Grand Theft Auto IV Details Revealed

Xbox 360, PS3

Following the launch of the trailer a few weeks ago, some new details about the upcoming game have been made avaliable on the Internet. Here are the main points, summarised in a handy dot-point system!

• Say hello to 'Niko Bellic' - that's the name of the Eastern European chap you saw in the trailer. If you haven't already guessed, he's the main character.
• Upon starting the game, your sole contact will be your cousin, 'Roman'. Having arrived as immigrants, you'll have to get to grips with the vastness of Liberty City.
• The game will be geographically smaller than San Andreas. However, unlike GTA 3, GTA IV's version of Liberty City will be expanded to include some new recreations of New York. Broker, Algonquin, Dukes, Brohan and Alderney are the new locales; represented here are Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and New Jersey, respectively.
• Unlike the previous games, you'll be able to call people and organise portions of missions. This should come in handy in some of the more hectic fire-fights.
• Character A.I. has been enhanced, particularly for the general public in the game. Rockstar is touting that they'll be far more realistic this time around.
• Probably the juiciest bit of news so far is the multiplayer component of the game. While it is unclear how it functions yet, Rockstar has stated that it will not be a MMORPG. It will be an entirely seperate component to the single-player game: some similarities to the hand-held versions may likely appear.

So far, the game is shaping up nicely. More as we have it.