Ok, to be honest, we’re not one of those fancy-schmancy sites that was given a copy of GTA IV in advance so we could put a review up on release day. Well, you know what I have to say to that? Not much, actually. To be honest it’s really quite reasonable. Still, I feel that we have a great little site here at MEGATONik and I didn’t want our loyal readers to think that we were going to be the ONLY ones to let this momentous occasion just fly by without putting in our own two cents on the game. After all, our forums are literally abuzz with the release of this giant of a game! Obviously, with the game only having been out a meager 24 hours it would be impossible for me to have actually beaten the game. However, I did end up spending the majority of my day on my couch playing this damn game until my eyes bled with nothing but a bottle of Dew and a bag of Twizzlers for sustenance.

So, how does GTA 4 stack up after about 7 hours of gameplay? Is it worth it? Does it live up to the hype? Is this really worth sixty of your hard-earned dollars? Without further ado, I present to you MEGATONik’s very own review of Grand Theft Auto IV! All you have to do is hit the jump!
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The PAL version of Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360 supposedly leaked earlier today, and has shown up on torrent sites across the internet as a 6471 MB (6.32 GB if you don’t like big numbers) file released by iCON. The NFO file warns not to connect to Xbox Live until the game is released to the masses (three full times in ALL CAPS, so you better heed the warning), and even encourages people to buy the game anyway since “R* deserves it.”

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If the above picture (spotted on Digg) is to be believed, someone has gotten a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV ahead of its scheduled April 29 release. It was rumored that someone had a copy in March when a video showed the case and intro, but 1UP believed it was fake.

There is also more reliable proof someone has GTA IV already, since Powderblue Kes’ 360voice.com blog shows that he played it April 9 after 28 days with nothing played. As is usual when a game suddenly appears early, there are plenty of questions; did Powderblue Kes take a picture of his disc, or are there multiple copies out there? Did they (or he or she) get it for review, or because they work at Rockstar, or because a store sold it early, or by more nefarious means? How long until someone who has it leaks it to the internet? And how did the Xbox 360 pictured get that mustache?

Rockstar has just released the final trailer for the hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV, titled “Everyone’s a Rat.” It shows a lot more varied locales and vehicles than previous trailers, and I’d wager that all of the graphics are in-engine. This is going to be one good looking game. The game hits stores on April 29 for the 360 and PS3.

[UPDATE: 1UP has already posted their frame-by-frame analysis. Hit the jump for the video]
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Following the recently unsuccessful bid by EA to buy all outstanding shares of Take-Two’s stock at $26 a share, the company has received offers from a few third-party companies that are now interested. However, you can rest assured that there won’t be any buying or selling of Take-Two stock until after the release of Grand Theft Auto IV at the end of April.

According the chairman of Take-Two Strauss Zelnick, “Our Board, after careful review, has unanimously determined that Electronic Arts’ offer continues to provide insufficient value and remains opportunistically timed to capture the value of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV launch at the expense of our stockholders.”

To put it bluntly, screw you and the horse you rode in on EA, after GTA4 comes out, you can’t afford us!

Zelnick continues his verbal pwnage, “We are effectively working toward a process to review all available options to maximize this value, either as an independent company or in combination with a third party, and are open to beginning informal discussions starting now. Our stockholders’ interests would hardly be served by accepting an offer from EA at the wrong price and the wrong time.”

So in short, it doesn’t look like EA planned on their offer to buy Take-Two backfiring as much as it did. Fortunately the shareholders of Take-Two are smart enough to realize that the release of GTA4 is going to make the stock surge as long as there isn’t any “hot coffee” included.

Update: 1Up has some doubts as to whether or not this video is real or phoney. The site says:

“But after polling a few folks in the know across the industry — none of whom, unfortunately, were keen on attribution — we’re not believing our eyes. It all comes down to the branding. In the video, a logo for Rockstar parent company Take-Two pops up before the Rockstar Games logo. But Take-Two does not publish the GTA games; Rockstar Games publishes them. Take-Two confirmed to 1UP that it is not suddenly taking publishing credit for GTA IV. A real GTA game, or any Rockstar Games intro for that matter, starts with the R* logo for the studio, followed by the classic yellow R* logo.”

Not officially fake, but it really looks like it is. If it IS totally real, I’m disappointed in the boring and non-GTA-traditional intro.

Original: Someone seems to have leaked this video onto GameVideos. It showcases the PlayStation 3’s intro to the upcoming and highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV, while also showing off the fact that someone already has the game in their hands right now. April 29th couldn’t come any slower…

If you happened to pick up this month’s issue of popular gaming magazine and Microsoft fanboy required reading, OXM, I’m sure that you did so based on their exclusive coverage of Bethesda’s upcoming massive RPG, Fallout 3. And, if you so happened to purchase the magazine (or receive it free due to a GameFly subscription that you happened to cancel months ago), I’m sure that you noticed the picture of a certain Fallout 3 town on page 45. The town, constructed solely out of scattered parts of a “downed airliner,” is aptly named Megaton.

I realize what you’re thinking; this is just some subtle coincidence. Megaton is a fairly common word that has everything to do with nuclear holocausts and whatnot. However, based on our love for Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and our controversial hate for Southpeak’s Oblivion-clone, Two Worlds, I cannot dismiss Bethesda’s inclusion of a town named Megaton as anything less than a tribute to our great and powerful site, MEGATONik. Yes, Bethesda loves us, and we love them back. So … how about a complimentary flight out to Cali to celebrate our love of Bethesda with an early look at Fallout 3? Pretty please?

And Rockstar, remember that time when we loved you? Naming a burrough of Liberty City after MEGATONik (I’d call it MegaSKANKik) would fit quite nicely, I do believe.

In an interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly, Rockstar founder Sam Houser talked about the idea of a Grand Theft Auto-type MMO. He seems to think it is an intriguing idea (and I can’t help but agree), saying “it’s definitely something that we’re very keen to explore.” Not only that, but Houser says it is “very, very doable”:

“I think a subscription-based Grand Theft Auto-type game…is very, very doable and is a very, very compelling proposition.”

However, he does admit there would be definite challenges:

“I think the basic things that you can get away with in a fantasy thing–that fantasy players don’t mind doing–just wouldn’t fly for the kind of mass-market users that we really talk to.”

In response to another question statement from EGM, about the lack of successful massively multiplayer games on consoles, he refers to them as “the Holy Grail,” talking about what he believes would make it work:

“I think if you can combine the vibe and attitude and also the gameplay and the tangibility of the games we make, with some kind of–for want of a better term–MMO subscription model, I think that’s like the golden-goal kind of thing… I think this is a world that really can support it”

However, he wouldn’t want everyone just “running around and firing fucking rocket launchers,” because “having 2,000 people run around a map shooting each other, that’s just not interesting.”

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This morning, EA announced that it has proposed a deal with Take-Two shareholders to purchase the company. In the deal, Take-Two, publishers of titles such as the Grand Theft Auto series, Bioshock, and Bully, would be bought for $2 billion.

The deal was proposed last week to Take-Two’s Executive Chairman of Board of Directors, Strauss Zelnick. It was then publicly released so that all Take-Two shareholders would be well aware of the deal. EA Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello made sure that they would need Take-Two’s immediate action, which is most likely because of the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV releasing April 29. Riccitiello mentioned in his statement, “There can be no certainty that in the future EA or any other buyer would pay the same high premium we are offering today.”

Take-Two has responded to the deal by saying it will be discussing the deal with EA, and has also released a statement:

“We believe EA’s unsolicited offer is highly opportunistic and is attempting to take advantage of our upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV, one of the most valuable and durable franchises in the industry. Furthermore, the offer values the company at a significant discount to its public peers and does not compensate Take-Two for its intrinsic value and the substantial synergies that the proposed combination would create.”

Take-Two has also stated that the proposal was “inadequate in multiple respects and not in the best interests of Take-Two’s stockholders.” In addition, a full press release has been released to explain why Take-Two does not accept EA’s deal.

Rockstar Games has launched their new Grand Theft Auto IV website, and it’s full of content like a map, tons of screens, and “much much more” promised in the months ahead (like that teasing Multiplayer link that says only “Coming Soon” when you try to click it). To save you the trouble, I’ve included all 63 screenshots from the site here, in full 1280×720 resolution. The screens are certainly looking good, with crisp graphics and plenty of attention to detail (especially in the background), although there is a suspicious lack of hookers. Go ahead and check them out below and if you want to see everything else head on over to Rockstar’s site.

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