Grand Theft Auto IV art director Aaron Garbut has said that the developers "never reproduce real world locations" in GTA games because it results in "hollow" environments.

"It's about taking inspiration from real places and producing something that captures the essence of it. We're trying to take our impression of New York and keep it as that, an impression, not a laboured reproduction," Garbut said in an exclusive interview with Eurogamer.

Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City location has a lot in common with real life New York - the Statue of Happiness, Broker Bridge, the island structure, and the city's cultural diversity, for instance - but the team stopped short of a facsimile out of a desire for "more flavour" and "more intensity".

"I've seen it in other games that set out to rebuild a city street by street, not only do compromises get made that favour realism over fun but a lot of the life is lost and all that's left is a hollow representation of a real place," Garbut said. "I'd rather have the right vibe than an accurate roadmap."

Elsewhere in part one of the interview, Garbut revealed how development of a GTA game actually begins, and how the character of Niko Bellic took shape. Look out for part two tomorrow.

Grand Theft Auto IV art director Aaron Garbut has shed some light on how a GTA game comes together behind the scenes, revealing that the process is actually very organic rather than carefully planned.

"There are essentially two routes you can go down in making a game: you can do a load of pre-production upfront and plan it all out in advance or you can just dive in and be a bit more organic," Garbut told Eurogamer, as you can see in part two of our exclusive interview.

And while you might imagine that the former is necessary on something as vast and all-encompassing as GTA IV, apparently you're wrong.

"The first option is the safest, it lets everyone know where they are from day one, it lets everyone know what needs done and it's the easiest to organise. But I think it tends to lead to fairly lifeless, soulless games, particularly when the games are more open like ours," Garbut told Eurogamer.

"We are a lot more organic, this is a conscious choice and it does lead to more difficulties along the way, it's harder on the team and it's trickier to keep track of but it leads to better games.

"It works because the core team know each other well and have worked together for a long time, we trust each other and know what to expect. Our whole ethos is to try things out, play with them, find what works best and move in that direction."

Elsewhere in the interview, we find out how Rockstar goes about making up fictional brands like Cluckin' Bell.

For the most part it's as you would expect - a well-organised design department - but occasionally it does come down to round-robin emails seeking inspiration. "Every so often an email will be sent out looking for ideas for businesses or slogans, which always ends up degenerating into pictures of cats and diarrhoea for some reason," said Garbut. "But ideas come from all those places."

All part of the massive development effort that goes into a GTA game. As Garbut put it, "It's all a big scary tangled web. But it works."

Comedian Ricky Gervais has revealed he can be found being funny inside Grand Theft Auto IV.

The Office and Extras star will feature as an act at the in-game Comedy Club, where he will perform around three minutes of fresh material as well as some older jokes from his Fame tour.

"It's a first - which always interests me," Gervais told free London magazine Shortlist. "It was shot in New York, my favourite place in the world, and I got to wear a tight Lycra suit as part of the digital process. No, hold on, that wasn't so good.

"Unfortunately they captured the whole horror, except I look slightly tougher. It's seriously a big deal, though. Games have outsold Hollywood for the past few years so it's nice to be a small part of that."

Gervais went on to say he pops up elsewhere in Grand Theft Auto IV, although where and when we will have to wait and see.

He's not the first famous face to put his vocals to the Rockstar series. Stars such as Stretch Armstrong, Burt Reynolds, Dennis Hopper, Michael Madsen, Ray Liotta, Samuel L. Jackson, Debbie Harry and more have all appeared before now.

Grand Theft Auto IV is shaping up to be the biggest console release of the year when it hits the shelves next week, according to industry watchers.

Analysts at Screen Digest say the game will drive sales of next generation machines like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Piers Harding Rolls at Screen Digest said: "There are just a handful of big brands and GTA is definitely up there with them.

"The previous games in the franchise have all been fantastically successful. It is really unique in the industry."

Over the years, the Grand Theft Auto series has been called everything from a design classic to a threat to the safety of our children.

Top five title

The game's developer, Edinburgh-based Rockstar, is not the publicity loving type. But then, it doesn't need to be.

An incredible 70 million copies of the game have been sold since 1997, placing it in the top five selling titles of all time.

So don't expect the same pre-release hype that you find with something like Nintendo's Wii Fit game.

Instead Rockstar is relying on reputation, word of mouth and careful, targeted marketing.

Over the last year, fans have been fed a slow drip of news, screen shots and video about the game.

The plot, for any gamer hiding under a stone, doesn't stray too far from the tried and tested gangster theme.

You play Niko Bellic, an Eastern European who comes to the United States in search of the American Dream.

Cue a lot of driving, shooting and explosions around "Liberty City", codename for a slightly redesigned New York.

No real change there. But GTA IV does promise some genuine innovations.

First, there's the use of procedural-based animation technology developed by mathematicians at Oxford University.

In the past, 3D graphics have relied on a set of predetermined animations.

Real physics

If an oil drum explodes, for example, it will explode in a set way described in code by the game's programmers.

The new technology, called Euphoria, is based on real physics.

It promises a more believable game world where characters can fall off ledges, bump into each other and collapse to the floor.

Then there are the movie-like production values. Previous Grand Theft Auto titles have used famous voice actors like Samuel L. Jackson and Ray Liotta.

The film-style cut scenes and trailers live on in Grant Theft Auto IV.

But the game makes full use of next generation technology. The graphics are more realistic and, from the trailers at least, the game appears to take itself more seriously.

That's not to say there won't be celebrity involvement.

The fam

The Japanese electronics giant has been desperately looking for a key game that can drive sales of its Playstation 3 console.

Previous GTA titles have been released on the Playstation first with other formats coming months or even years later.

But Grand Theft Auto IV will go on sale on April 29 on both the Playstation and the Xbox 360.

To make matters worse Rockstar has entered into a partnership agreement with Microsoft to release future online updates exclusively through the Xbox marketplace.

Piers Harding Rolls at Screen Digest said the deal could undermine PS3 sales of the game.

He said: "GTA was always synonymous with the Playstation, so this is definitely a coup for Microsoft.

"When Rockstar announced a simultaneous release, it sent small shockwaves around the industry." ous fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld appears as a guest DJ and the comedian Ricky Gervais crops up as an extra in the comedy club.

If there is one company that will have mixed feelings about the release it is Sony.

"Any letter from a video gamer like you would deepen his concern. Are you actually so confused that you think gamers have any influence on anyone? Gamers are considered by normal people to be cretins. Get used to it."

"I am a one-man violent video game wrecking crew"

"At least I'm not a coward like all of you nerds here, who hide behind anonymous avatars. How sad."

"I love the smell of burning gamers in the morning."

"That's not the debate junior. That's a retail stat. You don't know the difference, huh? Gosh, I forgot. You're a gamer. You can't think for yourself. Sony and Microsoft and Take-Two have to do your cerebral stimulation for you."

"We don't need to play the game; it's irrelevant to the subject." (in response to an interviewer's question about the fairness of protesting a game that has not yet been released)

"God is very powerful, and He's not real pleased with Rockstar right now, nor with those who defend it. Watch out. Fire and brimstone on the way.

As you can see from the above quotes the great JT takes things to a personnel level, not some thing your would really expect from some one who as an American attorney, graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Law and has been practicing as a medical malpractice attorney in Florida since 1977.

However the final quote, I feel, explains his paranoid and childish attacks on gamers and the gaming industry.

" I am actually an escaped mental patient, people of the world, im sorry, Video Games are actually the key to life"

"The Bible doesn't promote killing innocent people, Grand Theft Auto does. Islam does. Islam promotes the killing of innocent people. The Quran requires the infidel, whether Jew or Christian, to be killed. ... That's a core essence of the religion. ... Muhammad was a pirate who killed infidels and who advocated the killing of infidels. Not a nice guy. Osama bin Laden is in keeping with his fine tradition."

"You know, there are sociopaths everywhere. Some of them are in government, some of them are at TakeTwo. In fact, we got a bunch of sociopaths in Edinburgh, Scotland, sittin' around in kilts sippin' their single malt whiskey spreading racial, hurtful stereotypes in this country." I'AM FROM SCOTLAND AND THIS QUOTE MADE ME SLIGHTLY ANGRY!!!!

"Are you, crazy? ... People are threatening to kill me(with good reason). Either report what I have said, having been provided the emails, or stop bothering me." - Thompson to GameSpot. Gamespot says we all hate you for hating gamers and gaming.

"Video gaming is an escapist activity and you're being exploited by these companies. It's not healthy; I worry about someone who would play Grand Theft Auto for ten hours a day. It's a masturbatory activity, and it would be better if people put down the controller and went outside."

"These flowers were sent to harass me."

"I've Forgotten More about the First Amendment than you'll ever know, obviously Dear Goofball: I won the hearing and you did not. Blank Rome cited all of their little video game cases, and lost. Can you read, or have the games completely fried your frontal lobes? Apparently they have. We're winning, and Rockstar is not. Bye-bye Rockstar. Jack Thompson"

This man certainly inhaled when he was at college!!!!!

Thompson vs. Grand Theft Auto

In February 2003, Thompson asked permission to file an amicus curiae (or "friend of the court") brief in the Ohio case of Dustin Lynch, 16, who was charged with aggravated murder in the slaying of JoLynn Mishne; Lynch was "obsessed" with Grand Theft Auto III. When Judge John Lohn ruled that Lynch would be tried as an adult, Thompson passed a message from Mishne's father to the judge, asserting that "the attorneys had better tell the jury about the violent video game that trained this kid [and] showed him how to kill our daughter, JoLynn. If they don't, I will." In a motion sent to the prosecutor, the boy's court-appointed lawyer, and to reporters, Thompson asked to be recognized as the boy's lawyer in the case. However, Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman said Thompson would be faced with deeply conflicting interests if he were to represent Dustin Lynch because he also advised Mishne's parents. Claiming that delays had weakened his case, Jack Thompson asked Medina County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Collier to disqualify himself from presiding over the case because the judge had not ruled on Thompson's request for two months. Lynch himself eventually rejected Thompson's offer, withdrawing his insanity plea. Lynch's mother, Jerrilyn Thomas, who previously demanded that Judge Christopher Collier appoint Thompson to defend her son, said she changed her mind after visiting with her boy in jail, saying, "It has nothing to do with video games or Paxil, and my son's no murderer."

Thompson returned to file a lawsuit in Tennessee state court in October 2003 on behalf of the victims of two teenage stepbrothers who had pled guilty to reckless homicide, endangerment, and assault. Since the boys told investigators they were inspired by Grand Theft Auto III, Thompson sought $246 million in damages from the publisher, Take-Two Interactive, along with PlayStation 2 maker Sony Computer Entertainment America and retailer Wal-Mart. The suit charged that the defendants knew or should have known that the game would cause copycat violence. On October 22, 2003, the case was removed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Two days later, the plaintiffs filed a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal, and the case was closed.

Thompson was involved in another similar suit in Alabama in 2005 on behalf of the families of police personnel killed by Devin Moore, a teenager who was reportedly a compulsive Grand Theft Auto player. However, his participation in the case ran into a dispute over his pro hac vice admission to practice law in that state. The opposing attorneys sought removal of this privilege by arguing that his conduct was unethical and claiming he had threatened and harassed them in letters and emails. The judge added that Thompson had violated his gag order during Moore's criminal trial. Thompson tried to withdraw from the case, but his request was denied by the judge, who went ahead and revoked Thompson's temporary admission to the state bar. For his part, Thompson said he thought the judge was trying to protect Moore's criminal conviction at any cost. He also complained about the judge's ethics, saying a local attorney who claimed to have influence on the judge had assured him the case would be dismissed unless the attorney was on Thompson's team, and also claimed that Rockstar Entertainment and Take Two Interactive posted slanderous comments about him on their website.

In the aftermath of this lawsuit, Thompson lobbied Alabama attorney general Troy King to file a civil suit and call on retailers not to sell "cop-killing games."After the slaying of another police officer in Gassville, Arkansas by Jacob D. Robida, an 18-year-old fugitive, Thompson again raised the possibility of a connection to Grand Theft Auto, but investigators found no evidence that video games were involved.

Thompson once reported that he had videotaped a Miami Best Buy selling a copy of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to his son who was 10 at the time. In a letter to Best Buy, he wrote, "Prosecutions and public relations consequences should fall on your Minneapolis headquarters like snowflakes." He eventually sued the company in Florida, arguing that it had violated a law against sale of sexual materials deemed harmful to minors. In January 2005, Best Buy agreed that it would enforce an existing policy to check the identification of anyone who appeared to be 17 or under and tried to purchase games rated "M" (for mature audiences). No law in effect at the time prohibited selling "M" rated video games to juveniles.

In September 2006, Thompson filed a suit in Albuquerque, New Mexico against Sony, Take-Two, Rockstar Games, and Cody Posey, for the wrongful death of three members of Posey's family. The 69-page complaint filed by Thompson and Albuquerque attorney Steven Sanders argued that "obsessively" playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City made violence "pleasurable and attractive," disconnected violence from consequences, and caused Posey to "act out, copycat, replicate and emulate the violence" when he shot and killed his father, stepmother, and stepsister, and then buried them under a manure pile at a ranch owned by former ABC News reporter Sam Donaldson in July, 2004. Thompson and Sanders filed the lawsuit on behalf of the surviving family members of Posey's father. According to Thompson, "Posey essentially practiced how to kill on this game. If it wasn't for Grand Theft Auto, three people might not now be dead." The lawsuit claims that Thompson was told by a sheriff's deputy that the game and a Sony PlayStation 2 were found at the ranch. The suit also claims that the game taught Posey "how to point and shoot a gun in a fashion making him an extraordinarily effective killer without teaching him any of the constraints or responsibilities needed to inhibit such a killing capacity." Gary Mitchell, Posey's criminal defense attorney, said Thompson contacted him "numerous times" before the trial, urging Mitchell to highlight the game in Posey's defense, but Mitchell said he "just didn't find it had any merit whatsoever."

On March 14, 2007 Take-Two filed a lawsuit to prevent Thompson from preventing the sale of Grand Theft Auto IV and Manhunt 2 to minors, claiming that Thompson's effort to block sales of its games through lawsuits violates the company's First Amendment rights.[63] Responding, Thompson said, "I have been praying, literally, that Take-Two and its lawyers would do something so stupid, so arrogant, so dumb, even dumber than what they have to date done, that such a misstep would enable me to destroy Take-Two." On April 19, 2007, Thompson and Take-Two settled their suit, with Thompson agreeing not to restrict sales through any court worldwide of Take-Two's games, threaten to sue the company, or accuse Take-Two of any wrongdoing based on the sale of any of its games. According to one analyst, the settlement is likely to mute his public pronouncements and lawsuits against the company.

Let's be real here folks this new generation of games or "Now Gen" as it called now have finally made that graphical leap that we were promised since way back since 1994 when the Sony Playstation was released to the consumer . Now fast forward to today we find ourselves in a odd and surprising place in gaming where the single player experience is getting shorter and shorter. Which makes me believe that the single player experience is nothing more than a add on pack and the core is the multiplayer.

Since the release of the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii we have seen countless games come out that tout their game is better than what the competition is offering. But with every passing year of "Now Gen" games are getting shorter and shorter. While leaving those who are looking for the single player experience in the dark while the multiplayer aspect gets the patches and updates. Hell I don't even mind if developers go the route Warhawk went. They flat out said that the single player component of the game was not working the way they wanted it to be so they had to change it around. Which we later got was a multiplayer online game for only 40 bucks which made the game even better.

Saying all that, at the end of the day I want to buy a game that I can sit down and play up to 20-40 hours with. One that you fully submerge yourself in the game. :evil:

why are so many next-gen games first person shooters. i realy do not enjoy 1st person shooters, you only see half of the things going on around you. designers should at least ALWAYS provide a option of switching to 3rd person view. in this mode you see all of what is going on around you. Think of Assasins Creed, as a 3rd person you can see everything that is happening around you and you can react to it. in 1st person you only see what is dirrectly in front of you. what are your thoughts??