By John Mayfield/reporter
Grand Theft Auto 4 will be released, and teachers all over America and the United Kingdom can expect to see a few extra empty desks in their classrooms after April 29.
GTA, known for its immersive and addictive game play, is ready to rob America of its young men in the final month before summer with this long-awaited sequel.
The release date of GTA 4 has been pushed back twice already, but with the game topping the pre-order lists at many retailers, it would seem that the fans have not been turned away.
“Sure I was a little upset when they [Rockstar] pushed it back, but if it means we’ll get a more polished game, I’m fine with that,” Phil Gelianas, former TCC student, said.
From 2001 to 2004, Rockstar built its GTA fan base with three versions of GTA 3, covering fictionalized versions of New York, Miami and Los Angeles.
GTA 4 will be a return to Liberty City, the fictionalized version of New York.
While the overall map will be smaller than the previous GTA game San Andreas, the game promises upwards of 80 hours of game play in the single player alone.
This time around, gamers will take the role of Niko Bellic, a former criminal from the Baltic region of Eastern Europe. The game’s synopsis states that Niko is a man looking to turn his life around in America only to have it turned upside down.
The big difference this time, besides the next-gen graphics, will be the online play, something every GTA fan has been waiting for since the release of GTA 3.
The game will feature four online modes of play to start with downloadable updates to increase the number of online games. The modes the game will start out with include 16-player Deathmatch, Race, Cops and Crooks and Hang Man’s Noose.
The first two speak for themselves, but Cops and Crooks and Hang Man’s Noose promise to offer some interesting gaming.
Cops and Crooks will be an escort game where one side must protect its boss from point A to point B while the other side takes the role of heavily armed police officers.
Hang Man’s Noose is the closest GTA 4 will get to having true online co-op. It will be story-driven missions of two to four players with an interesting feature to allow each player control of the radio.
One of the trademarks of the GTA franchise has always been the soundtrack, and while this time around it is sure to be more massive than ever, Rockstar is keeping its mouth shut as to the specifics.
Rockstar released one interesting tidbit of information regarding the soundtrack two weeks ago that would imply that the soundtrack is almost too massive.
At any point while the player is driving, if he enjoys the song playing on the radio, he can use his in-game cell phone to mark it.
After doing so, the track name will be sent to that player’s page on the Rockstar Social Club, a site that opened April 17. Then the player will have the option to download that song from Amazon for roughly $1.
All of this would indicate that over the course of the expected 80 hours of game play the same song might not be heard more than a dozen or so times.
The game play of GTA 4 will be the same as before with only minor tweaks, such as the ability to take cover and a new targeting system to cycle through an opponent’s body parts.
But one new and quite useful feature will be the criminal database.
Anytime Niko steals a police cruiser, he will have access to the onboard police database. This will allow the player to gain information on current criminal activities and associates’ whereabouts, and this information will be needed.
Every street has a name, and as a result, the dependence on the on-screen map will be downplayed. It is up to the player to get his bearing in Liberty City.
The pre-orders for GTA 4 started last year, and customers still are placing new ones. Those who place their order now will likely have to wait for a restock to come in, depending on whether they go for the $90 special edition, complete with a safe deposit box.
Most retailers will stay open a little past midnight on April 28 to sell GTA 4, but there is never any guarantee that there will be enough copies.
Fans of Grand Theft Auto should start stocking up on supplies now because this will be a very long game. GTA 4is certainly looking to be the most impressive game to come out since the last GTA.
