GTA IV : Return to NY and the French?

[Lego]

Well I finally was able to see the GTA IV trailer, wow. The visuals are a step up and realistic NY City aka Liberty City seems to be the setting this time. The main site is hammered, the sites Gametrailers and Gamevideos are hammered, I had to get the video from a torrent. The trailer is around 1:30 long, and shows off some nice graphical work and for once in a GTA title, a seemingly living city.

Since all of the sites are getting hammered, I picked up the trailer from a torrent. It appears now that the offical Xbox site has the trailer up in HD (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/g/grandtheftautoiv) .

[Zorak]

I'm a bit disappointed that it's set in Liberty City again. They've already used it twice and I was hoping for a new locale. Still, the trailer's very impressive and I'm looking forward to finding out more.

I wonder if this means GTA5 will be set in Vice City? I'd kinda like to see my favorite GTA locale get the same visual overall that Liberty City has.

[Lego]

I'm a bit disappointed that it's set in Liberty City again. They've already used it twice and I was hoping for a new locale. Still, the trailer's very impressive and I'm looking forward to finding out more.

I wonder if this means GTA5 will be set in Vice City? I'd kinda like to see my favorite GTA locale get the same visual overall as Liberty City has.

Yeah, I was hoping that we'd get another city, but man does it look nice. Liberty City for GTA 3 was claustrophobic. So I look at this as Rockstar wanting to "do NY right" if you will and show off their graphical prowess. If the game can hold that graphical level all the time and still have the free roaming, do anything gameplay that San Andreas had, it'll be another top seller.

[martod]

If that is Liberty City, it's a different Liberty City than the one on the PS2. Interesting that there are some landmarks from the real NYC in the trailer(the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building). The City looks great, especially the Lighting effects, but the people and cars haven't really improved that much in terms of graphics.

[ayareiko]

Well I finally was able to see the GTA IV trailer, wow. The visuals are a step up and realistic NY City aka Liberty City seems to be the setting this time. The main site is hammered, the sites Gametrailers and Gamevideos are hammered, I had to get the video from a torrent. The trailer is around 1:30 long, and shows off some nice graphical work and for once in a GTA title, a seemingly living city.

Since all of the sites are getting hammered, I picked up the trailer from a torrent. It appears now that the offical Xbox site has the trailer up in HD (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/g/grandtheftautoiv) .
Wow.

Looks like a return to Liberty City, but now it looks like it'll be made to look like the real NYC.

And I thought the guy sounded Russian, not French.

[Lego]

If that is Liberty City, it's a different Liberty City than the one on the PS2. Interesting that there are some landmarks from the real NYC in the trailer(the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building). The City looks great, especially the Lighting effects, but the people and cars haven't really improved that much in terms of graphics.

If you go frame by frame on the Times Square scene, you can see a sign in the lower left hand corner saying "Welcome to Liberty City" on one of the buildings. It's right below an ad for "America's Next Top Hooker".

[CrazyAsano]

I'm pretty sure he's Italian.

[Zorak]

If you go frame by frame on the Times Square scene, you can see a sign in the lower left hand corner saying "Welcome to Liberty City" on one of the buildings. It's right below an ad for "America's Next Top Hooker".

There are other indications that it's Liberty City:

-Two boats (Most notably the big one that says Platypus) read Liberty City.
-A building that has "Liberteeen" on it.
-The Times Square setting has a billboard that advertises the Liberty Tree, LC's local newspaper. Another billboard there reads "I [heart] Liberty City" and another reads "Exclusive to Liberty City"
-A church that looks a lot like the church on Staunton Island.

I also spotted a sign in the very first shot with the subway train which read "Vice City $300." I wonder if this means Vice City is also featured in the game or if this is just some throwaway reference?

[Zorak]

And I thought the guy sounded Russian, not French.

He sound Russian to me too. Maybe he has ties with the Russian mafia.

[Lego]

Hmm I didn't see the Vice City reference. I know in San Andreas there was a mission where you went back to Liberty City to finish off some mobsters, so who knows. I guess it's possible that you could have two totally separate areas in Liberty City and Vice City. Man I couldn't even think about what that would be like if you could go between the two areas like that. But it's probably just a reference. San Andreas was decently big, so I'm hoping that the game world is huge.

[quenelf]

Combine the voice and the looks, he's definitely from somewhere in the region of Russia I would think. (I.e. could be any of the states around there.)

Awesome graphics if the game looks anything like that during gameplay; I've never played a GTA game and don't particularly intend to but still... graphics-wise this is definitely the kind of thing I'd get a PS3 for. (Or X360.)

I downloaded the high-ish res trailer and frame-stepped through to see some of the adverts on the scrolling dot display at one point, they're pretty funny. One is something like "Our New SUV Uses More Petroleum Than Any Of Our Competitors'!" Actually, lots of the ads are pretty clever. I hope they keep that through the real game - it's prime example of why paid in-game advertising is a bad thing (unless you're getting the game free or something).

--quen

[martod]

I downloaded the high-ish res trailer and frame-stepped through to see some of the adverts on the scrolling dot display at one point, they're pretty funny. One is something like "Our New SUV Uses More Petroleum Than Any Of Our Competitors'!" Actually, lots of the ads are pretty clever. I hope they keep that through the real game - it's prime example of why paid in-game advertising is a bad thing (unless you're getting the game free or something).

--quen
In all GTA games the cars have radios that play humorous fake commercials between songs(or, in the case of the one or two talk stations, between other humorous segments). So they will keep them in the real game.

[Lego]

Well GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas have sold close to 9 million copies each according to VGcharts, so they have the money. Half of the fun in San Andread was looking at the different ads and listening to different ads.

[CrazyAsano]

Well GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas have sold close to 9 million copies each according to VGcharts, so they have the money. Half of the fun in San Andread was looking at the different ads and listening to different ads.
I don't think that was quite half the fun, but it is fun.

[Lego]

Well yeah I didn't get the game to look or listen to the ads, but you're driving around or just messing around and you come across billboards and the like.

[CrazyAsano]

Well yeah I didn't get the game to look or listen to the ads, but you're driving around or just messing around and you come across billboards and the like.
Is that so.

[Captain Impulse]

I downloaded the high-ish res trailer and frame-stepped through to see some of the adverts on the scrolling dot display at one point, they're pretty funny. One is something like "Our New SUV Uses More Petroleum Than Any Of Our Competitors'!" Actually, lots of the ads are pretty clever. I hope they keep that through the real game - it's prime example of why paid in-game advertising is a bad thing (unless you're getting the game free or something).

--quen

I love the poster for the movie titled "I Slept With Your Mom".

[quenelf]

In all GTA games the cars have radios that play humorous fake commercials between songs(or, in the case of the one or two talk stations, between other humorous segments). So they will keep them in the real game.

Yes, I assume they will after going to significant effort to make them. I just added a tiny touch of doubt because it's got to be a huge temptation to put real-life ads in any game that displays billboards, so I wondered whether for instance they might sell a portion of the ad space. On the one hand, the anti-consumerism message of their fake advertising wouldn't make that much sense alongside real ads... on the other hand, it doesn't make much sense alongside selling a consumer product. :)

(In-game paid ads almost always look really out of place with exception of a few sports games, either because there are real ads in a not-real setting, because they don't have enough ad buyers so instead of seeing billboards for 30 different things there are 30 billboards all the same, or because the ads are aimed at a video gaming demographic while real-life billboard ads definitely are not.)

--quen

[Starwind Amada]

I love Fudge Packing Corp. from GTA3. And the radio ads for Release Gum ("Have it shoot a load in your mouth!") in VCS were great.

[indigo0086]

I loved funami fm and the station with mama cass from GTA 2.