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GTA IV Trailer Released, Slows Sites

Posted by Zonk on Fri Mar 30, 2007 08:33 AM
from the grand-theft-trailer dept.
Entertainment Games
Mr_Congeniality writes "The much-anticipated trailer for the next chapter in the Grand Theft Auto series has been released. Rockstar's servers, including the one that hosts Rockstar's homepage, was completely overloaded with traffic last night as a result. Users desperately flocking to other websites like GTANet and GTA4.net, but even these websites were overloaded by the interest level. If these sites are still slow, try GameTrailers or GameVideos as an alternative. For analysis of the video, CVG has ten things you may have missed, while 1up's editors offer their opinions on what they saw."
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story

Related Stories

[+] Take Two's Board Ousted by Shareholders 32 comments
Some would view it as vaguely ironic that, on the same day that the GTA IV trailer makes its debut, the Take-Two board is finally ousted in the culmination of a nasty inter-corporate feud. CNN's Chris Morris reports on the latest development in the company's saga: "The accounting and ethical quagmires that have bogged down the company for the past few years are likely to disappear. And Take-Two will almost certainly become a leaner company, shedding divisions and canceling games ... The arrival of a new board may also ratchet down the public scrutiny of the company a few notches - but that respite from the spotlight's glare might not last as long as they would like. You see, the thing that makes this game maker different from the rest of the industry is its rebellious streak. It's something that drives opponents insane and causes mass migraines in the boardroom, but without it, Take-Two wouldn't be the force it is today."
[+] GTA IV Information Leaked From Game Informer 106 comments
The next issue of Game Informer magazine has been scanned and submitted to the legions of eager GTA fans out there. Right there on the cover is the mook from the GTA IV trailer, and the British Gaming Blog has a synopsis of the information passed around in the scans. "The game will only take place in a single city, so Rockstar has taken out aircraft to give the city a more realistic feel. Motorbikes however, are firmly engraved in the Grand Theft Auto formula, and will be present in IV. With the 2007, present day time scale, the radio station will have a lot in common with GTA 3 or Saints Row; not so much bands and songs you know well, but with modern music conventions that give an air of authenticity. Also like THQ's Saints Row, the game will load when you power up the game, and then never again; even breaks from internal to external locations are gone." Though I'm sure it's less interesting to you than the Game Informer information, GameDaily has comments from Take-Two as the company tries to shake off its recent problems. The money phrase from new chairman Strauss Zelnick: 'GTA is Our James Bond'.
[+] 360 Limiting GTA IV In Some Ways 268 comments
Last week CVG had a story from the Official PlayStation Magazine, a print entity partnered with the website, about limitations Rockstar faces on the 360. For almost the first time, we're now hearing about a title where lack of space on the disc and the lack of a guaranteed hard drive may be detrimental to Microsoft's console. "[Rockstar's creative vice president Dan Houser] continued, 'To be honest with you we haven't solved all those riddles yet.' The difficulties aren't limited to working on Microsoft's box, as Houser explains that 'both have enormous challenges' and that 'both have their own particular pleasures and pains'. Rockstar hasn't said anything about a target SKU between the two consoles, but they're currently demoing the game to press running on an Xbox 360 - so we wouldn't worry too much if you've only got Microsoft's console. Look for more on GTA IV in the next few weeks."
[+] Live GTAIV Demo Dominates Take Two E3 Event 55 comments
The Take Two event was dominated by a live demonstration of Grand Theft Auto IV . Though little more than jacking a car and a bit of driving was shown, it seemed to make an impression on journalists at the event. Other titles shown at the conference include Civilization Revolutions, Bioshock, and All-Pro Football 2K8. From Joystiq's take on the GTA demo: "Two Rockstar devs take the stage. The music is a placeholder, so they ask that we not mention it. They've never shown a game to an audience this large before it's release. They remind us that it's a work in progress, so we'll be nice. Something tells us it will impress regardless. The titles shares all key players from earlier GTA games. This consistency should ensure that the title meets expectations. With GTAIV, they're looking to "create the defining next generation action adventure." They show Niko starting in Star Juntion (Times Square). This is not a rags to riches story, 'it's a rags to slightly better rags story.'"
[+] Rockstar Allows GTA Fans to Call Liberty City Radio Station 63 comments
NIN1385 writes "Rockstar has sent out a blast email saying that people are now encouraged to call into a Liberty City radio station. WKTT Talk Radio is accepting calls right now allowing people to voice their opinion about what is wrong with today's Liberty City and/or America, and the best will be used on the upcoming GTA IV Soundtrack."
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GTA IV Trailer Released, Slows Sites 50 Comments More /

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  • Yes / No ~ I am willing to help test Slashdot's New Server Overloading System.

    • Yes / No ~ I am willing to help test Slashdot's New Server Overloading System.

      I, for one, welcome our new.. server overload.. erm.. system..

  • Hopefully this game will be similar to Vice City and not like San Andreas...being a thug/gangsta riding a bicycle just isn't my style.
    • Agreed. I completed GTA3 and Vice City, but have yet to get far in San Andreas. Vice City was stylish, with a seedy underbelly, and there was a lot of unexpected humour. San Andreas was just seedy, and the foul language was the last straw.

      I still load VC up from time to time, but SA has been consigned to the shelves.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Floritard (1058660)
      You ride a bicycle for only about the first hour of a game that is anywhere from 50 to 100+ hours long, depending on how much you can appreciate a game that is larger than any that came before it and manages to blend seemlessly numerous gameplay genres like few companies have ever accomplished. Do you avoid Mario games because you don't appreciate the Italian-american experience? No wait you liked playing Vice City. I had some real tolerant friends that didn't like the "thug" aspects of San Andreas either.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Mizled (1000175)

        Your trolling but sure...I'll bite...atleast you didn't do "Anonymous Post"

        Your calling me a racist cause I didn't like being a thug/gangsta in a game? Come on! What race am I being racist against? Mexicans (Latinos), African Americans, Whites? Please tell, as far as I know more than one race can be considered "thug or gangsta".

        My opinion on a game is nothing but that *my opinion*. I can't believe your getting this worked up over this. Jeez dude go outside.

        The hip-hop gangsta style isn't my thing so

            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by Floritard (1058660)
              I particularly enjoyed the desert missions just outside of las venturas in the last third of the game. I actually wished there was more of them, the desert was my favorite setting. If you keep playing, you leave the las angeles-ish ghetto and go on to a san fransisco-ish and las vegas-ish city each with a very particulary feel to them. Then there's the desert surrounding vegas and the coutry surrounding the other cities. You actually become a sort of fish out of water at that point and converse with a diver
    • I spent a couple of months in the summer in California, and had many chances to ride around on a cheap bike in the Palo Alto/Menlo Park region. I have a lot of good memories of those excursions; I guess I should apologize: that part of SA was targeted at me specifically.
    • It's not even that. San Andreas was just SO expansive that it got boring. It was just too open-ended and lacked focus.

      Exercising in the gym to look better, buying sunglasses to raise 'charisma', picking up your girlfriend(s) for dates, ... it wanted to be an RPG or the Sims.

      Shit, I just want to kill someone and steal their car.
    • Please God let them have a better camera system for this one. The one in SA on the PC was terrible. I cannot believe they let that crap out, and people still loved the game.
      • "Claude" in GTA 3 was pretty much devoid of character, as well... I enjoyed GTA 3 more than Vice City and San Andreas.

  • Platform: PlayStation®3, Xbox 360(TM)

    Where's the PC game release on this one? The GTA series was originally for the PC. Oh well.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Same as it was for all the 3d versions of GTA, about 6-8 months behind the console versions.

  • PR (Score:3, Informative)

    by nacturation (646836) <nacturation@BALD ... com minus author> on Friday March 30 2007, @08:54AM (#18542579) Journal
    Looks like the PR boffins have been doing their homework [isabelwang.com] lately.
     

  • Cultural reference (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2007, @08:58AM (#18542639)
    One thing many people missed is the reference to the movie Koyaanisqatsi. The music was taken from the original movie score, by Philip Glass, and the 'fast-motion' scenes are a direct reference to scenes from the movie.

    Also, much of the movie was shot in, you guessed it, New York.
    • The phrase "Life is complicated" is also a play on the trilogy.

      I can't believe I'm such a sucker for Glass that I'm exciting about running over hookers now...
    • Indeed. Not only that but you see a poster for a Kronos watch. Most of Philip Glass's work is played by the Kronos Quartet.
    • Knock Knock!
      Who's there?
      Knock Knock!
      Who's there?
      Knock Knock!
      Who's there!?
      Knock Knock!
      Who's there!?
      Knock Knock!
      WHO'S THERE!?

      Philip Glass. ;)
  • Here's the torrent (no registration required). Please seed the file when the download it's complete so you may help others getting it fast.

    http://www.mininova.org/get/640860 [mininova.org]

    • Probably should have actually tried the torrent first before karma-whoring. It's a gameupdates.org torrent and won't let you download from mininova. You have to register at gameupdates.org.

  • Sounds dull (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2007, @09:19AM (#18542883)
    What kind of a game is Greater Toronto Area?

  • YouTube link (Score:4, Informative)

    by chalkyj (927554) on Friday March 30 2007, @09:21AM (#18542911)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoB01yi_6Ys [youtube.com]

  • Interesting (Score:3, Informative)

    by The-Bus (138060) on Friday March 30 2007, @09:26AM (#18542989) Homepage
    I haven't played this series since Vice City and I'm glad that we finally get a modern, more stylized version of it. The voiceover seems to point at some Russian/Eastern European immigrant moving up the ranks in American crime. It's reminiscent of the beginning in movies like The Godfather or Scarface where you see the world through the eyes of a newcomer.

    Here's the direct download link for the 720P WMV file [gametrailers.com]. Or, you can see it on YouTube [youtube.com] as well.
  • Can anybody please set up a torrent and post a link here in the comments for one of the high-res files?
  • Or at least the landmarks are. The Cyclone is spot-on. Mapping the virtual streets to NYC's actual layout would be even cooler. Let's hope. It would be awesome to scream down my street in Brooklyn in a ferrari.

    • Just posted it on YouTube to begin with.

      So the whole world could have been just amazed by the new shiny real-time graphics of the game on a 300p or so video at 250 kb/s or so. Not like they needed to put it themselves on YouTube anyways, soon as they would release the video you could be sure that you'd have dozens of fans to try to be the first one to post it on YouTube.

    • On that note, I think we should also take the opportunity to blame Microsoft for global warming, the African AIDS epidemic, and JFK's assassination.

      Tool.

        • Re:GTA IV - Gimped Thanks To The Xbox 360 (Score:4, Insightful)

          by EveryNickIsTaken (1054794) on Friday March 30 2007, @09:20AM (#18542895)
          "25 gig BluRay vs 7.5 gig DVD - Over three times the storage for the PS3."

          So what exactly do you want them to stick on the BluRay disc? I'm sure that they can stick multiple copies of the game on the disc to compensate for the slow loading time (like Bethesda did with Oblivion).

          If you're in the mood for hours of FMV's, then I'm sure FFXIII will satisfy your needs.

          The bottom line is - developers don't know *what* to do with all that disc space. Blaming MS for that is idiotic.

          • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

            by oliverthered (187439)
            I've seen games that take more than 10GB to install, I'm sure it's not beyond the imagination of the developers what could be put on the extra 15gb.

            and yes the XBOX360 is crap, especially when compared to a PC or even the PS3, fortunately GTA 3/ SA for the PC had better graphics etc... than the console versions so hopefully the same will be true for this version.
              • Simple,
                Don't buy an XBox 360, if enough people didn't buy the XBox 360 the games would be available on the pc, with better graphics, sound etc.....
                • No, if fewer XBox 360s were sold it would only mean that companies would be less likely to release games for the 360. It's not a zero sum game. Fewer 360 games does not imply more PC games. In any case, companies already have 10 million+ 360s to market their games to.
                • If 360 is 'dead' with 10 million+ units sold what does that make the PS3? A first trimester abortion? Mommy and Daddy used a condom?

              • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

                by oliverthered (187439)

                How fast can you read/write data on a Blu-ray disc?

                According to the Blu-ray Disc specification, 1x speed is defined as 36Mbps. However, as BD-ROM movies will require a 54Mbps data transfer rate the minimum speed we're expecting to see is 2x (72Mbps). Blu-ray also has the potential for much higher speeds, as a result of the larger numerical aperture (NA) adopted by Blu-ray Disc. The large NA value effectively means that Blu-ray will require less recording power and lower disc rotation speed than DVD and HD-D

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by crabbz (986605)

            So what exactly do you want them to stick on the BluRay disc?

            how about radio stations that never repeat? :-)

    • You're obviously trolling, but I would throw back the same retort for last generation - the XBox versions of games were contanstly gimped due to the PS2 being the lead development platform for most games.
        • You are a sad, mistaken man. if Anything, it's the PS3 thats gimped, as you say. Ask any developer about the graphics chips in each. On a good day the break about even.

          And unlike you, I know what i'm talking about and don't have an agenda:

          http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/8417/00001ae5.j pg [imageshack.us]

          • > And unlike you, I know what i'm talking about and don't have an agenda:

            Judging by that picture, I'm guessing you don't have a wife either.

            (it's a joke son, you're supposed to laugh)

    • If Oblivion and Crackdown could fit on standard DVD's, I don't see why GTA 4 should be any different.

      As for the lowest common denominator, you are aware that the PS2 WAS the lowest common denominator performance wise last generation, are you?

        • You notice how low-res the textures are in Oblivion? They didn't have room for anything better. There's your disc limitation right there.

          So move to procedural textures. Or, better yet, shaded polygons. Why put a texture of a belt on a character when you can just model the belt?

    • They can still use the extra space for more and better textures etc. More kinds of houses, more kinds of pedestrians, more kinds of cars. Non-essential to gameplay, but it would still make a bit of a difference. I wouldn't be suprised if Sony would co-sponsor that extra content, just to showcase the difference between the PS3 and the XBox360..
    • Are they not going to release a version for the PC at the same time? I thought console exclusivity was finished...
    • I know it's too late in development for it, but, please, Rockstar, let me enter properties in the game world -- any property -- and commit various acts of terror or distruction or just make dynamic missions.

      Yeah, it looks good, but I want it to actually PLAY like a next gene title.

    • Re:30 min Spots (Score:4, Insightful)

      by cybereal (621599) on Friday March 30 2007, @02:52PM (#18548187) Homepage

      The hype for the trailer was a bit of a let down. It has given me second thoughts about the game too. Is it really going to be worth the price of a 360?

      No. Of course one game is never actually going to be worth the cost of an entire video game system, and appropriate accessories. However, couple it with some Gears of War, Assassin's Creed, Blue Dragon, etc. and I believe you have a strong argument for the system.

      On one hand you can't justify a system for a single game, but, on the other hand you have so much more to consider with the 360 than just this little rehash.

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