Well, it continues. The ever increasing amount of new information leaked by magazines about GTAIV is only going to get worse in the coming months.
The latest culprit is the UK edition the Official Xbox Magazine, which is following OPM’s footsteps by getting another exclusive story out of Rockstar. PlayThree has the scoop. Read on for the first details on the revised gameplay, including the new targeting system, animations, and status of the game.
According to the article,
Rockstar is approximately 66% finished with GTAIV.
One of the things that makes it easier for Rockstar setting GTA in a fictional New York is that they sometimes get a call from the developers at Rockstar North in Scotland, wanting to know more about a specific building or traffic flow in a certain area, for instance, and using their in-house researchers in NYC they can easily assist the guys back at R* North.
Dan Houser is quoted saying that the Liberty City in GTA IV is bigger than any single city they’ve done before, giving a more clear indication of the physical size of the game. He continues saying that the “detail” of the game is the big thing. He also confirms Central Park to be in the game, though it’s fictional name is still unknown to us.
Rockstar’s humorous take on the number 69 makes an appearance yet again in GTA IV, the editors of the magazine saw a sign for a “69th Street Diner”. Another building called “Twitchins”, the GTA version of Brooklyn’s Domino’s Sugar Factory, is in the game.
On the gameplay:
When Niko pulls out a pistol, a crosshair with a simple black cross within a circle shows up on the screen. This could be an indication of manual aiming being available in the game. Hand to hand combat is also being reworked on for GTA IV, and will feel “much more natural” than before.”Fun, ridiculous” weapons is said to be in the game, because R* is not going too “naturalistic”.
Niko will be able to climb and descend exterior fire escapes and some meetings will take place high in the office buildings of skyscrapers. It’s said that from on top of them you’ll be able to throw people off.
Players will be able to change their camera views whilst in a car according to their needs. This however is said to still being experimented on, and that Rockstar want to give better control and “immediacy” to players. Dan says that they’re “certainly evolving the way the radio works”. He says the same for police behaviour and their reaction to crimes. Nothing further is said about this. One of the radio stations includes an “Eastern European-sounding” dancing station.
Finally: “For confirmation, boats will be making a return and the handling is “really nice”. One question that I have..as Playthree did as well, what’s up with the disc storage situation? Scans are on the way, and more info will hit shortly.
