It was here that we got our first look at how gunfights will work in GTA IV. As Niko stomped his way through the site, he came under constant fire from heat-packing union workers, forcing him behind cover. Cover in GTA IV works a lot like it does in Gears of War, with Niko able to flatten himself against walls and other cover objects, shimmy around behind them and blind-fire around corners. He can also pop out, squeeze off a few shots and instantly duck back down, and if he's under fire and racing for cover, he can duck and slide into it.

Targeting in GTA IV is a little different from what fans might be used to; the old, unreliable lock-on system of previous games was shit, so Rockstar has overhauled it considerably. Niko now draws his gun (or pops out to shoot) with the left trigger; pulling it in halfway enables free aiming, with the right stick moving a reticle around the screen. Pulling it all the way will lock on to whoever you're aiming at, and enable you to target specific body parts using the right stick. Additionally, you'll be able to see how much damage you're doing just by looking at your crosshairs, as your enemy's life meter is neatly ringed around the inside of the circle.

Aside from union goons, Niko was able to shoot strategically placed (and therefore explosive) barrels, which produced some beautiful fireballs. As Niko slowly worked his way through the site, we saw him bust out a fairly wide range of weaponry, ranging from powerful-sounding pistols and submachine guns to assault rifles, all of which he apparently keeps in his jacket. He's also able to toss grenades around, which turned out to be perfectly suited to flushing out the cleverer enemies, who had squeezed themselves behind cover and weren't coming out except to pop off a few shots now and then. For sheer destructive power, though, we were most impressed with the startlingly realistic RPG, which leaves a twisting contrail when fired and doesn't always travel in a straight line.

Not every union soldier was smart enough to take cover, though; a few just shot wildly while standing out in the open, which made them easy prey for Niko, and their blood sprays realistically splattered the camera lens as Niko charged through them. The union leaders who'd been targeted for death were the smartest of all, though; as Niko neared the end of his murder spree, the survivors had called a chopper to whisk them away. From there, it was a race to catch up to his intended victims before they caught up to the chopper. Niko won, shooting the final union leader as the man was climbing a ladder; his fall was short, but fatal. A quick cell-phone call to Playboy sealed the deal; his developer friend would be very happy.

MC: I loved the more close-combat shooting in this mission. The new slide-to-cover looks the absolute nuts, as does the blindfiring. So cool.
CB: Especially blind-firing a rocket launcher.
MR: Yeah, absolutely.
MC: Plenty of grenades as well.
CB: Shooting has always been such an afterthought in GTA. Just a means to an end. Now it's truly a game in its own right, with RE4/Gears of War over-the-shoulder shooting, specific targeting and cover.
MR: What'd you guys think of the way the enemies were behaving here? It seemed kind of spotty; a lot of them were ducking and firing from behind cover, but then it seemed like just as many were standing out in the open like idiots.
CB: Enemies in GTA games have always been mindless fodder... as different as the shooting is now, I'm not sure the "mindless fodder" AI has been fully replaced. People expecting the enemies to behave like GRAW or Gears or CoD enemies are going to be disappointed. For GTA, though, the AI is definitely the best it's been yet.
MR: That's a good point; who plays GTA for the smart enemies?
CB: Oh, and I loved how the last union boss you shot fell of the ladder, dying from the fall... was that scripted?
MC: The ladder death was in my demo too.
MR: That confirms it, then.