GTA-4.BIZ

 Quite a bit of information from some various sources, including PSM3 France, Swedish magazine Level and the GTA4 official website.

• Broker is the only island open at the start, however you can begin accessing the other islands sooner than you have in previous games
• If you die during a mission you’re given a chance to retry it by way of a text, after respawning at the hospital
• Headlights can be set to full beam or dipped, but they can’t be turned off
• We mentioned a while ago that you may find items of use to you in vehicles, it has now been confirmed that you can’t actually use vehicles as a place to store items
• Cars are not customisable as they were in San Andreas
• Items on the ground now have a yellow halo around them. Rather than the cylindrical glow we’ve become accustomed to in the series’ previous offerings, GTA IV’s mission markers are now large arrows pointing at the ground.
• There are eighteen radio stations in total. Genres include funk, reggae, jazz, dance, Jamaican, pop, hardcore, hip hop and an Eastern European station. One of the stations is called The Vibe, which plays RnB and soul music.
• You can pause the game to view a full size map of the city. Selecting a destination will map out a route to it on your radar.
• On the subject of GPS, some of the more expensive cars have voice navigation.
• As mentioned previously it is now possible to lob grenades and molotov cocktails out vehicle windows. Firing a gun is said to be (realistically) less accurate than in previous games.
• Niko is a master at Krav Maga, a fighting style the Israeli Special Forces use.
• Niko was able to punch someone hard enough that they crashed through a window behind them.
• Once minor technical difference between the PS3 and 360 versions has been spotted - The 360 version is brighter and has slightly more vibrant colour, while the PS3 build has less aliasing issues.
• Brucie is located in the Broker docks in an abandoned warehouse. He pays Niko to kill a specific person. Niko goes to the targets house, but somehow the target manages to escape through a back door. After a long car chase, Niko does a drive-by on the target who tried to escape on foot. When Brucie calls after the assassination, he screams: “You’re the man!”
• Keeping friends is very important. If Niko shows up on time for meetings, run errands and help his friends, he will get taxi service (what this means is not explained), a free helicopter and guns delivered to his home. If you can’t make it to a meeting, you should call whomever you where supposed to meet, and tell that person you won’t be able to meet him or her just now.
• Enemy health is indicated by a circle above the head.
• The massive weight of a car is something you really feel. Cars behave much more realistic than in previous games.
• There is a car named Contender.
• There is a place where you can rent helicopters. When Niko gets there, a man in a yellow jacket approaches him, and asks if he wants to view the city from above. Instead of replying nicely, Niko blows the guys brains out, and steals a helicopter. The Rockstar Games representatives told the previewer the following: “Congratulations! You’re the first of all journalists to fly a helicopter in GTA IV! We actually never thought that any of you would come up with the idea to do that!”
• According to the previewer, you can fly the helicopter very high above Liberty City.
• The last thing the previewer did was to land the helicopter on top of the GetaLife building, stand on the ‘G’ in GetaLife, and snipe people on the ground.
• According to the journalists, the first hands-on minutes were enough to solidify their feelings of how the game is going to kick ass.
• Liberty City has more streets than any other game in the genre.
• You cannot enter every building. However, you can interact with most of them. Rooftops, stairways, fire escapes, partial interiors, etc.
• Niko will not be able to manage property, gangs or trade.
• Bowling, dart games, drinking games, strip clubs and night clubs will be available.
• The core of GTA IV is all about the human relationship.
• Sometimes, your contacts may call you during a hard mission to ask you a service. In this instance, you can choose between the mission or whatever your contact is asking. If you ditch your mission to do things with your phone contact, you may see consequences. Whether or not you will be able to replay the mission that you went away from remains to be seen.
• The new impression of seeing a next generation living, breathing city is absolutely stunning.
• The pedestrian population density changes between the place/borough you are in.
• If you walk around the street with a gun in your hand, pedestrians who have a phone can call the police.
• In one instance when Niko tried to carjack someone, the scared innocent driver sped away so fast that he hit two cars.
• During the first mission that the journalists played, they tried to carjack someone without a gun. The driver beat up Niko. Niko got beat up so bad that he ended up at the hospital.
• Pedestrians react in a very realistic way. The journalists said that it is as if each person in the game leads his/her own life.
• It took 15 minutes to go through 2/3 of Manhattan with a boat. It took 10 minutes by car to go through Brooklyn and Central Park.
• The cars can be destroyed very realistically. Every part of the car can bend and fold.
• GTA IV has a wider variety of mission types. The missions are more difficult than in previous games.
• The game is done. Most clipping bugs are gone. The game is super smooth in terms of frame rate. (Note: The game is not 100% done. It is not “gold” yet.)
• If you press the jump button, Niko can climb everywhere. In other words, wall climbing from San Andreas has returned. You can strafe on walls, too.
• There is a swimming club.
• If you have five stars, it’s very difficult to escape from the cops. They are everywhere and they don’t joke with you. They are smarter than in previous incarnations of the series.
• While in a boat, the sound effects are awesome. You can hear the sound of the waves that beat the front of the boat.
• With powerful weapons, you can shoot through the walls.
• The weather that was seen during the four hours of gameplay included fog, rain, sun and clouds. A variety of colors can be seen depending on the time of day.
• When you die, you pay $100 but you get to keep your weapons.
• When you go to jail after getting busted, you pay more than $100 and you lose your weapons.
• While you are drunk, it’s very difficult to control Niko. The drunk sensation is perfectly done.
• When stealing a car from a pedestrian, Niko didn’t get into the car before the pedestrian sped up. Niko held onto the car as the pedestrian glided along the road. (Note: It may have been the pedestrian holding on to a car Niko was in. The translation is sketchy.)
• Choppers with search lights are in the game.
• Women will striptease in strip clubs when you pay.
• Depending on the borough you are in, pedestrians may speak different languages. Italian, Chinese and those in the Bronx are different when it comes to language.
• Health kits are available only in buildings.
• Grenade and molotov cocktail sound effects are stunning.