American retailer GameStop and Rockstar have partnered to create a small video featuring some unseen footage from GTA IV. The video is basically a tour of Liberty City. We have uploaded the video below for you to enjoy.

MCV is reporting that the UK ratings board, the BBFC, has given Grand Theft Auto IV an 18+ rating. This is great news for people that remember the whole controversy over Manhunt 2 that lasted a long time before the BBFC was forced by court to give the game an 18+ rating. While the UK might be able to breathe easy that they will be able to play the game, it is still unknown if the BBFC made Rockstar censor anything in the game. We should find out more once the rating is posted on the BBFC website.

[Source: MCV UK]

Thanks to Brandon for the heads up!

Australian Men's Magazine, Zoo recently published an article on Grand Theft Auto IV, included was a shot of the game being played on an Xbox 360 by the reviewer on a Wide-screen Plasma television. Which is a little odd as you are warned against playing games on Plasma televisions as still images will burn into the screen...but anyway below is the original image from the magazine as well as a zoomed in version to the right:

As we can see, the HUD included in the screen does not take-away from the game-play itself at all. It's rather minimal, and the only thing that appears to be permanently fixed to the screen in the radar. There are two semi-circles around the outside of the radar, these appear to represent your players health and armour status. The currently selected weapon, wanted stars and wanted stars are not on the screen, this would lead us to believe they only show when wanted by the cops, or changing weapons. There is a possibility of the game having a breath bar for swimming like we saw in San Andreas, this bar would most probably appear around the health bar on the radar (on another level), but thats just a thought.

Thanks to AdamR for the heads up.

Awhile back you'll remember that VideoGamer ask some questions of Rockstar we had yet even considered, such as how long Grand Theft Auto IV would take to complete. A Rockstar Games spokesman said in answer to that:

"If you're not in a rush and you answer the phone when it rings it'll take about 100 hours to complete,"

At this time we knew nothing of a multiplayer side to the game, so you may be thinking, that now included, does the time taken to complete GTA4 change? Well, no, Grand Theft Auto 4 games testers have apparently played the entire single player / story missions part of the game and one of Rockstar's most prized developers, Jeronimo Barrerra had this to say:

"It takes testers playing 4 hours a day, a good 2 weeks to get through the whole single-player game."

Which, if my mathematics is right, means it takes exactly 40 hours to complete the story missions of the game. That is excluding weekends (so 4 hours for 10 days, not 14 days), that is a spectacular accomplishment, now consider these testers are probably GTA pros, as I would imagine they'd have tested past games for Rockstar.

So thats the single player story missions, 40 hours, that leaves 60 hours of additional game play if the 100 hours statistic was correct. It's unknown if multiplayer will be counted as actual "game play" and add towards game completion, or if it will just be like it was in San Andreas, added fun and enjoyment. Considering that, the side-missions and no doubt yet to be known about extras will fill the gap.

Shaping up to be a fantastic little kettle of joy this game, the more and more we read, the more and more we want. With 100 hours of game play, I can see us all becoming a little anti-social for awhile after April 29th. Can't barely wait!

Kudos to QJ.net for the update.

Rockstar has released 3 new concept artworks for Grand Theft Auto IV today. Released through GameWallpapers.com as downloadable wallpapers for your computer, the 3 new concept artworks can be found below in their 1920 x 1200 sizing, which is only available to members of GameWallpapers.

You can view more wallpapers of other concept art already released prior to today at GameWallpapers. Also thanks to gamercenteronline.net for posting the members only wallpapers of the artwork in which you see above, much appreicated guys.

To make exactly one year since the first trailer and first real look at Grand Theft Auto IV, IGN has published a huge 8 page article on the History of Grand Theft Auto. From the idea, to the planning, to the beginning, and too the future. A comprehensive look at Grand Theft Auto and it's impact on over 50 million people.

What can we say...other then, get your behind over there and read it now, it really is a terrific read: IGN Presents: The History of Grand Theft Auto.

It may also interest you to read an article published yesterday by IGN, an interview between Dan Houser, Rockstar North's Art Director Aaron Garbut and IGN covering the development of Grand Theft Auto IV. It's a two part article, with the second coming on Monday, this first part is only a mer 11 pages...so check it out: GTA IV: Building a Brave New World.

In an exclusive interview to be published on GameDaily in a few days, Sony VP of Product Marketing Scott Steinberg will talk Grand Theft Auto IV, and Microsoft's exclusive episodic content. GameDaily where quick to release information today to do with the latter though, saying, basically, that Sony is not at all worried by Microsoft's exclusive episodic content for GTA IV.

Until now, all 3D GTAs have made their debut on the PlayStation (then later released on other platforms), so many were shocked when Microsoft announced that the game would be coming to both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on the same release date. Even more so when Microsoft announced the exclusive episodic content which cost them, as Steinberg put it: "the GNP of several small Latin American countries".

He believes that to the average consumer, all this "Sony Vs. Microsoft" media isn't important, and also the average consumer won't be interested in the episodic content nor both to purchase it. He continues by saying:

"[Microsoft] spent the GNP of several small Latin American countries to get that [content], and if you've ever played San Andreas...there's a lot of game to Grand Theft Auto and there's going to be a lot of game to Grand Theft Auto IV to the point where I think most people will have that Grand Theft Auto experience on the PS3, day and date, same core game shipping on the 360. Perhaps they'll be shipping some episodic content in the fall, but there is a whole lot of product shipping on the PS3 in April and I personally don't think there's going to be a huge percentage of folks who jump into downloadable content for another price when they're still playing through the core product,"

"So while I do think having that brand on their system was a move for them which they felt they needed to make because they cut a big check for it, I think PlayStation fans know the Grand Theft Auto experience on the PS2 is how they grew up playing Grand Theft Auto," he continued, "and when you combine GTA IV with MGS 4 and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, all the exclusive content that we've got going forward, I think that goes from tipping point to shoving point for consumers who are on the fence, wondering what platform should I buy. I think the clear exclusive message that we have is that the PS3 is where, not only do you get Grand Theft Auto, but you'll get MGS, you'll get Gran Turismo and these are also brands that have moved hardware units. It's the elite of the elite products that actually enable hardware to be sold with software and we'll have three of them."

Whether the episodic content will be an enough to make the new series of Grand Theft Auto bigger on Xbox then it's predecessor on PlayStation is yet too be seen, however everyone likes having something a little extra that sets them apart from someone else. Episodic content might be just that. Additionally, being most previews and demos of the game have been played on the Xbox, it's possible that GTA IV is becoming an "Xbox" product primarily. We'll be seeing some more on this when the full interview with Scott Steinberg is released in the next few days.

We aren't usually one to post rumors, mostly due to many rumors being flawed before they can even be considered to hold any truth what-so-ever. However this latest one does intrigue us a little, it seems to have some solid groundings behind if, but we'll let you be the judge of that shall we.

Basically, a Belgium website called Play3-Live has posted an article which states that a Belgium supplier of important size (a large games supplier we presume) recently received an official statement from Take-Two Interactive which outlined the line-up of games releases for 2009. In the outline was this rather interesting, and oddly to-the-point description of a title being released:

"Grand Theft Auto Sequel (Not Announced): Find Vice City, plagued by corruption and decadence. Your case is being undermined by the local police, your mission is to rebuild the bar and to reaffirm at the head of the city of one thousand colors."

The description is a little to descriptive, with no announcement it seems odd something of this importance would be sent to a supplier. Another point is that GTAIV has been being worked on for the past few years, and up to this point is still being polished up, so how would they have found time to start work on a next game? Then again, it's possible the story and ideas for the next game have been developed, but development of the game are yet to begin. That in itself begs the question of how they would hope to finish a large game in a year at most. It also lists Take-Two's BioShock as coming in September 2009, which as fans would know, it true. However that information could be found with a simple Google Search.

So this is nothing official, don't take it as being a possibility either, most rumors are not true, and this one seems a little out of the ordinary really. It checks out, but it checks out too well that it seems as if it was planned by somebody as a prank in the hopes for a laugh. Either way, we'll watch to future statements on the matter, check back soon.

Complete translation of article (not accurate):

Rockstar has sent us some images from the fourth trailer. We have uploaded the images for you to enjoy. Images include some the of ones shown at the end and various screencaps.

Screens at the end:

Screencaps:
 

Thanks Rockstar for sending us these!

Rockstar has just updated the official site with the fourth trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV.