[Official] Grand Theft Auto IV

[Sethos]

Well, I'm not reading a lot of Playstation 3 related news, positive or negative - So i tend to miss out on a lot. :(

But when you hear it for the first time, It's definitely a shocker.

On-Topic though, if anyone missed this;

GamesRadar presents GTA IV audio Q&A

GamesRadar has recently published an interview with three senior members of Rockstar's audio team: Matthew Smith, Craig Conner and Will Morton.

They speak about the ambient sounds of Liberty City in the upcoming game, as well as finally telling readers why gunfire has never sounded great in previous entries to the series.

GamesRadar: Do you use a generic city sound, or is the background thrum made up of individual sounds from individual, identifiable sources? i.e. if I hear a police siren does that mean there is a police car in the next street, or is it just generic city noises?

Matthew Smith: What?s so great about GTA IV from an audio team?s perspective is that you hardly ever need to fake anything ? the world?s so rich and so busy, that if you make individual things sound right, the whole ambience pretty much just appears by itself.

* Sounds can appear muffled - a car horn coming from a tunnel 100m away sounds very different to a car horn right next to the player, instead of just being quieter as it might have been previously.

* We have around four-and-a-half thousand individual sfx in the game, which are combined into around 19 thousand different combinations.

* A single gunshot typically consists of around 10 individual components, whose volume and placement we control independently with distance, to create a bright, wide, punchy sound up-close, and a more reverberant, muffled sound at a distance.

* There were over 740 unique voices in the game. There are over 80,000 individual lines of dialogue, more than 7000 of which are Niko?s lines.

The interview also comes with eight brand new screenshots also available in our GTA IV screenshots gallery

Check out the screenshots and a link to the Q&A at GTAgaming

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

^

Funny thing is they could probably claim they game has 8,000,000 sound effects, and we'd never know for sure :laugh: - It's probably just impractical we'll hear every sound effect throughout our play though, or at least "record" everyone of them to make sure it has what they say it has.

Not that I'm debating sound effects, I don't really care as long as there is variety (Y) - I'm just saying when they claim variation in sound like that, you're like :o Really? Haha.

[Sethos]

That's true, my first thought when reading through this was, the Playstation 3 must have some kinda advantage here?

I never really bought into the whole Blu-ray Next-Gen salespitch, but if they had so many lines of dialogue and amount of music in the game, they must have a hard time fitting everything onto that DVD disc, plus the game?

I have no idea how compression works, but that much audio at a decent quality must take up quite a lot ...

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

That's true, my first thought when reading through this was, the Playstation 3 must have some kinda advantage here?

I never really bought into the whole Blu-ray Next-Gen salespitch, but if they had so many lines of dialogue and amount of music in the game, they must have a hard time fitting everything onto that DVD disc, plus the game?

I have no idea how compression works, but that much audio at a decent quality must take up quite a lot ...

Fair point, but I doubt voice has to be at that high a quality - Any audiobooks I've downloaded haven't been in like FLAC or anything, most of them aren't VBR or even 192.

Still I wonder if the PS3 version will be a direct 1:1 image of the 360 version or if it will have different audio options or what not...

Doubt it or we'd no doubt of heard by now and seen another 8,000 PS3 vs 360 GTA4 arguments...

[Sethos]

Yeah, but as you mentioned - The numbers could be made up for all we know, that means they could also keep a lid on things?

Perhaps those numbers he mentioned are the ones for the Playstation 3 version, but the Xbox 360 version has far less voices and random audio in general, we would never know really?

( Nobody read into this and thinking It's a 360 vs PS3 argument, was just a simple thought, shoo! )

No matter what, i get more excited every day! I really hope we get to see some 'guy-playing-the-game' footage, i really wanna see the game in action.

[Remysaus]

indeed, haven't even seen the HUD or the position of the camera or the aiming system.

Does anybody know when the reviews will hit the web? I hope next week, should also get us some more screens or videos of people actually playing.

[Sethos]

Well, there are HUD Screenshots and one with the aiming reticule, so we've seen that. I just want some moving, proper footage.

[what]

Well, there are HUD Screenshots and one with the aiming reticule, so we've seen that. I just want some moving, proper footage.

Owners of the top GTA fansites have been invited to NYC for live previews of GTA4 from tomorrow until Thursday (but none of the other admins have been :(). We might see some actual gameplay footage as a result of that.

[Sethos]

Very nice, are you allowed to bring cameras of any sort or is this another locked down event?

[what]

Very nice, are you allowed to bring cameras of any sort or is this another locked down event?

As I was trying to hint at with the parentheses, I haven't been invited, but according to guy who's going, it's going to be a very secure thing. He hasn't been given any details about the trip - he'll have to wait until he gets there to find out what the full plan for the week is. All he knows is that he (and the other webmasters) will have a chance to play the full version of the game, and that the whole trip is being paid for by Rockstar. If he has a chance he may post updates on the site but if not, I'll let you know what happened when he gets back on Thursday/Friday.

[Sethos]

Sorry about that, I'm a bit slow :laugh:

But we can almost be certain It's gonna be a secure and locked down event, no cameras, no nothing.

Let's just hope they get to play some free-roam on their own, instead of getting thrown in some premade Multiplayer matches or play the same certain missions the reviewers got to play. I'm really craving some information, everything released by media and Rockstar themselves is carefully controlled to just 'tease' the public, so i have no hopes for any information overload.

[kingroach]

are the houses in th egame accurately modeled.. it will be kinda cool to drive by the place where I live..lol.. I guess Francis International Airport in gta is supposed to be LaGuardia Airport.. I live just around the there .. :hmmm:

[Guyro]

the owner of your website, had better start investing in getting a hidden camera :p

[soniqstylz]

are the houses in th egame accurately modeled.. it will be kinda cool to drive by the place where I live..lol.. I guess Francis International Airport in gta is supposed to be LaGuardia Airport.. I live just around the there .. :hmmm:

No, this isn't The Getaway.

[Orange]

can't wait for this game, gonna be on it all night lol 10000000% times better then HALO3

[Remysaus]

lol 10000000% times better then HALO3

wow, that's a pretty awful comparison.

[Scazza]

This is not cool.............I start my new job on Monday, looks like I will be going into my 2nd of work looking like death after playing GTA 4 until the early hours of the morning.

As I haven't pre-ordered my copy anywhere so looks like I am going to be going to Tesco/Asda at Midnight and get it then!

CANNOT WAIT!

[Ricardo Gil]

This is not cool.............I start my new job on Monday, looks like I will be going into my 2nd of work looking like death after playing GTA 4 until the early hours of the morning.

You know, you could just wait until after work... the game isn't going anywhere.

[Sethos]

Yay, just got the game + 60$ + a 25$ gift certificate to GameStop and paid nothing.

[Groovedude]

You know, you could just wait until after work... the game isn't going anywhere.

:o it might blow up suddenly for no reason :p lol!

[Mike]

just had an email off Game.co.uk saying they've had to start the picking/packaging earlier than normal due to demand so i hope they decide to post them earlier too :p

[digitalsoft]

Havent pre-ordered mine, so hope i can get a copy from a store on release day :unsure:

[Sethos]

just had an email off Game.co.uk saying they've had to start the picking/packaging earlier than normal due to demand so i hope they decide to post them earlier too :p

They won't.

http://www.n4g.com/ps3/News-137440.aspx

http://www.shopto.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2988

"Take2 have sent a street date agreement to online retailers to sign which means they cannot ship GTA IV until Monday next week (April 28), this also includes an embargo on staff getting copies either paid for or free."

They just need to package them earlier due to the demand, since you usually package them all the day they need to be sent out.

[zeta_immersion]

got it from amazon with the customized licence plate, can hardly wait for this bad boy

[Groovedude]

They won't.

http://www.n4g.com/ps3/News-137440.aspx

http://www.shopto.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2988

"Take2 have sent a street date agreement to online retailers to sign which means they cannot ship GTA IV until Monday next week (April 28), this also includes an embargo on staff getting copies either paid for or free."

They just need to package them earlier due to the demand, since you usually package them all the day they need to be sent out.

lol then again.. halo 3 got sold early ;)!!