Grand Theft Auto 4-GTA IV-Maps, Previews, Reviews, Videos, Screenshots, and Cheats

[Raider1one]

from gtagaming.com

Retailers warn of GTA IV shortages
Grand Theft Auto IV The games industry seems to be stronger than ever in the United Kingdom at the moment. Titles like Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit are seeing unprecedented demand and are selling out weeks before they hit shelves. The same fate now appears to be affecting Grand Theft Auto IV.

Some of the country's biggest retailers are now reporting that they will not be able to fulfill any more pre-orders of the standard edition of the game until some time after April 29, with others simply refusing to accept any more requests. The country's biggest games retailer, GAME claims that "We cannot guarantee delivery on the day of release for orders placed on or after the 7th of April". The same problem can be found on the websites of other chains which the company owns, Gamestation and Gameplay.

Online-only retailers are also facing shortages. Jersey based Play.com informs customers that "We are currently sold out on this item." for the PS3 standard edition, and Shopto.net ceased accepting orders some time ago. Those who have not placed their order yet may find themselves forced into buying the £69.99/$89.99 Special Edition. Amazon.com and other online retailers are also having a problem keeping up with the demand.

[Raider1one]

[Raider1one]

GTA 4 Multiplayer Interview pt1:

With hype surrounding the imminent release of Grand Theft Auto IV reaching boiling point, it was expected that Rockstar would crank expectations up another notch by showing off the game's highly anticipated multiplayer modes. Here IGN UK's resident GTA nuts Alex and Martin discuss how the online modes are shaping up and discover if they're as revolutionary as the single-player game promises to be.

Alex: GTA Multiplayer then. Is it everything you expected?

Martin: It was hard to know what to expect. Multiplayer in the GTA series has to date - on home consoles at least - been pretty tentative. It did as expected, and then some. What did you imagine you were going to see?

Alex: Being the cynical person I am, I expected it to be nothing more than a handful of tacked-on deathmatches but I was really surprised. Of course, the deathmatch stuff is in there - plus a whole lot more - but it felt like a natural extension of the game rather than an added bonus.

Martin: It would have been so easy to have just had deathmatch, but of course that's not Rockstar's way - or GTA IV's for that matter. My first shock was how good it looked.

Alex: Yeah, the game's definitely been polished since we last saw it, and that was with eight players blowing the crap out of each other and the people in the city going about their business.

Martin: It was on an unprecedented scale. If anything that may be its only downfall - the sheer size of the maps mean it might be easy to get lost or waylaid. But it all ran with such pep. It's a marvel that they managed to get it all in.

Alex: The maps were big - it looked like they stretched across areas within boroughs - but I never felt like I was out of the action. The respawn was clever enough to drop you on the edge of the firefight but gave you enough time to duck into cover before everything kicked off.

Martin: Yeah, the respawn was pretty nifty. It's good that the respawn points were dictated by players, so you can choose to get straight back in the action or hold off and tool up before getting messy.




Alex: Exactly. Plus, I actually quite liked going off piste and trying to attack from the side, or climbing up a fire escape to rain death from above.

Martin: Yeah, the amount of options available to players with the scale on offer should open up some interesting tactics. There are so many options and so many different ways to play.

Alex: I'm pleased the radar has been kept for multiplayer because, without it, it would've been tricky to find out where the battle was. Instead you can find your teammates easily and have a good idea of the direction of your enemy, without it being so accurate that you know exactly where someone is hiding.

Martin: It's optional, which is nice. It's definitely necessary at the beginning when you're getting to know the ropes, but it'll be cool to have a shotgun-only deathmatch with the radar markings off. That'll be a blast. It'll be interesting to see how long people will play with the markers on, before going solo and being a little more devious.

Alex: Yeah, totally. After a few weeks I imagine they'll be some sweet players who know the maps inside out - all the great hiding places, the sniping sweetspots and the location of the decent weapons and medipacks.

Martin: The geeks like us you mean.

Alex: Yep! I liked the fact that the matches were based on loot as opposed to kills, so you had to go round grabbing the cash from the dead bodies to win. Players had to made quick decisions in the middle of a battle – do you run out into the middle of a firefight to grab a quick buck, or cut out the risk of being shot and let someone else pick it up…

Martin: It brings the whole risk / reward element to the fore, and counteracts cheap sniping tactics. It's something that's necessary when playing on such large maps.

Alex: If you're playing a team deatchmatch you could have one guy stay up on the roof with a sniper rifle, taking out guys from afar, then another guy with an SMG mopping up the bucks on the floor, leaving the rest of the team to shoot at everything that moves. On that note, all the weapons I tried felt really nice, even the pistol. I like the fact you can take down a machinegunned-up bad guy if you're careful enough to adjust your aim for a headshot.

Martin: I know - because you kept on doing it to me. It's a multiplayer game where communication is going to be essential, maybe even more so than something like Team Fortress 2.




Alex: I agree. I think it's really going to surprise people.

Martin: Oh definitely. Do you think it could be a serious challenger to COD 4 or Halo 3 though?

Alex: It's hard to say. It definitely has a lot of potential. I think there's so much on offer - so many different options and maps and weapon set-ups to wade through - it'll take a while for players to find the combination they like best, but I think the online game will certainly run and run. I mean, deathmatch and team deathmatch is one thing, but having the option to throw the police into the mix, Wanted ratings coming into play - genius.

Martin: It scares me to think of the mayhem of having the police involved. It's going to be chaos! What I liked about it is that it's a much more social multiplayer game than its peers - I don't know if that will go for it or against it, but I like it.

Alex: It totally is chaotic, in the team matches anyway. But there were plenty of solo multiplayer options in there, like the Mafia mission we did.

Martin: That was confusing at first, but it soon came into its own. It's close to what everyone fantasised about in a multiplayer GTA, with a whole city teeming with competing players, each trying to complete the same mission.

Alex: Totally. What I liked about it was the way it incorporated single-player elements into the multiplayer, so you had missions – which appeared on your mobile - to complete before the other team. We also got to properly check out the cars, which was great. Multiplayer drive-bys - it was like modern-day jousting!

Martin: That's exactly what it was like. But the horses had your friends strapped to the side and one was packing an SMGs!

[Raider1one]

Multiplayer Interview pt 2:
from ign.com

Alex: Nothing was more satisfying than hitting a fully-loaded car with a rocket launcher though. Four kills with one shot. Taking out a tyre or killing the driver was really satisfying too. The range of cars available was great, from sports coupes like the Banshee to motorbikes such as the Sanchez.

Martin: I was too busy marvelling at the explosions to get many kills with the rocket launcher - that was sheer bedlam. The content doesn't seem to have been compromised at all. It's all in there, from the vehicles to the weapons.

Alex: I tried riding pillion into battle. Didn't last long though - the guy riding the bike was shot and I was catapulted off the back!

Martin: That's one of my favourite parts - saddling up with a friend or four, then going into battle.

Alex: I think it encourages people to form gangs. We should get an IGN UK crack squad together and rule the streets. I'm not driving though - I like shooting through the window too much!

Martin: I'm behind the wheel, you can take shotgun, Justin can shout obscenities from the rear seat and Matt can just admire the view.




Alex: Did you drive much? Because it felt exactly the same as it does in the single-player, with different cars handling in different ways. And it was a nice touch that the GPS was still in there, so in the Mafia missions you could highlight the waypoints when they appeared to calculate the best route there.

Martin: I spent a lot of time behind the wheel and it's exactly the same as in single-player. That GPS is a godsend as well, amid the insanity of the Mafia missions.

Alex: The team Mafia missions were insane. One of our guys was bombing it round on a dirt bike, completing missions like crazy, while I and another guy cruised the streets looking for you lot, to cut you off at the pass with a rocket launcher up your exhaust pipe.

Martin: I waited by the pick-up point for the other team to arrive. And then I waited some more. Our team won that round while all I did was stare out at the docks. In another Mafia mission, which was really close, we had just successfully escorted our man to the waypoint, but just as he was getting into the boat to escape he got shot in the face.

Alex: Nice! What about the race missions? I was rubbish at those - I kept driving off a cliff and parking my SUV in the ocean!

Martin: I'm a race daddy so I did pretty well in that area. They can be pretty chaotic and it's nice how they progress from straight races to a more urban-style Mario Kart, as weapons become available and you learn to fling Molotov cocktails in your wake like a violent banana.

Alex: It was sweet, driving up to the finish line and then getting out of the car to lie in wait with a rocket launcher for everyone else to come along. Dropping grenades out of the window at the cars behind was brilliant too.

Martin: That's pretty cynical. I was trying to win using my driving skills…

Alex: Ha! You loser… There was a classic moment where one of the Rockstar guys was lying in wait for me, but he missed with his bazooka and I piled into him at full pelt, catapulting him over the bonnet.

Martin: That's a great element - getting out of your car during a race, but then running the risk of becoming roadkill.

Alex: Also, you can race in anything you find. Halfway through a bike race I piled my NRG-900 into a billboard, so I switched to a Blista Compact instead. I didn't win but it was good fun knocking the other riders off their bikes!




Martin: I clearly wasn't going to win one race so used the eternally immature tactic of getting in a school bus and driving the wrong way to flatten everyone else. If I can't win, everyone else dies.

Alex: Hmm. Going off on one seems to be a recurring theme with you, like the time you chased planes in a helicopter rather than racing against the rest of us…

Martin: It was our first time in a helicopter - of course I was going to explore!

Alex: I loved the helicopters. I loved them in San Andreas and Vice City, but they were awesome in GTA IV. They controlled in much the same way but felt a lot heavier, especially the big military chopper - The Annihilator. It was much slower to control than the lighter Mavericks, so before a race you've got to decide whether to take out the nippy helicopter and stay out of trouble, or fly the Annihilator and machinegun everyone else out of the sky.

Martin: I think the Maverick will win out. I got a bit confused, though - I didn't know whether to fight or race, so I went and chased airplanes instead.

Alex: I tried to fight and race, but got a little enthusiastic and ended up shunting into another helicopter and taking us both out.

Martin: They fell apart pretty convincingly, didn't they? It's amazing to see a chopper's tail spiralling out of the sky, and all the more amazing when you know you're the one that shredded the thing.

Alex: Thankfully they're not really fragile, because I clipped a couple of buildings and still stayed in the air, which is a godsend when you're forced to fly between buildings to hit checkpoints.

[Raider1one]

GTA4 Interview pt3:
from ign.com

Martin: Even the Annihilator was pretty good at getting out of trouble - more than a couple of times I buzzed a few buildings and escaped.

Alex: They really came into their own in the co-op mission, Hangman's Noose.

Martin: That was special - there's more than a handful of co-op missions and it was great having friends by your side as you took on marauding policemen.

Alex: Yeah, it was pretty cool, having a series of objectives to achieve but how you did them was entirely up to you and your mates. It got pretty hectic too, when the SWAT teams turned up and we were pretty much surrounded.

Martin: It's another part where communication was key - to do it successfully you really needed to co-ordinate your team.

Alex: Absolutely - it felt great for three of us to keep the cops at bay by ducking and firing from behind airline crates, while you nicked an armoured car to get the Russian mob guy the heck out of there. It was especially cool when I jumped in the back and was shooting at the cop cars on our tail, and dropping grenades to blow them up.

Martin: Do you think many people will opt for the co-op missions? I think it'll be the reserve of friends.

Alex: I'd much rather play it with people on my friends list. That kind of thing works better that way for me.

Martin: I need more friends…




Alex: Were you driving the van all the way to the drop-off point?

Martin: That was me - surely you could tell from my raw skills. It was like watching Ayrton Senna back in the day…

Alex: Yeah, something like that. I ask because another guy and I were circling the van in two helicopters, shooting at the SWAT choppers that kept piling in and taking out the road blocks. The sky was swarming in the end - there were a dozen or so choppers on your tail! Thankfully their focus was you rather than me.

Martin: My eyes were on the road, but I did wonder what that buzzing sound was…

Alex: There were a couple of times when I dipped a little low and almost scraped the roof of the van, but I managed to pull back up at the last second. Did you get much flak on the ground? The other guy in the helicopter was pretty decent - he was taking out a lot of the police following you.

Martin: It was a little rough going but those vans can take anything. In fact it felt like it was a taste of multiplayer with the cops option turned on. How many stars did we notch up?

Alex: I don't know for sure but it must've been a lot, with that many Annihilators on us. But there was an amazing sense of satisfaction when we finished it, dropping in to land next to your bullet-ridden van. I can see us playing it over and over to find out different ways of completing it.

Martin: That'll be the beauty of GTA, but now with added multiplayer. There're just so many options and so many ways to engage with multiplayer GTA IV, and we didn't even see the likes of Turf War, which has amazing potential.




Alex: Definitely. I know I keep saying it but I cannot wait to sit down and discover everything it has to offer. So what was your favourite bit of the multiplayer then?

Martin: There was so much variety - and it all worked. One stand-out moment was just piling into a car with three friends, heading out into the city and seeing each of them pop out the windows before brandishing their guns and going on our merry way to unleash hell.

Alex: It did really feel like a great team game, more so than some FPSs. It'll be interesting to see how the downloadable content works. I hope there are new modes and additional co-op missions planned. I'm going to cane the co-op.

Martin: It will run and run. There's just so much in there that you really don't need another game, at least until the next GTA comes out.

Alex: I just want this one. Keep April 29 free, let's hit Liberty City and have a laugh.

[Raider1one]

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.

[Raider1one]

from ign.com

The crooks only see the cops on radar when they are about to apply a cavity search. So you just never know what the cops are up to. But, you can see your extraction point. The boss has a single life, but the other crooks respawn. This allows for a lot of possibilities for strategy. Do you stick together and go in force? Do you put the boss on a motorcycle and then try and cause roadblocks for the coppers? Or do you do what we did and constantly crash your car and accidentally shoot one another?

The cops also have some strategy to consider. While you do respawn, it is often well outside the action. Do you take note of the direction the crooks are headed and make a guess where the extraction point is located? That could pay off. Do you go in as few cars as possible or do you split up? Clearly, learning the city by playing the single-player is going to be a big help in dominating multiplayer.

Cops N Crooks is a brilliant recreation of a caper movie... after the caper's gone horribly wrong. Not only are extraction point locations random, so are the spawn points for both teams. Sometimes the crooks spawn on the street sans car and 30 seconds later police sirens can be heard. Hey, crooks get a lot of bad breaks.

While all of the multiplayer modes I played were good, C&C was far superior to the others. It's my new favorite type of entertainment.

Only cool kids get to rid in helis.

Dave's Take: Normally deathmatch is the meat and potatoes of any online shooter but from what we've seen Cops N Crooks is the premiere reason to take GTA online. On the surface the setup is deceptively simple. The Cops start with a vehicle, the Crooks do not. The Crooks have to get to an extraction point marked on their map, the Cops only know the location of the people they're chasing. Kill the crime boss, and it's game over. Depending on the randomly assigned location of each team and the extraction point, the game can feel weighted in favor of a single team, but the single most important factor about this match type is teamwork. The more you talk, coordinate, and cooperate the better you'll do and it makes for a thrilling experience.

While playing as the crooks it was integral to have one person in charge of setting a waypoint on the map, one person skilled at driving, and at least one person running distraction. You must communicate, you must work together. Unlike deathmatch, the work of a single player can tip the scales but it can't carry the team. I was impressed when the finely crafted rules of this game imposed order on the chaos of Liberty City. In one instance the Cops set up a well-placed road block that anticipated our movement through a bottleneck not far from our spawn point. Their preparation and our lack of foresight ended the match quickly. We'd lost, but we'd also learned that trying to bomb through an obstacle without a plan was bad idea. While other modes have an ever-present element of anarchy, Cops N Crooks was serious business. More importantly even when my team was getting completely stomped, I was still having fun. This is the mode that I can tell will eat up hours of my time and I cannot wait to revisit with larger teams.

Hangman's NOOSE
Hil's Take: Niko's story is going to remain just for Niko. To satisfy fans' desire for cooperative play, Rockstar added some Niko-free co-op modes in multiplayer. These four-player missions are sort of halfway between the feel of a campaign mission and multiplayer madness. There's a little bit of story -- cutscenes introducing the mission and putting it to a close -- and few random elements. You have a start point and the same definitive endpoint each time you play. The change comes with upping the difficulty and altering the options to stiffen the challenge.

In Hangman's NOOSE, you and your 1-3 other cohorts must take down the cops guarding a crime boss, Kenny, who's on a grounded plane at the airport. On the harder difficulties, it can get pretty crazy as the cops attempt to flank your party. They'll keep coming until one of you parks a vehicle in front of Kenny's plane. The options are to swipe an armored van or an attack chopper. Either makes for a fun escape.

The heli is a hot ride and makes for an easier escape. One person pilots with Kenny riding shotgun. Two others can hop in the sides and fire from the edge of the chopper. You'll see plenty of combat choppers giving chase, along with cops on the ground trying to keep you from getting to the extraction point at a baseball field. And everyone must make it to the baseball field to win the mission. If one dies, he respawns away from his pals and will almost certainly have a tougher task to get past the cops.

It's tougher to get through in the armored van, but far more fun. One crook drives, Kenny rides shotgun again and two others can ride in the back. Kick open the doors and you can fire outside. Your task is to try and shoot out the tires on other police cars, which sends them spinning off into other cars. Or put a few shots through the windshield and ace the driver. The more of a mess you can make on the road, the harder it will be for the cops to halt your escape.

[Raider1one]

from ign.com

Dave's Take: More of a set piece than a mode, The Hang Man's Noose is the closest thing we've seen to the single player GTA storyline being played by multiple people. The protect-and-extract mission gets right to the point with an all-out gun battle on an air strip. On the hardest difficulty setting the game throws an impressive number of NPCs at you.

In a few of the videos on our site you can see quick examples of how enemies move in GTA but it takes hands-on time to appreciate how the SWAT Team flanks, advances, and dives for cover. And when you have more than one police chopper and a sea of squad behind your getaway vehicle team tactics are required. The best part about the large scale fight was how it exemplified how much action can take place on the screen at once in multiplayer without any technical snags. Hang Man's NOOSE is just one story-line related multiplayer mission, I hope to play many more.

GTA Race
Hil's Take: You can't have Grand Theft Auto without the Auto. So it's only natural to have a racing mode as part of the multiplayer component. But doing standard races would be boring as hell considering GTA's scope. Instead, Rockstar made a mode worthy of the open-world aspects of the series. Sure, there are some racing standards -- checkpoints, a finish line, cars -- but this mode is much more than what I expected.

Let's say you choose a car to start the race and realize it's not nearly as good as your buddy's? Just hop out of your car and jack his. Or better yet, get in the backseat and steal a ride. Take any car or run on foot. Get through the checkpoints anyway you want. Or ignore checkpoints altogether and just cause havoc for others. Set up a roadblock, wait for your opponents to wreck, then hit them with an RPG.

Do yourself a favor a take a heli tour around Liberty City.

You can pick up weapons and fire from inside or outside your car. But you can only hold one weapon at a time. Personally, I like using 'nades. For one, it's a whole lot of fun dropping them out the window to blow up cars behind you. It's perhaps even more fun, though, to stand in the street and cook a grenade. Wait for a couple of cars to near and sacrifice yourself for the good or blowing up your enemies. It's pretty tough to tell someone is clutching a grenade, so this tactic is amazingly effective.

If cars aren't your thing, you can try a helicopter race. This is tough. I wasn't ready for the realism of GTA choppers. The first instinct is to control them like a toy, but that just won't do. It takes a few minutes to get the hang of manipulating the chopper, getting it to respond properly and maximize speed. Many of the race paths take you weaving through the city and there is a very narrow window for checkpoints, so your flying must be precise. If you select an attack chopper, you can fire at others. Helicopters are not built for dogfights, so it's really tough to take out your opponents. The better way is to get above someone else and tap their blades with the feet of your chopper. Do this near some buildings and you should be able to take them down.

Dave's Take: Every aspect of GTA IV's multiplayer is influenced by an element of chaos and racing is no different. The host sets a few ground rules like vehicle type, location, time limit and laps, but once the starter pistol sounds it's anyone's guess what will happen next. The check point system presents players with hovering icons and map markers to guide them through the course but there are no invisible walls to hold you back from the rest of the city.

How do you define winning? Are you going to be the fastest or do you prefer the Mad Max approach to transportation? The combat portion of racing relies on two game mechanics that have been significantly retooled. Since the right trigger becomes the gas pedal pulling the trigger to shoot from a vehicle is mapped to the left shoulder. This allows competent players to maintain control of their machine and aim at the same time. A well-placed shot at someone's tire can make all the difference because while the cars handle better than in previous installments damage will significantly hamper their functionality.

If car combat isn't your forte you can always ignore the vehicles entirely, pick up a weapon, and run over to a check point and wait for an unsuspecting victim. During our race experience skirmishes regularly broke out on the race course. With enough players GTA Race is the real running riot. It's this unpredictability is what makes racing so attractive. And I've only really delved into a standard match using cars.

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We wish we could tell you more about GTA IV's multiplayer, but some things are better left for you to find on your own. It's best to think of GTA IV like an iceberg. Everything you read is the 10% above the water. So if these four modes sounds exciting to you, just consider that there's a big ass iceberg floating beneath the surface that you can discover on April 29.

Check out what the rest of our crime family has going on: GameSpy's Compare delve deep into Liberty City, while the Cugine at Team Xbox offer up their impressions as well

[Raider1one]

The first reviews of Grand Theft Auto IV are expected to arrive within the next couple of weeks, and today OPM UK announced that their review will begin reaching subscribers of the magazine around April 22nd. Official Xbox Magazine have already announced that their review will go on sale on April 19th. Meanwhile a number of other reviews are also expected from the likes of IGN and GameSpot at around the same time.

Subscribers will receive their issues around April 22nd, according to the OPM team.

The first ever review of GTA: San Andreas came from the US edition of OPM on October 23rd 2004 (three days before the game was released) and then various other reviews followed shortly after. It was also at this time when the first HUD screens and voice actor info began to emerge, so perhaps we can expect something similar this time.