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Grand Theft Auto IV (also known as GTA IV and GTA 4) is an upcoming sandbox-style action-adventure video game. It will be the ninth title (and the first in the fourth generation) in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise. It will be released worldwide on Tuesday, 29 April 2008 for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game will be set in a redesigned Liberty City, based heavily on New York City and New Jersey.
It will be the first game in the series to use the new RAGE game engine, which also powered Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis. It is being written by Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser.

Plot

Niko Bellic is Eastern European, between 28 and 32 years of age and has come to Liberty City to pursue the "American Dream". Niko was persuaded to move to Liberty City by his cousin Roman, who claimed in multiple e-mails to Niko that he was living a fabulous life, with a mansion, women, hot tubs and sports cars. Roman's claims turn out to be lies to hide his own failures, however, and in reality he only owns a small taxi business, which he wants Niko to work for.

Roman is the only person Niko knows in Liberty City to begin with, and is one of his major connections in the first part of the game. Niko is a tough character, whereas Roman is friendly. Roman is heavily in debt and a lot of people are after him. He desperately needs Niko's support, hence the reason he deceived Niko into travelling to Liberty City. They are constantly bickering. It is later revealed that Niko has also been avoiding other, as yet undisclosed, problems at home.
According to Dan Houser, "virtually none of the characters from the previous games are returning, as a lot of them are dead anyway."

Gameplay

Titles in the GTA series have traditionally been heavily mission based (fixed missions must be completed to progress through each game), but the freedom to explore and play outside of the set missions in GTA IV will now be more relevant to progress through the game, according to comments by a Rockstar spokesperson: "We're really trying to blur the line between on-[mission] and off-mission. So storyline, and what you do outside [it], and how those two things influence each other."

An Xbox 360 preview of Grand Theft Auto IV published in the May 2007 issue of Game Informer reveals that the storyline begins with Bellic standing inside the taxi depot (which Roman operates in the borough of Broker in a converted industrial garage), working at a cluttered desk in a shabby environment. Bellic walks to a brownstone house in Broker, where he pushes open the door and pulls out his pistol—the living room, however, is not occupied.

He pushes his way through the back door and smashes the window of a red four-door car using his elbow. The broken glass falls onto the street and the seat of the car, as Bellic unlocks it from the inside. He hot-wires the car and sets off to his next destination. The camera angle behind the car is closer to the vehicle than in previous GTA titles, which enables more detail on the car to be seen. After selecting a radio station, Bellic navigates to a section of the BOABO arriving at a dockside. Pigeons and waves can be heard in the distance.

Bellic then pulls out his phone, which has options for phone book, messages, organiser and camera on its LCD screen. He selects phone book, and he is then presented with another set of options: City Contact, Docks Friend, and Cab Contact. After a brief conversation, he informs the receiver to meet him at the docks.

There is a mission previewed called "To Live and Die in Alderney", which is the second part of "Truck Hustle". The second mission is called "Jamaican Heat", and acts as a tutorial for the new cover/targeting system. The third mission is called "Jacob's Ladder", and the fourth mission is called "Harbouring a Grudge". This mission introduces an Irish character called Patrick McReary, who is related to Francis.

View the Official Trailer of GTA 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S410Pcij-8