So you knew this was coming. Yesterday, 5:00 PM Central Standard Time, marked the release of the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV. So I went to their site at 9:00 PM or so, and got right in. The hi-res WMV loaded pretty easily, but when it came to playing, it was quite jumpy. Figuring that it was a bandwidth thing, especially since I’m on wireless right now thanks to our office being repainted, I opted to download the WMV. After doing so, the 1280×720 video stuttered in Quicktime. So I downloaded the iPod format. More stuttering. Fed up with the obviously overtaxed Powerbook at this point, I called it a day.
Then I went to start up the 360 for the first time since we moved. Lo and behold, the GTA IV trailer is on the Marketplace. Stutter-free playback in HD? Yes please.
After all that buildup, you’d think I’d have a lot to say about the trailer. But it’s called a teaser for a reason, so these are the only things I can say for sure:
- Liberty City is (one of) the setting(s?). And it looks a lot like NYC this time around.
- At least part of the game takes place in the present.
- One of the characters is Eastern-European.
- Graphics look promising. The moving shadows (as the sun changes positions) look very impressive.
What I’m hoping this trailer turns out to be is a misdirection. A way to show off graphics without giving too much away. As it stands, we’re led to believe that we’ll be playing a Russian man, new to our setting of Liberty City. But what if that’s not the case? What if he’s just one of the ancillary characters, and as time goes on, more trailers are released showing others that you’ll cross paths with, all from different cities? Crap, that’d be awesome.
Okay, okay, hopes are up. I’d better settle down now and stop thinking about it. And go reserve my copy.