Thats some of the sexiest things ive ever heard...

Picking up on some of the key points there.

- The game will be much harder than past entries. The days where you walk up to any car and jack it are over,

What are they on about? The only people with guns in New-York are ones doing the carjacking!

- While the game is not as big as San Andreas, it has more detail and R* is going for less wasted space.

- The police system has been entirely retooled. You will not instantly become wanted whenever you commit a crime now, even in public. If there are no cops around, and someone sees you, they will have to notify the police... ....You can trick police to get rid of wanted level. Since there' s no Pay and Sprays you must use other ways to get rid of wanted level: changing your clothes (especially if they are bloody); switching cars to confuse the police; running into someone' s house, out the back, and on to their fire escape etc...

It' s ambitious to be sure, and it' ll be interesting to see if they can pull it off.

- Targeting system has been retooled. It has a Resident Evil 4/Gears of War like targeting system.

Fantastic.

Now, you do not have a giant arrow over someone' s head if they are your target. Let' s say you have to kill a target, but he' s surrounded by a group of people. You do not know who is who. You can handle this in multiple ways. You can find out his phone number, call him up, see if he responds, and kill him; or you can simply go up to the entire group and kill all of them..

I got the impression that your character is going to be taking a lower-key route in his activities in this game than any of the previous, even before the real details hit, and this is definitely a step in the right direction. It' ll complement the new police system nicely.

- Maintaining character relationships can result in specific rewards. Little Jacob is the guy who sells you weapons. Your relationship is maintained through phone contact and loyalty. If you boost up his relationship, perhaps he gives you better weapons?

This worries me slightly. I don' t like having to maintain relationships in games. They' re tough enough to keep straight in real life. If you' re not constantly having to call them, or if they aren' t omnipotently aware of every disloyal behavior, it should be alright, but I can see a mechanic like that disappointing me in the game.

- The multiplayer will be activated via the cell phone. Nothing is known about the multiplayer modes except that there will be up to 16 players possible.

The way I see it their multiplayer is either aces, and they' re just waiting for the right time to release details, or it' s total garbage, and they' re keeping it quiet until they can get it up to snuff. I expect it at the very least to be decent by release as they' ve had no pressure to release one at all, having never done so in the past, but the lack of information' s a little off-puting.

Sounds very good if they can pull all this off.

Maybe the less ' arcade' feel may alienate some of the less mature gamers who got off on previous versions, but I think it is a move in the right direction.

Maybe Staten Island is being held back as DLC.

Previews

http://games.kikizo.com/news/200801/037_p1.asp

http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1844/Grand-Theft-Auto-IV/p1/

This game soudns so cool! April cant come soon enough!

IGN Preview plus video

We now have an official release date. April 29, 2008!!!!

LINK

- The game will be much harder than past entries. The days where you walk up to any car and jack it are over,

The GTA series is notoriously difficult. To have them say they want to make the game more difficult is saying a lot.

In any case, this game is going to pwn. I' m a big an of GTA 3, Vice and San Andreas can bite my balls. I wish they went back to the Italian mafia though.

Police database: Stealing a police car gives you access to their station database, which marks your queries as waypoints on the map. More expensive cars also come with talking GPS.

Free-aiming mode: GTA4 now allows you to shoot any where around your car, not just from the sides.

B-button camera function: Allows the camera to stay focused on your target.

Friendship rating: That cellphone' s for more than just taking missions now. It can be used to call your local buddies to build up relationships - think a reverse of getting wanted stars.

New ways to get caught: Forget to a pay a toll at the bridge, and you' ll earn a wanted level.

Enhanced drunk physics: Forget simple screen distortions or wonky controls.

Getting Niko hammered will have him interacting appropriately with the surrounding environment (leaning on cars, running into people, etc.)

Rocket Physics: Firing rockets into the ground at oblique angles will cause it to skip like a stone in water, not explode.

Combat: You can now duck behind objects. You can also either blind-fire (RSV-style), or pop up and shoot for better accuracy

Enhanced targeting: After getting a soft-lock, players can now aim for more specific parts on their target' s body. You query will also react realistically depending on where you cap him/her.

Hanging on: You can now hang on to moving vehicles, and board them via rapid button presses.

Hanging on (2): Rockstar' s demo also showed that drivers can attempt shake you off.

LINK

Im gonna get durnk before playing the game and then see how it controls. Then the next day I' ll get drunk in game and see hwo it controls. Then on the third day im gonna get drunk in both the gam eand real life and see if it cancels eachother out!

I wonder whats happens if you' re drunk and hanging off a passing car...

We now have an official release date. April 29, 2008!!!!

I bet it gets pushed back to around June 10th.