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Have you ever witnessed a whacked-out base jumper from the street level and thought to yourself “if only I had a rocket launcher!” Well, the team at Rockstar knows exactly how you feel. Hit the jump for a video preview of the Liberty City exclusive Free Mode multiplayer base jumping challenges found in Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony. Read more…

PSP owners will be happy to hear that Rockstar Games is bringing an improved version of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars to Sony’s portable this fall. Read more…

PSU have posted up an intriguing rumour concerning Rockstar’s blockbuster GTA franchise. The site claims that the latest issue of Game Informer features news that a new full retail game, in a similar style to ‘GTA: San Andreas’ and the like (new game, but not full sequel), will release by the end of 2009. Choice quote from the magazine:

“We’re not talking about new DLC or a collection of previously available DLC, we’re talking about a full retail game. We expect this title to follow the suit of previous GTAs and use a subtitle such as GTA: San Andreas, etc. Tokyo might be a possible setting for the game, but details are non-existent at this time.”

Tokyo certainly sounds like a jolly good choice if you ask me. I’m sure Sean will agree with me on that. Just remember this is total fact completely a rumour at this point.

[Update]: Kotaku have recieved word from Rockstar that there’s “no truth” in this rumour. Never mind, eh?

2008 was a big year. There were so many great games released that it’s incredibly hard to decide which one deserves to be the Game of the Year… so that’s why we’re going to make you do it. Have a gander at our nominees and let us know which game you think deserves top honors. Additionally, we want to spark some debate as we also want to know which of our nominees is least deserving of Game of the Year.

The best commenter (best arguments, most interesting or humorous comments – as decided by Ripten staff) will also be rewarded with a super awesome prize: a free game! Let your voice be heard! Read more…

Rockstar has announced today that Grand Theft Auto’s DS debut, Chinatown Wars, will be released on March 17 and 20, 2009, in America and Europe respectively. Take-Two had previously hoped that the game would make it out by the end of this year (currently the official website still seems to be holding out for this), but the game has been delayed. The reason? To “provide a better launch and marketing window”, according to the publisher. Anyone looking forward to this? Can’t say I am, but with the prestige the series holds I’m sure fans (and DS gamers who want to kill stuff) won’t be dissapointed.

See the look on that kid’s face? It’s a look that says one of two things. “Man I really gotta go to the bathroom” is one of them. The other one is “Oooh I am stalking behind you and am going to knife you” during a COD4 match.

Unless you game with a mirror in front of your face, you probably aren’t familiar with what you look like when you’re playing something. “Immersion”, a new video gallery from The New York Times Magazine, does that for us, just with one key difference: it’s about kids. Read more…

Earlier today, Rockstar confirmed that the much-talked-about downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV would be released on February 17, 2009, exclusively for the Xbox 360. The DLC will be titled ‘The Lost and Damned’, and it won’t star Niko Bellic. Details follow. Read more…

A Canadian woman has praised Grand Theft Auto for giving her daughter the presence of mind to rescue the entire family after their car crashed.

Eleven year old Audrey Plique led her dazed parents and two siblings from the wreckage after it rolled over.

“She just knew, from playing Grand Theft Auto,” said mother Karen Norris. “She saw on there that when a car rolls over, it can blow up. She knew that could happen to us.” Read more…

Milton, Ga. – Three teenagers arrested in connection to a string of car bombings professed to have learned to make Molotov cocktails playing Grand Theft Auto.

The teens, one 15-year-old and two 16-year-olds are to be charged with 57 felony counts that include possession of an explosive device, arson, and criminal damage to property.

Video surveillance shows the teenagers buying the materials for the Molotov cocktails which consisted of glass soda bottles, Coleman lantern fuel and some rags. A video that later led to their identification by high-school police officers. Read more…

Here we go again. An 18 year old in Thailand confessed to the robbery and murder of a 54 year old taxi cab driver, claiming he was trying to recreate a scene from the Grand Theft Auto video game.

Distributors of the game in Thailand are now being instructed to remove the game from their shelves indefinitely it would seem. Sales and Marketing Director for New Era Interactive Media, Sakchai Chotikachinda, was quoted saying: Read more…

WARNING: Rated M for intense violence, extreme gore, flying motorcycles, and pirates.

I think that a LEGO GTA game would actually be pretty awesome. Think about it.

Source: WeGame

Conservative Michael Medved, best known for his movie reviews and appearances on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, launched a scathing attack on Grand Theft Auto IV on Townhall.com.

“The fact that so many middle income homes managed to find the money to buy the game (having already purchased the expensive hardware to drive it) indicates that the middle class is in no imminent danger of disappearance,” Medved wrote. “But the decision by so many consumers of every age and income group to invest countless hours of time in the dark world of Grand Theft Auto IV nonetheless demonstrates a threat to American values.”

Medved continues to relate the game to the decline of western civilization on GTA IV specifically, if not in general.

Townhall.com is the same conservative site that hosted Kevin McCullough’s similarly misinformed and poorly executed opinion on Mass Effect which garnered the attention of FOX News.

Let the rolling of the eyes begin.

Medved comes a tad late to the GTA IV auto de fe as the title has already been lambasted by the usual suspects. However, Medved’s insinuations border on the hallucinatory as he accuses GTA of America’s moral decline. In that vein GTA is also responsible for the African AIDS pandemic, global warming and the shrinking of the polar ice-caps, and political repression in China.

I can’t help but wonder where is vaunted conservatism was when he was staring at my girlfriend’s chest at the Seattle preview of Spider Man in 2002.

Source: Townhall.com

An exciting announcement for hardcore DS owners has been made at Nintendo’s E3 Conference, which you can experience via our live blogging. Grand Theft Auto is on its way to the handheld. Read more…

Remember the end of Reservoir Dogs when everyone is suspicious of the next guy and they all shoot each other?  Remember the scene in American History X where Edward Norton caps a bunch of dudes with his nazi wrath?  Wouldn’t it be neat to see those scenes remade in Grand Theft Auto 4?  Well, it doesn’t matter what you think because it’s been done anyways. Read more…

Australian graphic artist Patrick Brown has created some truly awesome Grand Theft Auto-inspired fan art. Check out the gallery for the GTA goodness, as well as some other videogame/comic book/movie-related masterpieces. Read more…

After a lengthy and arguably frivolous lawsuit over the Hot Coffee mod in GTA:San Andreas, less than $30,000 will be paid out to offended consumers. Lawyers express their “surprise” but still want their $1.3 million in fees.
Read more…

A few days ago, Take-Two announced that the first episode of the Xbox 360 exclusive DLC for GTA 4 was going to be delayed until next year. The following day, a Microsoft spokesman said it was still on track for a Fall 2008 release.
Read more…

The original Mafia game was a bit overlooked in the wake of GTA3 and its ilk, but I thought the old-timey setting, vintage cars and weapons, and Scorcese-like story were pretty awesome. Now, long overdue, comes the sequel. Read more…

You may or may not recall a little debacle about the “Hot Coffee” mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It was a cute little mini-game that allowed virtual you to have virtual sex with your virtual girlfriend. Even though the content was locked away because of the ESRB, it was still on the retail disc.

This was somehow offensive to people, and Rockstar was sued. Now that the lawsuit is settled, all the hypocritical pussies out there can get their slice of the censorship pie with a cash settlement of up to $35. Sweet justice! Read more…

Niko’s aiming for Spring — brown is supposed to be in this season.

Rockstar’s golden hooker, Grand Theft Auto, was supposed to return last October in the much anticipated fourth installment… wait, sixth installment? Eighth? Okay, let’s just say Grand Theft Auto IV and move on.

October came and went, and obviously the game was not released — if it were, you’d be playing it right now instead of just reading about it. All that’s about to change very soon. Read more…