Grand Theft Auto IV: Kikizo Preview 3

Our third GTA IV preview spectacular reveals exclusive new details for the first time anywhere, and takes a much broader look around Liberty City in a fantastic build of the game that's nearing completion.

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We've got to go and take out a police informant, but obviously he's in hiding. The way we've got to find him is by taking a police car, which fortunately we came across quite quickly. If we had taken any longer to find a car, Rockstar told us, Brucie would send a text, saying to phone 911 to summon the cops. The cop car would then turn up wherever you are, they will get out and have a look around, and you can ambush them. Anyway, we had our police car, and set off against a blazing red sky backdrop.

After passing by the Brownstones and down Oneida Avenue, we get into some mischief on the way Downtown and need to lose the wanted level. As we discovered last time, there's a new red and blue search radius on the radar, centered around where your crime was committed, and your last known whereabouts (as spotted by other police cars), and they'll keep following you as long as you keep getting spotted until you get out of the radius. If we just edge out of the radius, we should be OK. Once we're in the clear, we phone Brucie to let him know we were successful. Remember to keep reading Brucie as Donkey from Shrek talking really fast...

Niko: I'm here. I have a computer.
Brucie: You're a badass, man! I love it. The snitch is named Lyle Rivas, type it into the computer, and you should get some 'known whereabouts' shit. I'd take 'em out myself but when people see me coming they fucking RUN, man! Know what I'm sayin'? Cats don't wanna mess with someone packing 24 inch guns by each of their sides, baby, YEAH!
Niko: I'll track down this Rivas.
Brucie: Cold, man! I'm feeling chills down the phone! Call me when it's done, bro.

Every police car in Liberty City has an on-board computer, on which you can access the police database files for anybody who's got a criminal record, or any other details that the police are aware of. We press LB once the car is stopped to bring up the computer, select "search by name / photo", and type in "Lyle Rivas". He comes up on the computer, and luckily we've got a hangout for him - 99 Long Road, Broker, according to the database. So we then punch that address into the car's GPS and get over there - we've got to take him out before he manages so go on a stand and incriminate people.

In case you forget what you're supposed to be doing, obviously you can go to the start menu and go to Brief, where it will tell you all the relevant information about what you have to do in case you forget it, and also, your phone acts as an organiser and will remind you of appointments and things you've made in previous missions.

We approach the entrance to 99 Long Road, knock on the door, and head into a grimy looking building and an even grimier restroom. Niko warns that he has a "message" for Rivas from Brucie, to which Rivas panics: "Brucie? I thought he was fucking joking. Shit!" - and with that, he jumps out of the bathroom window and legs it for his vehicle. This wasn't as easy as we'd hoped, so we've got to chase after him. We'll of course take advantage of the police car we left outside; if we turn our siren on, the traffic should part to let us through. You can also now smash your window so that you can fire out of it; you can free-aim outside of your window using the right analogue.

The chase takes us towards Francis International Airport to the east of the city, obviously Liberty's version of JFK. The chase to the airport feels atmospheric. It's dark now and the freeways are lined with foliage, unlike the inner city we'd just come from, and we can also see the Dukes Bay Bridge lit up which looks fantastic. We reach a dead end at Francis, and Rivas is escaping on foot, so we keep going after him and eventually sort him out.

Once he's gone, we get a new "mission complete" jingle. We really like this jingle. It's about five seconds and begins as if you've just caught the final bar of a heavy, emotion filled hip-hop beat, and it ends on a 'good' note. It's a five second reflection of the astounding audio quality you get throughout the game. We're obviously not allowed to upload a sample of this melody but, well, we like it. Also, with the completion of a mission, you get automatic saves of your progress. Equally, if you're doing something non-mission related and you want to save your progress, you have save houses dotted around the city.

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