Stepping off a boat in the shoes of illegal immigrant Niko Bellic as he arrives in Liberty City at the start of Grand Theft Auto IV, you can tell immediately that Rockstar North's latest offering is something quite special. Yes, this is another GTA game in which you'll likely spend the bulk of your time stealing cars and gunning down cops and criminals, but it's also much more than that. GTAIV is a game with a compelling and nonlinear storyline, a game with a great protagonist who you can't help but like, and a game that boasts a plethora of online multiplayer features in addition to its lengthy story mode. It's not without some flaws, but GTAIV is undoubtedly the best Grand Theft Auto yet.

One of the many things that set GTAIV apart from its predecessors is Liberty City, which is more convincing as a living, breathing urban environment than anything that you've seen in a game before, and bears little resemblance to its namesake in 2001's GTAIII. Liberty's diverse population believably attempts to go about its daily business, seemingly unaware that several criminal factions are at war in the city. Niko has no such luck. He's compelled to start working for one of the factions shortly after arriving, when he learns that his cousin Roman has some potentially fatal gambling debts. Niko's military experience makes him a useful freelancer for employers in the business of killing each other, and though his reluctance to carry out their orders is often apparent, he does whatever is asked of him in the hope that completing missions for other people will ultimately give him the means to complete his own.

Actually, Niko doesn't have to do everything that is asked of him. On several occasions as you play through his story, you'll be presented with decisions that afford you the option of doing what you think is right rather than blindly following instructions. You don't necessarily have to kill a target if he or she promises to disappear, but you have to weigh the risk of your employer finding out against the possibility that the person whose life you spare might prove useful later in the game, or even have work for you in the form of bonus missions. To say anything more specific on this subject would be to risk spoiling one of GTAIV's most interesting new features, but suffice it to say that every decision you make has consequences, and you'll likely want to play through the game at least twice to see how the alternatives unfold.

Grand Theft Auto IV's story mode can be beaten in less than 30 hours, and there are so many optional activities and side missions to take part in along the way that you can comfortably double that number if you're in no hurry. The majority of the story missions task you with making deliveries and/or killing people, and play out in much the same way as those in previous games. With that said, most of the missions are a lot easier this time around, partly because Niko is a more agile and efficient killer than any of his predecessors, and partly because the LCPD seemingly has better things to do than hunt down an illegal immigrant who's gunning down undesirables all over the city. Some of the more imaginative missions sprinkled throughout the story include a kidnapping, a bank heist, and a job interview. The cinematic cutscenes associated with story missions are superbly presented and are the sequences in which the game's characters really shine. Without exception, the characters you encounter benefit from great animation, great voice work, and superbly expressive faces. They're not always so impressive when they join you on a mission and refuse to do what they're supposed to (for example, not following you on an escort mission, or failing to negotiate a doorway). Nevertheless, these problems are few and far between, and they're made less painful by the new "replay mission" option that you're presented with whenever you fail.

New abilities in Niko's arsenal include scaling fences and walls anywhere he can get a foothold, shimmying along ledges, and, most importantly, taking cover behind objects. The ability to stick close to walls, parked cars, and the like at the touch of a button makes GTAIV's gunplay a huge improvement over that in previous games, and, in tandem with the new targeting system, it also makes it a lot easier. Enemies are rarely smart enough to get to you while you're in cover, and given that you can lock your targeting reticle on to them even when they're hidden, all you have to do is wait for them to poke their heads out and then pick them off with a minimum of effort. Locking on to enemies targets their torso by default, but you can use the right analog stick to fine-tune your aim and kill them more quickly with a headshot or two. Playing without using the lock-on feature make things more difficult, but you’ll need to master the technique so that you can shoot blindly at enemies from positions of cover when you dare not poke your own head out to line up the shot.

Given the amount of trouble that you get into as you play through the story mode, it's inevitable that the police are going to get involved from time to time, even when their presence isn't a scripted feature of your mission. Liberty City's boys in blue are quick to respond when you get flagged with a wanted level of between one and six stars, but they're not nearly as tough to deal with as their counterparts in previous GTA games. They don't drive as quickly when pursuing you, they rarely bother to set up roadblocks, and you'll need to blow up practically an entire city block before the FIB (that's not a typo) show up. Furthermore, you're given an unfair advantage in the form of your GPS system; when you're not using it to plot a valid route to any waypoint of your choosing, it doubles as a kind of police scanner. Any time you have a brush with the law, the GPS shows you the exact locations of patrol cars and cops on foot in your area, and highlights the circular area (centered on your last known whereabouts) where they're concentrating their search. To escape, all you need to do is move outside the circle and then avoid being seen for 10 seconds or so, which is often best achieved by finding a safe spot and just sitting there. It's not a bad system in theory, but in practice it makes dodging the law a little too easy, especially when your wanted level is low and the search area is small.

When you're not running missions for criminals, taking part in street races, stealing cars to order, or randomly causing trouble, you'll find that there are plenty of opportunities to unwind in Liberty City. Some of these optional activities offer tangible rewards that can prove useful in missions later on, whereas others are just a fun way to kill time and take in more of GTAIV's superb humor. For example, you can watch television, listen to numerous different radio stations, check out some genuinely funny shows (including some big-name acts) at cabaret and comedy clubs, and use a computer to surf the in-game Internet.

GTAIV's Internet is filled with spoofs of all the kinds of Web sites that you'd only ever look at accidentally or when you know there's no danger of getting caught. Some of them can be found only by clicking on links in spam e-mails, whereas others are advertised prominently on the search page. There's plenty of amusing stuff to find if you spend some time in one of the "TW@" Internet cafes, but the most interesting site by far is an online dating agency through which you can meet women who, if they like your profile, will agree to go on dates with you. Dating and socializing with friends is something you can spend as much or as little of your time doing as you like, and though the people you meet can occasionally be demanding to the point that they become irritating, keeping them happy invariably benefits you in some way.

Keeping friends and dates happy means spending time with them and doing things that they enjoy, and all of them have different personalities. Some friends like to join you for minigames such as tenpin bowling, pool, or darts, whereas others prefer to go out for a meal, get drunk, or take in a show. Of course, dates are much fussier than regular friends, and their opinions of you are influenced not only by whether you pick them up on time, where you take them, and whether you try your luck when dropping them at home, but also by a number of much more subtle factors. Dates will comment on stuff like the car you drive, how you drive it, and the clothes you wear. They'll even notice if you wear the same outfit two dates in a row, though not all of them will be bothered by it. The rewards that you get when another character likes you enough vary depending on who it is. Without wishing to give away specifics, befriending a lawyer can prove useful if you're having trouble with the cops, for example, and having a nurse on your friends list can literally be a lifesaver.

You'll keep in touch with your dates, friends, and some of your enemies using another of GTAIV's great new features: a cell phone. It's hard to believe that something as simple as a cell phone could add so much to a game like this, but it's implemented so well that it's hard to imagine leaving any of Niko's safe houses without it. If you've ever used a cell phone in real life, you'll have no problem operating this one and, given that it's controlled using only the D pad and a single button, it's easy to call up acquaintances and take calls even while driving. There's no unwieldy conversation system to deal with; you simply choose which friend you want to call, what you want to talk about (it could be work, a fun activity, or asking for a favor) and then, assuming that he or she answers the phone, the conversation plays out. Incoming calls are even easier, though they occasionally come at inopportune (or amusing) times; hearing your cell-phone's signal interfere with your car radio is the least of your worries when you consider the possibility of a date calling you while you're with a prostitute or embroiled in a gunfight with the Mafia. Incidentally, new ringtones and visual themes for your phone can be purchased via the in-game Internet, which is typical of the incredible attention to detail that you'll come to take for granted as you play.

To give you some idea of just how much thought has clearly gone into the crafting of GTAIV, even the act of stealing a parked car, which is still achieved by pushing a single button, can now result in any number of different things happening. If the door is locked, as is often the case, Niko will smash a window with his elbow or his foot to get inside. Once inside the car, he may need to hot-wire it to get it started; you can speed up the process slightly by using the shoulder buttons on your controller. If the car has an alarm, it'll sound for several seconds and cause the headlights to flash on and off as you drive away--practically begging any nearby cops to come after you. Stealing cars with drivers and/or passengers inside opens up lots more possibilities, the most amusing of which is someone (possibly you) getting an arm caught in a door and dragged along as the vehicle speeds away.

Most of the vehicles in GTAIV, like those in previous games, have very loose handling that makes it easy for you to perform Hollywood-style U-turns, skids around corners, and the like. You can play through most of the missions without ever violating a traffic law if you really want to, but you can get away with (and will have a lot more fun) driving like a lunatic, provided that you don't collide with any police vehicles or mow down too many pedestrians. A neat touch when driving with the default camera view is that the camera, which is positioned a few feet behind the rear bumper of the car, centers on you rather than on the vehicle, effectively offering the vehicular equivalent of an over-the-shoulder view. When you take the control of something sporty, the camera also positions itself much closer to the ground, which adds to the sensation of speed.

The vehicle handling is difficult to fault, regardless of whether you're in a sports car, a garbage truck, a motorcycle, a speedboat, or a helicopter. However, while driving, you might notice one odd quirk that has been a constant ever since GTAIII: When taking the controls of certain vehicles, you'll suddenly notice a lot more of the same vehicle on the roads. It's not a big deal, and it isn't detrimental to the gameplay, but it's a little jarring if you get into one of the more unusual vehicles in the game--for example, the equivalent of either a Ferrari or a pickup truck--and suddenly find that the city is filled with them. That particular quirk is pretty common in some of the multiplayer modes as well, though you'll likely be too busy keeping an eye out for other players to take any notice when you venture online.

Getting online in Grand Theft Auto IV couldn't be easier. You simply select the multiplayer option on your cell phone, choose which type of game you want to host or join, and then enter a lobby and wait for the game to start. You won't be getting bored staring at a list of names while you're waiting, though, because when you enter a lobby you actually enter an online version of Liberty City in which you and up to 15 other players are free to do anything. There are weapons scattered all over the place to ensure that things don't stay too friendly for very long.

There are more than a dozen different multiplayer modes to choose from, and although some of them are variations on similar themes, there's certainly no shortage of variety. As the host of a multiplayer session, you also have the freedom to greatly customize all of the game types with variables such as friendly fire, police presence, weapons sets, traffic levels, radar functionality, and many more. You can choose where you'd like your game to take place as well, considering that many gameplay modes can be played either on a specific Liberty City island or across the entire map.

Even conventional 16-player modes such as Deathmatch and Race feel quite different than anything that you've played before. And in addition to those, there are objective-based games in which you're tasked with completing missions similar to those in the single-player game: a team-based Cops 'n Crooks mode, a Turf War mode in which teams compete for control of territories, a carjacking mode, three cooperative missions that support up to four players, and more. With the right group of people, there's no reason why you can't have a lot of fun with every single mode that's available. We experienced a few frame-rate issues and lag that caused other players and their vehicles to jump around the screen at times, but for the most part GTAIV's online play is a real treat. One especially neat touch is that, as a passenger in a vehicle being driven by another player, you can mark waypoints on the GPS system for your driver using a map that tracks the locations of other players and objectives.

If you're wondering about differences between the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Grand Theft Auto IV, the truth is that there aren't many. The PS3 version can only be played after a mandatory install that takes around 10 minutes, and its load times are a little shorter and less frequent as a result. The visuals, which don't always hold up to close scrutiny but are impressive during typical gameplay, are comparable and feature the same quirks (shadows that flicker, for example) on both consoles. Likewise, the audio, which can take a lot of the credit for why Liberty City feels so alive, is exceptional regardless of which console you have and how many speakers it's hooked up to. True to form, GTAIV's soundtrack has plenty of great licensed songs and, unlike other games we could mention, it doesn't force the artist and track information down your throat with pop-up windows that detract from gameplay. However, if you want that information, you can simply dial up a song-recognition service on your cell phone and, after a few seconds, receive it in a text message. Genius.

In case you haven't guessed already, Grand Theft Auto IV is a game that you simply have to play. The single-player game, which you can still play long after you complete the story, is the series' best by far, and the multiplayer features are good enough that you'll likely have no problem finding people to play with for many months to come. The minor flaws that you'll experience are no more difficult to overlook than those in previous GTA games, and they're greatly outnumbered by the features that will impress and surprise you anytime you think you've already seen everything that the game has to offer. There's lots to see in Liberty City, so you'd best get started.


By Justin Calvert

GameSpot.com

Rockstar has remained tight-lipped about GTA IV's multiplayer game modes, but it recently blew away all the speculation with a full day of hands-on gameplay.

When you finally explore Liberty City on April 29, you won't have to do it alone. Grand Theft Auto IV will be the first game in the series to ship with a complete online multiplayer component, supporting up to 16 players on both Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. Little information has been released about how this aspect of the game will work, other than the subtle hints that Rockstar has dropped during earlier previews of the game. But with the game now finally approaching release this month, Rockstar decided to blow the lid off nearly all the multiplayer game modes, showing us Deathmatch, Cops and Crooks, Racing, as well as much more. Taking the form of an entire day's play testing at the company's London offices, we were literally able to take Rockstar on at its own game.


Deathmatch is a core part of the multiplayer game, and takes place in some familiar locales.

As we'd previously heard, the multiplayer mode is accessed by pulling out your mobile phone at any time during the single-player game. A small LCD appears at the bottom right of your view, and in one of the many small touches in the game, different players see different mobile operator logos on their home screens. From here, you can choose to enter the multiplayer game, at which point your single-player progress is saved and your console accesses its online network. As with Burnout Paradise, you'll be able to see which of your friends are currently playing GTA IV online, and if they're in an open party, you'll be free to join them. Likewise, if you choose to create a game, you can restrict it to just your friends list or open it up to the online community. Your character in the multiplayer game world is completely different from Niko: the fairly limited customisation options allow you to choose a male or female template and change outfits and accessories, but not facial details or body shapes.

To get a feel for the new multiplayer game, Rockstar initiated us with a simple four-on-four team Deathmatch. This mode may be simple, but the open world provides plenty of innovative ways to take down the opposition. As newbies, our first urge was to jump into a vehicle and work as a team, performing drive-by shootings while aiming to run over any enemies that got in our way. Both the driver and the passenger can shoot out of the window while moving, with the left bumper smashing out the window then firing your gun. You can aim using the right joystick, and a small reticle appears onscreen to help you line up shooting, as well as driving. There's also a downside to grouping together, especially if your enemy has a rocket launcher or another explosive device. One accurate shot can take out an entire team of people if they're all housed in one vehicle, leaving them to burn together in a burning wreck while the opposing team gets to regroup and rearm.

The alternative to using vehicles--collecting weapons and finding an elevated position--seemed to lead to higher scores. Combined with the new cover system, the environment can be used by clever players to avoid being hurt. For example, players can pop out when they have the best shots or simply blind-fire to keep enemies at bay. Pressing the right bumper snaps your character to the nearest cover, whether it is a wall or another object, such as a car. The Rockstar team was on hand for other tips, such as crouching when using a sniper rifle for better accuracy and always going for a headshot when fighting one-on-one. Even if you're restricted to a handgun, you can kill off an Uzi-wielding enemy using this method because it can bring down even the most heavily armoured foes. When locking on to an enemy with the left trigger, you can then flick the right stick to lift the aim to the head, and if you nail the technique, it takes only a couple of shots to kill someone.


Whether you're playing in single or multiplayer, you'll still be experiencing the same Liberty City.

Standard gunplay is all well and good, but GTA has always been about the unexpected opportunities that arise from its sandbox gameworld. Even though the Rockstar team had been instructed to go easy on us during our first game, one of the team members couldn't resist jumping in a helicopter, chasing us down a street, and using the rotor blades to send us hurtling through the air to our death. It was a fitting end to the Team Deathmatch mode, but after getting used to the control system, we were yearning for more. A rocket launcher Deathmatch game was duly arranged, pitting us against one other in a small park at night. The rocket launcher is a powerful but slightly tricky weapon to use because it takes a long time to reach its target and you can only carry six rockets at a time. Luckily, if you run out of ammo or want to get up close and personal, then you can have the option of engaging in a good old-fashioned knife fight.

While the Deathmatch modes were fun, the real attraction of GTA IV's multiplayer may well come from the many other modes that Rockstar has dreamed up. The second mode that we played through was Mafiya Work, where the aim was to complete missions before anyone else in the game. Missions are called in to your mobile from gang bosses all over the city; then, every player competes to carry them out and collect the cash. Once each mission had been issued, the objectives flash up on the map and it becomes a mad scramble for victory. Missions included stealing a certain car or delivering weapons to another location, with the player who has the most money at the end of the allotted time winning the game

The Cops & Crooks mode is another absolute riot where one team plays as police officers who have to catch the other team of criminals. The catch is that one of the criminals is assigned the position of the leader, and he must stay alive no matter what happens to the rest of the team. Other team members can die and respawn on the way to reaching their escape points, but if the leader is killed, then it's game over for everyone. There's also a co-op mode for up to four players called Noose Assault, where we had to help a notorious criminal make it from his private jet to a hideaway while being pursued by a ferocious SWAT team. It's a shame that the entire game isn't playable in co-op, but this mission was a nice alternative to the other more competitive multiplayer modes.


The new cover system works well in multiplayer, allowing you to stay shielded while blind-firing or aiming for a headshot.

Another surprisingly addictive mode is the racing, which can be played with or without weapons. It won't compete with Burnout or Need for Speed in terms of realism or depth, but leading a pack of eight racers and tossing Molotov cocktails out of the window is still highly entertaining. The host of the game gets to choose the route and the type of vehicle used in each race, while the participants get to choose which individual cars and colour schemes they want to use. If you're playing with weapons, you can collect pistols and grenades by driving over them, while heath kits restore any damage that you take to your car. If your vehicle does get damaged or you just fancy a change, then you can still jump out and steal one, but this does cost you valuable seconds of the race.

On the technical side, Rockstar hooked us up to the Xbox 360 debug version with headphones and a microphone. Despite being located in the same London office, we were all connected to each other over the Internet, which gave us a good idea of the online experience we can expect from the finished game. While you're free to talk to your teammates at any time by speaking through the microphone, you can also call individual players by accessing the mobile phone and just ringing them up. As with many Xbox Live games, the vocal quality can sometimes dip, but the only other issues we encountered were occasionally dropped animation frames when the action became frantic. Otherwise, GTA IV looked like a smooth online experience--and, according to Rockstar both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will be exactly the same in terms of multiplayer features. Rockstar also told us at this point that while the game will support 1080p, the game will only run in 720p natively, and will therefore be scaled up to the higher resolution.

We wondered just how much of a role multiplayer would play in GTA IV, and after seeing it in action, we're pleased to report that it's far from being a simple afterthought to the game. With classic deathmatch and co-op missions combined with cops-and-robbers and mission-based objectives, the multiplayer component of GTA has a wealth of content to offer. We didn't even get to see some of the other modes on offer, which we saw on the menu screen as Deal Breaker and Bomb da Base II. Having finally got a chance to sample the multiplayer action, we're as excited as ever to finally play it on April 29.

-GameSpot

Just Cause created a massive, island-based gameworld and threw in parachute-based action to a mixed reaction from critics. The ability to travel with your parachute was supplemented by stealing vehicles GTA-style, as well as some visceral third-person action.

Confident that the gaming public is ready for another dose of unadulterated carnage, publisher Eidos has announced Just Cause 2, which promises more of the same mayhem as the first instalment, but with gameplay improvements and enhanced skills. We recently sat down with Eidos and were shown some video footage and screenshots of the upcoming game, which appears to be shaping up nicely.

Rico Rodriguez, the protagonist from Just Cause, is back. He's survived death-defying adventures in the Caribbean, lived to tell the tale and is heading off to another island. But it's not San Esperito; it's a smaller, more "jam-packed" island, according to Eidos. The fictitious island of Panau, with its blend of Pacific, Thai, and various other Asian flavours, will offer plenty of distractions for those who just want to explore.

In Just Cause 2, Rico has been pulled out of early retirement and is hot on the tail of a former boss who has seen fit to take a wad of stolen cash to the island of Panau--the exact location of which is about as certain as the one in Lost. Panau will feature a range of climates and terrain, including high-rise cities complete with skyscrapers just asking to be climbed, thick jungle foliage, snow-laden mountains, and sun-drenched beaches, all complete with their own dynamic climates. In the video footage we saw, the draw distance looked impressive, as did the detailed close-up scenery.

Along the way, Rico will come up against Baby Panay, a tyrannical yet short-statured dictator. Think the Kim Jong-Il from Team America and you're probably on the right track.

Eidos says the developers have worked on making the gameplay in Just Cause 2 more challenging and rewarding than the first game, with changes such as increased enemy artificial intelligence; your enemies use cover to their advantage this time around, and can also shoot while in vehicles.

Additional improvements, such as more numerous and complex missions, are some of the things Swedish developer Avalanche Studios is working on to make JC2 a more balanced, refined beast than its predecessor.

Rico's parachute physics will be more realistic, and his swimming controls have been improved to reflect his on-land controls, according to Eidos. More improvements will be seen in the environmental effects, including climate changes such as storms, blizzards, and knee-deep snow in higher altitudes.

Although most gamers could finish Just Cause in five to six hours, the next instalment should have a longer lifespan in which Rico will have to complete side tasks before unlocking additional missions. Thankfully, he'll have his trusty (and upgraded) grappling hook on hand to grab onto objects, vehicles, people, and buildings if you need to traverse the world at speed.

You'll also be able to choose how to approach certain scenarios in the game. One example given was a mission in which you'll need to infiltrate an enemy compound nestled at the base of a large mountain. If you're feeling a particular case of bravado, you can attack it head-on by foot or car. You can also use your parachute to BASE jump off of the neighbouring mountain into the base, or even take a high-altitude approach, lobbing grenades from up above while floating around out of harm's way.

Just Cause 2 has been confirmed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, and is expected to be out in the second half of 2008.

-GameSpot

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