#travel
Video games are meant to be an escape from the real world. Yet sometimes, escape be damned, they do such a good job of depicting real locations that the player can't help but want to pack their bags and go travelling. More »
#pressplay
To call "The Trashmaster" machinima isn't doing it justice, because while it is indeed based on the art of turning a video game into cinema, it also runs for an astonishing 88 minutes. More »
It's like if Mirror's Edge and Fallout had a baby. It really draws attention to the amount of detail they put into the game. A much more immersive experience than GTA's third-person perspective.
#grandtheftautoiv
This may be the best Grand Theft Auto IV machinima we've ever seen, dropping the major players of Super Mario Bros. into a gritty, violent world where gangster Bowser is the most feared criminal in the Mushroom Kingdom. More »
#clips
Three weeks post-Black Ops we've seen more lucky kills and wacky vids than you can shake an RC-XD at. This helicopter takedown reminds that Grand Theft Auto IV, even two years later, pulls its weight in WTF multiplayer kills, too. More »
#clpis
Is the solution to children playing violent video games bundling Family Game Night with a machine gun, a nine-person shooter, or replacing Niko Bellic with American public radio personality Ira Glass? Watch out: He'll shoot your penis off. More »
#legalmatters
Kotaku Brazil editor Renato Bueno reports on a Brazilian court order that seeks to remove Rockstar's Episodes from Liberty City from retail and digital distribution worldwide, due to the unauthorized use of music from an eight-year-old DJ's dad. More »
#rockstargames
Latecomers to Rockstar Games' bombastic crime epic Grand Theft Auto IV will be able to enjoy the stories of Niko Bellic, Johnny Klebitz and Luis Lopez on the cheap later this month with the game's "Complete Edition." More »
#clips
What Is This, Half-Life 2? Nope, too many bright lights, too many sex workers. Instead, this is Grand Theft Auto IV's version of Times Square. Only now it has a gravity gun. More »
#gtaiv
Here's what Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV would have looked like were it a first-person shooter, and not a third-person...whatever you like to call these games. More »
#violence
Writer Fraser Allison thinks a few games could be improved if they contained a little less shooting. We're reprinting the case here. Read on and see if you agree. More »
Are you enjoying your nightly Wild West adventures through the expansive world of Red Dead Redemption, but wish the game was set in a more contemporary, urban environment? Here's a fun little fact you might not know: Before making Red Dead, Rockstar worked on a series called "Grand Theft Auto," which fits that very niche. Amazon recently reduced the price on the most recent GTA release by one Hamilton: Episodes from Liberty City, now available through the online retailer for $29.99 on consoles and $19.99 on PC.
Just don't be alarmed when your precious horsies are replaced by unfeeling metal automobiles, or when your beautiful, intricately crafted six-shooters are replaced by primitive-looking rocket-propelled grenades. That, dear friends, is the steep price of modernity.
If you've been waiting for an excuse to sink your felonious teeth into the Grand Theft Auto IV expansion The Ballad of Gay Tony, listen up. This week's Xbox Live Deal of the Week, you see, knocks the usual 1600 ($20) price of Gay Tony down to a more palatable 1200 ($15). Not bad for a night of virtual clubbing in Liberty City. That said, if you haven't picked up The Lost and Damned (the other GTA IV expansion) either, you can grab the full Episodes from Liberty City package for $30 from GameStop or Amazon.
[Via Major Nelson]
Xbox.com: Add The Ballad of Gay Tony to your Xbox 360 download queue ($15)
Haven't picked up Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City? For about the same price as the retail console version of the GTA IV expansion packs, you can get every nearly single Rockstar game in one massive, discounted bundle. The "Rockstar Collection" includes 13 titles, including Bully: Scholarship Edition, Manhunt, Max Payne, Midnight Club 2, and every Grand Theft Auto for PC -- including The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony.
This week, the bundle will be discounted to a mere $42.49, a considerable savings over the suggested $169.90 value for all the games combined. Considering the bundle includes rather new content, one can even consider this package ... a steal.
If you've waited this long for Episodes from Liberty City, another two weeks shouldn't hurt, right? Rockstar Games has pushed back the PS3 and PC releases of the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto IV expansions by two weeks due to "a request by Sony Europe to make some minor content changes to the PAL PS3 version of the game." According to the press release, "the minor changes made to the game will not affect the gamers enjoyment of the games, these will not affect any gameplay elements and were not related to any local ratings requirements."
All versions of the add-ons -- including the downloadable episodes "The Lost & Damned" and "The Ballad of Gay Tony" -- have been delayed to April 13th for North America, and April 16th for all other countries. A Rockstar Games blog post further elaborated on the decision to do a global delay, ensuring that "everyone can experience multiplayer simultaneously, take part in online events together, be on level ground on leaderboards, etc."
#grandtheftauto
2K's BioShock sequel is off to a good start. Take-Two Interactive announced today that the 2K Marin-developed BioShock 2 has surpassed 3 million in sales since its release on the Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3. Good job, Mr. Bubbles. More »
Take-Two is starting an office in Japan to publish its games. Previously, Take-Two and Rockstar games have been published by partners like Capcom, Cyberfront and, most recently, D3 Publisher. It always seemed a bit weird to see a GTA game with a Capcom label, and now we'll be spared that minor cognitive dissonance.
The first game to be released under the new Japanese branch of Take-Two Interactive is Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. The publisher has yet to offer a date for this Japanese release, or even specify if it will be on both PS3 and Xbox 360.
We were all expecting it and finally Rockstar has come through with the announcement: Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City is coming to the PS3 and PC on March 30. There will be two ways to get your expansion fix: you can either jack each individual episode -- The Lost and the Damned or The Ballad of Gay Tony -- through PSN or Games For Windows Live, or you can snag a disc with the new content on there, just like the previous Xbox 360 release. Well, OK, technically it's not "jacking," per se, but work with us here -- it's essential to the mental imagery we're trying to force into your wrinkly thought machine. Jedi blogging.
Anyway, a disc will set you back $39.99, while pricing for individual episodes has yet to be revealed for each respective platform. We have a feeling they'll be $20 a pop, though. Call it a hunch.
Rockstar is holding a Ballad of Gay Tony multiplayer event this Thursday on Xbox Live. On January 21, from 4-7PM Eastern, take part in some cooperative murder and mayhem in Liberty City with the game's developers. Hopefully they're being paid for it.
Those at work during that time will be able to watch the event through the Social Club Multiplayer Event page, which will stream the gameplay. Specific details on how to join can be found on the Rockstar's page for the event.
Fielding a question on today's quarterly investors call regarding the performance of Grand Theft Auto 4's DLC double-header and the accompanying retail bundle - The Lost and Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony, and Episodes from Liberty City, respectively - Take-Two CEO Ben Feder admits, "Both we and Microsoft believed there was a big market for GTA 4 episodic content and some factors affected their performance." Calling the two companies' relationship "a historic, strategic partnership" - remember this? - and calling the episodes themselves "profitable contributors to the company," Feder nevertheless offered some insight into what his company could have done to make them even more profitable.
"Both were released significantly after the launch of the core unit," Feder says, referring to the April 2008 launch of Grand Theft Auto 4. "And therefore weren't able to leverage GTA 4's initial marketing campaign and initial launch fervor." With The Lost and Damned coming out in February of this year, some 10 months after GTA 4's initial release, and The Ballad of Gay Tony this past October, 18 months after the initial release, we'd have to agree that timing played an issue; the GTA 4 hype machine had worn off.
While Take-Two has a number of solid properties, such as BioShock and Borderlands, Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto is unquestionably its largest and most important franchise. However, sluggish sales of recent GTA efforts, from the handheld Chinatown Wars to the 360-exclusive DLC Episodes from Liberty City, have Broadpoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter worried about the future of Take-Two's flagship brand.
"Has the Grand Theft Auto franchise peaked? Given the strength of GTA IV in 2008, the question may seem misplaced, but our concern is that the very highly rated new GTA content for Xbox as well as PSP and DS did not perform up to expectations in 2009," Scahchter notes, while addressing potential criticisms to his claim. "Now, we very clearly understand that these do not represent 'true' new GTA titles. However, the fact is that these were compelling titles, attractively priced, and reasonably well-promoted, yet they fell relatively flat."
Considering well over ten million people purchased GTA IV, the lackluster sales for these spin-off efforts is even more evident. Does the GTA name no longer carry the weight it once did? Or, are gamers simply waiting for a game that doesn't take place in Liberty City?
Before you put on some sweats, make a little popcorn and sit down for your sitcoms tonight, you may want to gear up for some The Ballad of Gay Tony multiplayer. Rockstar Games has announced it'll be holding a multiplayer session tonight from 5pm - 8pm ET, allowing prospective Liberty City hoodlums to hang out with some developers in the expansion's new multiplayer modes for a bit of two-on-two action. If you want to get involved, pack a parachute and send a request to these Gamertags:
GwRockstar3
GwRockstar4
GwRockstar5
GwRockstar6
And if you fancy yourself a bit of a voyeur or can't get to your Xbox, you can still watch the action from the perspective of one of Rockstar's employees at the Social Club event page here.
Rockstar has unleashed some brand new Grand Theft Auto IV T-shirts, giving fans of The Ballad of Gay Tony a reason to hit the floor show off their best moves. Available for $20 each, the shirts depict the logos of two of the DLC's nightclubs, Hercules and Bahama Mamas. If you've been looking to make a super hip fashion statement ... well, you probably shouldn't be buying video game T-shirts. If, however, you're looking for some inoffensive gaming apparel -- which can be hard to find -- go ahead and take a look.
Time lapse videos were all the rage back in -- actually, we don't think they were ever rage caliber stuff, but in the case of this GTA IV video that shows 15 days go by Liberty City, it's at least reached "oh, that's neat!" territory. The video comes courtesy of DigitalFoundry (you can watch it over at Eurogamer) and reminds us just how much life there is in the virtual sand box, as cars drive along to their respective destinations, pedestrians shuffle about doing their own thing and, in the case of that one lady around the 32-second mark, loaf around the riverside all day and night. We just hope she's not doing what we think she's doing. It'd be such an unbecoming thing of the purest city in all of gaming, amirite?
With the release of this week's second Grand Theft Auto IV expansion The Ballad of Gay Tony, the game's developer has decided to update the online multiplayer statistics tracking in order to reflect the new multiplayer game types. The addition of "BASE Jump" to the mulitplayer as well as "new, tighter Deathmatch arenas" helped spur the leaderboard overhaul, according to the developer blog. The various new additions being made due to the DLC will even get their own section on the Rockstar Social Club, presumably for the four of you tracking your new GTAIV DLC stats after Modern Warfare 2 releases in a couple weeks.
