GTA IV Info Unveiled

The first legit information about Rockstar North's upcoming game in the GTA universe, Grand Theft Auto IV. Early copies of "Game Informer" show that our male character is Eastern European, multplayer is expected and we're back to Liberty City.

Alright, so we're back in Liberty City. I know what you're thinking...lame, I already played and beat Grand Theft Auto 3. Luckily this isn't the case according to the leaked scans, it's a different part of Liberty City. The "new" Liberty City will be modeled from 4 of the 5 boroughs from NYC and a bit of suburban New Jersey.

Unfortunatly the game's size is scaled down from the size of GTA: San Andreas, but according to the magazine there's no empty land to be seen, showing off how well they tried to remake New York City.

GI confirms that our male lead is indeed an Eastern European immigrant from an unnamed country. Niko Belic arrives in the US after talks to his cousin Roman, who has claimed to have cash, women and cars. This turns out to be untrue when Niko arrives, only to find out that his cousin is caught in Liberty City's crime ring.

In terms of gameplay GTA IV will have better NPC charcters then in other installments. After Rockstar aquired a lisence for NaturalMotion's Euphoria technology (also seen in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed). Which supports complex NPC behaviour and realistic movement. Rockstar is only using this engine for "next-gen" games only.

Other information hints that GTA IV is set in present day and the games soundtrack will accompany that. It will also allow your character to enter and exit buildings without the San Andreas-esk load. Certainly the last bit of good news, Grand Theft Auto IV will support some form of multiplayer, but not a massive multiplayer, as previously thought.

Since this game is set in a NYC replica city, Rockstar has decided to pull all aircrafts from the game, to avoid any 9/11 situations (supposedly). It will however feature motorcycles.

Grand Theft Auto IV is due out in October for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The May issue of Game Informer Magazine should be on shelves soon.