from palgn.com.au
Grand Theft Auto III was without doubt one of the defining ***les of last generation. The game's sprawling city, open mission structure, and tight presentation showed what that generation of consoles were capable of, word of mouth made the ***le a smash hit, and the open-world design went on to be one of the dominant game types of the generation. Scottish developer DMA Design (soon re-named Rockstar North) expanded and refined the formula over the two PS2 sequels, Vice City and San Andreas, developing more involved stories and sense of place, upping the feature list, and further smashing sales records. Rockstar North repeatedly showed they had what it took to stay ahead of the pack.
Which brings us to the story of Grand Theft Auto IV. Almost seven years since the last numbered GTA, the gaming environment is now crowded with open-world games, with many other developers having nailed a version of the formula. After the two solid but unimaginative PSP/PS2 GTA Stories releases, the questions had to be asked â€" did Rockstar still have what it took to stay ahead in terms of ideas and designs? Another concern was that all the PS2 (and PSP) games were built on a middleware engine foundation, and many were wondering exactly how Rockstar would go with the first major game in the series developed from scratch on their own in-house tech. Rockstar San Diego's next-gen RAGE engine held promise but was unproven, with the only game having been released using the tech so far being Rockstar Presents Table Tennis. It was a nice little game, but hardly a showcase of grand design. When the bombshell dropped last year that Grand Theft Auto IV would miss its October release date, it seemed many of these fears may have had a basis in reality.
With the recent announcement that Grand Theft Auto IV would be released worldwide on April 29, only three months away, at least it's not going to be a long wait to find out the answers to these questions. We recently had an opportunity to take a look at the latest build of Grand Theft Auto IV at Rockstar's offices, and we definitely left reassured. Grand Theft Auto IV is shaping up remarkably well, and Rockstar North look to still have everything it takes to stay ahead of the pretenders.
The scale of the city really comes across when you're travelling by foot.
Our demo began with a quick walk around the city. Main character Niko, a Russian immigrant with a criminal history, was at the docks on Liberty City harbour during sunrise, and his task was to meet a mechanic who had a job for him. After stealing a car (by breaking the window with his elbow and hot wiring it), Niko was off, and we got our first look at the city as he took a drive. The game didn't immediately jump out at us as better looking then your average next-gen game, as up-close textures and geometry looked good, but nothing mind-blowing. But soon we realised that this engine was very impressive. The draw distance was simply stunning, and there appeared to be some kind of focus filter so things don't have that 'unrealistically crystal clear at any distance' look of many high definition games. Add to this great art design, a strong lighting engine (highlighted by the rising sun over the harbour), fluid animation and physics for pedestrians and cars respectively, and a generally stable framerate, and it all came together to be one of the best, if not the best looking game we've yet seen on the HD consoles. But more about the graphics later.
Niko arrived at the mechanics, and after leaving the car, we noticed another thing â€" the game seamlessly transitioned to the indoor environment without load time. Indoors didn't look quite as impressive, with some (relatively) blurry textures and polygon edges visible, but all this was worth the trade-off for interiors so well integrated into the game. A cut scene began, the mechanic (a try-hard underworld figure named 'Brucie') was working under a car, and after failing to respond to Niko's call he received a quick kick in the ribs. Here we realised three things. First, this game is as adult as they come, with plenty of swearing, realistic violence and references to everything unwholesome. Second, the voice acting, animation and direction of the cut scene was absolutely top-of-the-line for the industry. Dialogue matched the mouths of the characters better then we've seen before, the character movements were natural without the exaggeration usually present in videogame (and for that matter CG movie) body language, and the script was tight and amusing, very Goodfellas or Sopranos.
The third thing we noticed was that Niko is quite an entertaining main character. Older, daggier, and more flawed then your average videogame 'hero', he's possibly one of the most original in years. He's a classic rough European gangster without being too much of a cliché, he's not cool in a clean-cut commercial sense, but still completely confident and bad-ass in his own way. He's also pretty hilarious, and over the period of the demo we watched him make verbal mincemeat out of many other characters, all in a delightful Russian accent. Rockstar promises he has some sort of 'dark secret', and that the main story thread of the game will be about him tracking down somebody from his past, but for everything else the game has to offer, watching Niko's reactions to events is one of the things we will be most looking forward to in the final game.
The weather effects are fantastic.
The job Brucie gave Niko was to 'take out' a certain individual, but in order to do this he must first be located by accessing the Police Database. And the easiest way to do this is to steal a cop car. This task achieved 'the easy way' (stealing the car from the front of the station), Niko was able to search for his hit and then follow on on-board GPS to the now helpfully marked destination. During the drive we witnessed yet more stunning views of the city, from various camera angles available, including a very cinematic ¾ overhead view. Niko also received a few mobile phone calls. These calls went unanswered as part of this demo, but will apparently need to be dealt with in the final game, or your friends and contacts will get annoyed at you for not answering, but will help you out in the future if you are a good contact.
Arriving at the destination, no sooner had Niko knocked on the door then the target did a runner, jumping out a back window, and after jacking the nearest car the chase was on. While driving, you are able to smash a window and freely aim any weapon with the right stick, allowing you to take out the other car or anything else in your way. A head-on collision and dramatic fuel truck explosion later, Niko got out of the car and walked over to finish off the now-limping target, execution style. A short theme-tune signalled the mission was complete and the game had auto-saved.
The next mission we were shown was given to Niko by a small-time African-American Gangster who called himself Playboy X. After another amusing cut scene, we were off to take out some troublesome union workers on a bay-side construction site on behalf of the Mafia. 'PX' comes along for the ride, giving Niko some weapons and details, and the first task was to climb an adjacent building and snipe the lookouts. After this was complete, Niko went in alone to finish off the workers, and this was when we first saw the new combat system at work. Playing very much like Gears of War or Uncharterd, the basic set-up in this mission involved moving between cover while aiming with the right stick. A context sensitive button allowed Niko to slide to cover, pop out to take aim, and even blind fire. Auto-aiming remains an option and was turned on in this demo, but controls will apparently be quite customisable in the final build. It all seemed very modern and fluid, and best of all was once again seamlessly integrated - pull out the gun and you're on. This level also allowed us to see the city and building site at night â€" cheat options in the build allowed us to see several weather types and times of day, and they all looked very atmospheric.
Aiming weapons is much improved.
The final mission we saw involved stealing a truck full of heroin from some suburban triads. Beginning by ambushing the well guarded truck in a delightfully authentic 'Sopranos New Jersey'-like setting, we watched the physics engine at work as Niko's grenades sent bodies flying. But the truck took off, signaling the start of an action set-piece where you must grab the back of the truck (by hitting a context sensitive button) and then climb over the top to take out the driver, Indiana Jones style. It was all very dramatic and highlighted a potential variety of gameplay in the final game.
We mentioned we'd come back to the graphics, and it has to be said that while there are still a few issues with the build we saw, Grand Theft Auto IV is a huge achievement technically. The scale of the city is truly impressive, as you really can see for miles with over a realistic looking horizon. It's not aiming for complete realism, more like a stylistically shot movie, and the art direction and lighting really bring this home. Several areas of New York have been re-created amazingly faithfully (in fictional 'Liberty City' form, of course) and a quick run around the harbour by speedboat allowed us quite a good look at a large chunk of the game area - and it was a sight to behold. In this build there was still a bit of texture pop-in, some framerate hiccups particularly when turning a corner quickly, and some background shimmering, seemingly due to incomplete anti-aliasing. But even if the game were released in current form it would still be a great looking game, albeit buggy.
We have to admit that while we enjoyed last generation's GTA games and understood their significance, we were never quite won over by the dated engine and clumsy aiming mechanics. Based on this demo, Grand Theft Auto IV looks likely to win us over. The seamless integration of modern shooting and driving gameplay, a seemingly complex mission structure, interesting characters and narrative, and an expansive, great looking city make this the most 'next-gen' game we've yet seen. If the whole game is this good, and the remaining kinks have been worked out by release, Rockstar North may have set the standard yet again.
sounds pretty good thus far
