PS Magazin - GTA IV Preview

A few lucky British subscribers got the latest issue of PlayStation magazine in their mailboxes yesterday, and it includes a GTA IV preview. Here's a short summary:

• Niko (the main character) is a little past his twenties and living his thirties. We learned that we can't change his looks, but we can dress him in different clothes.
• Staten Island is the only place that won't be part of Liberty City.
• There won't be any unexplored areas on the streets of LC.
• Once you start playing, there are no loading screens at all, so moving between interiors (meaning inside buildings) and exteriors (meaning outside buildings) is completely seamless.
• There will be street gangs, but they may not play as important a role as before.
• There's been a big step forward in mission gameplay: missions have become much more realistic; they last longer, they're more complicated, and our work can have several different outcomes.
• The bridges will be closed at the start of the game so that we can't roam into other areas, but this isn't a final decision yet.
• The graphics have also gone through a significant change, as the draw distance has increased massively. So much so that we won't see buildings popping up in the distance anymore, and "distant textures" (see: the WTC twin towers in Vice City) have been completely "eradicated" from the game.
• Dan Houser said that nobody has tried to recreate such a large area at such a high graphical level before.
• The artificial intelligence has been thoroughly overhauled, so pedestrians use a wide range of activities on the street. For example, pedestrians even react if someone simply pulls a gun on them.
• Aiming has become more precise than in the previous games.
• Using the mobile phone will be especially important for Niko, as he can arrange deals and hits through it with his partners and/or associates.
• As we wrote earlier, there won't be any planes in the game, but we'll be able to fly helicopters.
• Many more side missions will be added to the game.