Chris

The following is an excerpt from Rockstar Games' latest Q&A on the Newswire: Some of you will probably be disappointed to hear that Rockstar are going to be quiet on the GTA V front for another few months. But it makes perfect sense. Rockstar will be using the time between now and the end of May to promote Max Payne 3. As soon as that's released Rockstar can dive straight back into GTA mode and feed our ferocious appetites. One more thing, with this information we can finally lay the tired old 2405 theory to bed. Hooray! As for the second question, Rockstar once again confirm that GTA V is set just in Los Santos, but will include "surrounding hills, countryside and beaches." A fairly popular theory at the moment is that Rockstar could release additional cities as DLC, although the feasibility of this is somewhat questionable, not least because of their size. There were no questions or comments on that aspect of it, so theories regarding this are still up in the air for now. If you've got any thoughts on the game feel free to discuss them with others in our forums.

Use JavaScript for what? The live search uses JavaScript but I'm not sure what else could make use of any?

The beginning of another month brings about the beginning of something new here at The GTA Place; the launch of our dedicated mobile website. If you've ever tried to browse The GTA Place on your phone or any other mobile device you'll have realised just how cumbersome and slow it was; large images, small links, and a hell of a lot of scrolling, not to mention data usage. With TGTAP's new mobile website you no longer have to worry about any of that. We've stripped away all the big images, removed unnecessary JavaScript, and tailored everything to fit perfectly on smaller screens, with no horizontal scrolling! In fact, pages on our mobile site could theoretically load up to 15 times quicker than the desktop site, this is especially good news for those of you who experience slower connections or who have limited data usage. We've seen a huge increase in mobile traffic over the last 3 months, and over 25,000 of you now browse the site from your mobile devices every month. We think a lot of you will be pleased about this development. The website has been tested on many different devices and smartphones including iPhones, Android phones, BlackBerrys, and Windows Phone. It's will even work on many old WAP-enabled "dumbphones". If you want to see it in action on your device, just head on over to m.thegtaplace.com. Or just go to the normal site, you'll be redirected automatically but we don't force this, you'll always have the option to go back to the full desktop website if you wish. If you spot any bugs or want to suggest any improvements we can make, let us know in the comments. If it's a bug you're reporting please let us know your device and browser so we can look into it in more detail. Link: TGTAP Mobile Site

Interesting business tactics. Won't work though, GTA IV won't play well at all on any integrated graphics cards.

Can I ask why you want to see stats like that Mr? Is there some big forum comparison going on or something?

Yeah Spaz hence me mentioning it, I'm looking forward to it a lot actually, just hoping they don't fuck it up. I'd like to think it's being made for the fans out of love for the franchise... but chances are it's all about the money so may end up sucking... who knows... we'll see.

Seeing as all of us use the Internet I'm pretty sure everyone's views will be exactly the same. That is, that the people who wrote these can go fuck themselves. And so can the corporations paying them to do this. The people who wrote these are all over 60 years old, did you know that? Think of it like your grandparents (or great grandparents if they are still alive) writing all the rules of the Internet - but with one caveat - they have no fucking clue how the Internet works. That is what this is. This is why there is so much opposition to it (at least with SOPA/PIPA), it just wouldn't work. American internet would be akin to North Korea's. But then it seems American laws would overrule every other country's. So even TGTAP could be taken offline if one of you posted, for example, a link to a YouTube video that contained a song you didn't own the copyright to. And I couldn't do anything about it. Despite me being a UK citizen, with my server located in the Netherlands. It's fucking retarded. The only people piracy hurts are those who are already substantially rich. They're just greedy cunts who want more and more money. There's a picture floating around with the faces of the owners or important people in these organisations and their net-worths. Seeing it just makes you want to pirate even more actually. It would kill all creativity. The American corporations behind these bills are just scared because they realise they are no longer needed in this day and age. They will have no way to make millions of dollars every year. This is what scares them so they want a way to control the people and keep the cash flowing in. As for ACTA... well if it actually got some press coverage maybe people would actually know wtf it is and protest against it too. Same with the Candian C-11 bill. No one's even heard of it it seems...

This has now been fixed. Thanks. Can you confirm it now works? (May need to clear cache)

Oh yeah you're right. I must have broken that somehow. Was working before so that's obviously something I've done while messing about. Will look into that and fix tomorrow. Yeah the search bar will go off the screen on almost every single browser. I think Safari 5 (the version with iOS5) is one of the only mobile browsers that properly supports fixed positioning. Still, it's not a major issue.

This has now been fixed. Refreshing the page if you still have it in your browser should show it properly now. This seems to be a bug in Safari. There's nothing I can do to fix this unless I disable zooming. I'll try and get more opinions on that but at the moment I'm not particularly keen on disabling features on people's phones. This has been fixed.

The latest issue of X360, the UK's bestselling independent Xbox 360 magazine went on sale this week, in it is an interesting industry reaction piece to Grand Theft Auto V. Since there's not all that much news about GTA V right now I thought I'd post about it and see if people agree with the opinions given by the experts, as well as the fans; a couple of quotes are from yours truly. The first talking point in the article unsurprisingly gives thought to the release date. Jesse Divnich, vice president of insights and analysis at EEDAR (a videogame research company) says it "could be May, could be October, but it is definitely coming in 2012". Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter, who hasn't been right about many things regarding GTA, believed the game would be released a week before E3 (end of May), although it's worth pointing out this article was written before we heard news of Max Payne 3's delay, which subsequently rendered a May release for GTA V extremely implausible. I was asked what I thought of an October 2012 release with GTA going head-to-head in sales against a new Call of Duty game, and if it could break the franchise's sales record: And on how a GTA game could be improved: Our friends at GTANet are also quoted on this: So the consensus among "experts" and fans alike seems to be that we're looking at an October 2012 release date. And that we think if GTA is going to improve it needs to move back towards its roots, to have more archaic humour, and plain and simple just be more fun - less of the realism. What are your thoughts? For anyone wanting to read the full 2-page article, I've stitched together 8 high-res screenshots of the digital format of the magazine from my iPad and produced a full image of it here: Medium Res @ 2000x1296 (2.53MB) | Full Res @ 3087x2000 (5.07MB) In closing, I'd just like to point out that I do have a life outside of GTA, despite what the article's editor implies

@Evo; Yeah I wasn't actually planning on optimising the downloads section for mobile since it's not like you can do anything with the mods you download. They require a PC. That said, I think it's just the header part that causes the stretching so I could either change that or remove it completely and the rest should be fine. Will look at it later. @NYH: Ah this is exactly why I wanted people with older iDevices to comment. There should be a dropdown on the search box, I haven't done anything that would prevent it showing on older devices. When I first tried it on my iPhone it wasn't appearing but now it always does. Can you try again but wait like 2 seconds after typing a few letters and see if it then appears. Start typing 'Che' as if you were gonna search for Cheats as that brings back loads of results. I think it's to do with how iOS handles autocorrect... as you're typing the word, it's not actually input into the text box until you either finish the word or cancel the correcting. I'll see if I can force a way to make it show but I'm not sure there's much I can do. But yeah let me know if you try it again. Will fix the view comments bug later that's easy, thanks for noticing that, I somehow missed it! Yes I noticed the rotation thing too. It's quite annoying. I can fix it by setting user-scalable=no but then users can't zoom in/out on ANY device and it's highly recommended NOT to do this as it breaks expected functionality of the browser for the user, so I don't want to do that. I'll try to find another way to make it auto fit on rotation.

I should probably point out it's intended specifically for phones and other small devices, rather than tablets. Tablets have big enough screens to handle the full website in most cases. If you could test it on your Galaxy 5 though that would be helpful, thanks

Device: iPhone 4 OS Version: 5.0.1 Browser (and version, if known): Mobile Safari 5 Notes: Everything is fine!

If you've ever tried to visit the TGTAP homepage on your mobile phone you will have noticed it's huge and it probably took quite some time to load fully. Well, good news is I've been working on an extremely optimised, lightweight layout for mobile devices. It's now at the stage where there's not much left to add, and testing needs to be done. I have an iPhone 4 and an older Android 2.3 device which I can test it on, but there are thousands more devices out there that I don't have access to. So I'd like you guys to help test it, whatever device you have, as long as it has internet access and a web browser. All you need to do is head over to m.thegtaplace.com on your device and just browse the site a bit, use the search, check it works as you would expect it to, and then post here and let me know if it's fine or if there were some issues. For reference, here's a screenshot of what the website should look something like, taken from my iPhone: It would be totally awesome if you could provide as much detail as possible, if you could post here using a template like this one: [b]Device:[/b] [b]OS Version:[/b] [b]Browser (and version, if known):[/b] [b]Notes:[/b] Some things you can test: Search - if you start typing a few letters does the dropdown appear with results like it does on the main website? Also, does the search bar stay at the top as you scroll down the page? Or, does it go off the screen? [*]Rotating - if your device supports it, does the site work fine in both portrait and landscape orientations? [*]Scrolling - You should only be able to scroll up and down. Can you scroll left and right? If so, this is a bug, please tell me about this if it happens. [*]Please Note: The forums already have a built in mobile skin. There is no need to test this part of the site as it is not made by me. *iPhone/iPod touch users: I have an iPhone with iOS5 on it, but if you have an older device and older OS it would be nice to hear from you. I think it should be fine but better be sure! Also if you're not using Mobile Safari and are instead using a browser from the App Store such as Skyfire, Opera, Mercury, or iCab etc. please post here as I can't test all of these, except Opera. *Android users: Please be specific when posting here. There are a ton of device, OS version and browser combinations out there. The default Android browser on Android 2.1 and above is my priority, however I'm also keen to have it working as decent as possible on Firefox Mobile, Opera Mobile, Opera mini, Skyfire, Dolphin etc. *Everyone else: Chances are your default browser will be fine. If you have the option, Opera Mobile or Opera Mini would probably be your best option. Ok I think that's all. Thanks a lot in advance to anyone who posts back here, I'll try to reply to everyone who experiences any issues and get them fixed ASAP. Aiming to launch the site next week if possible!

They won't be able to do that because they have no way of knowing which PS2 games you own.

Spielberg. But Spielberg's got 50 directing credits to his name while Cameron only has 20. Also, Spielberg's been pretty shit over the last few years for me. His last good film was Munich (2005). He seems to mainly produce these days. As for Cameron, the Terminator franchise is my favourite thing he's done, as well as Aliens. Avatar was pretty awesome too, but aside from these I can't say I'm really a fan of much of his other stuff - so yeah I vote Spielberg. Bring on Jurassic Park IV!

Rockstar have updated the Android version of Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition today. Version 1.3 features added support for the Asus Transformer Prime and Medion LifeTab tablet devices, plus other updates including: To update your game just head over to the Android Market on the web or on your device where you'll be prompted to download the latest version. Rockstar have stated that an update for the iOS version is currently being worked on, more information will be coming forth on that soon.

The MTASA team have just released the latest update to their multiplayer mod for San Andreas. Version 1.3, which has been in the RC stage for the last 2 weeks, has now become stable and brings the following improvements and fixes with it: We've added a mirror of the download here on TGTAP. Relevant links below: Download MTASA 1.3 - Announcement Topic - Official site

The ESRB website has recently been updated to include two new entries for GTA games on the PlayStation 3, one for Grand Theft Auto 3, the other for Vice City. The publisher in both cases is listed as Sony Computer Entertainment America, which suggests both titles will be appearing as PS2 classics. This unfortunately means they're unlikely to be on the receiving end of any HD treatment, but still, they'll be nice to have in your collection. You can see the ESRB searches for GTA3 and Vice City showing the entries. I've included a couple of screenshots below in case it's removed for some reason: There's no official word from Rockstar on this, so we don't know of any release dates or pricing information. We're also not sure why San Andreas has curiously been left out, and/or if it may appear at a later date. On a slightly related note, this year will be Vice City's 10th anniversary. If Rockstar are planning similar things to what they've been doing for GTA3, it wouldn't surprise me at all if we see Vice City appearing on iOS and Android later this year either. Thanks to R* Network for the heads up.

When I get drunk I can type fine too, in fact sometimes I purposely start spelling shit wrong so people realise I am in fact drunk and should be treated as such.

MP3 and GTAV have separate development teams so it's not a shift of focus in that sense since they wouldn't conflict all that much, except when it comes to marketing. The MP3 delay is likely because they've found a couple of issues which require a little more development time and testing to fix. My guess is multiplayer related stuff.

Oh yes I'd certainly expect to see a new trailer before this time. Not sure what marketing will decide to do but I'm sure some cross-promotion wouldn't hurt.

Rockstar Games today announced that Max Payne 3 will be delayed by a couple of months, to ensure it will deliver "the highest quality, groundbreaking entertainment experience" that we expect. Originally slated for a March 2012 release, the new dates for the PS3 and Xbox 360 are 15th May, 2012 in North America and 18th May, 2012 internationally. The PC version will come 2 weeks later on 29th May, 2012 in North America and 1st June, 2012 internationally. Now the question on GTA V fans' minds is will this delay affect the release of GTA V? It's worth pointing out here that GTA V currently has no official release date, so any delay won't really be seen by us in terms of specific dates. Based on Rockstar's recent trend of delivering blockbuster titles in time for the summer period, as well as the "2405 theory", many fans believed a Summer 2012 release was on the cards, in fact, many insist that the game must be released on the 24th May 2012 due to the aforementioned theory. From a sales point of view it would be extremely unwise for a company to release two huge games around the same time, as this pits the two against each other and thus reduces sales of each, since most people for a variety of reasons don't buy multiple games at once, instead opting for one or the other. So with Max Payne 3 taking up this spot, is an October 2012 date looking more likely for GTA V? Personally, I think so. My prediction right from the start was an October 2012 release, and based on this news today I think it's looking even more possible. Especially bearing in mind that we haven't even seen a second (or third etc.) trailer for the game yet. That said, The Scotsman recently reported that Rockstar North were looking for games testers, hinting that the game was nearing completion and ready for the painstakingly laborious testing stage of development. The position has since been removed from Rockstar's Jobs site, however there are a number of others still open for applications. In conclusion, none of us can say with any real certainty when the game will be released, but we think it's safe to say the May 2012 release many of you were hoping for is looking impossible unlikely now. So can we turn our hope to October 2012? Or do you think it will be even later than that, perhaps May 2013? Let us know the comments!

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