When was grand theft auto 4 released

Its main focus however is on the relationship between Niko and his cousin Roman. A collection of new screenshots are also released. Three missions are explored in-depth. The Take2 Interactive press release can be found here. Sending an email to ' [email protected] ' will trigger an auto-response. More screenshots begin to surface from various sources. More exclusive screenshots begin to surface on various websites. He hints at the various multiplayer modes that will be available in GTA4, and talks about the Hot Coffee events.

The preview contained three new screenshots. Twenty new screenshots are contained in the preview. The official website is updated later that day to announce that new radio stations and screenshots will be revealed on March 20th, followed by a new trailer on March 27th.

It is called "Good lord, what are you doing? In the video, top celebrity "Jeremy St. Ives" takes you on a short tour of Liberty City. It lasts about a minute long. The previews contain twelve new screenshots, which were leaked the day before by a relatively unknown French website. Cabs are always available during gameplay, allowing players to quickly travel to a destination. Throughout the course of the game, players are also faced with morality choices, which alter the storyline appropriately depending on the player's choice.

While free roaming the game world, players may engage in context-specific activities such as bowling or darts. Other available activities include a vigilante mini-game, and in-game television programming.

Template:Anchor The online multiplayer mode for Grand Theft Auto IV allows up to 32 players to freely roam across a recreation of the single-player world. These game modes are split into ranked and unranked matches. For players to level up through ranks, in-game money must be earned. Hosts of the game can control many variables, such as police presence, traffic, and weapons. LAN support is available in the Windows version of the game.

Initially, bridges are locked down due to a terrorist threat, and players are constantly pursued by police if the bridges are crossed, but the blockades are lifted as the story progresses, allowing the player to traverse between islands. Niko Bellic , an Eastern European , [22] arrives in Liberty City aboard a cargo ship, the Platypus , to reunite with his cousin Roman , to pursue the American Dream , and to search for the man who betrayed his unit in a war fifteen years prior.

Upon arrival, however, Niko discovers that Roman's tales of riches and luxury were lies concealing struggles with gambling debts and loan sharks, and that Roman lives in a dirty apartment in Broker rather than a mansion. Niko defends Roman from his loan sharks several times, but is forced to work for Vlad Glebov, Roman's Russian loan shark. Niko kills Vlad after finding out he slept with Roman's girlfriend, Mallorie. Faustin, not bothered by the murder of Vlad, hires Niko.

When Niko truthfully denies the allegation, a firefight ensues, allowing Dimitri and Bulgarin to escape. Niko and Roman are immediately forced to flee to Bohan after their apartment and taxi company are destroyed by Dimitri's men in arson attacks. Using the money, Roman buys an apartment in Algonquin, [30] then restarts his taxi company. The Paper tracks down the man responsible for Niko's unit's betrayal, Darko Brevic, and brings him into Liberty City for Niko to decide his fate.

Should Niko go through with the deal, Dimitri again betrays him and takes the heroin for himself. Template:See also. In one preview, a player knocked an NPC out of a window and the character grabbed onto a ledge to stop himself from falling. Grand Theft Auto IV sees a shift in the series to a more realistic and detailed style and tone, [42] partly a result of the transition to consoles which offered high-definition graphics and the new and improved capabilities of such consoles.

Not just in terms of graphics, which obviously we are achieving, but in terms of all aspects of the design. It's to reference the actual place itself". Music supervisor Ivan Pavlovich said "[we had] to pick the songs that make New York today what it is, but make sure they won't feel dated by the time the game comes out.

A special edition of the game was also released for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox It utilised Games for Windows - Live for online play [70] and supports 32 players for multiplayer. These two episodes were first released separately, exclusively on Xbox Live , [75] as downloadable content DLC , requiring the original game to play. They were later released together as part of a standalone game, titled Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City , which does not require the original game to play.

Jeronimo Barrera, Vice-President of Product Development for Rockstar Games, said that the episodes were experiments because the team were not sure that there was enough users with access to online content on the Xbox Like previous games in the Grand Theft Auto series, Grand Theft Auto IV features a soundtrack that can be heard through radio stations while the player is in a vehicle. Liberty City is serviced by 19 radio stations, three of which are talk radio stations.

In other games in the series, each radio station was essentially a single looped sound file, playing the same songs, announcements and advertisements in the same order each time.

With the radio stations in Grand Theft Auto IV , each sound file is held separately, and sequenced randomly, allowing songs to be played in different orders, announcements to songs to be different each time, and plot events to be mentioned on the stations.

Certain songs are also edited to incorporate references to the fictional Liberty City. A variety of real celebrities provide voices for the radio DJs in the game, including fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld , musicians Iggy Pop , [88] Femi Kuti , [89] Jimmy Gestapo [90] and Ruslana , [91] and real-life radio talk show host Lazlow Jones.

The disc contains several soundtrack selections. Several artists re-recorded their songs to make references to in-game locations. Near the ten-year anniversary of the game's release in April , Rockstar issued patches to all versions of the game to remove some of the licensed songs from the game which they no longer have licensing rights for.

Rockstar said this was primarily from the Russian-themed radio station, "Vladivostok FM", and that they were to replace these songs with new music in the patch.

Metacritic , which assigns a normalised rating in the 0— range, calculated an average score of 98, indicating "universal acclaim".

Reviewers lauded the open world design, some further complimenting the freedom that it allows the player. He wrote that the city "exists in its own universe and rightfully so". Reviewers praised the game's narrative. IGN's Goldstein accepted that the darker tones to the story, a break from series tradition. Jon Hicks of Official Xbox Magazine felt surprised by the amount of depth to the story.

The game's protagonist, Niko Bellic , with the main antagonist, Dimitri Rascalov. Reviewers praised the game's story and characters, commending the morality choices faced by players. The game's characters—particularly Niko—received positive reactions from critics. Many reviewers found the combat system was more responsive than in previous games, particularly praising the addition of the cover system.

Reviewers praised the sound design. Goldstein of IGN praised the actors' performances and the use of licensed music. GameSpot's Calvert and GamesRadar's Walter also commended the licensed music, the latter admiring the humour of the radio's talk stations. The game's online multiplayer mode received positive reactions from critics. Metacritic calculated an average score of 90 out of , indicating "universal acclaim", based on 40 reviews. The in-game features added in the port were well received.

The port's enhanced visuals were commended by many reviewers. GameZone Template:'s Hopper considered the visuals an improvement over the original versions. Following the critical acclaim it received on its release, Grand Theft Auto IV has received various awards from various critics and publications.

Template:Efn Template:Clear. A very interesting part of the in-game media is a reality TV show called I'm Rich , which documents the most outrageous displays of gluttony by the world's wealthiest people, enough to make anyone feel inadequate. Grand Theft Auto IV has an extremely complex plot with a very long list of characters.

It is also the first game in the HD Universe that allows the player to change the plot by making choices, which all have consequences. This creates an atmosphere where Niko is haunted and shadowed by his past actions wherever he goes. He tells Roman: "There is no such thing as a new beginning, Roman.

With every day we live, we pick up new baggage, baggage we must carry with us for the rest of our lives. There's no dropping it and pretending we are fresh and clean, just because we get off a boat in a new place.

In the finale, Niko feels the coffin of Kate or Roman, depending on the player's choice, on his conscience because of his criminal lifestyle, saying they "never should have gotten close to me".

He is deeply depressed about being trapped in the criminal lifestyle by a need of income , telling Kate McReary and others that he wishes he could leave it behind, but often adds that he knows he can't. Grand Theft Auto IV is heavily influenced by Russian gangster movies, such as Brother , and its sequel, Brother 2 , and Niko Bellic's physical appereance is based on the character of Sasha, a Bulgarian sniper who works as a mercenary for the Bosnian-Serb Srpska paramilitary organization, from the movie Behind Enemy Lines.

The Lost and Damned was released on February 17, , and features biker Johnny Klebitz as the player character. It was simultaneously released with the disc version of Episodes from Liberty City, which features both games. These episodes are set in the same city and time as GTA IV , and have many overlapping storylines, characters, and missions.

They add new missions, characters, vehicles, weapons, and other gameplay features. The Games For Windows Live platform was no longer being supported by Microsoft and therefore wouldn't generate new game keys. Although nothing in the game specifically reveals the exact month the events of the game take place, most evidence suggests that it may take place between April and September.

There was much controversy over Grand Theft Auto IV , continuing the tradition of controversy the series has always been associated with. New York City officials were also perturbed by the game's New York-inspired setting, though said officials have been accused of hypocrisy as countless crime dramas and action films have taken place in the city years before GTA IV was released.

The initial Australian and New Zealand releases of GTA IV was pre-censored with blood and sex scenes toned down; a patch was later released which uncensored the Australian console versions. A number of real-world crime incidents were also blamed on GTA IV , namely a crime spree perpetrated by a band of teenagers in New Hyde Park, New York in , and on the same year, an attempted carjacking in Thailand where an year-old student murdered a taxi driver which police captain Veerarit Pipatanasak stated that the student "wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game", and when a year old woman in Slaughter, Louisiana was shot and killed by her eight-year old grandson after playing the game.

Little Lacy Surprise was criticised by some outlets for promoting paedophilia, though while similar mentions of sexual deviancy was alluded to in the series lore, in no way does the game encourage or put players in the role of a sex offender; visiting the site would merely lead to an instant wanted level, as a possible parody of law enforcement response and raids against suspected paedophiles.

Install Steam. Your Store Your Store. Categories Categories. Special Sections. Player Support. Community Hub. Rockstar North , Rockstar Toronto. Rockstar Games. Liberty City worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don't. Recent Reviews:. All Reviews:. Popular user-defined tags for this product:. Is this game relevant to you?

Sign In or Open in Steam. Languages :. English and 4 more. View Steam Achievements Includes 55 Steam Achievements. Publisher: Rockstar Games.