Alistair

DeAtH, I agree, I think that's why he's in NYC. People, you've got to realise....this guy is probably the first realistic GTA guy we've had. First of all, Claude, looked like a mafia dude, but really, how many guys that look like that outside of movies have you seen banged up in jail? Tommy in Vice, again, a cool movie-style criminal, but not the sort in real life. And CJ, although he came from the right background, he was a total pussy. And now......scary looking russian guy, a bit ugly, dodgey haircut, scruffy clothes, smoke-charred voice.....it's fits the bill of big-time criminal perfectly. And the storyline seems a little more believable. And secondly, it's very appropriate that this guy is russian.....the biggest mafia in the world today is the russian mafia, in russia and eastern europe....they are seriously powerfull, and my god are they ever rich, they practically run russia. Basically, I'm very happy that we've got a realistic character....IF he is the main character. But to me, those two shots of cars look like him without the beard....and I'm guessing that rockstar have put hair-growth into the game, which means you have to get your character t shave, hence why he has no beard in the cars....nice touch rockstar!

MY god, I think I creamed in my pants watching that trailer! I did a terrible thing tho.....I was playing the guitar and completely forgot about it, only just seen it!!! That's just, so wrong, god! Well, anyway, at least I had no trouble accessing it........guys, seriously, it looks so awesome! I can't believe it's a russian dude, I put that as an option on a character poll if anyone remembers that, it seemed popular and I had no idea it would actually happen! And I am so glad it's back in NYC. I mean really, NYC is massive, absolutely huge, and if they cram all that in GTA, I'd be happy with that being the entire location....if they make it anywhere near life-size, it'll be epic. Well done Rockstar.....now give us another trailer! We're hungry! It's like waving a steak in front of a pack of hungry wolves!

Ha, kid, if you think you're smarter than other kids used to be then prove it with a degree or other respectable qualification. There is no logical reason for kids to be smarter than any past generation, only you have more than they used to and as a result you kids don't appreciate what you've got. I used to be the same as you, thinking i was way smarter, but as you start to turn adult, you'll understand respect, because you'll have responsibilities. And in my experience, there ain't no such thing as "intelligence", anybody can learn anything if they bother to actually sit down and read/work on it. But really, I think you two made good points about only the children from bad parents are going to be severly influenced by these games. And so why it baffles me that they don't teach parenting and the hard facts of what will happen if you don't make an effort in schools.

That isn't really what I think influences them, it's the idea of the bad role models (the gangsters) that I believe influences them.

The thing is, it's alright with the top-down GTAs, because let's face it, you can barely see what's going on and there wasn't exactly a storyline. But the 3D gtas are realistic, and GTAIV will be even more so. If I had kids, it'd be 16 they'd be able to play it, before then they can play racing games, strategy games, and wii. I do honestly think that especially the cutscenes creating a sense of ganghood mentality influences the younglings, yeah they may be alright, okay, you know your kid, but i see a lot of kids out there now that walk round in (for example) bandanas (i mean who the hell wears those these days) like the own the damn place, being intensely (sp?) arrogant and thinking they are tough (even tho they are a third the size of you). Really, I think a lack of time spent with kids (thanks to the ever increasing cost of living, meaning more work hours, no more housewifes, and the "can't be arsed attitude") makes it a lot easier for parents to sit their kids in front of the tv or playstation all day and not properly mother/father the child. So instead of the parent being the rolemodel, it will be whoever they are watching, be it a rap star, pop star, or god-forbid a gta character, because kids are a lot easier influenced due to their lack of knowledge and experience in life and understanding. This might sound like an authoritarian rant but honestly, we need to make sure our kids have the right role-models, hence why I am totally against letting young imprressionable kids play realistic computer games that put them in the life of someone you wouldn't want your kid to be....gta being the perfect answer. Also, how are you kids buying these games from stores? Do they just ignore the fact it's an 18 and let you get it anyway?

This is more of interest really, it concerns me the number of kids able to get their hands on games like these. I love GTA, and I'm over 18, and don't worry I would never suggest banning it or restricting it in some way. But I see a lot of kids influenced by the game and to be honest I'm in shock that parents would buy something like GTAIV for their kids. I think over the age of 16 it's okay to play the game, but not really any younger (bare in mind, I'm from the UK, and here it is legal to become a parent or go die in the army at the age of 16). So, please answer the poll truthfully, it will be interesting to see the results!

Actually, on the issue of silencers, I don't want all my guns to have silencers, sometimes its nice to ring off a few rounds from a desert eagle. But you should be able to buy a basic gun and upgrade it to your heart's content, and in the case of guns you take from the recently-deceased, they (may) already be upgraded to varying extents. ramkumar, what on earth do you mean "football stadium, etc..."??? what's the etc? a rugby stadium? cricket pitch? swimming pool? I don't consider a football stadium an addition of realism.

What do you think to if it was set say 100-200 years in the future, you know, like blade runner style with cyborgs and robots?

I'd be very surprised if they were free! Maybe tiny editions. But I think the most likely are paid for "upgrade packs" that add some missions, cars, weapons (maybe) to the game that you download.

Calm down kid. It's nothing to do with "yanks". I said I've lived in the UK for 20 years, and count how many times it's snowed this year. It's more than once. But my point is that it doesn't matter exactly how much it snows over here, if they set the game in london then they can have say it snows 10% of the time, rains 20, normal 40 and sunny 30, just to make the game a little more diverse, you know? I'm saying it doesn't have to be strictly realistic. Oh, and the reason americans and other "outsiders" believe it always rains here, is because in the past we used to have a lot more rain in the UK, so that was how it was known. But nowadays, in the past 5 or 10 years, and especially the past 3 years, the rain isn't falling much at all, the weather is a bit crazy, snowing randomly, sunny sweaty days in the middle of winter, we don't seem to have a strict weather pattern anymore, just loose seasons, so yes, you are right that the outside perception of our weather is wrong, simply because of outdated knowledge! It's not their fault really.

Ah don't worry, if you want that and it's set in london, you'll have exactly the same thing but you'll be a cockney in hackney!

venom, yep, cos I've only lived here for 20 years! GTA isn't about 100% realism, yes there's a lot of rain....but nowadays it rains a lot less than it used to, there's a hell of a lot of sun, and usually, there's a few good snows a winter. it's no different in chicago. but the point is, the game would snow more frequently than real life....all that needs to actually happen in the real world, is that it actually snows sometimes, and that is enough to justify making it a regular feature in the simulated season of the game. but anyway.. suppose we could have earthquakes, avalanches, etc! could be fun but probably a bit too difficult for the programmers...to show all that damage on the structures would just be too difficult! tho if they left out the damage and just had it as fun..... i think it'd only work if they used the havok 4 engine.

Well....err, nice to know someone else round here doesn't like the concept..thanks mackyle. ps3player, ogtam, hey, I know, it isn't fair, but business isn't about being fair it's about getting rich. but like player said, none of us know for sure!

OGTAM, you've got to remember that microsoft and sony are probably PAYING rockstar exclusivity rights for the game on both their consoles. Think about it, all those people with PCs that will be itching to play GTA IV, will HAVE to buy either the xbox or ps3. If PS3 had full exclusivity, then everybody would buy a PS3. microsoft know this, and of course they want their console to sell, therefore by paying a lot of money, subject to the condition that it has exactly the same content as that on the PS3, and in agreement with sony so that both parties are happy, the three collectively agree on a final release for both consoles, a fat financial package for rockstar, and everybody is happy.......except PC users, who have to fork out cash.. Furthermore....if users have to pay for each extra content "package", that means more money for sony, microsoft, AND of course for rockstar....they could end up charging triple or more than just one normal release of a game would cost....it's a very clever business innovation, but admitadly it does help the gaming world in that we have more stuff to play and it keeps games alive....it's sort of like an official modding community.

There are Irish gangs in America? As far as I know, being a Britain, the irish "mobs" at least, the "mobs" in northern ireland, are just a bunch of hooligan terrorists. I wouldn't like to play a game where I'm a terrorist (northern ireland separatists have been responsible for many bombings of civilians in england), I think a GTA based on that would be a very very very bad idea, it'd be like making a GTA in Iraq where you play an insurgent and have to mindlessly slaughter innocent men, women and children.....not that I'm saying gangs in america are good, but at least their purpose isn't to kill civilians...it's to make money and have power.

No, I think PS3 and xbox versions would be exactly the same, if they didn't put as much on the xbox then that wouldn't sell.......basically, if GTA IV was PS3 exclusive then the game would be a lot bigger, but because it HAS to be on xbox as well...then maybe they had to reduce the final release of the game just to keep xbox happy, and then release the same content on both consoles (making rockstar, microsoft and sony a lot richer than if it were just a full ps3 exclusive). in my opinion anyway, but obviously I'm just guessing.

Hahaha, we can have watermelon hail mods!

Well I know, that's why it was stated that the storyline would need to change significantly for each character type played.

no....there's no crime in london, is there? http://www.met.police.uk/crimefigures/

I just thought.....maybe cos the xbox is only dvd, GTA IV already fills the dvd, and they need the extra content to put everything they needed into the game, purely because the xbox can't store what the ps3 can? so it'd be the same base game on each console tho.

Tommy, and GTA 3 dude were the best. CJ was a bit too "nice" for a GTA character, I dunno, didn't seem the sort to be "rollin' on posse" and the like, not that I want the character to be a total twat, but tommy was probably the most realistic.

Well clearly speach recognition technology would need to improve a lot first!

Ha! james bond style!!! Ah, you only think catalina died, but by some miracle she probably survived (gta3 has a lot of those....remember that guy you had to kill, and then afterwards that freak in the toilet said you didn't kill him so you have to chase him down in his ambulance and run him down? Well, I'm pretty sure that when I killed him the first time I left his limbs sprawled across the road.....and we never actually saw catalina dead....so you never know! Unless Catalina's younger sister comes along.....

God I hope IV is in the UK so everybody that plays GTA won't think all british northerners are like that! That character was an idiot, he gets my vote for not being in the next game....and I doubt he would be, "paul" from vice city wasn't in SA.

I think.....maybe....only cos I had this idea going round in my head for a while....that he means you speak into a microphone, then in-built speach recognition translates it to the game, which basically acts as your method of interaction with the locals, whereby some insanely massive database of every possible conversation (or a lot of "i don't understand you" replies) is programmed with a response, so in effect it would be like having conversations with the people around. For example....whilst playing an RPG, when you start a dialogue you have a very limited choice of things to say...imagine if you could choose what you said, simply by speaking into a microphone, and the in-game characters and peds reacted and responded just as normal humans? ......... It's a great idea for an RPG gaming concept, in my opinion, but it wouldn't work in the primarily storyline-based GTA.