Grand Theft Auto IV: Kikizo Preview 2

Next, we need to head to the local internet café, ingeniously named "TW@". He and Francis McReary, the copper we mentioned earlier, are trying to work on gaining entrance to the law firm Goldberg Ligner & Shyster, and they figure that the best way to do that is if Niko submits his resume to them, then organises an interview without raising any suspicion.

A cab can be hailed at any time as Niko whistles to get its attention - (one time when we hailed one, a passer by was hit by the cab - the animation, as always, was superb) - Liberty City is a huge place so you might not want necessarily to drive yourself there. You press Y to enter a cab once it pulls over for you. You're given the option to just relax in the cab, skip the trip, or pay double the fare and the cabbie will drive twice as fast, but we opt to take the full ride and enjoy the views and sounds. Of course, you can still jack cars, which is a little more risky if the cops are out.

Inside the cab from Niko's perspective you can see and talk through to the driver in the front. The camera view of the cab as it goes through the city changes every five seconds to make things more interesting to look at; we see a three-quarters driver's window view from the front that shows the cabbie (who looks just as detailed as Niko), as well as views from the hood, the top of the rear wheel, underneath the window, and even a racing game-style replay cam panning around from up high, showing off some exceptional roof and top-of-subway rail detail that many developers simply wouldn't bother with - nothing is hidden here, and the world is constantly moving and dynamic. Undoubtedly, the RAGE engine is starting to show what it can really do here, and it makes you wonder whether Take 2 might license out this technology in the vein of Valve's Source engine or Epic's Unreal engine - it's that sort of benchmark quality we're talking about for the new consoles.

The way the HDR light glares off from the yellow bodywork looks like money, and touches like the proper tyre detail and fare prices etched onto the cab door are just another example of full-on detail in the world. Whenever the cab brakes suddenly, the passengers can be seen leaning forward and then setting back with the momentum, which looks very cool. The player can change the music selection in the cab to the next track, but isn't in control of what track is next. Rockstar couldn't confirm if the player can change their destination in the middle of a cab journey.

We're still in Algonquin, north of Middle Park, and after the ride we arrive at TW@. Like in all windowed building in the game, the outside world and its traffic can be seen and heard from inside the café - (here we see the underneath of a raised subway rail), and the traffic hum sounds like real traffic. We touched on this in our last preview but seriously - wow. It starts and stops so when the traffic is stationary, there's heavy noise like large trucks rumbling against a backdrop of extremely varied car horns and perhaps smaller parking traffic. You don't even need to see outside to know it's a living world, though you can do that too of course, thanks to seamless connection between interior and exterior environments all modelled in one consistent game world that never loads, never takes a technical short cut, and never feels cheap. It doesn't sound like a game, it doesn't even sound like a movie; it sounds like New York. And the detail on every vehicle is amazing; the grille at the front of a big truck we saw is shiny and reflective, and every mirror on every vehicle appears to reflect the world - useful, when often-paranoid Niko is always looking over his shoulder in the rear view.

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Video Coverage (Latest Videos & Video FAQ)
PLEASE DO NOT DIRECT LINK TO ANY MEDIA FILE ON KIKIZO
Description	Dur.	Size	Details
Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer 2 HD 720p (High quality version - Download WMV)	1:06	46MB	HD, 16:9 1280x720/30p 8Mbps
Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer 1 HD 720p (High quality version - Download WMV)	1:02	42MB	HD, 16:9 1280x720/30p 8Mbps
Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer 1 SD (Stream)	1:02	8MB	SD, 16:9 640x360/30p 2Mbps
Sam Houser on GTA IV Developer comments on PS3 including Rockstar president Sam Houser, who is clearly discussing GTA IV.	4.22m	72MB	DF, SD, 30 640x480 2.5Mbps