He's been quiet for awhile now, probably due to being faced with the posibility of being disbared in his home state, but with the announcment last week of the release date for Grand Theft Auto IV he felt it his moral duty to...well threaten Take-Two Interactive. From an email sent to Take-Two he stated that he will work to keep this "murder simulator for violence against women, cops, and innocent bystanders" out of the hands of children, although that would mean having the game banned making it impossible for anyone to play in the end. He intends to due this by contacting "state and federal officials" to warn of the game and it's "dangers".

To be fair, he didn't actually make any threats towards Take-Two or Rockstar themselves, but I can guarantee that will happen before April 29th.

If it's not the storyline and graphics that bring you to Grand Theft Auto 4, it will be the physics. Euphoria is the backbone of the entire game, doing things that nobody has yet tried. Realistic, true and sometimes funny animations that bring the world to life in a way we have not seen done before. A few articles as of late have discussed Euphoria and described the physic in-game, but without actual gameplay how do we know how powerful it really is?

Well some masterminds on YouTube put the trial version of Euphoria to the test and developed some basic scenes which you would expect in any GTA game. Now it is not gameplay firstly, this is simply animation, and it is not exact of course.  These are not from Rockstar so don't be thinking this is something spectacular, it's just some basic examples of what to expect. If you would like to try out Euphoria, NaturalMotion has a free time-unlimited version up for public download. The link is below.

Full version available on YouTube.

Download: Euphoria

Seems everyone is cutting a slice of IV action this week, why just today BestBuy.com posted 3 new screenshots on their purchasing page for IV, you can check these out and more on their site or below.

New pictures of the Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 have emerged today, new things to note are that the final cover artwork has been added and the soundtrack now has a picture on the cover of it also.

IGN has posted an article covering NaturalMotion's Euphoria Technology and Grand Theft Auto IV. Here is a quick list of some of the amazing things Rockstar have implemented it in:

• Niko's stance will adjust depending on the grade of ground he is standing on
• Niko is also spatially aware of his environment (in layman's terms, he knows where walls and potential dangers are)
• While standing on hills and mountains his knee's and feet will incline or decline on an angle
• He walks with a noticeable counterbalance, keeping his center of gravity correct
• When running at a fast speed he will be proactive in pushing open doors (because he is spatially aware of his surroundings, he will know the door is there and thus push it open without stopping)
• When shot enough, enemies will fall backwards and slouch, trying to regain their last ounces of breath.
• Car physics are sickenly realistic; rear-end another car and the people in the front seat will propel through the windscreen.
• Same goes for side-on's, bailing from the car while in acceleration (similar to what you could do in Vice CIty onwards, only a little more realistic now)
• When tackling walls, staircases or even just falling Niko's hands and feet are controlled automatically to ensure all his movements are realistic and play true
• Niko will duck into a commando roll when he falls to far
• Euphoria also controls how the new drunk feature works -- drunken, stumbling shamble, and camera blurs adding to the disorientation
• When clinging to trucks (as seen in trailer #2) he will hold on more forcefully when the truck takes corners
• Pedestrians are also proactive to weather formation and will change their actions (for example running) when it is going to begin to rain momentarily

Very impressive stuff, we're just itching to play this game just to see how the physics work. There is no doubt, this game is going to re-define gaming a second time for the franchise. Be it the game play that is being raved about of the physics that have never been attempted before, this is unmissable.

Adapted from IGN, thanks guys!

Rockstar have finally told the world why GTA IV was delayed. Well not exactly, but they did tell MTV Games that:

"It's really no surprise to anybody that the PS3 was definitely a contributing factor to that. Now, we're neck and neck. That's not an issue anymore. But back then that was something we were taking into account. That's not to say there's anything wrong with the PS3 version. It's awesome. They're both identical."

While many people have said that the PS3 is difficult to develop for it seems that Rockstar are past this issue. Are we surprised? Well maybe, we thought it would be a lot of things but it seems the PS3 was a problem for Rockstar. But who cares about that now, we got April 29th to look forward too!

Via Joystiq

It's been a huge day hasn't it? 8 new reviews of Grand Theft Auto IV, a few more screens and artwork plus some information and even a memory map of the city. To top it all off, here is 3 more screens sent to us by psphacker just minutes ago, they aren't of the highest quality but they'll do just nicely for now we think, enjoy:

Wonder if tomorrow will be as eventful as today was? Good night, or good morning depending where you are.

Rockstar just sent out their first Broadcast of 2008 to subscribers discussing the announced release date. Included was some new artwork of Niko, enjoy and welcome to the next 96 days of news packed fun.

Broadcast: http://www.rockstarwatch.net/broadcast/2008/1/23/

The previews released today may not have given us a release date, but Rockstar have. Announced only a few hours after the flood of reviews we're posted the official website and a press release have stated that the release date for the Next-generation Console Debut of the Grand Theft Auto Franchise will be released April 29th, 2008. 96 days until we see one of the most anticipated games on 2008 (...and 2007) hit the shelves. Grand Theft Auto 3 changed gaming for ever, will Grand Theft Auto IV follow in it's foot steps? God, we hope so! Oh and it might also be of general interest to know that no past Grand Theft Auto game has bared an April release, or an early year release for that matter.

IGN, GameSpot, GameSpy, VideoGamer, CVG , GamesRadar, TeamXbox, and Kikizo have all posted their previews of Grand Theft Auto IV. I have collected all the important information below.

• The sites received a 90 minute demonstration on the Xbox 360 version of the game.
• Frame rate has now been "smoothed out" and the city is now more populated.
• The cell phone network is now called Badger. In previous builds it was called Whiz.
• You can now listen to music while on foot, using the cell phone. The sound quality sounds just like it does on a real cell phone.
• Two minutes in real time is one hour of game time.
• It took about 5 minutes to pilot a speedboat around half of Algonquin.
• Characters clothes are no longer "static" like in previous Grand Theft Autos. They are now dynamic.
• Some of the activities you're able to do are playing pool, eating, darts, bowling and going for a drink. You use your cell phone to access them.
• A new radio station is called "IF99".
• If you fail a mission, you'll be given the option to jump back in using text messages via your cell phone.
• There is a subway system.
• The game will now auto save progress.
• IGN will have a preview of the PS3 build in a couple of weeks.

EDIT:
Thanks to the guys at Kikizo, we now have a pretty good idea of what the map looks like. Note however that a person copied this map down from memory when he seen it in-game. It may or may not be 100% accurate.