GTA IV research

Process

The story of Grand Theft Auto IV was written by Dan Houser and Rupert Humphries. Work on Grand Theft Auto IV began in November 2004, almost immediately after the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Around 150 game developers worked on Grand Theft Auto IV, led by core members of the Grand Theft Auto III team. The game uses Rockstar’s own RAGE game engine, which was previously used in Rockstar Table Tennis, in combination with the Euphoria game animation engine. Rockstar Games initially appeared to be committed to the original 16 October 2007 release date; however, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter suggested that Take-Two may choose to delay the release of the game in order to boost its financial results for 2008 and to avoid competing with the release of other highly anticipated titles, such as Halo 3. Rockstar responded by saying that Grand Theft Auto IV was still on track for release in “late October”. On 2 August 2007, Take-Two announced that Grand Theft Auto IV would miss its original release date of 16 October 2007 contrary to their previous statements, and would be delayed to their second fiscal quarter (February–April) of 2008. In a later conference call with investors, Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick attributed the delay to “almost strictly technological problems… not problems, but challenges. The story of Grand Theft Auto IV was written by Dan Houser and Rupert Humphries. Unlike previous Grand Theft Auto games which have a strong cultural or cinematic influence.

On 27 October 2008, Rockstar released an update which added Trophy support to the PlayStation 3 version. Like Achievements on the Xbox 360, Trophies may be unlocked by completing certain unique tasks.

On 15 November 2008, another patch (1.04) was released for the PlayStation 3 version of the game. On 12 December 2008, a patch (1.0.1.0) was released for the Microsoft Windows version of the game. This patch added DirectInput support, enabling non-Microsoft controllers to be used.

On 24 January 2009, another patch (1.0.2.0) was released for the Microsoft Windows version of the game. It fixed many performance and graphical issues as well as correcting issues created by the first patch.

On 20 February 2009, a patch was released for the European and Australian releases of the game, fixing an error caused by a previous update to The Lost And Damned, which had reversed regional censorship rules for the European and Australian editions of the game.

On 21 March 2009, a third patch (1.0.3.0) was released for the Microsoft Windows version of the game. This fixed many major graphic flaws such as headlights on the player’s car consuming too much GPU power.

On 19 June 2009, a fourth patch (1.0.4.0) was released for the Microsoft Windows version of the game. Rockstar Toronto called it a ‘Maintenance Update’ and said that it is in preparation for a future patch. Rockstar says this patch “ensures all copies of the game are properly aligned for the next gold master build pressing”.

On 4 September 2009, another patch was released for the Xbox 360 version of the game. It was released to patch cheat exploits in Xbox Live multiplayer.

On 10 November 2009, a fifth patch (1.0.0.4) was released for the Microsoft Windows version of the game. It fixed some minor bugs, improved keyboard mapping and added some cheating deterrents.

On 23 March 2010, a patch (1.06) was released for the PlayStation 3 version of the game. In preparation for the downloadable content, trophies for The Lost & Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony were added. Also, the options for online multiplayer matches were completely re-ordered (“Auto-Aim” placed at the top, rather than “Location”) to better fit players’ priorities. The multiplayer invite problem which occurs when having more than 50 people on a friends list, has been fixed. The glitch that occurs in Bomb Da Base II, which kicks all players back to single player mode has also been fixed. Also any NPC in single mode that get injured and they recover they get in back of the ambulance. Also New Dialogue.

Graphics

The Grand Theft Auto IV rendition of Liberty City is far more detailed and is the largest individual city in the Grand Theft Auto series. Although smaller than San Andreas, Liberty City is comparable to it in terms of scope when “the level of verticality of the city, the number of buildings you can go into, and the level of detail in those buildings” are taken into account.

Music

 Music supervisor Ivan Pavlovich said “we had to pick the songs that make New York today what it is, but make sure they won’t feel dated by the time the game comes out.” The developers contacted over 2,000 people in order to obtain recording and publishing rights. Billboard (magazine), reported that Rockstar paid as much as $5,000 per composition and another $5,000 per master recording per track.

1 Comment so far
Leave a comment