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'GTA4' is returning to Steam next month without multiplayer
Grand Theft Auto 4 will return to Steam on March 19th after it was abruptly pulled from the digital storefront last month due to an issue with Microsoft's defunct Games for Windows Live service. Developer Rockstar Games will rerelease the game, as well as its Episodes from Liberty City DLC, as a single package called Grand Theft Auto 4: Complete Edition. Unfortunately, Complete Edition won't include online multiplayer or leaderboards.
'GTA4' leaves Steam after an old Microsoft service breaks game sales
Rockstar is learning first hand about the pitfalls of trusting your game's functionality to a third-party service. The developer has confirmed to The Verge that it stopped selling Grand Theft Auto 4 on Steam after Microsoft stopped supporting the Games for Windows Live platform the title depends on. It's "no longer possible" to create the extra game keys needed to sell GTA4, a Rockstar spokesperson said. You can still play the Steam version if you already have a copy, but newcomers will have to go somewhere else to experience Niko Bellic's life of crime.
European PlayStation Store slashes prices on Rockstar games
From now until April 2, the European version of Sony's PlayStation Network Store is hosting two sales both focused on massively discounting the prices attached to games bearing the Rockstar Games logo. The core of the sale is aimed at Max Payne 3 and Grand Theft Auto 4, though these particular discounts only last until March 26. Max Payne 3 was originally £15.99 but is now £5.99 while Grand Theft Auto 4 has seen a similarly impressive price drop from £19.99 to £5.49. The sale also offers sizable discounts on the Max Payne 3 season pass, as well as the two Liberty City Stories released as DLC for Grand Theft Auto 4. The remainder of the PSN discounts are valid until April 2 and include games like Canis Canim Edit (aka Bully), Red Dead Revolver and all three of the Grand Theft Auto games released for the PlayStation 2. Grand Theft Auto 4 is again the highlight here, as the game's Complete Edition, which was originally priced at £24.99, can be purchased for £7.99. For full details and pricing information, visit the European PlayStation.blog. [Image: Rockstar Games]
Rockstar Games weekend sale now live on Steam
Rockstar Games steps into the spotlight for a weekend-long Steam publisher sale, bringing price drops for L.A. Noire and the Grand Theft Auto series, among other deals. Starting today, Steam members can pick up the DLC-bundled Complete Edition of L.A. Noire for just $7.49. The four-game (plus DLC) Grand Theft Auto Complete Pack is up for grabs at $9.99, while the entire Max Payne series (including Max Payne 3's Rockstar Pass) is priced at $9.89. Other sale highlights include Midnight Club 2 for $3.29, Bully: Scholarship Edition for $4.95, and Manhunt for $3.29. Sale prices remain in effect through March 17. [Image: Rockstar]
Download GTA 4 for $10 on Xbox Live
Grand Theft Auto 4 is on sale for $10 for Xbox Live Gold subscribers this week. The digital copy is a 6.51 GB download, so players taking advantage of the deal may have to clear a little room on their hard drives. The game's two big pieces of DLC, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, are also discounted to 400 MSP ($5) and 800 MSP ($10), respectively. In that case, forget what we said earlier; you'll probably need 10.16 GB of space on your Xbox 360's hard drive this week.
GTA 4 mod emulates GTA 5 character swapping
Can't wait for Grand Theft Auto 5? A modding group has provided a taste of Rockstar's upcoming approach, with the ability to instantly swap between three protagonists in Grand Theft Auto 4 for the PC. The character switch mod allows players to instantly swap between GTA 4 vanilla main man Niko Bellic, and DLC add-on leading men Johnny Klebitz and Luis Lopez. Klebitz is the star of The Lost and Damned, an episode devoted to Liberty City biker gang The Lost, while Lopez is the protagonist of The Ballad of Gay Tony, the second expansion to GTA 4 that tells the story of entrepreneur and club owner Anthony "Gay Tony" Prince. The mod is still under development and may contain bugs, the script notes warn, so keep that in mind should you decide to install this.
GTA 4 Iron Man mod is flying into buildings
Grand Theft Auto 4 has been host to many excellent mods in the past, such as one in which R2-D2 destroys Liberty City. In this case, YouTube user taltigolt recently showed off a video that showcaes improvements made to a complete GTA 4 mod that places Iron Man in the heat of the action. Not only does the video show Iron Man flying around the city and smashing into buildings, but he destroys police cars with ease by raising his arms. The modding crew also uploaded an album with Tony Stark in the game to their Facebook page. Unfortunately, the video features no sound at the request of another GTA 4 modder. Just imagine various crunch and explosion sound effects while you watch it.
Grand Theft Auto franchise up to 125 million shipped, GTA 4 at 25m
125 million copies of Grand Theft Auto games have shipped to retailers, with a fifth of that figure represented by Grand Theft Auto 4, in at 25 million. Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick announced the franchise's new milestone at this year's Credit Suisse Technology Conference. GameSpot later confirmed it with a Take Two representative, who also disclosed the figure for GTA 4.That means Take Two shipped 3 million copies of GTA 4 in the last 14 months, and 11 million franchise units. According to Zelnick, it's the irregular scheduling that maintains the series' popularity. Zelnick cited his understanding that Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is performing poorer commercially than Modern Warfare 3."That's never been the case with one of ours," said Zelnick. "Ours do better each time. Our view is it's hard to make permanent intellectual properties if you annualize it, with the exception of sports titles. So far that's proven to be the case. IP that is annualized eventually seems to hit the wall and we don't want our IP to hit the wall."For the record, Activision recently announced Black Ops 2 made $500 million on its first day at retail, up from the $400 million for Modern Warfare 3.
Grand Theft Auto 4 PC drives its price down to $7.50 on Amazon
Hey, bud. You want a real steal? Yeah, you know the kind I'm talking about. The legal kind. Oh yeah.A PC download of Grand Theft Auto 4 complete edition is $7.50 on Amazon right now, 75 percent off the list price of $30. The Complete Collection includes the full game and Episodes from Liberty City. This might be a great time to make off with Grand Theft Auto 4 on the cheap, since Grand Theft Auto 5 is ramping up for a launch next spring.
GTA 4 mod iCEnhancer calls it quits with 2.1 update
The 2.1 update for GTA 4 graphics mod iCEnhancer will be the final one issued. Developer Hayssam Keilany (Ice La Glace) said as much before releasing the video above, showcasing some of the visual improvements to the 2008 Rockstar game.The progress made with 2.1 includes better framerate, a new lens flare and an improved color palette. Maybe now that the pedestrians look so lifelike, you'll think twice before driving on the sidewalk.
GTA IV mod has R2-D2 destroying Liberty City
A new Grand Theft Auto IV mod has surfaced, and features quite an angry little robot. Created by YouTube user jmoorfoot4, the mod gives players the ability to roam the streets of Liberty City as R2-D2.As the video above demonstrates, R2-D2 is just as pushy and capable of destruction as Niko Bellic ever was. Watch it for a good laugh, though we're not sure it tops the removal of wheel friction in the game.
Rockstar head Houser nabs Capote mansion for $12.5 million
Dan Houser is the vice president of Rockstar Games. Rockstar Games makes some astoundingly popular games -- games that have net him quite a bit of dough over the years. So what does a super rich New Yorker with a flair for the creative do with all that dough? He buys a $12.5 million house, of course. And not just any house, but Truman Capote's original haunt in New York's Brooklyn Heights neighborhood (in "Broker" for all you GTAIV fans).The beautiful canary yellow house features 18 rooms (11 bedrooms alone) and its $12.5 million asking price is the largest tag attached to a house in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood (as in, "of all time"). Houser also owns a loft on Greene Street in lower Manhattan, making the new locale his "vacation home." At least that's what we assume people refer to their Brooklyn homes as when they also own property in Manhattan. Those bridges are pretty long, ya know![Image credit: StreetEasy]
GTA 4 mod iCEnhancer 2.0 out now, like a car wash for your graphics
The famous iCEnhancer mod for Grand Theft Auto 4 has reached its biggest full number yet with the release of 2.0. The above video shows off its beautifying features -- the bugs are from Rockstar's video editor and won't appear in the mod, creator Ice La Glace says -- and a "natural" version of 2.0 is set to drop any day now.Download iCEnhancer 2.0 from Ice's website by clicking the farthest-right icon (the one that looks like a "download" arrow, surprisingly) and enjoy the shininess of GTA 4 all over again.
Terminator T-1 mod gives us a taste of our future in GTA IV
We often kid about the grim future we all know is humanity's destiny, when the robots rise up and take the planet from us. We never try to think about what it's like to be them; what it's like to be in their chrome feet. A new mod for GTA IV on the PC from William Peddell brings us closer to understanding our future nemesis, replacing protagonist Niko Bellic with an eerily accurate Terminator. Peddell is quite adept at custom skins, having produced a number of mods celebrating Resident Evil, Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted and many more. His mod profile page showcases hours of hard work. But in the end we're partial to his "Terminator T-1" mod, since it's such a strong teaching aid -- especially in the video above. When the robots rebel, we'll know that standing directly in front of their guns isn't a viable course to victory.
GTA IV surpasses 22M shipped, franchise at 114M total
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed at a recent conference that Grand Theft Auto 4 has shipped over 22 million units. Gamasutra listened in on ThinkEquity's Growth conference, where the executive noted that the latest installment surpassed the 21.5 million shipped by GTA: San Andreas, with the franchise reaching 114 million shipped since 1997. Zelnick also discussed how downloadable content can limit rapid used sales for new titles, a tactic the developer experimented with for GTA IV but got exceedingly good at with Red Dead Redemption. He said that once core development is done, doing the development for DLC in a high-quality way is a lot easier and quicker. "At the time we put out Red Dead Redemption in May, we didn't even have a fantasy that we'd be putting out a zombie title [the Undead Nightmare DLC] for Halloween. But we [did], as it happens." Red Dead Redemption has shipped 12.5 million units in a little over a year.
Grand Theft Auto IV goes to Vice City in mod
Love the fancy graphics of Grand Theft Auto IV but hate the dearth of neon colors and cheap, plentiful cocaine? Keep an eye on Team RAGE's "Vice City Rage" mod -- which brings the Miami flavor to GTA IV -- due this Christmas. Happy birthday, Jesus. We got you a rocket launcher.
Grand Theft Auto 4 has never looked better (but will in the next iCEnhancer mod, we're sure)
Liberty City wasn't built in a beta, but when the Grand Theft Auto 4 iCEnhancer mod is finally done, we bet it will be more beautiful than Rome itself (How's that for a trip around the world?). iCEnhancer has released photos of its 1.3 beta, in the Second Phase and Pre-release stage, and some of these screens are looking better than reality. If anything, they certainly smell better than reality. Check out the goods on the iCEnhancer Facebook page, or take a peek at a video from the 1.2.5 version, which is only .0.5-percent less mind-blowing than the current beta.
GTA 4 engine mod looks gorgeous; latest update adds cloudy weather
The iCEnhancer mod is one for the graphics enthusiasts. The full engine mod adds several beautiful effects and higher resolution textures to the PC version of GTA IV. An overview of update 1.2.5, which is "almost done" according to mod creator Hayssam Keilany, can be seen in the video above.
Grand Theft Auto 4's Liberty City mapped in Google Street View
We know that most of you have probably memorized every square inch of Grand Theft Auto 4's massive metropolitan playground, but for the less cartographically inclined, GTA4.net has created an invaluable resource. Using the Google Maps API and over 80,000 screenshots, the site has created an interactive, near-complete map of Rockstar's virtual New York City. The map's coolest feature is, hands down, its ability to look through each and every avenue of Liberty City using Street View, which makes locating each and every Burger Shot an absolute breeze. In fact, this feature is so neat, we hope they somehow find a way to put a map together for L.A. Noire's setting! Oh, wait.
The Brothers Mario return in GTA IV machinima 'Kong Country'
Machinima stars The Brothers Mario are back, and they've brought a new character with them: "Don Keykong," a mob boss who's bananas for vengeance. Along with all of the other cameos, there's even a music video for the gangsta anthem featured in the trailer. Being a plumber has never been so badass.
