I pre-ordered from GameStop and am going to pre-pay for the game, but I'm not staying for the party, I'm going home till it's time to leave to pick up the game. So even if you don't want to have a party with middle aged men at GameStop at 6 PM you should probably go early and pay so you can absolutely guarantee your copy.

Update from Rullon: I just found this article over at IGN.

G4TV and IGN have a lot of exclusive game play videos of GTA IV. G4TV aired 10 minutes of game play footage along with an analysis of the footage this morning, but if you go online to their site, they have more videos of game play besides what they had on tv.

Personally I would not watch the videos, they are spoilers to the game and after waiting so long for the game, why ruin it?

Link: G4TV
Link: IGN

I don't know if we have mentioned it before (if I haven't then I meant to), G4TV will be airing exclusive gameplay footage on their television station.

The regularly scheduled program will be interupted to bring you this exclusive look at the gameplay of GTA IV. This all goes down Sunday at 12PM ET/9AM PT.

Source: G4's The Feed

A fifth trailer was recently discovered which is due to air on television as a GTA IV advertisement. The trailer was discovered over at Gamespot.com. It isn't exactly high definition, but it's still an awesome video. It features some old trailer footage, but the scenes have been extended. You'll see what I mean when you watch it, which you can do right here:

The official GTA IV website has been updated with an all new Niko Bellic section. A new Niko 'trailer' was added. It sheds light on what Niko's life was before he came to America.

Since we have missed the few days of news, we are going to get you caught up right now.

• Early in the morning on the 23rd, an actual video featuring the entire intro of the GTA IV game appeared on YouTube. This video turned out to be authentic, and was taken down off of YouTube due to Rockstar's request that it wants all leaked footage to not be allowed.
• The full PAL version of GTA IV for the Xbox 360 has been leaked onto the internet. Check out Kotaku for more on this.
• The 2 news stories above are actually probably the result of an Australian retailer shipping out the online pre-orders to customers early.
• On the 23rd, IGN and 1UP both posted new interviews. With both interviews combined, there are a total of 24 new screenshots which we will upload later.
• At one point in time, Amazon had released samples for 3 different GTA IV albums, including the official soundtrack. As of right now, only one of those links is still working. And that one is right here.
• Gamestop has released their lengthy list of all the Gamestop stores that will open for the Midnight Release.
• On the 24th, 1UP posted another interview. But this time it was with technical directors Adam Fowler and Sandy Roger along with Natural Motion CEO, Torsteim Reil. There are also 8 new screenshots in this article.
• Also on the 24th, Gamespot posted a Q&A with Rockstar North associate producer, Imran Sarwar. This interview revealed more details on the weapons, cover, and combat in GTA IV. 18 new screenshots were also added to Gamespots GTA IV gallery.
• Another perfect score was awarded to GTA IV from Playstation World Magazine. The review, with a score of 10/10, can be read in the scans over at GTA4.tv forums.
• This week is GTA IV week over at IGN.com. On the 24th, they posted an article called "How to Talk Dirty and Influence People."
• Swedish Magazine Level has reviewed GTA IV and gave it a perfect score, 10/10.
• The Our-Own-Reality section on the official GTA IV has been updated.

Just yesterday, I noticed that BestBuy.com was displaying new box art images for the Xbox 360 and PS3 special edition versions of GTA IV.

 

Today, it was reported over on GTAGaming.com that the special editions have started arriving in Australian retail stores. The Soundtrack CD, artbook, duffle bag, keyring, and game are all stuffed tightly inside the lock box. The lock box is packaged inside of a cardboard box which features the artwork from above on the front of the box for it's respected console version. The back of the box features a screenshot and the game description.

Thanks to GTAGaming.com for the Australian retail store news.

GTA IV has been given another perfect score from the fine folks at PSM3 France. The score given was a 20/20 and they called it the "best game ever made." Well who could argue with that?

There were a couple of interesting details from the review that TheGTAPlace.com brought to our attention:

• Pay 'n' Spray locations will not affect your wanted level when you use them this time around, but they are still available for repainting your vehicle.
• You are able to buy weapons at stores, but whether the stores are called "Ammu-Nation" as in previous GTAs is unknown.
• As is already known, you are able to buy clothes at various stores in Liberty City, just like in San Andreas. However, unlike San Andreas, when you want to try on an item of clothing, Niko won't go back into the changing room for a few seconds while the game loads the textures like CJ did. The new apparel will be displayed instantly.

Thanks to TheGTAPlace.com for the info.

Dan Houser, Creative Vice President of Rockstar Games (aka: really awesome guy behind the GTA series), has been interviewed by Variety.com. Dan reveals a lot of information about the entire series, but primarily about the production of GTA IV and how it came to be known as "The Best Game of 2008" even though it has yet to be released.

A few tidbits from the interview:

• GTA 3 through San Andreas focused on removing restrictions; GTA IV focuses on implementing things that make sense for the location or for the character.
• It took approximately six months to come up with a rough design of what represents New York City. Actually building that representation of New York (Liberty City, in this case) took years to complete.
• For GTA IV, the multiplayer experience isn't meant to be revolutionary or completely innovative; it's simply meant to be the best multiplayer GTA experience possible. (If only there was split-screen.)

Go check out the article for much, much more.

Link: Variety.com
Source: GTA4.net

The third review for Grand Theft Auto IV has arrived. The review comes from German magazine Games Aktuell. Their review did not come from the final build of the game, it came from an earlier "version" you could say, but still reflects the current game. The end score was a 10 out of 10 again and they said "GTA4 is by far the best action game ever created." Once again, good job Rockstar, hopefully your winning streak of perfect scores will continue! Thanks to GTA4.net for the news!