Mikel: And so they do. Like that guy sitting over on the steps of a house, tapping his foot. Look at him; he's so realistic, sitting there minding his own business, that I hardly want to punch him at all. Same goes with the other people, talking on payphones, lighting cigarettes, chatting with each other in the street; these aren't just paper targets anymore.

Charlie: You're right. They're so solid that when Niko bumped into one on the sidewalk, it knocked him a little off balance. And then I loved how Niko took one last look over his shoulder at the annoyance before continuing his walk.

Eric: Yeah, the regular people are far more lifelike than they were before. The animations were super-smooth, and the little things, like the way I heard the dude's Zippo flick when Niko walked by as the guy was lighting a cigarette, were fantastic.

Mikel: I do wish Niko didn't walk so slowly; GTA 's about action, and also speed and explosions. But I guess this demo is about letting us take in the detail as Niko goes for a leisurely stroll.

Eric:  I think they were just going really slowly to let us take it all in. He moved okay when he broke out into a run, and leaned slightly in the direction he was going, just like a real person would. I loved it. 

Mikel: Yeah, the people were great. Too bad there weren't any in that seemingly random house Niko ducked into, but the fact that he was able to walk right into a detailed interior environment with zero loading was pretty awesome.

Eric:  Did you notice the new targeting reticule?

Mikel: Yeah, that's a nice addition. I kinda wanted to see how they're handling lock-on, but seamless manual aiming - especially with an over-the-shoulder, Resident Evil 4-style perspective - ought to be a huge improvement.

Eric: This talk about shooting reminds me: you know what's interesting? Remember when I asked if they were doing "blood"? It was a stupid thing to ask because they've had blood for ages, and they said yes, of course there will still be blood. But when I expanded the question and asked, "Will blood soak into your clothes? If a cop hears gunfire and sees you running off with corpuscles all over your chest, will he take notice? Will there be locational damage, so if I get shot in the leg, I limp and can't run?" They didn't deny or confirm any of that, but responded only, "We'll talk about that later." This indicates to me that there's at least a chance that such things might actually be in there.

Mikel: They gave the same answer when I asked about climbing, right after Niko hoisted himself up the rungs on a telephone pole to get a bird's-eye view of the neighborhood. The question was something along the lines of, "How far are you going to take this? Will we be able to climb up the sides of buildings?" And they said, "We'll show you that later." Sounded like a vague confirmation to me.