Grand Theft Auto IV [X360]

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Grand Theft Auto IV: Hands on Preview

Other than tidbits gleaned from two enigmatic trailers and a batch of screenshots, very little is known about the enormously-anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV. That shouldn't come as a surprise -- true to its too-cool-for-school name, Rockstar Games operates on its own terms. The company behind popular, controversial titles like GTA, the recently AO'ed Manhunt 2, and schoolyard adventure Bully, manages to consistently release massive games while remaining curiously elusive. At the recent E3 convention in Santa Monica, for example, a packed house of V.I.P. journalists was treated to a measly five minutes of GTA IV gameplay. Think it's tough to score seats to the Super Bowl? Try to score new info about a Rockstar game sometime.

Imagine our surprise when, a mere two days after E3, we found ourselves front and center for a whopping two hour gameplay demo of their upcoming action extravaganza. And we're not talking about another rehash of the two trailers -- we're talking about actual, live gameplay running on a very real Xbox 360, featuring protagonist Niko Bellic roaming about the streets of Liberty City, chatting on his phone, jacking cars, gunning down marks, and revealing a slew of impressive new features along the way.

The demo begins shortly after dawn in Star Junction, Liberty City's version of Times Square. Two things give that away: the developers casually admit it, and the location literally looks just like the famous heart of Manhattan. Skyscrapers loom overhead, street workers go about their business and late-night revelers stagger home from an evening of debauchery. In other GTA games, you were essentially the king of the city. In GTA IV, Rockstar claims that you're very much "a small fish in a big pond," and it certainly feels that way from the get go.

Ignoring the warnings of nutritionists, Niko's first act is to order a breakfast hot dog from a local vendor. No sooner has he gulped down the last bite of mystery meat than his cell phone rings. It's Officer McCrery, a dirty cop who needs Niko to rub out a particularly annoying lawyer. The phone is more than just a way to receive a mission, however -- it's a core element of GTA IV's gameplay. That's made clear when Niko calls his buddy Little Jacob, a resident arms dealer. No more receiving pages and simply reacting to them -- in GTA IV, you can initiate the gameplay by making calls on your own volition. If Niko didn't make the call, for instance, his upcoming munitions transaction with Little Jacob would never happen.

By the time Niko and Jacob meet up, we've been given a taste of GTA IV's insane attention to detail. Every single street in the game has a name, every single location exists at a real in-game address. In another nod to the real world, the convenient Ammu-Nation gun stores are gone. If you want an uzi, you'll have to get it through shady underground dealers and back alley transactions. This is 2007, after all.

The present-tense setting also means Liberty City is online. If Niko finds a computer, he can access the Internet to check his e-mail, research NPCs or surf around. It doesn't connect to the real-world web, but like everything else in GTA, the virtual Internet is huge and packed with useful (and not so useful) information. In this case, Niko sends his resume to a law firm in an effort to score an interview and get a face to face with that pesky lawyer.