Last month saw a number of previews from magazines such as OXM, OPM, and GamePro, and also from websites such as IGN, GameSpot, and Games Radar. With all this new information coming through, it was inevitable that one or two details would be overlooked, so today we would like to highlight a few of those.
- One of the less heard of previews – and in my opinion the best one so far – came from Kikizo. For all the diehard GTA fans out there, this is one you should definitely read. It includes every detail imaginable, from the song which was played on the car radio, to quotes spoken by pedestrians. “Do you know in Italy they get three hours for lunch?!”, says one of them.
- The song played on the radio was Sorrow Tears and Blood by Fela Kuti, which you can listen to below (note: this song may or may not be in the final version of the game – the soundtrack, we are led to believe, is still a work in progress, and this track may only have been temporary.)
- Liberty City’s size (in comparison with the San Andreas map) is also clarified, after Rockstar’s use of the terms “geographical mass” and “scope” caused some confusion. Rockstar’s Hamish Brown, who was talking to Kikizo, said that “it’s definitely the biggest single city we’ve ever done”, however, “that city isn’t going to be the size of San Andreas, because that would be absurd, but if you take into account the level of verticality of the city, the number of buildings you can go into, and the level of detail in those buildings, then you’re talking about a game that is similar to San Andreas in terms of scope.”. So it doesn’t get much clearer than that, Liberty City is not the same size as (or bigger than) San Andreas, as many people had interpreted at first.
- The guys who saw the demo were also kind enough to answer some questions for us, regarding the positions of certain landmarks, so that we can hopefully (eventually) be able to produce a map. Adam (Doree) said that everything they saw (taxi depot, bridge, brownstones etc.) were within one or two turns of each other, and we are led to believe that Roman’s taxi depot is situated to Niko’s left (our right) in this screenshot.
- Kikizo also today confirmed with R* that Grand Theft Auto IV is on track for release in late October, despite recent rumours which suggested the game could be delayed due to the release of Halo 3.
� Click here for the full Kikizo preview!
- IGN and GameSpot are the most visited games websites on the internet, so when various websites posted GTA IV previews a couple of weeks ago, naturally theirs recieved most attention. ComputersAndVideoGames.com is another site who were lucky enough to see the game in action, and they managed to provide something which no other site could: street names. We recently learned that Liberty City will have every one of its streets named, and CVG were able to note down a few of these during their short tour of Liberty City. These were Masterson Street, Oakley Street, Tulsa Street, Cisco Street, Delaware Avenue, East Hook, and Rotterdam Hill.
- Carney Island Pharmacy – this is quite an old discovery, but a great one nevertheless by geomy from our forums, and one which I don’t think many people noticed. In the screenshot below, you can see that the pharmacy is called Carney Island Pharmacy, which suggests that Carney Island is the GTA 4 equivalent of Coney Island. Carnies, for those who aren’t aware, are carnival workers who are generally disrespected. It makes sense for the Coney Island equivalent to be called Carney Island, since Coney Island is famous for its amusement park.
Remember to register free at our forums to take part in GTA IV discussions and contribute your own findings.