Wow, this thread hasn't had any posts for a while.
But I guess there hasn't been much to talk about lately.
Anyway, there is a new trailer that reveals the box art:

http://i14.tinypic.com/72a1l34.jpg

Also, a new trailer coming on the 6th December.

Trailer's out. I must say I'm freakin going nuts over it. There's this one dude who looks and sounds a lot like Carl Johnson. I hope its him. Anything to bring back old people.. Now I think this might be a prequel to San Andreas maybe. I haven't played SA for a while but didn't CJ have trouble with the russians or was it Ryder (or smoke). Either way, I'm hyped for this game. It better be worth it with all its shiny graphics.

I dunno what to say about the trailer, I thought it was very weird

Agreed. Now I have different say on that voice. Doesn't sound like CJ at all =/. Looks more comical like that movie A Scanner Darkly XD.

I'm fairly sure that it was well publicised that this game is set in the modern day and as such, can't be a sequel to early-90's San Andreas. Also, the styling in all the trailers is modern rather than historical. Also, I thought the main guy was Eastern European rather than Russian, certainly none of them sound very Russian in the trailers.

Personally, the only characters I'd bring back would be Kent Paul and Maccer but only because Danny Dyer and Shaun Ryder are so funny. So far IMDB is only listing Lazlow as making a return but they never really release cast details unitl the last minute for these things. A good source of info for SA before it came out was all the fake websites they created. I'm sure if you watch the trailers closely they'll be a few urls dotted here or there. Every url mentioned either on a billboard or on the radio in previous games has been a real website, some of them are hilarious.

I think Rockstar will probably try to limit the obvious cameos from previous games, if only to make a fresh start on things. Sure, you gotta have some stuff from the previous titles (Lazlow has been in every 3D GTA to date, I think). Then again, Rockstar can be unpredictable.

I can't wait for more videos / demos / etc.,

Is there any sort of maybe-definitive release date?

I hope Lazlow is still doing his radio show. He was kinda lame as a DJ.

I think mid - late March is the target release date if I'm not mistaken.

oh wow, that looked soo intense! That game will probably suck up a lot of my time!

Probably, but... well, look below:

Bringing some fresh news into the thread: On Amazon.com, they have the release date as April 30th, and are already taking pre-orders for both 360/PS3 Versions, including Special Editions. Regular game is $59.99, and Special Edition is $89.99. There's also an entry for the Grand Theft Auto IV Signature Series Guide (Brady Games), which has a release date of May 15th.

In regards to the Special Editions:
The Items are the following: Game, Selected Soundtrack, Duffelbag, Lockbox with Rockstar Keychain, and Artbook.
http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01...-sp_ps3_lg.jpg
http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01...-sp_360_lg.jpg

Oh, and here's the license plate that you could get by Pre-ordering:
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/image...-plate-700.jpg

All in all, Pretty neat extras, although I doubt I'll be getting the Special Edition, just the regular game... but who knows? :)

$30 more for all that stuff isn't too bad. If I do end up getting it on the day of release, and there aren't any major deals on the regular edition, I'll spring for this version.

For once, I'm a bit indifferent about GTA. I think SA killed it for me. However, it seems like they've dropped all the useless tat like eating, working out and all that jazz, so it might not be bad.
If the game is almost as good as Vice City, and has a radio channel with Lazlow, like Chatterbox, then I'm buying it. Else, I think I'm gonna sit this one over...

I'm predicting a shitstorm from some federal authority for the license plate. Hawaii pulled the Superbad DVD for containing a joke driving license; Rockstar have balls of steel to follow suit.

Well, you'd have to be extremely stupid to fucking mount it. It's a joke plate. It goes on your wall, or in some other similar display area, not on your damn car. DSid the feds really ahve to step in to stop people from doing that? Yeesh.

When Rockstar published Manhunt 2 in its trimmed down form, they left the deleted content in the data files that would have pushed the game up to AO. You know, the very same thing that got Rockstar in all that trouble when they made San Andreas. Not only do I think they not care, I suspect they're hoping for a federal shitstorm, because there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Jack Thompson is one of Rockstar's best advertisers, and they know it.

To this day, I do not understand what the problem is here, given that the answer to this simple question...

'Given just the game and all items necessary to play it, is the content accessbile?'

...is a resounding 'no'; as I recall, third-party measures are required.
Never mind that GTAs are rated 'unsuitable for anyone under 17' - which is the same as an R-rated movie... which the content in question is about normal for.
I reiterate: where is the problem in the above?

Got this in the mail today:

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...tyswingers.jpg

Apparently I totally forgot about this contest that was held when the official website launched. Pretty nifty baseball tee (had no idea they were so long..) and it did remind me that the game is getting closer...I have the special edition pre-ordered right now and I'm kind of lacking money since buying SSBB...hopefully I'll have enough money to get this by the time it's out.

Went looking for some new stuff about this since I haven't in a long time, found this on IGN:

GTA IV Multiplayer Hands-On

I've had this pre-ordered for months. If you order it from GAME you get a voucher for 500 MS Points (Assuming you get the 360 version of course) and some free gamer pics (w00t). To all those he didn't like the eating and stuff in San Andreas it looks like you're shit out of luck as this is still in GTAIV. Lazlo is back in it though.

This time out you get a cell phone like in Saint's Row which along with allowing missions and stuff to be activated includes a radio so the music doesn't have to end when you get out of a car. Apparently you can also order equipment over the phone, not quite sure how that works though.

This time out you'll only get wanted stars if someone sees you commiting a crime so stealth action will probably abound. Also, the police only know where you are if one of them can see you, police cars won't just spawn constantly around you. This should make getting away from the police more like NFS:Most Wanted which can only be a good thing, rather than having to drive to a paint shop every time you accidentally ran over a cop.

I really can't understand anyone who thinks the GTA games haven't been getting better and better with each iteration and I reckon this looks beyond awesome. I'm not expecting to leave the house for a while after this drops.

I think one of the features I was happiest about was that cars don't explode just from flipping over now. I've died too many times because the car flipped and the guy took a little too long to crawl out after it had caught fire. Probably some of my stupidest deaths in that game. GRAND THEFT AUTO IV - News: Latest Screens, Information, Updates seems to be a pretty good read for info so I'll probably be stalking that site until the end of the month.

The whole escaping from the police thing definitely sounds like the best addition to the game so far. Before if you got anything more than like two stars you were fucked unless you went to a Pay 'n' Spray or found one of the stars on the ground, but the way they have it now definitely makes it seem easier to escape.

The way EGM described it was that there's an area on your map that shows the area the police are covering, and you have to escape it to get them off your tail. However, the more stars you have, the bigger the area is, so there's still some difficulty to it as well. But even if you do get caught, the fact that you can escape (at the cost of attaining another star) makes it even sweeter (no more instant lose).

This game is definitely gonna be awesome, so I just need to decide whether or not I'm gonna get the regular or special edition. I'll most likely get the SE since I can knock it down to the regular edition price with coupons and stuff. I also need to hurry up and finish Vice City Stories, since I probably won't go back to that once GTAIV is out.

Apparently they've censored the game here once again (GTA 3 and VC were altered so that you couldn't actually pick up the prostitutes, VC even had a mission or two completely wiped out). And this is going to be one of the most expensive games released here in quite some time, at almost $115 US for the standard edition (add another eighty grand for the SE). So fuck the local market. :rock: Does anyone know of a good UK online retailer that ships overseas? =o It'd be even more awesome if the US 360 version turned out to be region free but lololol.

Pretty excited about this, I even almost picked up Saint's Row a while back. Almost.

Well, so much for wanting to sit this one over. I'm just about to go to the local game pusher to order the SE. Soom, pretty soon. But which version to get?

If there isn't at least a free-roam of some kind for multi, I'll eat my hat. Co-op would be swanky, but free-roam is kind of a given, considering the success of similar modes in other sandboxers. Maybe with a reduced player count, but still.

I could have sworn I heard news of a couple other modes elsewhere, but I guess I was wrong, as I can't find the link. Nuts.