Barely a week ago, we mentioned that the magazine GameInformer will soon be putting out some new information about the much-awaited installment to the Grand Theft Auto series of games from Rockstar. Well, true to their word, they did put out a hefty amount of details about the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 4, and through the glory of the internet (and axxelkill_U of the GameSwank forums who put these images up), scans of the said report are now circulating and have finally made it to us.

The report basically involved GI's take on the demo of GTA 4 that was provided to them by Dan Houser, the vice president of creative for this video game (the demo was played on an Xbox 360 debug unit, by the way). On top of that, Houser also provided his own input and views on certain aspects of the game, and most importantly, he also confirmed details and answered some questions that many fans have been asking for the longest time.

So, on with the show!

On release dates and other game details
According to Houser, GTA 4 will be released by October 16 this year for both the PS3 and the Xbox 360. He mentioned that both versions will be identical, except for one glaring thing: downloadable "episodic" content will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 version. One other thing that he mentioned was that even though the game is meant to be a single-player experience, it WILL have multiplayer support. He gave no further details about this last bit... except maybe that it will NOT be similar to an MMORPG (sorry, folks).

As for the physics of the game, GameInformer seems pretty impressed by it, while Houser promises that "the physics are going to be pretty amazing". After all, the title makes use of RAGE, or the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, which we last saw in action in another Rockstar title, Table Tennis. In fact, all vehicles in the game will also feature new physics - even the camera angle of the car has changed - to allow players to "see more of the verticality of the city".

No details are released about the game's targeting system though, so we'll have to wait for that.

The (Anti)Hero
The star of GTA 4 is now officially known as Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant who traveled to Liberty City in search of greener pastures and the American Dream. Well, that and the fact that his cousin Roman promised him a life in luxury. Imagine Niko's plight when he found out that his cousin has lied to him and was actually heavily in debt. So what do you do when you've crossed the continent, landed in a huge city, missed out on the luxury you were promised, and the only person you know in a strange, new country is your buffoon of a cousin who got you in trouble in the first place?

The Storytelling Aspect
As all GTA players know, GTA changed the face of gaming by introducing the non-linear and free-roaming mode of play. According to Houser though, they're aiming to take this to even loftier heights as they intend to give players a full experience of the city and environment that they created. Of course, the story remains a huge focus despite the level of freedom that is granted to the player. But besides being given an even bigger city for players to explore and interact with, the players will also have choices on how the story will unravel itself. According to Houser,

The story is told in a number of different ways. But we've tried to replicate as many ways as possible that you engage with people ... we tried to provide certain choices about the missions. we've tried to give branches that maybe give you a critical choice, new ways of interacting with characters and new ways of interacting with the world. It's a different kind of experience.

It isn't Grand Theft Auto merging with the real world. New York City doesn't exist in this universe, and it likely never will. The Big Apple is simply being used as an inspirational blueprint for the re-creation of Liberty City ... while the original Liberty City took many visual cues from New York City, this dramatic reinvention of the fictional metropolis seeks to capture the feel of the world's greatest city like never before.

From conversations we had with a lot of crime experts and ex-policemen, we learned that it's very hard to be a criminal nowadays. The glory days of that stuff is over. That was something that we definitely tried to capture in the story and the experience of the game. People are constantly getting arrested. The police are a heavy presence.