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Raider1one · 04-08-2008, 08:37 PM

from ign.com

If Grand Theft Auto IV is anything like the previous iterations, it will offer a robust single-player experience, the kind that can last several hundred hours. That always worked well in the past, but Rockstar decided that wasn't enough this time around and added a sizable multiplayer component. Here's the challenge for Rockstar: create a multiplayer experience good enough to convince players to leave the single-player campaign for a little while. That's a tall task. After spending a day checking out four of the MP modes, we're pretty certain Rockstar's succeeded.

Multiplayer is accessed from the single-player game via Niko's cell phone and supports up to 16 players. Oh, and the entire world runs at the same time. That's right -- all the pedestrians, traffic and cops are there. The entire city is open to you and your fifteen friends in apparently every mode.

And that's what it feels like to have your mind blown.

You won't play the story mode in multiplayer. In fact, no one gets to be Niko online. Instead, you'll create a custom character (dude or babe) from about a half-dozen options. While the options we were shown were fairly limited, new clothes and accessories unlock as you rank up. Ranks run from 0-10, with experience earned by collecting cash in multiplayer. Cash is dropped by opponents and can be nabbed by anyone and is also automatically earned for performing certain tasks in the various modes. We didn't get to experience the leveling system, but it appears fairly simple. It's meant to reward you for playing a lot of multiplayer, but leveling up your character isn't the focus as it tends to be in Call of Duty 4 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

Riding tandem on a bike is a whole lot of fun.

We weren't given a view of the lobby system, but from Rockstar's hints, it sounds like you will just run around going Bananarama in Liberty City until someone launches a game. The good news is that when a game is set up, the host has a myriad of options depending on the mode. This is everything from turning on cops (yes, you can have a wanted level in multiplayer), adjusting the density of traffic, selecting from several weather options (fog and heavy rain being the coolest), time of day, and even what radio station is playing. We counted sixteen options for one mode and the others had similar amounts.

Playing with eight people, we only had one instance of slowdown. And that was when all of us were firing RPGs into a crowd of cops. At that point, the game just sort of threw up it hands and said, "Come on, seriously?" Except for this brief moment of slowdown, our hours enjoying GTA IV online were without incident. And, more importantly, the controls never suffered. You may notice a slight drop in visual fidelity (or perhaps we're nuts), but GTA IV still looks great in multiplayer. The city is as alive and vibrant as in the single-player campaign -- and it's a lot more hectic. That so much can be happening at once without the game breaking in half is an amazing feat. The fact that it's also incredibly fun is just a bonus.

Before we break down each of the four modes played (Team Deathmatch, GTA Race, Cops N Crooks and Hangman's NOOSE), there is one significant gameplay change from single-player mode. When playing MP, your names shows above your head along with a colored dot. However, if you crouch, your name disappears, making you tougher to spot. And if you use cover, both your name and dot disappear. It may sound insignificant, but both bring an unexpected pacing to GTA multiplayer by rewarding you for being strategic in your combat.

Aside from this, the gameplay is basically the same as in single-player. There is no dumbing down of the game. So you will be able to take cover, jack cars, climb up buildings, swim, run over pedestrians and toss Molotov cocktails out the window of your car, just as you can with Niko in the main campaign. No, you won't have a main story component, but if you've trained in single-player, you should be able to do well in multiplayer. Unless you're playing against people at Rockstar. Damn you to hell, Hove Beachin!

Team Deathmatch
Hil's Take: I went into GTA IV believing that the multiplayer would be like a third-person version of Quake -- twitch gameplay, lots of deaths, and just a touch of shallowness to the whole deal. I was wrong. The cover system makes a big difference.

Most folks died three or four times in a 10 minute match. On Happiness Island (Rockstar's version of Liberty Island), the team that can claim ground at the mighty statue's base has a severe advantage. They can place a few snipers along the wall and two people can guard the stairwell that acts as the lone entry point. If the other team is full of fools, they'll run out in the open and lose quickly. Otherwise, they will dash along the surrounding buildings from cover to cover or approach through some heavy bushes. Find the right weapons (and some body armor) and you can make an devastating charge to claim the base of the statue.

In open areas, things do get a bit more hectic. Especially when vehicles get in the mix. My favorite is holding tight to Davey Clay on the back of a motorcycle. You get a clear view of all enemies and you're free to fire while your partner drives. Headshotting a would-be assassin while popping a wheelie: priceless.

As with many of the other modes, there are a lot of options to suit your personal tastes. This includes altering the weapon layout. A game of shotty? Done. All heavy weapons? Bingo. Rockets only? Hell yes. You really can never go wrong with rocket launchers. Especially since you can blindfire with an RPG. Blindfiring an RPG into someone's face as he turns the corner is what professionals call, "givin' him da bid'ness." I quickly discovered that I'm not impervious to my own rocket fire. However, with friendly fire off, I take no damage if an ally shoots a rocket at my feet to launch me in the air and onto a roof. Call it co-op rocket jumps. The only caution is that no one is immune to gravity. Jump over a building (instead of onto it) and the landing could kill you. If only Rockstar would add a bit of aftertouch control so you could guide yourself in the air, then all would be good in the kingdom of Heaven.

Winning Team Deathmatch isn't a matter of scoring the most kills (though that helps). In true GTA fashion, it's about coming away with the most cash. Much of that does come from killing people, but picking up bonus cash left by the dead makes the difference.

Here's a tip: Cars can run over people.

Dave's Take: Team Deathmatch in Liberty City requires more strategy than you think. Ducking and taking cover are a huge part of combat because of their tie to a player's visibility. Every deathmatch map has a main point of contention and if you can sneak to a cover point with a view of that area you'll rack up the kills. But since the game is about collecting cash drops, headshots campers are encouraged to leave their post and grab the loot.

The rules we set for deathmatch were rather tame considering the options available. We duked it out on Happiness Island under the Statue of Liberty and there weren't any vehicles or police to get in the way.

I imagine there will be two groups of deathmatch fans, gamers who play to demonstrate their skill and gamers that get their rocks off blind firing a rocket launcher from a bus. We tried both and though it was difficult to stay alive for more than five seconds there just isn't any denying the fun of an all rockets skirmish.

Cops N Crooks
Hil's Take: They say to save the best for last, but I've always thought that was a dumb suggestion. Rather than make you wait, let's chat about the best mode played when we visited Rockstar. Cops N Crooks puts players on two very different teams. One team spawns as crooks, with one of its members randomly selected to be the crime boss (or VIP). The other team spawns as cops in squad cars. The crooks need to help the boss get to a randomly selected escape points so he can flee the city. Most of these are along the water for a boat escape, though some have you extricated from a roof via helicopter. The cops win by either killing the boss or destroying the escape vehicle.

There are a few twists that make this the most interesting version of VIP I've ever played. The cops can see the crooks on their radar (with the boss getting a unique icon), but they don't know where the escape vehicle is located. Remember, all of Liberty City is open, so it's not going to be easy to immediately guess where the crooks might be headed. While the cops spawn in cars, the crooks start on foot and must find transportation. This gives the cops an early advantage, unless TeamXbox's Andy Eddy is driving. Even my grandmother can escape a pursuing Officer Eddy.

04-08-2008, 08:37 PM	#51 (permalink)
Raider1one Banned Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: WEST COAST Posts: 418 vCash: 2702 Donate Rep Power: 0	Re: Grand Theft Auto 4-GTA IV-Maps, Previews, Reviews, Videos, Screenshots, and Cheats from ign.com If Grand Theft Auto IV is anything like the previous iterations, it will offer a robust single-player experience, the kind that can last several hundred hours. That always worked well in the past, but Rockstar decided that wasn't enough this time around and added a sizable multiplayer component. Here's the challenge for Rockstar: create a multiplayer experience good enough to convince players to leave the single-player campaign for a little while. That's a tall task. After spending a day checking out four of the MP modes, we're pretty certain Rockstar's succeeded. Multiplayer is accessed from the single-player game via Niko's cell phone and supports up to 16 players. Oh, and the entire world runs at the same time. That's right -- all the pedestrians, traffic and cops are there. The entire city is open to you and your fifteen friends in apparently every mode. And that's what it feels like to have your mind blown. You won't play the story mode in multiplayer. In fact, no one gets to be Niko online. Instead, you'll create a custom character (dude or babe) from about a half-dozen options. While the options we were shown were fairly limited, new clothes and accessories unlock as you rank up. Ranks run from 0-10, with experience earned by collecting cash in multiplayer. Cash is dropped by opponents and can be nabbed by anyone and is also automatically earned for performing certain tasks in the various modes. We didn't get to experience the leveling system, but it appears fairly simple. It's meant to reward you for playing a lot of multiplayer, but leveling up your character isn't the focus as it tends to be in Call of Duty 4 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Riding tandem on a bike is a whole lot of fun. We weren't given a view of the lobby system, but from Rockstar's hints, it sounds like you will just run around going Bananarama in Liberty City until someone launches a game. The good news is that when a game is set up, the host has a myriad of options depending on the mode. This is everything from turning on cops (yes, you can have a wanted level in multiplayer), adjusting the density of traffic, selecting from several weather options (fog and heavy rain being the coolest), time of day, and even what radio station is playing. We counted sixteen options for one mode and the others had similar amounts. Playing with eight people, we only had one instance of slowdown. And that was when all of us were firing RPGs into a crowd of cops. At that point, the game just sort of threw up it hands and said, "Come on, seriously?" Except for this brief moment of slowdown, our hours enjoying GTA IV online were without incident. And, more importantly, the controls never suffered. You may notice a slight drop in visual fidelity (or perhaps we're nuts), but GTA IV still looks great in multiplayer. The city is as alive and vibrant as in the single-player campaign -- and it's a lot more hectic. That so much can be happening at once without the game breaking in half is an amazing feat. The fact that it's also incredibly fun is just a bonus. Before we break down each of the four modes played (Team Deathmatch, GTA Race, Cops N Crooks and Hangman's NOOSE), there is one significant gameplay change from single-player mode. When playing MP, your names shows above your head along with a colored dot. However, if you crouch, your name disappears, making you tougher to spot. And if you use cover, both your name and dot disappear. It may sound insignificant, but both bring an unexpected pacing to GTA multiplayer by rewarding you for being strategic in your combat. Aside from this, the gameplay is basically the same as in single-player. There is no dumbing down of the game. So you will be able to take cover, jack cars, climb up buildings, swim, run over pedestrians and toss Molotov cocktails out the window of your car, just as you can with Niko in the main campaign. No, you won't have a main story component, but if you've trained in single-player, you should be able to do well in multiplayer. Unless you're playing against people at Rockstar. Damn you to hell, Hove Beachin! Team Deathmatch Hil's Take: I went into GTA IV believing that the multiplayer would be like a third-person version of Quake -- twitch gameplay, lots of deaths, and just a touch of shallowness to the whole deal. I was wrong. The cover system makes a big difference. Most folks died three or four times in a 10 minute match. On Happiness Island (Rockstar's version of Liberty Island), the team that can claim ground at the mighty statue's base has a severe advantage. They can place a few snipers along the wall and two people can guard the stairwell that acts as the lone entry point. If the other team is full of fools, they'll run out in the open and lose quickly. Otherwise, they will dash along the surrounding buildings from cover to cover or approach through some heavy bushes. Find the right weapons (and some body armor) and you can make an devastating charge to claim the base of the statue. In open areas, things do get a bit more hectic. Especially when vehicles get in the mix. My favorite is holding tight to Davey Clay on the back of a motorcycle. You get a clear view of all enemies and you're free to fire while your partner drives. Headshotting a would-be assassin while popping a wheelie: priceless. As with many of the other modes, there are a lot of options to suit your personal tastes. This includes altering the weapon layout. A game of shotty? Done. All heavy weapons? Bingo. Rockets only? Hell yes. You really can never go wrong with rocket launchers. Especially since you can blindfire with an RPG. Blindfiring an RPG into someone's face as he turns the corner is what professionals call, "givin' him da bid'ness." I quickly discovered that I'm not impervious to my own rocket fire. However, with friendly fire off, I take no damage if an ally shoots a rocket at my feet to launch me in the air and onto a roof. Call it co-op rocket jumps. The only caution is that no one is immune to gravity. Jump over a building (instead of onto it) and the landing could kill you. If only Rockstar would add a bit of aftertouch control so you could guide yourself in the air, then all would be good in the kingdom of Heaven. Winning Team Deathmatch isn't a matter of scoring the most kills (though that helps). In true GTA fashion, it's about coming away with the most cash. Much of that does come from killing people, but picking up bonus cash left by the dead makes the difference. Here's a tip: Cars can run over people. Dave's Take: Team Deathmatch in Liberty City requires more strategy than you think. Ducking and taking cover are a huge part of combat because of their tie to a player's visibility. Every deathmatch map has a main point of contention and if you can sneak to a cover point with a view of that area you'll rack up the kills. But since the game is about collecting cash drops, headshots campers are encouraged to leave their post and grab the loot. The rules we set for deathmatch were rather tame considering the options available. We duked it out on Happiness Island under the Statue of Liberty and there weren't any vehicles or police to get in the way. I imagine there will be two groups of deathmatch fans, gamers who play to demonstrate their skill and gamers that get their rocks off blind firing a rocket launcher from a bus. We tried both and though it was difficult to stay alive for more than five seconds there just isn't any denying the fun of an all rockets skirmish. Cops N Crooks Hil's Take: They say to save the best for last, but I've always thought that was a dumb suggestion. Rather than make you wait, let's chat about the best mode played when we visited Rockstar. Cops N Crooks puts players on two very different teams. One team spawns as crooks, with one of its members randomly selected to be the crime boss (or VIP). The other team spawns as cops in squad cars. The crooks need to help the boss get to a randomly selected escape points so he can flee the city. Most of these are along the water for a boat escape, though some have you extricated from a roof via helicopter. The cops win by either killing the boss or destroying the escape vehicle. There are a few twists that make this the most interesting version of VIP I've ever played. The cops can see the crooks on their radar (with the boss getting a unique icon), but they don't know where the escape vehicle is located. Remember, all of Liberty City is open, so it's not going to be easy to immediately guess where the crooks might be headed. While the cops spawn in cars, the crooks start on foot and must find transportation. This gives the cops an early advantage, unless TeamXbox's Andy Eddy is driving. Even my grandmother can escape a pursuing Officer Eddy.