Despite still not being officially announced by Take-Two or Sony there is another PS3 bundle heading to our friends down under. The leak came courtesy of Harvey Norman. You can pre-order the bundle and it will set you back $749 (And I thought we in the UK were being ripped off). So if your still on the fence getting a PS3 could this push you over the edge?
You may remember a few weeks ago when a website called CGReviews.com released a review of Grand Theft Auto IV, this which upset most people as they were giving fake information or information on an early build, but was pulled down by I assume Rockstar Games. This website has now been put back up and has been corrected.
This is what he said on the website :
Because my first review was based on early builds of this game, many readers were outraged at the 'negative' aspects of my review, even though I posted a notice that the review may not reflect actual gameplay.
I work hard to find ways to post reviews about hyped games. This is why I post only one review at a time. I don't work for a large magazine, so I don't care too much about my reputation. I don't get paid to write reviews, so it's not like I could lose my job. I don't sell advertising, so it's not like I'm making money by generating traffic to this pathetic excuse for a website. I write reviews to share information. I hope to entertain readers, and I enjoy doing what I do.
My last review was received even more negatively than my 'Gears of War' review. It sparked some pretty terrible conversation across the web. There were a lot of charges that the review was 'fake' or 'biased'. I guess this type of thing happens when you cross those of us that love our Xbox 360s. You will, however, be excited to hear that the final build of GTA4 is 'perfect' on both consoles...and I'm not just saying that because it's in the NDA.
I'm leaving my original review intact so that I can edit where needed. The 'issues' have mostly been resolved, but I want you to realize how much work has gone into the game in the last two months.
Source: CGReviews.com
Lazlow who has been in many past GTA's, as a radio host and has also been one of the lead writers for the series, has given information on GTA IV while he was on a radio show 'Opie and Anthony show'.
Although talking about his inlvolment mostly and information we have already heard, these things that he mentioned are new.
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Niko can date women he meets on online dating sites like Love-Meet.net
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Recording sessions for the in-game dialogue and audio lasted ten hours a day five days a week for many weeks
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Rockstar employees worked overtime, even on weekends, in order the complete the game on time
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There will be over 100 different commercials played on the in-game radio stations
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The Liberty City beer band 'Piswasser' is a direct jab at Budweiser, and will feature an ad sung by Anthony himself
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The in-game internet is ridiculously extensive and will contain spoofs of various popular news sources (both liberal and conservative), blogs and websites. There will also be pop-up banner ads to complete the browsing experience.
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Injuries will be more important in firefights then before. If Niko is shot in the leg, for example, he'll bleed and limp
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There will be periodic announcements in the subway stations that will randomly alert you of spontaneous police searches, extra security checks and plain ole harassment of passengers
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Lazlow also stated that his personal favorite version of GTA IV is the 360 version because of it’s downloadable content which will contain (amongst other things) new missions, characters and comedy routines
Source: GTA Planet
UK supermarket Tesco sent out a small shopping catalogue yesterday to its Clubcard holders. It included reference to upcoming games, one obviously being GTA IV, however it wasn't just advertising it's April 29th release...is stated: ‘Grand Theft Auto IV** out 25th April’.
PlayStationBeyond, who found out about the possible break, checked the catalogue and nothing, not even the asterisks' said anything about the reason for the early release. Could this mean Tesco will release the game before the official release date? For one of the biggest games of the year. if not the biggest? Very unprofessional and silly move, or a simple typo? They could be looking at some serious trouble for this.
Source: PlayStationBeyond
MTV stated awhile ago that the game will not have a split-screen function for when playing multiplayer. However many comments on the MTV blog asked if their were options to turn it on for LAN play.
The multiplayer modes cannot be played split-screen, so forget about playing this with buddies on a single couch.
A Rockstar representative said that while they have played the multiplayer modes over dev-kit LAN at the Rockstar NYC Office, this won't be available in the final game.
A DailyRecord blogger today posted some screencaps of the Grand Theft Auto IV Xbox Ad released 2 days ago. We figured we'd share them with you as they do capture some of the best moments of the ad (click for full version):
During the recent MI6 Game Marketing Conference, ESRB President Patricia Vance addressed the topic of rating downloadable content. It's only been i recent years that downloadable content has evolved, originally downloadable content was basically just modifications made by an enthusiast. Now however developers alike at extending gameplay beyond the box you purchase. Oblivion and Grand Theft Auto IV are huge games, and both have downloadable content coming soon, they have helped bring this 'downloadable content rating' problem back into the focus for the ESRB.
Simply, developers must "keep the content in the downloadable product consistent with the core rating." What does this mean? It means that the content put up for download must not contain content higher of that on the original rating. For example; you could not have a downloadable package with sexual content for an M rated game that only had violence and horror content according to the rating on the box. If the content is changed, then the ESRB would force a re-rating, which would cost the company money no doubt (for updated boxes I would presume).
Ever wanted some of that uber cool swag that big name sites get? Well now you can! PlayStation Australia is offering up a competition which includes:
- 2 x t-shirts (GTA IV + Burger Shot)
- 1 x I heart liberty city pin
- 1 x GTA IV sticker pack
- 1 x liberty city cap
Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? There is a catch though, heres what you have to do:
To be in the running to win one of five Grand Thefto IV merchandise packs, tell us in 25 words or less why you think that GTAIV will be the hottest game to hit the PS3 this year?
Easy! Sadly this is only open to Australian residents and the competition ends on May 9th. Good luck!
Check it out at PlayStation Australia, terms and conditions here also.
If you ever wanted to buy a PS3 this may be time to do it. GAME, in the UK, is now offering the GTA IV PS3 bundle for pre-order. This bundle is essentially the one we seen that was coming to Sweden. Again the UK version is showing that snazzy box-art which is worth it alone. The price is £319.99, if your American you will find out that at that price it's really expensive (Over $600). But with GTA IV gone gold how can you resist?