There is one thing that is stuck in the minds of all gamers... Grand Theft Auto IV. Any gamer who has ever played one of the GTA’s knows that the series has always offered a mind-blowing amount of variety, depth, and non-linear gameplay. Well, you can expect nothing less with the newest installment to the franchise.

GTA IV's Niko gets ready to silence his critics.

Before I continue with this article it should be understood that the ESRB is in charge of rating the games that we play. If you don’t want your children to play games that you consider bad for them, it is not the job of the company that develops the game or even the stores that distribute the game. It is your job to check what your children play. That is why there is a ratings system. You have been warned.

GTA IV is the first game in the series to appear on a next gen console, well, two to be exact. The Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 will share a simultaneous release date, April 29^th.

The protagonist for this installment is Niko Bellic, an immigrant from Eastern Europe who is no stranger to conflict. Niko has been lured to America by his cousin, cab-company owner Roman, who falsely promises a good life of wealth and women.

Yet again, we are in the water.

Niko has to work to make this American dream a reality.

GTA IV takes place in Liberty City which looks a lot like a digital New York. I’m telling you the resemblance is uncanny. Where as in previous titles the character was able to go to different cities within in the game, GTA IV will only have one city that Niko will be able to roam.

One of the most important items in GTA IV will be your phone. The phone is crucial and allows Niko to access messages, an organizer to help remember appointments, a camera, and contacts who are added to the list as you meet them. Keeping a good relationship with these contacts is one of the keys to the game. It takes work to keep a relationship going, but if you work at it the contacts may bring you gifts or even introductions to other key figures. If you don’t worry about your contacts you may get some bad messages in your phone like, "Hey man, haven’t seen you in a week, what the !%@# is up?"

Enjoy the scenery of Liberty City, just don't look in the rear view mirror.

The phone also has the ability to call emergency vehicles. This provides a unique way to access emergency vehicles. Remember those missions where you had to steal a cop car. Now you can access it through your phone. Call the police to the scene and then steal their car.

Speaking of the police, now instead of having the police chasing you throughout the whole stretch of the map you now have to escape the radius system. Which, depending on how high your wanted level is, will determine how big the circle is that you need to escape. Another new innovation with the police is if you do get "busted" you now have a chance to escape, at the cost of an extra star to your wanted level.

The improved targeting system allows Niko to more accurately dispatch his foes.

One of the things that critics have always been hard on has been the targeting system. The people at Rockstar North have apparently been listening, because they have reinvented the targeting system that resembles that of other games such as Gears of War. On the 360, a full pull of the left trigger locks aim onto the nearest target- although you are able to quickly cycle to other targets. The right analog stick allows you to fine tune your cross hairs for headshots. A half pull enters the free range targeting system.

There are so many new features in this game. A new cover system has also been implemented to save Niko from taking too much damage. Niko can hide and fire blindly from behind trash cans, walls, almost anything. A new drive-by system that allows you to target your enemies and even drop grenades out of the car. Don’t feel like stealing a car to get to that mission across town? Well, now you don’t have to, whip out your phone and call a cab. The cab will pick you and

Explore the city rain or shine...

whoever is on the mission with you and transport them to the mission scene. Don’t drink too much at the local pub or you will enter a drunk driving mini-game. A new multi-media feature on the phone that is being kept under wraps.

Who can forget those "only in GTA" moments? Well, now with the ramped up physics and character animation, it will allow for more of those moments.

I almost forgot to mention something that has not been talked about that much. The Online 

...night or day. Only in GTA.

Multiplayer.

Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto IV, according to the latest edition of Spain's official PlayStation magazine, PlayStation.RevistaOficial., will support up to 16 online players across 15 different modes. In these modes it won't just be 16 players, but the addition of pedestrian and vehicular A.I. Though Rockstar had previously confirmed rumors of its online multiplayer, it did not confirm details at that time.

The different modes have a number of team and solo-based game types all set within the same maps as the single-player game. Players will be able to customize the sex, race, hair, and clothes of their character before online play.

The host will be able to change settings prior to entering the match much like other multiplayer online games.

The clincher and most loved feature set forth is the fact that the online multiplayer mode will span the entire single player map. Not just sectioned off parts of the game, the entire map. All though reportedly smaller than San Andreas, it has no load times and will be more realistic.

Kudos to my friend who informed me of these new developments. Thanks again.

A list of the known game types follows:

Deathmatch
Team Deathmatch
Race
GTA Race
Mafia Work
Team Mafia Work
Turf War
Cops'N Crooks
Deal Breaker
Hangman's NOOSE
Car Jack City
Bomb da Base II
Free Mode

April 29^th will not get here fast enough.

Questions, concerns, comments, rants, I love to hear them all. Send them to me at gamer@northfloridanewsdaily.com or via Xbox Live to Sauria Rex.