Preview: Massive Grand Theft Auto IV Blowout!
Preview by Chris Morell | 02/28/2008

Playing a Grand Theft Auto game before release is almost unheard of-Rockstar protects it babies closely. So you can imagine how it felt to dive into Grand Theft Auto IV a full three months before it hits the public. It's like Christmas morning all over again!

Grand Theft Auto IV's goals are quite ambitious. It seeks to redefine open-world gaming and present Grand Theft Auto in the way we've always wanted. We tolerated the flaws of the GTA series-the gritty graphics, the low-res textures, the clunky character models- for so long simply because the core gameplay was that good.

But with GTA IV, it's a whole different ball game. This is the game that GTA fans have been waiting for, not just in terms of densely detailed graphics, but as a complete video-game package. For an hour and a half, we romped through the high-def streets of Liberty City, plowing through police barricades and mowing down scores of lowlifes. Here's how it all went down.


Realistic driving mechanics means that manning the wheel in GTA IV is always a cinematic experience.


Let Me Drive!
With controller in hand, I took a moment to take in the sights and sounds of Liberty City. Passing cars, an occasional horn honk, and some rundown New York-style apartments flesh out the decaying atmosphere as I rotate the camera 360 degrees around Niko. OK, enough of that. Time to see what this baby can do.

It's time for my first carjack. With a quick tap of the Y button, Niko yanks an unsuspecting driver out of his sedan and hops in. While driving, the car handles differently-noticeably heavier and more realistic than past games. It's a satisfying feeling. When I turn around the first corner, the suspension swings subtly to the left, much like a car in real life. What's more, GTA IV seems to be custom-made for stunt drivers. By holding the B button, you can flip between slick cinematic camera angles, from wheel-cams to long zoom shots. Clicking the left thumbstick triggers a slow-motion camera effect, perfect for reveling in hairpin 90 degree turns and devastating collisions. In-vehicle shooting is vastly better, too: you can aim in any direction, making drive-by shootings far more accurate and effective.

After five minutes of knocking down street lamps amidst a spray of sparks, it was time to accept a mission. The handy in-car GPS led me to a nearby meet-up. In this instance, I was watching over a deal that quickly heads south. Pulling out a standard 9mm pistol, I tried out the new combat and targeting system for the first time. I crouched (boosting my accuracy) and pulled the left trigger, which locked onto a nearby enemy. A few yanks of the right trigger and the baddie went down for good.

With two remaining foes, I played around with the precision-aiming control via the right analog stick. Once locked on, a slight vertical movement with the stick keys you in for a head shot, and one pull of the trigger dropped him to the ground. The third enemy collapsed after I fired a shot to his leg, and then I finished him off as he tried to crawl for safety. Three scum bags down, none to go.

The GTA Combat You've Always Wanted
Often criticized for its awkward performance in past games, GTA IV makes some serious strides in its combat interface. Taking subtle cues from games like Gears of War and Rainbow Six Vegas, Niko has a versatile cover system at his disposal. It's a remarkably fluid way to hide behind low walls, couches, and boxes, and Niko will dramatically slide into position if you have a running start. A quick button-tap latches Niko onto a nearby wall. Peering out to the left, you can lock onto an enemy and pull the left trigger to pop out, zoom in a bit further with a click of the right analog stick, and unloaded a burst of Uzi fire. The effect is surprisingly dramatic, with the roaring sound of gunfire given the shooting mechanic a meatier, more substantial feel. There's still one thug left standing, so I took him out with a new blind-fire option. Unlike Gears and Vegas, GTA IV's blind fire mode is actually helpful-the bullet spread is loose, but it's usually enough to safely drop a target.

GTA IV's combat is far more versatile and realistic than before, lending some of the firefights an almost epic quality. Take the next mission, where I led Niko to a high-rise building to get a bird's-eye view of a construction area. Using the sniper rifle, I made quick work of a few "workers," then headed down to street level to finish off the rest of the crew. The sniping controls will seem familiar to GTA: San Andreas players, but what happened next was far more impressive. On the ground, under fire from the crooked construction workers, I dashed nimbly from cover to cover, cooking grenades, popping foes with shotgun shells, and even taking down a hovering chopper with the newly redesigned rocket launcher. Once the carnage was over, the ground was littered with glowing, color-coded items representing cash, health, and ammo.

Taking it All In
There's nothing like a stroll through Liberty City, and even a quick hour and a half of rummaging through the city was more than enough time to get hooked. There's so much more to the game than I could possibly even attempt to describe here, but rest assured that everything is as you might expect it to be in the evolution of GTA. Next month, you'll see for yourself exactly what we're talking about.

GAMEPRO'S PREDICTION:
Grand Theft Auto IV will be the biggest game of 2008.

1. Huge multiplayer focus. Details are locked up in camp Rockstar, but we suspect multiplayer will be bigger and better than the tacked-on modes found in the PSP games.

2. Downloadable content is already under way. Rockstar's promised DLC for the Xbox 360 will help the game grow through 2008 and beyond. No word on PS3 DLC yet, but we're betting on it.


Like it's predecessors, GTA IV includes a whole host of weapons you can swap out at any time. We played with multiple SMGs, shotguns, and assault rifles, and they each had their own unique weight and feel.

* In GTA IV there are strip joints and, more unexpectedly, comedy clubs, which have been incorporated in a manner that is "enough to make your head spin." Edge aren't allowed to say anything else about it at this time.

Video game firm Electronic Arts (EA) has made a hostile $2bn (Ł1bn) bid for Take-Two Interactive Software, which publishes Grand Theft Auto.

EA took the offer directly to shareholders after Take-Two rejected its offer last month.

Take-Two said it would talk to EA after 29 April, when Grand Theft Auto IV is released. It also said EA was trying to take advantage of its low share price.

But John Riccitiello, chief executive of EA, said the offer was not hostile.

"This is an incredibly friendly proposition: we're offering a premium of over 60% of what [stock] was trading at before our offer," he told the BBC.

"I think we're the best possible home for their creative organisations; frankly, we're big fans."

EA's offer expires at midnight on 11 April, which is the day after Take-Two's annual shareholders' meeting.

EA's boss warned that delaying the deal might prevent it going ahead.

"The longer this takes to get done, the less valuable the transaction is to us and our ability to pay $26 declines," he said.

The Grand Theft Auto games have been extremely successful but have been criticised for their violent content.

On Tuesday, Take-Two raised its profit forecasts for the year on the basis of better-than-expected orders for its new game.

The deal would be the latest round of consolidation in the industry, following Activision's $18bn acquisition of the gaming unit of France's Vivendi, which was announced in November