Rockstar Games have announced that GTA IV will be arriving on the PC on November 18th and 21st in North America and Europe, respectively. Hurrah!
New York, NY – August 6, 2008 – Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), is proud to announce that Grand Theft Auto IV will be arriving on the PC on November 18th and 21st in North America and Europe, respectively.
"We are very excited to be releasing the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "The whole team is dedicated to bringing an amazing gaming experience to the PC. The game looks and plays beautifully on PC and we can't wait for people to play it."
Developed by series creator Rockstar North and set in Liberty City, the latest installment in the enormously successful Grand Theft Auto series features a painstakingly detailed and life-like city for players to explore; a rich, immersive narrative experience; an original soundtrack highlighting the cultural eclecticism of Liberty City; and newly expanded multiplayer just for the PC.
GTA IV Announced on PC!
New GTA 4 PC details revealed in The Game Machine
Well it has been over a month since anyone last saw anything new on the PC version. However it appears the Italian magazine "The Game Machine" has had a sneak peak and revealed some new details :-
The replay editor will record the last 30 seconds of gameplay. Once the video has been saved you can use inbuilt software in GTA 4 to add special effects and change camera angles. You will also be able to add audio tracks from the official soundtrack of the game (no word on whether you can use your own MP3's). Once your video is done it can then be published on Rockstars Social Club site so others can watch it.
The GPS and map have been beefed up, thanks to the mouse it is now just point and click. However Rockstar have added the ability for you to mark locations, make notes and add images. That should make hunting those pesky pigeons a bit easier.The other important bit of information is that Rockstar have managed to improve the game streaming, thanks to the power of the cpu in modern PC's. This means less of the "same car syndrome" in which you would see lots of the same car you are driving. The magazine is also claiming that there will be more pedestrians and vehicles visible in the PC version
Social Club Update: Viral Infection
After first being announced in July, Social Club's "Viral Infection" zombie feature is now finally available at Rockstar Social Club. Here is the description from Rockstar:
There is a virus sweeping through Grand Theft Auto IV turning many unsuspecting players into Zombies. If you’ve seen the special Zombie-with-yellow-briefs player skin running around during Grand Theft Auto IV multiplayer, then you may already know that the virus can be contracted in any and all multiplayer modes and is spread when an unsuspecting player kills someone who has the infection (note that the infected don’t necessarily have to be wearing the Zombie skin, some show no symptoms!). The signs of infection are: access to the zombie skin and having the Achievement “Let Sleeping Rockstars Lie”. With the all-new Viral Infection feature at the Rockstar Social Club, members can now see whether they are currently infected, the number of total global infections and the number of infections in the last 24 hours. Digging deeper, Social Club members can also browse a color-coded world map tracking the spread of the infection worldwide, including breakdown for all 50 US States. Click here for the Viral Infection feature.
A few benefits of the PC version of GTA 4 uncovered
A Czech gaming site recently had the pleasure of being some of the first to see the PC version of GTA 4 in action.
Perhaps more so than GTA 3, playing GTA 4 on the PC is going to have a more benefits not found in the console versions of the game. For starters, the greater capability of the PC will allow gamers to play GTA 4 at up to 2560x1600 resolution, with higher quality textures.
GTA 4 PC will also have an improved movie-recording feature that will allow for movies to start recording up to 30 seconds into the past. So if you just pulled off a crazy quad-car flip trick by accident, you can pause the game, rewind, and record it.
A new multiplayer mode is also coming to the game, but Rockstar hasn't let any more details slip regarding this feature.
GTA 4 Sales Top 10 Million
Sales of the blockbuster title continue to exceed Take-Two's expectations.
Take-Two has announced that as of August 16, 2008 over 10 million units of Grand Theft Auto IV have been sold through to consumers.
The publisher, in its third quarter financial report, noted that net income for the quarter was $433.8 million, compared to $206.4 million for the same quarter of fiscal 2007. Third quarter sales were led by GTA 4 - Take-Two points to Top Spin 3 and Civilization Revolution as also performing well.
The huge sales of GTA 4 have also helped the publisher turn a net loss of $58.5 million in Q3 fiscal 2007 into a profit of $51.8 million in Q3 fiscal 2008.
GTA 4 is expected to continue to sell and will be boosted by the November PC release.
PS3 GTA IV Update Data 1.01 Released
A patch has been released for PlayStation 3 users of Grand Theft Auto IV. You will be prompted to download the update the next time you load GTA IV whilst being signed into the PlayStation Network. While download and installation is required to continue playing the game; totaling 18 MB, it shouldn't keep you away for too long.
As for content, the patch addresses certain online issues related to GameSpy's servers being overloaded. Not surprising, considering the sheer number of those playing the game.
Rockstar Games has released a GTA IV patch for Playstation 3 today that prevents GameSpy’s servers from being overloaded and therefore reduces the impact on those servers that were causing the game to stutter and lock up. We continue to monitor the performance of the game both on and offline and will provide further updates as necessary. We want to assure everyone that, together with our hardware partners, we continue to strive to give our fans the best possible interactive entertainment experiences possible. This update will ensure that everyone will experience Grand Theft Auto IV the way it was intended. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.
Results so far appear to be mixed, if discussion on our forums is anything to go by.
GTA4 dot net Lives!
Welcome to the newest version of GTA4.NET - we hope you like the new design, which was long overdue to say the least. There are still a few issues relating to Internet Explorer 6 that we hope to resolve over the next few days, but meanwhile check out some of the new content we have added:
Random Character Encounters.
GTA IV Friends & Girlfriends
High-End Assassination Missions.
Stevie's Text Message Car Thefts
Desktop Wallpapers.
We will continue to add new content over the coming weeks, and most of that content (including the present content) will be integrated with an interactive map at some point. Remember to register at our forum if you haven't already.