Kikizo's GTA IV Preview

[Chris]

Lesser known gaming website Kikizo has come up with an incredibly detailed preview of GTA IV which they published recently, seems like we completely missed it. Like all the other previews we've seen recently in magazines and on the Internet, Kikizo received the same demo, however they picked up on a lot more of the intricate details that we missed out on. I've highlighted a few points of interest from the article below, some we may have covered already, but perhaps not in so much certainty or with clarification from Rockstar.

• According to Rockstar, the AI, physics, character models, textures, pedestrian dialogue and music are all still in development and placeholder to some extent - but "it all looked pretty damn smart". One pedestrian quote Kikizo picked up on was "Do you know in Italy they get three hours for lunch?!"
  
• Clarification on the size of Liberty City is brought up, Rockstar's Hamish Brown told Kikizo: "On the one hand you've got horizon views, on the other you've got many layers of a city built upwards towards the sky. It's definitely the biggest single city we've ever done. That city isn't going to be the size of San Andreas, because that would be absurd, but if you take into account the level of verticality of the city, the number of buildings you can go into, and the level of detail in those buildings, then you're talking about a game that is similar to San Andreas in terms of scope."
  
• Some people have claimed that the game will take 100 hours to complete, Rockstar also commented on this saying "We honestly don't actually know at the moment, how many missions and how long it's going to take to complete the game, but there's an awfully large number of things to do - probably more than ever before - we can safely say that."
  
• While Niko was driving a car, Kikizo noted that "A great piece of funky jazz music (Fela Kuti - Sorrow Tears & Blood) played on the bassy car stereo" which really added to the vibe.
  
• Whether or not this will end up in the final game is not known, Rockstar aren't able to confirm what licensed and unlicensed music there will be, only that it will span decades and cover numerous genres.
  

You may have read on a number of gaming websites over the past week or so, news that a financial analyst has suggested that Rockstar should delay the release of Grand Theft Auto IV by up to two weeks so that it is not so close to the release of Microsoft's Halo 3 (due for release in late September). According to this Kikizo article, they contacted Rockstar for comment who then contradicted the by confirming that GTA IV is indeed on schedule for release in late October - you can now breathe a sigh of relief.

I would definitely suggest you read the Kikizo preview in full as it is very detailed and exactly what the hardcore fans like yourselves want to read.

Thanks to J.Combs for sending this in.

[tilly]

This isnt really new news. Its the same as all the others.

[Harwood Butcher]

The quote they got from the pedestrian "Do you know in Italy they get three hours for lunch?!" might be hinting at Italy as being a setting for a future GTA game...Italy would be a pretty good location and for some reason...it never really crossed my mind.

If this Liberty City is either as big as the old model or bigger...I'll be happy.

I'm hoping there's a Heavy Metal radio station.

I don't know why they'd think of releasing it two weeks later because of Halo 3...it's supposed to be released on September 25th...my birthday.

Anyways, some good info here. I'm gonna read the rest of it right now.

[Urbanoutlaw]

Chris, do you have an official release date, I've seen Oct 16 in several places.

[Adriaan]

*comment removed after news article was edited*

Edited June 5, 2007 by Adriaan

[Gycu]

These is not really new info about GTA 4

I knew about them since last week

I tought I had a Deja-Vu but I already knew about this info

[Chris]

I don't know why you're all complaining that none of this is new. I know it's not majorly important details, it's more of a clarification post than anything else. I didn't even know about this article until yesterday after receiving an email about it. After reading it had the following things:

A song name confirmed, clarification on size of LC, clarification on length of game, a ped quote, as well as other comments from R*, I thought it may be useful to post it. Because before I posted this, some of those things were still debatable, for example the size of Liberty City - there's even a topic in the GTA IV forum about the 100 hour completion time so obviously now that it's been debunked you're all slightly wiser, no?

I don't know about you lot but when reading this I thought Kikizo put a lot more detail into their article than in other previews we've seen.

In addition to this, the fact they also posted a separate article (just yesterday) with confirmation from R* that GTA IV won't be delayed because of Halo 3, I thought I would bundle it with the above to make the news post worthwhile. Yeah we're a little late, but so what, how many other GTA sites can you honestly say have coverage that competes with us, I can think of 2 that definitely do, maybe 3 at the most. I won't name names but some certain GTA sites are really slacking nowadays when they used to be pretty good...

@Urbanoutlaw: Yes of course it's October 16th, you been living under a rock or something?

[surrealistic ArtSweet]

well, at least it's a clarification, but i thought it would be something else when i saw the latest news.

and they really should consider about delaying it, because halo 3 is one big game!

i couldn't play two great games at the same time, it would make the GTA IV or halo 3 entitled: not so great

lets face it guys, it would ruin the GTA IV preview if the gamers are playing HALO 3 at the time

there could be a war of fans

Edited June 5, 2007 by ArtSweet

[Red_91]

What the..? all news is good news, keep up the good work Chris.

I am quite happy R* aint taking any crap from Halo, becase GTA is better imo

[Urbanoutlaw]

Hey Chris, whad'dup. Not under a rock, just last time I offered up anything on GTA4, I accidentally started Demogate.

If EGM publishes in UK, the issue I picked up today (JULY 07) might interest you, 8 pages of comparing LY to NYC.

Don't forget to take a break & eat.

[Urban Legend]

Thanks for the news, dude.

[Urbanoutlaw]

Just picked up July '07 issue of OXM. Has short article GTA 4, mostly rehash of what we already know - level of detail, distinctiveness of peds - stuff like that, page 22. One new bit, R* confirmed Niko can swim.

Surf's up.