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Houser Interview Teases Grand Theft Auto V

Owen Good — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:00:00 +0000

Strauss Zelnick may be adamant about not announcing the next Grand Theft Auto, but Dan Houser, in a lengthy interview with The Times of London, so casually mentions work on the next GTA that it sounds rather inevitable.

Writes The Times:

There’s a Western game in the works for next spring, and the next GTA to think of. “We’ll think of a city first, then the characters,” says Houser. The script he will end up co-writing will run to around 1,000 pages, nearly ten times as much as a feature film.

There’s plenty of other interesting quotes inside the interview, including Houser’s reaction to being the punching bag/pariah every time a violent video game is brought up in popular culture. Also, and I didn’t know this, but in The Ballad of Gay Tony, he and Sam put a saxophonist in the park in Liberty City as a tribute to their father, a jazz artist who plays the instrument.

The Driving Force Behind Grand Theft Auto [Times of London via GameDaily]

Time Flies In Liberty City

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:30:00 +0000

Say what you will about the merits of Grand Theft Auto IV as a game, there’s no disputing how magnificent a technical achievement it is. After all, few games could make a clip like this so interesting.

It’s 15 days in Liberty City, recorded via timelapse. Hypnotising, no? Sadly, it’s not embeddable, so you’ll have to hit the links below to watch.

Vid [Eurogamer]
Vid Mirror [Rockstar]

Five New Screens To Get You Ready For Gay Tony

Owen Good — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:40:00 +0000

We’re three days and five new screens closer to the release of Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City and, more specifically, The Ballad of Gay Tony.

Rockstar put out these five, foreshadowing what you can expect in the expansion. Luis scaling the Rotterdam Tower; flashing the Advanced MG machine gun, the titular Tony Prince and rival boss Yusuf Amir, and some shady deals going down under the overpass.

New Screenshots from The Ballad of Gay Tony [Rockstar]

Man Plays Grand Theft Auto For 40 Hours Straight

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:00:00 +0000

What did you do between September 4 and September 6? Twenty-six year-old private equity broker Chirantan Patnaik played Grand Theft Auto IV — for 40 hours and 20 minutes straight.

The Mumbai, India resident started playing at his home on September 4 at 10:00 a.m. and wrapped up on September 6 at 2:00 a.m., taking only four breaks. His marathon play session was observed by observers and has earned its place in the Guinness Book, surpassing the previous record of playing GTAIV for 28 hours and 1 minute.

“There are so many other games which I have played for long hours,” says Patnaik. “But I had never tried playing this particular game seriously. However, I knew that I can do it after I saw my brother playing it … I enjoyed the game very much. It’s fun playing long hours. It wasn’t that exhaustive for me, as one might feel.”

To train for the event, he exercised, ran and did yoga, and while playing, he guzzled coffee and munched on dates. Next up, Patnaik plans to play for 48 hours straight.

Mumbai youth makes world record in video gaming [ZEENEWS via GamePolitics]

The Ballad Of Gay Tony Debut Trailer

Elly Hart — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:13:50 +0000

We saw the screenshots, we saw the box art, and now we finally get to see the debut trailer for Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony.

The Ballad of Gay Tony on its own will be available for download on Xbox Live for $26.40 or 1600 Microsoft Points when it’s released on October 29.

There’s also a disc version called Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City which includes both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony episodes. It’ll retail for $69.95, or you can purchase both episodes as downloads for $52.80. The downloaded version requires the original GTA IV to play. The disc version does not.

The trailer is titled, “You’ll Always Be King Of This Town”. (But of course!)

GTA: Episodes From Liberty City Box Looks Like This

Mike Fahey — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Here’s the final box art for Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, the stand-alone versions of Grand Theft Auto IV’s first and second doses of downloadable content.

Rockstar sure has been busy this weekend, releasing a set of screenshots for The Ballad of Gay Tony, announcing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and Beaterator for the iPhone, and now we get our first look at the box art for Episodes from Liberty City. You’d think they’d just take the rest of the week off, but no – tomorrow they release the trailer for The Ballad of Gay Tony. Then they take a richly-deserved nap.

Grand Theft Auto IV Goes Discount In Japan

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Released in Japan back in last October, the PS3 version of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV has been announced for Sony’s PlayStation The Best budget line.

The game will be priced at ¥3,990 (US$41) and is slated for release on August 27.

Somebody Got Wayne’s World In My Lost & Damned

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:30:00 +0000

To those who have GTAIV’s expansion pack, Lost & Damned: you seen those cars that look like they’re the ones Wayne drives in Wayne’s World? Their presence is no coincidence.

As the below video shows, there’s more than one tip of the hat to the classic comedy skit/movie franchise going on in Johnny’s Alderney.

GTA4: The Lost and Damned ‘Wayne’s World Easter Egg’ MyCheats video

You Seem To Have Got GTAIV In My Google Earth

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:30:00 +0000

Reader Sun Scramble was checking out Google Earth the other day and – on a whim, we’re sure – punched in 40°42′49.23″N, 73°59′51.44″W. Lo and behold, what did he see? A giant GTAIV ad.

See for yourself, it’s right there, dominating the nearby streetscape in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Not a bad way to get some free, dorky advertising if you happened to have your ads up at the time.

Sci Fi’s Top Ten Overrated Games Of 2008 May Offend

Mike Fahey — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:40:00 +0000

On the Sci Fi channel’s gaming blog Fidgit, actor and game journalist Tom Chick delivers a list of 2008’s most overrated games that is guaranteed to piss off just about everyone imaginable.

The list is comprised of games that many would consider the very best of the year. Braid, LittleBigPlanet, Left 4 Dead, Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto 4 – all presented as games that don’t deserve the praise they’ve received. In his defence, Chick does offer up a pre-list caveat:

Many of the following ten games are great. A few came close to being on my top ten list … I would call a couple of them works of genius. But I think they’re the most overrated games of the year for the simple fact that I’m surprised at how well received they were.

I’m just a bit sketchy on what he’s saying there. He considers some of the games works of genius, but is surprised that others do as well? Hit the link to see the full list, in which I feel that only one title fits the category, mainly because I am a lazy bastard.

10 most overrated games of 2008 [Fidgit via Waffle Squadron Omega]