Grand Theft Auto IV Hands-On

At last, we get to play the biggest game of 2008.

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We got to play four different missions. The first two were easy and from early parts of the game, teaching us about shooting, cover etc. The other two were from later in the game, around half way through.

The first mission we played is called Jamaican Heat. The scene starts with Niko walking into Roman's shoddy taxi depot office, finding his cousin at his desk, a large map of Liberty City looking down at him as he yells down the phone at someone. Niko shuffles about and tries to get a refreshing can of Sprunk out of the busted vending machine, with a few shakes of the unit not seeming to help much. His other line rings, and he answers the phone as Roman Bellic Enterprises, saying: "Mr Bellic has stepped away from his office, can I take a message?" It's all rather amusing and chaotic.

This takes place before the previous parts of the game we've seen, before Niko has met Little Jacob. Roman asks Niko to pick up Jacob, a "good friend" of his. "He's a good man. Likes the smoke a bit, look after him", Niko is advised. The more time we spend with Roman, the more we're getting to like his Dell Boy Trotter ways and the innocent manner that belies his dodgy, small-time background.

Once we located LJ's position on the map, we made our way over to him and had to sound the horn to attract his attention by clicking the left stick. We were actually on a motorbike at this point, so instead of getting in our car, Jacob simply hopped on behind Niko. The pair set off on the bike, and already the comedy of the relationship between Niko and LJ, whom Niko barely understands a word of through the thick Jamaican accent, was in full swing. We remember a moment in our last preview when Niko's only reply to a load of talk from LJ was, "Okaaaay". Expect plenty of bombaclaats, raastclaats, tings, and teeth kissing. You can turn subtitles on, if your Jamaican isn't good. A nice touch is that Niko takes a crash helmet and puts it on when getting on a bike and leaves it next to the bike when getting off.

After a bit of a shootout with some "fools", Niko and Jacob took care of them and they all dropped their weapons ready for us to "teeth". Dropped weapons and other items have a yellow halo around them (The mission markers are now yellow arrows floating in the air, pointing at the floor, not cylinders like in the previous games). LJ gives Niko his number, knowing that our man is always looking for work if it pays, and they promise to "link up soon". We drop LJ off at a place called the Homebrew Café, a local restaurant, ending this small mission. It was nice and easy because it's near the start of the game where Niko is just doing pick-up jobs and basic stuff for Roman.

The mission that followed is Concrete Jungle. Driving around after the first mission, we get a call from a character called Vlad (which adds him to our phonebook automatically). The radio fades out if we press A to accept the call when the phone rings (we can press B to reject it if we prefer). Vlad wants us to do some work for him, and we can see his location marked on the radar after the call - however, we don't have to go to this Vlad mission, and in point of fact Rockstar asked that we don't (interestingly, we have heard from our people that were at GDC last week that the Vlad mission was playable behind closed doors). The lines between what is and isn't a mission are less clear in GTA IV, and another potential mission is bound to come in shortly. Soon enough we get another call from LJ. We head to his residential area in Meadow Hills, passing an advert for 'Pißwasser' on the way as planes blink along in the night sky. We finally get to number 1006 and hit the intercom.

LJ emerges once more with his trademark dreads, sunglasses and orange jacket. Another hilarious dialogue between the two is exchanged (we're not allowed to transcribe everything anymore unfortunately; it spoils the enjoyment of seeing and hearing it for yourself). The mission involves us approaching a drug dealer residence that's hostile towards LJ and got us familiar with the cover, targeting and shooting system. Before breaching the premises, the camera pans over to the left to peer through their front window, showing us the location of some of the enemies inside. Hugging the wall in cover and crawling below the window, we can take the first few out using blind fire and some targeting, before heading through the front door and dealing with the others, being careful not to expose Niko too much since we were low on energy. Once they're dead, the camera pans over to a first-aid kit, providing an obvious hint in the cockroach-infested dump.

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