The PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV was shown off at the Leipzig Games Convention today by PR man Steve Hahnel. New features are detailed below:

• Much improved visuals, they'll be "polished well beyond what they were on the 360 and PS3".
• The number of multiplayer slots may be expanded for the PC version.
• The maximum resolution is 2560x1600.
• The replay feature has been improved. Players can record 30 second clips and they can now add filters and adjust the camera angle using the replay editor. They can also make a montage of clips and upload them to the R* Social Club for others to view.
• Players can finally filter multiplayer games more specifically (e.g. a deathmatches using a particular weapon).
• The Xbox 360 controller is compatible with the PC version.
• It looks like fingerless gloves have finally been added! Much to the delight of pretty much every player of the game! See this shot

10 new screenshots have been released, click the thumbnails below to see the large versions. These have also been added to our new GTA IV PC screenshot gallery.


Related articles: Eurogamer and IGN previews

Developmag have got themselves a very rare interview with Rockstar Games President, Sam Houser. They cover the impact of GTA IV, the direction of the industry and Rockstar's internal ethics and beliefs. Here's a few interesting quotes:




Read the full interview at Developmag: Part 1, Part 2

Good news for readers in Japan still waiting to get their hands on Grand Theft Auto IV. A press release from Take2 today announced that the localized Japanese version of the game would be released on 30th October, 2008 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.

GTA4Mods.com recently managed to score an interview with Coolie Ranx, best known among GTA fans for playing the part of Little Jacob in Grand Theft Auto IV. There's a number of good questions that were asked, and some interesting answers from Ranx.

On how he got the part of Little Jacob:


Read the rest of the Q&A over at GTA4Mods.com

Thanks to Alan for the heads up.

Take 2 announced through a press release today that GTA IV will indeed be released on the PC, arriving on November 18th and 21st in North America and Europe, respectively.




Stay tuned to The GTA Place for the latest GTA IV news!

Link: T2 Press Release

Related note: Wondering whether or not your PC will be able to run GTA IV? We've now set up a dedicated topic for asking those sort of questions. Post there to get advice from our PC experts and find out if you need to upgrade.

Rockstar Games have today unveiled The Millionaires Club, a new addition to the Social Club. The club recognises all players who have earned over 1 million dollars in the game - not based on your current bank balance though, but by the total amount of money you have made since you first started playing, i.e. every mission you passed, all money you picked up off the ground, every race you won etc.

Once you've amassed a seven figure wealth, you'll be able to compare youself to all the other Millionaires out there. A total of three leaderboards show you who were the first to become millionaires, who did it the quickest, and who is the richest.

Let us know how you've found the Social Club to be and if you're in the club already. I for one have had not such a good experience. Despite 100%'ing the game weeks before the competition deadline (sometime back in early-mid May), my status still to this day has not updated itself, and claims I've only completed the game 90 percent. Hopefully you've all had better experiences than myself!

Link: Social Club

This news coming somewhat as a surprise to me, and I'm sure many others. But no this isn't April Fool's, Nintendo have indeed just announced GTA: Chinatown Wars for the DS at this years E3 event. It's expected to be released this winter. Once again we'll see a GTA game taking place in Liberty City, though this one of course (presumably) focusing just on the Chinatown district.

From the press release:


Let's hope it improves upon GTA Advance!

This news post is being updated with more info as it becomes known.

Links:
press release [via kotaku]
Official website

Yes, you did read that title correctly. Brotha, who probably doesn't need an introduction now, gained fame in the GTA community for his amazing recreations of GTA IV trailers using San Andreas. Well, he's been up to his old antics again, and this time has recreated the first teaser trailer for GTA IV in... GTA IV. Not as easy as you may think actually since it's quite difficult to get some of the angles used, and unfortunately he doesn't have a capture card and had to make do with a camera, nonetheless, Brotha did his best and has produced another excellent video, see it below.


Was the original teaser too long ago for you to remember? Fear not, here are some links to Brotha's previous works as well as one to the original teaser trailer for GTA IV.

Links:
Brotha's original post
GTA IV trailers (#1 at the bottom)
Brotha's remakes of trailer one, two and three

Out of the millions of people eligible for a refund of GTA San Andreas after the Hot Coffee scandal, less than 3000 people have come forward to collect their money.

After disabled, inaccessible sex scenes were found to be able to be reactivated by a third-party modification a couple of years ago, this resulted in public outrage, widespread condemnation and a handful of lawsuits being thrown at Rockstar's parent company Take Two. In 2007 they agreed to exchange any v1 copy of GTA San Andreas for a 'fixed' v2, or offer a refund of $35 if they have proof that they purchased v1.

Now months later, only 2,676 people have claimed their refund, in spite of millions of individuals having the right to a payout. Take Two were shocked at that result, and the plaintiffs' lawyer is "disappointed", and doesn't understand why people don't care. This has prompted people to claim that the case was blown out of proportion, and shouldn't have been brought to court at all.

So it turns out that people perhaps are more tolerant of sexual content after all, or realised the effort you had to go through to access the content. Perhaps the all that controversy, outrage and hysteria was just some lawyers trying to cash in on the most successful game franchise ever.

Source: NYTimes

Rockstar Games has released patches today for Grand Theft Auto IV for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game. These patches fix the issues they have identified for each system, specifically multiplayer connectivity issues including freezes during certain modes, continuation when players leave matches, and bugs within races and race lobbies.

1. Fixed an issue where players were unable to enter or exit vehicles in GTA Race.
2. Fixed an issue where scripted vehicles were causing games to unexpectedly crash.
3. Improved reliability and frequency of PS3™ online leaderboard updates.
4. Fixed a rare hang some players encountered when moving from a Race or GTA Race lobby into gameplay.
5. Fixed a hang that would occur when players were switching teams during the countdown in the lobby.
6. Fixed an issue where players were able to get ridiculously high scores from Cops 'n Crooks matches.
7. Changed GTA Race and Race so that the last player remaining always receives a reward of $250.
8. Fixed an issue where spectating players would prevent the game from finishing.
9. Fixed an issue where players were unable to spectate in Round 2 of Cops 'n Crooks games.
10. Changed countdown timer in lobby so that it no longer resets when new players join a game.
11. Changed the kick option so that kicked players are no longer brought back to single player.

You'll be prompted to download the patch next time you're signed into Xbox Live or the PSN and start up GTA IV.

Related Link: GTAIV Patches @ R* Social Club