Grand Theft Auto IV demo dissected

Charlie: It'll be a tough line for Rockstar to walk. In Gears, the extreme violence happens to slobbering aliens and beefed up super soldiers. As textured as it is, that still feels like a cartoon world. Here, it will be happening to normal, realistically behaving people in a normal, realistically behaving environment. Commuters, shoppers, cops... on completely familiar and recognizable streets, sidewalks and doorways. Make it too comical and it won't fit in with their believable new world. Make it too visceral and you might turn off even the blood thirstiest action gamers.

Eric: You just brought up a great point, Charlie. I'm curious about the tone of the new game. What I mean by that is, it's a wonderful thing to see Niko break the glass of a car window and then reach in to unlock the door before getting in - he might even have to hot wire it sometimes, they said - but because of this increased realism, certain things from the PS2 series aren't going to work.

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Some of the more outlandish characters like O.G Loc's prison lover Freddy from San Andreas or that El Burro dude from GTA III who was obsessed with donkey porn - I'm thinking they'd feel odd and out of place here, like cartoon characters in a real-world setting. And things like the jet pack absolutely wouldn't work - which is probably why they told us it wouldn't be returning. I'm eager to see how that all works out. I can't imagine they'll abandon humor and parody completely, but I'm betting it'll get more subtle.

Mikel: This might be a good place to mention that Rockstar told us point blank that none of the characters from previous GTAs will return for GTA IV. Not even Lazlow. They went so far as to say that all those characters were "dead," because their stories had already been told in full - although I don't know if the fanboys should take that literally just yet.

Eric: Right. Another excellent point.

Mikel: Continuing on with the realism thing, I liked that the denizens of Liberty aren't all just random pedestrians - when Niko bailed out the back door of that house, there were a couple of homeless guys warming their hands on a trashcan fire. That was a great touch. And when he stole the car, it looked like it handled a lot better than the fishtailing skidmobiles we came to tolerate in previous GTAs. Granted, it was still moving pretty slowly - the impatient-ass gamer in me wanted to grab the controller and jam on the accelerator, even though Niko was just nonchalantly cruising to show us more of the scenery - but the thought of the game's realism extending to the way the cars handle is pretty appealing.

But the thing that's more impressive than the steering - despite being less practical - is the radio. Hop out of the car and leave the door open, and you'll be able to hear it as long as you're close by. We could also hear music throbbing out of passing cars as we walked down the street.