnout Paradise’s quick launch menu
• The host can control the time of day that the match takes place
• The host also controls the location of the match by choosing from a predefined set of levels in Liberty City
• Levels sampled by editors included Colony Island, Francis International Airport and Broker
• Police intervention can be turned on or off by the host prior to starting a game
• Multiplayer character customization is very detailed - you can change what the character is wearing right down to their choice of eyewear and accessories
• The more you play the game the more flexibility you have in customizing your character, meaning that it’s easy to tell how experienced a player is just by looking at how zany their character is
• The magazine claims that the character and the game camera are “quite clumsy to control sometimes”
• The magazine’s editors claim that the attention to detail stretches all the way to the pedestrians, who now have a “sense of purpose” in the game world
• Weapons are said to be much more difficult to acquire than in previous games
• Simple shopping at Ammunation won’t fulfill all of your needs. You must make friends with dodgy dealers who can get their hands on some shady weaponry in order to succeed in single player
• Cops now have a line of sight, meaning that if you’re doing something nasty a little way behind their back, they won’t react like they would in previous titles. This is offset by a greater number of cops patrolling the city, thanks in part to the power of the new generation consoles
• Pay n’ Spray is said to no longer there to wipe out your wanted level. Whether there are any other respray garages in the game remains to be seen

Meanwhile, Jack Thompson, the anti-video games Ambulance Chaser, is now being sanctioned by the Florida Supreme Court! After having filed mountains of strange filings (complete with cartoon kangaroos and porn), the Court has issued a show cause order asking him to explain why they should allow him to keep abusing the system.

It seems that the Court isn’t satisfied by his response though, and have now barred him for filing any suits himself. As such, if he plans another stunt to block the release of Grand Theft Auto IV like he did with Bully, he’ll have to hire another lawyer to represent him.

There is also a Florida Bar Trial under way where they will decide whether to revoke his license to practise law. It means that Jack Thompson would not be an attorney ever again if his license is revoked. This spells the end of doom for the video games industry, or is it?

Of course, we really do hope that Jack Thompson stops all his antics. Money is indeed the root of all evil. The Grand Theft Auto series is indeed the most money-making video game in the whole of the United States of America. As such, it has attracted the eyes of deranged groups of people such as Jack Thompson, Hillary Clinton, and those Electronic Arts executives. However, such things are seriously inevitable in the world we are living in now.

Well, we will be reporting more on Grand Theft Auto IV very soon! Do remember to leave a comment, or subscribe to our RSS feed if you don’t want to miss out on any piece of Grand Theft Auto IV News which comes out. Stay tuned for the latest Grand Theft Auto news, information and media!

It’s Good Friday today! Doesn’t it sound like a perfect day for major Grand Theft Auto IV official site updates? Rockstar Games has just dropped a whole load of goodies into the Grand Theft Auto IV official site. Just one tip for those Mac users who can’t access the site, visit this link. Click here to view all 18 new screenshots in the image gallery!

Well, the updates include: the Music section update - K109 The Studio and WKTT Talk Radio added to list of radio stations, Screenshots section updated - 18 screenshots, New Action series desktop wallpapers and Rockstar Recommends: April NYC Music Events Series.

Do take note that there wil be a new trailer released, “Good Lord, What Are You Doing?” (AKA “Everyone’s a Rat)” to be released on the official Grand Theft Auto IV site on March 27th 2008. It will also be the final trailer before the game is released.

Once again, I wish you guys a Happy Good Friday! Also, if you have not realized, our site has taken on a new look! The header and title logo imagery has changed, with added Grand Theft Auto IV artwork. There are also some new themes you can switch to, such as the Red-coloured theme in Version 2.0, or an alternative Web 2.0 Stripes theme, added with Version 3.0.

Before you go, do remember to leave a comment, or subscribe to our RSS feed if you don’t want to miss out on any piece of buzzing hot Grand Theft Auto IV News and Information topic which comes out. Don’t forget to check our site regularly for the latest Grand Theft Auto news, information and media!

With just a little bit below 40 days to go before the release date, it seems the ESRB has just rated Grand Theft Auto IV. It was really expected, given the fact that every Grand Theft Auto game since the first one has been rated “M” for Mature by the ESRB. This means that citizens in the United States can only play Grand Theft Auto IV if they are 17 years or older.

The reasons for the “M” for Mature rating, given by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) was as such: Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol, Blood, Intense Violence.

There has been much discussion on the “Partial Nudity” portion, which wasn’t found in previous Grand Theft Auto games’ ESRB ratings, although they were all also rated ‘M” for Mature by the ESRB, mostly due to the violence, blood, and gore.

Also, the song “Sleep Is Impossible” by the Indie-Disco band Deluka, was recently confirmed to be a part of the soundtrack for Grand Theft Auto IV. Guys, crank up your speakers and rock to the beat!

“Other highlights for 2007/8 will be the inclusion of ‘Sleep Is Impossible’ on the soundtrack on the latest installment of the forth-coming Grand Theft Auto videogame, and their recent signing to Japanese Label Fabtone. The future looks bright in the world of Dark Indie Disco.”

Also, be reminded that there will be Grand Theft Auto IV official site updates for Good Friday, which falls on sometime today or tomorrow, depending on the time zone you are located in. There will also be a new trailer on the 27th of March, 2008.

Before you go, don’t forget to leave your comments! Stay tuned to us, and if you want to get access to news as soon as it is posted, subscribe to our RSS feed! Have a really enjoyable Good Friday, guys!

Today, and yesterday, saw a couple of bunch of articles (with new information!) and one new screenshot. This sums up to really just three really good news regarding Grand Theft Auto IV. Want to find out more? Read on…

Anyway, Happy St. Patricks Day! First up, we have one exclusive screenshot from Evil Avatar’s hands-on preview of Grand Theft Auto IV. This pretty much confirms the usage of motorcycle helmets in the game, as well as being able to escape from the Liberty City Police via the subway tunnels. You can view the screenshot above, by the way.

Next up, is Next-Gen.biz’s seven-pages long article, “The Making of Grand Theft Auto IV”. It’s an addition to the EDGE magazine article, “The Making of Grand Theft Auto”. If the magazine article is of any interest to you, click here.

Next Generation - “And so the biggest GTA project to date hoves into view. Not the biggest in geographical terms, but certainly in every other respect. Rockstar embarked on it with a mixture of trepidation, determination and, as was to be expected by now, the desire to shake things up a bit.

“When we set out for this game it was, again, ‘Oh my god, following up San Andreas is a nightmare’,” explains Houser. “A good nightmare, but a nightmare. And then with the new hardware it set a new kind of expectation: people are really going to expect something bloody cool and very progressive and very evolved from anything that’s gone before in a big way. So we had a lot of discussions about where to set it, but a more realistic Liberty City very quickly became the favourite option. For a lot of reasons, it just works – it works physically and it also works in terms of vibe. There are a lot of different energies going on here in a small area so you can get away with it – it won’t be weird, or forced, or phoney.

“When we were looking at the lead character we felt that a lot of the Italian American and traditional east coast gangster themes had been a little bit played out – a little bit hammered, actually…”

Houser isn’t referencing any other game by name, but we’re assuming he must have had at least a session or two with Saints Row (probably the most cynically derivative game of modern times, it should be said) in the process of reaching these conclusions, which have resulted in a vibe for GTA IV that, at least from the outset, feels markedly different.”

The third, and last piece, of godly Grand Theft Auto IV news… another Grand Theft Auto IV radio station was announced, Beat 102.7. This piece of news comes straight from the latest issue of German Video Gaming magazine, Maniac. Thanks to GTA-Xtreme.de for the heads up! Also, if you believe in rumors, here’s a photo of a “Grand Theft Auto IV XBOX 360 Box“, which looks mostly fake.

Guys, once again, Happy St. Patricks Day! Also, do remember to leave a comment, or subscribe to our RSS feed if you don’t want to miss out on any piece of buzzing hot Grand Theft Auto IV News and Information topic which comes out. Don’t forget, be stay tuned for the latest in Grand Theft Auto IV, right here!

Well, this may be considered old news that has been left unreported, but here you go guys - GameStop, a video games retailer in the United States, is really getting generous! They are having a Grand Theft Auto IV contest where the grand prize winners stand a chance to get $10,000 and a trip to New York City!

Well, which Grand Theft Auto fan would not want to win a trip to the city Liberty City is based on? Or, a trip to where Rockstar Games’ headquarters are located? Visit here for more details on this contest!

Also, someone has left a digitalized screenshot over at GrandTheftAuto4.net. You may recognize it from the Spanish pre-order box containing two new screenshots we covered a few weeks ago. It basically shows Niko Bellic being arrested by the Liberty City Police. Credits to GTA4.net for the heads up and the screenshot.

Here’s an update guys! If you look closely at the top right corner of the screenshot, you may see 5 black stars. If you have played a Grand Theft Auto game before, you should know what are they - Wanted Stars! If you don’t know, they are “stars” on the corner of the screen that represents your wanted level in the game.

That’s right, the wanted stars have secretly made its appearance in one of the screens. However, there is some debate as to whether it is real or fake, with some people saying that someone had edited the screenshot with Photoshop. Perhaps it is also something Rockstar Games sneaked into the screenshot?

Don’t forget, guys - leave a comment, and be stay tuned to us for more Grand Theft Auto news, media and information! April 29th 2008 is nearing us really soon, do remember to pre-order your copies of Grand Theft Auto IV! Till then, we wish you had a good time! Ciao!

Rockstar Games’ really giving out the goodies nowadays. Day after day we get Grand Theft Auto IV news, and today’s no exception. Here’s some massive online Multiplayer information regarding Grand Theft Auto IV.

PSM Spain has a whopping 20 new images and rather massive multiplayer info, however in Spanish. We were able to get a rather neat translation of the important points mentioned in the article, and you can read them below.

The magazine reporters, however, only played 7 out of 15 of the online multiplayer modes available in Grand Theft Auto IV. Let’s not waste any time, shall we? Savour the screenshots - click here to view and download all the scans of the article!

The online multiplayer modes mentioned in the magazine are namely Hangman’s NOOSE, Car Jack City, Bomb da Base and Bomb da Base II (from Grand Theft Auto III), Mafia Work and Team Mafia Work, Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, Turf War, Cops N’ Crooks, Race and GTA Race, Deal Breaker, and lastly, Free Roam.

• In Race and GTA Race, you will race illegally till the finish and do anything to get there. For example, throwing a grenade at your rival’s car, perhaps even stealing another car because yours was wrecked.
• In Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, you blast your friends away in a free-for-all. The staff at PSM Spain tried a match, all of them armed with rocket launchers, and they had great fun.
• In Mafia Work and Team Mafia Work, you play as one of Kenny Petrovic’s mafia henchmen. Complete assassinations (given over phone) before other players in the game to score points.
  
• In the mode Cops ‘n Crooks, one team plays as cops, while the other criminals. As you’d expect, the cops must stop the criminals from escaping. The cops has an added advantage of monitoring the position of the criminals on their GPS’s, the criminals have no such option available.
• The mode Hangmans Noose will be a co-op mode. In the mission, you and your friends are to escort a Mafia gang member, while being ambushed by the SWAT, in a helicopter.
• The 15 online multiplayer modes can be accessed through your cellphone’s multiplayer option.
• You will be able to customize your character before playing the online multiplayer modes, for example, changing his race, sex, skin color, hair and clothing. A total of 16 players can play simultaneously online.
• You can stop a NPC car from coming your way if you point your gun at them.
• The host sets the rules for each game, for example the number of peds and traffic in a multiplayer game. There are some exceptions for some modes too. For Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, you can also choose whether the police will intervene and types of weapons too. For Race and GTA Race, the host can choose which vehicles are involved and the number of laps to be played.
• Liberty City will be on your feet. Forget the other closed maps; here you have to whole map to play on, laugh and run with your friends.
• The map will be the same as the one in single-player, when you select the multiplayer modes, it will be a smooth transition.
• Some stuff about when the reporters first got there: “We were back to the Rockstar Games offices in London to play the Multiplayer modes. During the four and a half hours we played against a good part of the team with a huge 65″ inch plasma screen TV, headsets on our head and the sensation of experimenting with something revolutionary. The multiplayer was selected from Niko’s phone just like that, one click away. We were allowed to play 7 out of the 15 modes under the watchful eye of a Rockstar Games representative. We started out with Deathmatch (free for all). If players choose to work as a team in Team Deathmatch, up to four can get in a vehicle, from a taxi to a helicopter.”

Plus, the “Updates” section of the Official Grand Theft Auto IV site has been updated. This time, we have some great stuff to look forward to… Coming March 20th 2008, we have a “Music”, “Screenshots” and “Downloads” Section Updates. Coming March 27th, we have a new trailer - “Good Lord, What Are You Doing?” aka “Everyone’s a Rat“, it will be the fourth and final trailer before the game is released.

Credits to nevermikel from GTAForums for the heads up and the magazine scans. Do not forget to check in regularly to -=}{oT~dEv1L 666=-’s HQ for more Grand Theft Auto IV news, media and information! Also, you might want to subscribe to our RSS feed! Until then, ciao, have fun!

Guys, the information on Grand Theft Auto IV are pouring in real fast! Well, surely Grand Theft Auto IV’s going to beat out the Iron Man movie. Plus, MTV has just scored a very exclusive interview with Sam Houser and a special chance to test-drive Grand Theft Auto IV. Let’s have a look at what they had to say…

“On Wednesday morning at the headquarters of Rockstar Games, we took Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers in hand and spent two hours with "Grand Theft Auto IV," trying both. The result: a better understanding of what "GTA" rendered on cutting-edge video game hardware feels like and how it might impact fans and nonfans of the series in a whole new way.

"Grand Theft Auto IV" is only six weeks away from release, but only recently have the developers at Rockstar let reporters get their hands on the game. During MTV News' session, we explored the depths of the game's missions and the randomness of simulated city life that makes every tour of a Rockstar gaming metropolis a sandstorm of surprises.

We flew helicopters, we returned an in-game text message on our cell phone, we crashed lots of cars, we wondered if the game's version of the Statue of Liberty was supposed to look like Hillary Clinton (not intentional, Rockstar says), and we earned a five-star wanted rating on the series' newly expanded six-star police-alertness meter.

First we followed rules, or at least tried to. A Rockstar rep working the MTV News demo turned the lights out and loaded a two-week-old build of the Xbox 360 version of the game, displaying it on a large flat-panel TV. He used a developer cheat to warp the game's protagonist, immigrant Niko Bellic, to a mission called "Jamaican Heat." This mission is available early in the game and involves Bellic escorting a gun dealing Rastafarian named Little Jacob to a drug deal gone bad.

These "GTA" games are certainly still not for kids. Little Jacob names the drugs he likes. The game's improved aiming controls offer smooth, precise techniques for shooting enemies in any body part. The radio stations still lampoon current events and skewer sacred cows. As ever, "GTA" is a crime story, unapologetically profane, irreverently sarcastic.

Following the rules had us pursuing a few more "GTA IV" missions, one involving a shoot-out in a brownstone in the game's stand-in for Brooklyn, another a shoot-out at a dock, and another that wasn't a shoot-out. This last mission, named "Call and Collect," featured Niko helping a dirty cop by shaking down a blackmailer. We did this — almost — without firing a shot, relying instead on the power of cell phone technology. The blackmailer was hanging out near a fountain in a small park, though the game didn't indicate exactly which person milling about in that area was him. Instead, Niko received a text message on his ever-available cell phone. With a few presses of the controller, we could call the texted number, causing the blackmailer's phone to ring. Once the call commenced, the goal was to walk Niko through a crowd of people, looking and listening for someone talking on their cell phone. We heard him first and eventually stood face to face, with Niko's and the blackmailer's phones to their ears, their voices echoing through the phones and the virtual thin air. The blackmailer almost ran. Niko's gun stopped him. And then Niko ran from the cops. Mission just about complete.”

Read the rest of the article here…

Also, another part of the MTV exclusive preview mentions about the “Days of the Week” technology in Grand Theft Auto IV, which isn’t even new technology. However, one thing that’s a notable new feature in Grand Theft Auto IV is the slow-motion driving mechanics. Here’s for you to read…

“Days Of The Week - “GTA IV” has days of the week. It doesn’t have seasons. It doesn’t have months. But this cutting-edge power-house of a game has days of the week. All seven? Unconfirmed. But I can report it has Thursdays and Saturdays. Let’s assume it has the other five as well.

I discovered this while pausing a two-week-old build of the Xbox 360 version of the game and spotting the word “Thursday” near the map. I asked the Rockstar PR rep who was overseeing my session to explain what exactly this could mean. He told me about a mission called “The Final Interview,” in which the game’s protagonist, Niko Bellic, will need to assassinate a lawyer. Niko will be able to apply for a job at the firm from the game’s Internet cafes, but will only be called in for an interview on a Saturday. That’s when Niko can show up and take care of business. On any other day of the week he won’t have access.

Now don’t you worry, “GTA” has not gone all “Animal Crossing” on you. You won’t need to wait until an actual Saturday or start tinkering with your console’s internal calendar. The days change in the game with the sunrises an sunsets that the series has had for years.

What more will be done with the days of the week? I don’t know. But I’m sure you can dream up plenty of possibilities: Niko going to a football game on Sunday, getting his laundry picked up on Wednesday, watching his favorite TV shows on a Tuesday. Actually, let’s hope for none of that.

Slow-Mo Driving- You can drive slowly in “GTA,” even while driving fast. Yes, indeed, the laws of time and space need not apply as the game will borrow a little from “Max Payne” or “Burnout” and let you drive in slow-motion. I learned this near the end of my demo as I drove a Hummer-like truck through part of “GTA IV”’s Manhattan stand-in, Algonquin. The Rockstar rep suggested that I hold down the B button on my 360 controller. This changed the camera view to an elevated, cinematic perspective. I could still drive in this camera view.

While driving from a cinematic perspective I was then encouraged to click the 360 controller’s left thumbstick. This slowed things down. I was thinking of “Burnout”’s after-touch system and stopped directing my truck. But the Rockstar rep told me I could keep driving. It was a little awkward to steer with the left stick while keeping it clicked in, but it seemed manageable.

I’m not sure why this feature was added. It seems to go against the vibe that I reported in my piece today of Rockstar making “GTA IV” feel less like a game than the “GTA” predecessors. But it will allow the game to be viewed in a more stylish, cinematic context.

I did not have a chance to test the limits of the slow-mo driving, to see if it would help during a high-speed chase or make me more capable of landing a stunt jump. But those seem like safe bets.

After I saw those two features I played the PS3 version of the game and flew a helicopter. But you read about that already. Didn’t you?

What more do you want to know about “GTA IV”? I played it for two hours, but I certainly didn’t see it all.”

Well, I know this is a super-long news article. But don’t worry, it’s worth it. Head over to MTV right now for the full article and details! Still, don’t forget to give us your comments and be stay tuned for more Grand Theft Auto IV news!