Gamertell

Remember that exclusive DLC for Grand Theft Auto IV Microsoft said would be out by August? Obviously Rockstar missed that target date and from the sounds of their Creative VP, Dan Houser, in an interview with Variety it sounds like we shouldn’t expect to see it this year at all…

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Thanks to Sony’s firmware update 2.41, however, Playstation 3 owners will also have the opportunity to earn ‘achievements’ akin to their 360 brethren.  Rockstar announced that 51 trophies will be patched into the game via this firmware update, which will allow it to have a singular achievement not available in the 360 version of the game…

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Well kids, just as we were about to report the rumor that has been going around that the Xbox 360’s exclusive content may be a zombie infested outbreak in Liberty City, Rockstar made an announcement on its Rockstar Social Club that almost totally deflated our hopes.

An advertisement by Eugenics Inc. that a “contagious disease” said Social Club spark a bit of chatter earlier today causing many, including us, to speculate that the citizens of Liberty City would be turned into blood thirsty zombies. We were almost right. Instead of being the “exclusive” downloadable content that Microsoft promised us for Fall 2008, its a Halloween gag by the Rockstar folks.

Instead, its the players that will become zombies, or at least gain access to that ultra-Halloween zombie skin…

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That title really shouldn’t be a surprise since, as gamers, we know the power that the Nintendo Wii can wield over consumers. We also know the power Wii Fit had over consumers as well. The motion-fitness game that retails for a round $90 and comes with a Wii Balance Board is expected to outpace the gritty and violent Rockstar hit, Grand Theft Auto IV, which retails around $60. But what both WedBush Morgan gaming analyst Michael Pachter and GigaOM are predicting isn’t money, it’s absolute units. Currently, 10.6 million GTA IV copies have been sold to Wii Fit’s 8.7 million.

Out of 12 million Nintendo Wiis out there, around 30 percent of the system’s owners have purchased Wii Fit and we are just getting into the beginning of the holiday season. Currently, the exercise tool has been selling around…

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When it was announced that Max Payne, the third-person action game developed by Rockstar, would receive the cinematic treatment, gamers were excited. After all, the game was regarded as one of the best in terms of storytelling and thus did an excellent job in allowing players to empathize with Payne’s various tribulations throughout the experience.

Sadly, those heightened expectations did not lead to critical praise, as it was roundly criticized by reviewers left and right. By the time the dust settled, Max Payne would end up being dismissed by everyone as just another failed example of a video game property making an…

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Steam has good offer going on for the weekend starting yesterday (September 26, 2008) for some of Rockstar Games’ best titles.

For $29.99 you can get your hands on such classic titles including the original Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne. Buying the collection will save you a little less than $10 as opposed to buying them all individually.

This could be a good time to…

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I suppose it’s better late than never in the case of Bully, which is finally going to be released in Japan on July 24, 2008. Bethesda Softworks will be publishing the PS2 Bully and the Xbox 360 Bully: Scholarship Edition overseas.

In case you’re curious, the PS2 version of Bully was released in the US, Europe and Australia in October, 2006. Bully: Scholarship Edition for the Xbox 360 hit those same countries in March, 2008. So it isn’t too bad a delay for the Xbox 360 edition, but very belated in the case of the PS2 one.

I wonder how this game is going to do overseas. It may sell well, but it might also touch a nerve. Bullying in schools in Japan is a sensitive issue…

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Title: Grand Theft Aufo IV
Price: $59.99
System(s): Xbox 360, PS3
Release Date: April, 28, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Take-Two Interactive (Rockstar)
Rating: “Mature” for blood, intense violence, partial nudity, strong language, strong sexual content, use of alcohol and use of drugs.
Pros: Great game play, great narrative story, great mechanics, great online, long game play length, great city details and nearly bug-free.
Cons: The game ends eventually, not as funny as past titles, removal of past additions, some system crashes, not enough of the city is used.
Overall Score: Two Thumbs Up, 95/100, A , * * * * 1/2 out of five

With every little bump or minor complaint I’ve had with this game, it doesn’t in the slightest way detract from the overall experience.

With an online element that really allows players to experiment and create their own modes of game play GTA IV has more under its hood then any five games. GTA IV may be an evolution that doesn’t add much that we haven’t already seen in previous titles but it certainly takes everything we’ve played before and perfects it into a truly epic experience not seen since GTA III.

Click through for the full review…

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It looks like Take-Two wasn’t kidding when it expected sales of Grand Theft Auto IV to make the Halo 3 launch look puny. According to Kotaku, the publisher has just confirmed a New York Times report that the title has generated $500 million in sales in its first week. This means that the PS3/Xbox 360 game sold 6 million copies, with 3.6 million going on the first day. This tops Halo 3‘s $300 million launch by quite a bit.

GTA IV is one of those “event” launches that eclipses everything else in the industry for a while - the sort of critically acclaimed, massive-selling game that crosses right over to the mainstream and back again. But half a billion dollars, in the first week alone? That’s pretty revolutionary.

Read [Kotaku]

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• Bill Cosby equates Grand Theft Auto with an entrance exam to prison
• Four games that redefined their genres

While the streets might be safe for a few weeks while everyone is inside playing Grand Theft Auto IV: Vice City, it’s only a matter of time before hooligans decide to stretch their thumbs and break out of the family den or dilapidated tenement apartment (adorned with a 42 in. LCD screen cranked up to 1080p, natch).
 
This is the fourth time a GTA has cracked the skulls of our law- and god-fearing youth, and it’s hard not to see its influence everywhere. Take this piece in the Sunday New York Times Magazine about a group of former gang members who try to head off attempts at gangland shooting violence…

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