new details emerge
* Our time with Niko Bellic began in Liberty City's equivalent of Times Square called Star Junction.
* The population on the street wasn't that dense, possibly due to the "early nature of the code".
* The way Niko moved with muscularity and purpose. His sense of balance and weight, even his face expressions - none of it seems forced.
* Niko uses his mobile phone (cellphone) and calls up his associate 'Little Jacob' a Caribbean arms dealer. Most possibly this guy, whose artwork circulated on the net and in some previews, few weeks ago.
* After your chat with 'Little Jacob', he tells you to meet him in an alleyway in Rotterdam Hill.
* You can skip taxi rides for convenience, or enjoy it in full from a first person viewpoint, allowing you to soak in the sights of Liberty City.
* You can slip Little Jacob some money.
* Niko receives another phone call from a shady lawyer Goldberg, of Goldberg , Ligner & Shyster.
* Niko can enter an internet cafe and upload his CV to their website, he's going to get himself an interview and then kill Goldberg.
* The Internet Cafe is called Tw@ Cafe, another returning brand from Grand Theft Auto III.
* Niko can hop onto PC's and start surfing away.
* GTA IV's web is accessible from any computer in the game. Though it is still unknown how much breadth the interweb of GTA World is going to take.
* Once Niko has uploaded his CV, he will receive a Phone Call to confirm his interview time.
* Unlike past GTA's, this mission can interrupted, your interview isn't till the next day, so you're free to carry out your business till then.
* Any carry out your business you will, as it's time to pay the nefarious McReary a visit at Castle Gardens, the coast-side hangout overlooking The Statue of Happiness (Statue of Liberty).
* McReary has had a Memory Stick stolen from him which contains sensitive data, and he wants you to get it back for him.
* Niko gets in a cab and heads to the meeting point that McReary has arranged.
* When Niko gets to the river, he sees people, but he doesn't know who is who, so he pulls that trusty mobile phone and gives him a call, so he can see who pulls out a phone, Clever hey.
* Niko draws his weapon, casually walks upto the guy who answered the phone and puts three bullets in the back of his head, he grabs the memory stick and starts running, with a three star wanted level in tow.
* Any crime you commit will give you a wanted level.
* Jack a car anywhere and you'll get a star because there are witnesses.
* Instead of cops just screaming to your position though, the star rating your given translates to a visible search area on the radar, if you manage to escape the search circular search area, then your wanted level will flash and disappear.
* If you're spotted though, the center of the circle changes to your position, and you'll have to start again.
* This opens up numerous options, as the police only operate on their own line of sight, if they can't see you, they can't stop you.
* In GTA IV, every street is named, and the police use this information to hunt you down.
* If you're spotted on Star Junction in a Comet, for example, you'll hear it on the police radio.
* During our time with Niko, he escapes the clutches of the law with a clever vehicle switch.
* After outfoxing a pursuing police car with a hard right turn, Bellic speeds into a nearby car park, neatly obscured by a bridge. Quickly, he jumps out of his vehicle breaks into another and calmly cruises out of the search zone. Of course had he been spotted committing this further felony, the search would have changed, and most likely widened.
* Before the interview Niko goes to Perseus, a menswear store and spends $2,000 on a suit and shoes.
* Bellic's phone alarm sounds - it's time for the interview and he heads off to carry out his duty.
* After a brief chat with the receptionist from outside the building via the intercom, Bellic wanders casually into the offices.
* Niko enters Goldberg's office, where the unsuspecting lawyer seems more than happy to see him, that is until Niko pulls a gun and points it at Goldberg's head.
* Goldberg then rears back in fear, but before he can plead for his life, he has a bullet in his skull.
* He slumps to the floor, and his secretary, alerted by the noise, runs into the room and sounds the alarm.
* Unsurprisingly the office security and police aren't just going to let Niko walk out onto the streets, he's going to have to fight.
* Immediately Niko is confronted by an overweight pistol-wielding security guard, Niko takes cover and fires blind shots in order to pin his opponent down, he then pops out, takes aim and puts two bullets in the security guards heart.
* As Niko continues his firefight to escape the offices, he speeds toward the front desk as bullets rain down from the newly arrived police, slamming into cover and blindly spraying Uzi fire into the distance.
* So in a hail of blood and bullets, Niko takes down the first wave of police onslaught, his three star wanted level providing a far greater obstacle than ever before.
* As Niko carries his now battered frame outside, the noise of a police chopper rattles overhead.
* The sound is incredibly loud, overbearing and overpowering.
* The gunfight is now far more intense. According to the magazine, it's closest resemblance is Gears Of War. It also states, "The gun battle in Michael Mann's film Heat is often referenced as the Holy Grail for videogame combat, and Grand Theft Auto IV may have cracked it".
* Sadly Bellic didn't last much longer, his lifeless corpse lies prone on the Tarmac.
* The mechanics of the firefights are now rock hard.
* As Niko sprints past pedestrians, they reel in shock, if he bumps into them, they move.
* You can even push people out of the way by simply walking into them.
* Your mobile phone acts as a calendar, a vessel for text messages, an alarm and even a camera.
* In a screenshot in the magazine, Niko was seen doing drive-by with a Glock. It may suggests that drive-by is no more dependent only on the SMGs.
another set of details
* McReary is a corrupt cop, like Officer Tenpenny in San Andreas.
* The arms dealer called Little Jacob is a good friend of Niko's cousin, Roman.
* Rotterdam Hill is in Alderney.
* The first mission in the demo was called "Call and Collect".
* There are no arrowheads to guide you in the game.
* The HUD has been streamlined to only a few displays.
* The map remains, sensibly, as does the wanted level and the money.
* But visuals on the map in the demo are reduced to mere blips in the top corner of the impressive display.
* The new wanted level system system starts with the map flashing with circles of blue and red.
* The wanted level system has been completely revamped from the previous games, It's now based on vision, with each circle representing the line of sight of the police chase.
* The wanted level system has six levels as in previous games.
* Pedestrians drink while out on streets.
* The increased difficulty of the game could alienate some of the fans.
* When you kill Goldberg, there are at least two possible cutscenes, the first saw Goldberg crumpled down onto the floor and the second saw Goldberg fall out of the window.
* You exit Goldberg's Office and there are three security guards blocking your way.
* You can hug the wall like in Metal Gear Solid to cover yourself from fire.
* You can also strafe, which is helpful when you take on the police.
* If you escape the building, it's mission complete.
* Rockstar has added bodily damage to the proceedings, with certain actions triggerings different reactionary deaths.
o Game Example 1: Shoot a security guard in the foot at the top of the stairs and he will come tumblings down the stairs.
o Game Example 2: Shoot Goldberg, the lawyer, with a shotgun in front of a window and he'll meet his end on the streets below as he tumbles out.
