Sam Houser: "GTA IV crazier than ever"

GTA IV

- Houser explains that the game had to become "more and more thematically sophisticated and mature," but also assures that GTA IV still has all the fun stuff. "It's crazier than ever, in a way - the humour is madder than ever. It's more full-on than ever, definitely."

- The morality! "People talk a lot about some of the things in games like Mass Effect, where you create these moral dilemmas - well, we haven't really been making a big deal out of that stuff, but a lot of the things that you are going to do in GTAIV will have real consequences, without wanting to give any of it away. Towards the end there are some very big things that happen that absolutely change things in an 'Oh, tell me that didn't just happen' kind of way. Not always good either."

- Comedy clubs are a new addition to Liberty City's social scene. Edge don't detail exactly what will go on in them, noting that Houser wants people to discover this aspect of the game for themselves. They do, though, agree with him that whatever happens in them is "mad".

- While there are no new details on multiplayer modes, Houser is enthusiastic about GTA IV as a social tool: "I'm like 'Do you want to come and hang out for a chat?' And I'll meet you online and we'll get in a car, just listen to music and drive around together, talking, and your 3D model's sat in the car next to me. That's sublime to me.”

Does this add further weight to Rockstar's enthusiastic talk about the idea of a GTA MMO one day? Only time will tell, but when discussing the game’s expansion through DLC, Houser admits:

"Yeah, it feels like it's a step towards something we get asked about a lot, which is getting towards it being more of a subscription type of game, which is something that GTA will ultimately lend itself to rather well at a certain point in time.”

- And that DLC promises to be pretty damn substantial, maybe even equating to something rivalling a whole new game when it’s all released: "I think the mission packs with the episodes are going to be pretty deep, offering another full-on adventure in this world. I think we will be in a position to market them not a million miles away from the way the boxed game is marketed."

Not that that initial adventure isn't sounding massive. Maybe even excessively so.

"Is it too big? I don't know. It might be. It certainly is big, definitely. But again, I'll go back to what I said earlier: it's a good problem to have. And I never want people feeling that we've duped them in any way, shape or form".