Bonus: Q&A With Psy

Please note: All questions were taken from the forums, and all answers have been completed by Psy based on memory, and notes taken after playing the game. I cannot confirm all answers will be 100% accurate, but I have tried my best. Check out this topic for more questions, and to post your own.

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1. What is population actually like? I'm talkin cars and people. I'm not expecting Manhattan type realism, that'd kill us all. But how good is it?
There are plenty of times when you can run over 6 or 7 people at once, so it's quite busy. I'd say around the more pedestrian based locations, there's a good 30 ish peds on the screen at once. Not seen times square yet though so maybe that's heavily populated.

2. What's the learning curve, roughly, for "learning" to drive? Or is it unique to each car, ie; unaswerable.
Each car needs to be handled differently. Some cars can just about get away with power sliding, some you need to tap the breaks, others you need to slam them hard. You could probably get used to it after an hour or two though, but you'll still crash or miss turns in races, guarenteed. You need to break about 3 seconds before the turn now, so if you forget that, you're gonna lose tons of time in races.

3. Is there anything you'd change?
I haven't see an awful lot of the game, although I did spend 30 or so hours on it and at the minute I haven't really seen anything I'd want to change, everything fits perfectly as far as I'm concerned.

did you ask about the "big secret" from san andreas? didn't they say they would reveal it after gta 4 is out???
Didn't ask them about that, but I'm sure they've said in the past that all secrets were already known.

also what are the melee weapons??
Fists (including feet etc)
Baseball bat
Knife

I'm pretty sure those are it. There's only 15 and they're made up of like 2 pistols, 2 sub machine guns, 2 machine guns, 2 snipers, RPG, 3 melee weapons, 2 throwable weapons and something else probably, but yeah, those are the only melee weapons. You can pick up various things and throw them at people. I knocked someone out by throwing a plant pot off their head in the hospital.

Is it safe to categorize this game the best you have ever played psy?
This is the best game ever made. No other game, of any genre, can come close to the size, amount of detail and sandbox style gameplay with fantastic features thrown in like the natural motion physics which is probably my favourite part of the game. It's actually fun to die when you see your body flailing about all over the place. Every ped pretty much dies in a different way depending where you shoot them, how flat the ground is where they stand, what side of your car hits them and how fast you were going... I would like to complete the story first, but on first impressions, this is, imo, the best game ever made.

did you have "relations" with any hookers? what did you see? was it like san andreas where they are just sitting in the front seat doing nothing? also what are the "3 levels of service"?
I dated Michelle (first girlfriend) and got intimate with her, but you don't even see anything. All you see is the camera from outside with the house shaking for a few seconds and a bit of sound effects similar to GTA SA. Never found a prostitute yet though. Well, I have, but they wouldn't get in my bashed up ambulance for some reason.

1. What was the funnest thing you experienced during your test drive of GTA IV?
Just the physics again. Doesn't matter what you do. Jump off the empire state bulding, crash your bike, reverse into someone and watch his balls get popped as his legs wrap round a lamp post... Like I said even dying is fun because it's a good laugh to watch. Otherwise, not including that, going on massive killing sprees and then starting a huge cop chase was cool. One thing that sticks out was when I sped up a hill on a bike and smashed into the side of a car that pulled out in front of me, and I got launched like at least 100 feet in the air, smashed into a wall, fell to the ground, rolled and skidded a bit and ended up down some steps next to someones basement with about 1% health left.

2. Elaborate on the cop difficulty as far as how hard it is to lose the heat
It's actually slightly easier than I originally thought. You can either find the pay n' spray, which I believe cures you from the wanted level instantly, or you can try to outrun the cops. On anything more than 4 stars, it's not really likely that you'll manage to get maybe 3 miles from the scene without being spotted once by another cop, so the subway is the best way to lose them. Barely any cops down there and you can go fast enough to get completely outside the six star radius (which is probably about a 5 mile radius of your last known position).

Did you play 360 and PS3 versions?
Yeah played each one for a day. Mainly SP for PS3 and multiplayer for 360.

If so, did you notice any differences (not trying to incite a flame war here)
The PS3's graphics were sharper, and it had better shadows and lighting. The 360 shadows looked weird. They were all jaggy and flickering, but if you hadn't seen each game then you'd barely notice the difference. Both games were test builds though, and the 360 version was running from a development machine's hard drive, which could have been part of the reason.

Want to have sex?
Yep, only not with you. Until later anyway.

Have you used the RPG yet? was it brilliant?
Yep, we did an RPG-only team deathmatch when we played multiplayer and it was amazing. The rockets swirl around and go off in slightly random directions a bit like on CoD4 and the bodies are blown a few hundred feet in the air when you get shot. It's so much fun.

What are your thoughts on the explosions?
They look great, and they actually have an effect on the physics. I had just escaped from a burning vehicle, and as I tried to run away it blew up and I got blown across the screen and died. Multiplayer is even more fun if you have friendly fire off and try to team kill. You can blast your guys onto the roof of buildings with the explosion.

car physic does the roof cave in and when u get in a bad wreck is the car still driveable
The roof doesn't completely cave in, but pretty much all parts of the vehicle can be dented and smashed depending on where you crash and how hard it was. It also depends how badly you crash as to how well the car drives. Take too much damage and you'll barely be moving, or else if you crash too hard when driving too fast, there's a chance you'll just die instantly in an explosion.

1. jail. if you get "busted" do you end up in jail and have to be bailed out or just appear at the doors of the jail like previous installments?
You just appear outside like you used to. Not sure if you can get in the police station this time.

2. money. how does the money system work? are there ATM's/credit cards or do you just have all your money with you? also it has been described as a "rags to slightly better rags" story. exactly how hard is it to get money?
There are ATM's that let you see how much cash you have, but you carry all money with you and can find it in your pause menu. After playing single player for about 20 hours and doing almost 20 missions, as well as killing a hell of a lot of people to pick up their cash, I didn't have any more than about $2000, maybe not even that much. It's very hard to find money (early in the game at least), and I'd like to think it'll be like that all the way through because it makes it much more fun.

3. were you there when the gameplay footage was leaked? if so did everyone at rockstar go into a frenzied panic?
They called us onto the roof of our Penthouse and told us it'd been leaked and ask that we don't post anything and that they just want us to respect their wishes and remove any content that is posted. It was more disappointment than a frenzied panic, but we were only dealing with the PR and Marketing guys, so maybe Sam Houser was having a seizure.

I read a review posted on this site where it said some players might not be happy about how Rockstar has set out the missions, could this be true? and how does the actual storyline compare to the previous 3D games? (if you did enough missions to find out)

The missions that I did were pretty much tutorial type missions guiding you through various new features, but for those 20 or so at least, they're pretty linear in terms of how you open them. Once you meet new contacts you can phone them and open up missions sometimes earlier than you would normally, but from what I saw, eventually, most of the missions will open up anyway. This could change further into the game though and you may need to choose between working with one gang or against them. No idea.

Do gang members drive their own type of cars? .. also are there plenty of garages to keep your own cars?
Didn't really see any gangs when I was playing. There were a few times where I jacked a car with a few people in it, and all of the guys got out and started chasing me, and at the beach there were a few guys who would fight with me if I punched one of them, but I'm not sure if these are classed as gangs or just pedestrians working together. As for garages, you just need to park your car in a parking space in front of Roman's house (or your house). I'm assuming you'll unlock new houses further in the game so you can park more cars, but I don't think there's garages any more.

Psy, is this game that good that I should leave my wife (to be) and 2 kids, quit my job and buy myself a pokey little bachelor pad so that I can play GTA all day every day for the rest of my life!!!?
I wouldn't go that far, but you're definitely gonna need at least 3 hours a day to yourself to play the game. It's a lot of fun playing it with other people there though, so you can laugh at the insane stuff that goes on, like the physics when you get launched through the windscreen.

When it comes to chases, do they just go crazy and just chase'n'ram or do they try police technques (rolling road blocks etc) on you?
They do all sorts. There'll be cops standing on the street shooting at you, trying to pop your tires, cars ramming you from the side and behind, other cars speeding straight towards you, then slamming on the hand brake and trying to block the road. Not to mention the actual road blocks they set up. If you manage to get out of the main area of the police chase though, even on 6 stars it's not too difficult to put some distance between yourself and them.

What is the main use for the internet in-game? Is it worth it as it just seems like a novelty at the moment.
It's definitely novelty, but it has some uses. One mission I did required me to get an email account set up, and from there you can contact various people you find online and set up dates and what not. I didn't really use it very much as it was the last thing I unlocked before Rockstar kicked us out of the penthouse for the night, but you could spend hours going through the ringtone websites and reading all of the ads all over the pages, or viewing the myspace rip off and the weird aLtErNaTe CaPiTaLs profiles on there. I was pleasantly surprised by how big it actually looks.

I read an interview with one of the Housers, He said one of his favorite moments in game was when he was running from the cops with a two star wanted level and some random ped started shooting it out with the cops and soon a whole gang war broke out, all the cops died and he just walked off.
Did you experience any moments like that
Not really, most of the stuff I got to see was all just me vs the cops. Obviously there's a lot of stuff you don't get to see until further in the game, and the gangs didn't appear to be a big feature at the start. On multiplayer free mode, myself and Chris from TheGTAPlace.com teamed up against the cops though which was fun. I was on a roof sniping people and I'm sure one of the cops killed me with a shotgun from about 400 yards away which I thought was incredibly weird. Either it was totally glitched, or someone else shot me.

yea, he also said if you get out of a car when the engine was still running the radio carryied on playing . . . ? how true is this and WHAT IS THE RADIO LIKE?! did it make you laugh?!!
Due to the fact there were 12 TV's / consoles in the room and music on in the background, as well as people chatting and the Rockstar guys going round talking to everyone, the audio is one of the features I didn't really get to experience, so I can't really answer anything with regards to the radio or anything. I didn't recognise any songs that I did hear though. There is a TV in the safe house that you get at the start of the game, and that was really funny. It went on for 20+ minutes and it's basically a piss-take of cribs only showing you drug dealers and stuff in the game, with footage of GTA SA in there and what not. Really funny and well put together.

ARE THERE TRUNKS IN THE GAME?
Not sure. You can buy weapons from the trunk of Little Jacobs car, so I assume so, but I don't think you can actually use them yourself.

DID YOU GET DRUNK, WAS IT FUN?
Walking around drunk, or trying to drive drunk is definitely a weird experience. The actual 'getting drunk' was strange though. You literally take Roman or whoever to a bar, then about a second later you're outside it, drunk. It's funny watching Niko stumble all over the place and fall into various objects though. Really, really hard to control and it looks amazing.

how pissed of were you at that own goal? (hehehehe sorry)
Quite pissed off, but to be honest I was more disappointed at finding out the game had been leaked.

Were you Rockstars favourite?
I think Alison (from Rockstar) probably spoke to me the most out of everyone, but that was maybe just down to me constantly walking at the front of the pack with her. A few of the other webmasters were just chatting between themselves, but I was trying to find out as much from the Rockstar people as I could. I wouldn't say they picked favourites, but they definitely made me feel very welcome and almost like a friend, rather that someone they needed to entertain for a few days. I think they were like that with everyone though, they were just generally great guys.

Having said all of that... Rockstar did let me start the intro video and let everyone see that for the first time, and then after that, I was the first webmaster (and possibly first non-magazine type person) to play the game, which was a bit cool.

You played before the leaks, no?
Yeah, the game got leaked on our last day there.

Thanks for the great responses Psy. In terms of combat, can you actually just beat somebody unconcious in GTA4? Rather than beating them to death every time?
From what I remember, you can temporarily knock someone over, or possibly knock them unconscious. Sometimes I found that I punched someone until they were dead, but no money came out, then when I stamped on them I actually got some money, so maybe they were unconscious. Not 100% sure how that all worked. In the hospital the guy who got hit in the face with a plant pot was definitely knocked out though, but I cant remember if he got up after a few seconds and let me beat on his skull with my bat, or if he just lay there all dead-looking.

Did you happen to ask them what happened to Donald Love?
Nope. Me and the other webmaster guys think we spotted his building in NYC though when we were at the top of the Empire State Building. Well, the building that his was based off anyway, with a rooftop garden.

Did you get any free shit?
You'll find out when my diary goes live, but apart from the actual free trip to New York, all of our food and drinks paid for, all of the trips to the tourist attractions paid for, yeah, I got a few bits and pieces of R* and GTA4 merchandise.

Good point?! Are they giving you a game rather then you having to buy it?
They didn't give it to me when I was there, but they've told me they'll be sending out one last Hidden Package which I should get either tomorrow or Monday which will be a "huge surprise" and "completely exclusive" to the major fan sites. I reckon that will include the photos that they took of us when we were playing, plus maybe the soundtrack and a copy of the game. I don't know. I have both copies of the game pre-ordered anyway and I'm happy to support Rockstar with the money spent on them, but a free copy would be cool. That way I may end up giving one away on the site or something. I don't expect they will send the game though but we'll see. Whatever I get should be cool enough for me.

Did you ask them what the delay (being released April 08 instead of Oct 07) was all about?
I mentioned it, but they didn't really give me any specifics. Just said they needed extra time to finish up with everything, including the multiplayer.

Did you fly any helicopters and if you did, how many models do you think are in game and how hard is it to fly?
It's not too difficult to fly with the analog sticks, but I couldn't control it at all with SIXAXIS (although I think the control was broken). I think there's 3 or 4 helicopters in the game. You can shoot their guns by pushing Square.

Did you hang from the side of any trucks while you were playing?
Nope, but I like the way you can climb on top of cars and stuff now by grabbing on and pulling yourself up.

What does it feel like to play IV?
Amazing. I was literally shaking when I was watching the intro video for the first time. Might have been because 10 website guys, about 5 Rockstar staff and a few other random people were all watching me though.

On the subject of Niko's hair and facial hair changing in different screenshots, did you see any barbers/salons. And also, how was the changing of clothes handled?
You can't change your hair or face, those were just different builds of the game. To change clothes, you walk around the shop and stand next to the various clothes. Whatever you're looking at, you get the chance to try on. There's even different colours of shirts and stuff, so you need to walk all the way around the shop. Once you try it on, it's pretty much instant to scroll through them, no 20 second load like GTA SA.

I can't wait for your review to go live Psy, any idea of when it will be completed?
It's already finished, I just can't release it till 6 PM because all of the fan sites agreed we'd release at the same time.

In multi-player, what kind of system do they have for getting in the server. For example, is it like Call of Duty 4 with a party system and it has match making. Or is it like Steam where you have server lists and a buddies list, where you simply click on the buddies name and it launches into the server they are in. Because that second option is my prefrence. In CoD4 it pisses me off when you have to invite them to your party but if they're already in a game they dont get the message untill they are out and you have to wait for them. How easy is it to get into a game with your friends? And are clans confirmed?
There is a party mode for multiplayer, where I assume you can all join a game together, which would work well for clans. You can also switch team while the game is in the lobby stage, so it wouldn't be so hard to try and get clan matches up and running. When going into multiplayer you have a choice of joining a quick game, then choosing your gametype, or starting your own game and inviting people to that.

What is the reason because islands are not connected.
In GTA III it was bomb thing, in Vice City hurricane, in San Andreas earthquake and cops (CRASH) said you are not allowed to go out of the city.
So what is it now?
The bridges are closed because of a terrorist threat.

In your preview you discussed the differences between the ps3 and 360, were there any other notable differences?
Nope, the only real difference was in the shadows. I don't want to be too harsh on the Xbox version of the game, because running off the hard drive, especially on a debug machine is always going to effect performance. There was a bit of slowdown on both consoles when tons of action was going on at once, but that happens in pretty much every game, no matter how good their engine is.

here's a question for you fella. You mentioned you hit somebodyover the head with a plant pot in hospital. Does this mean that you can get inside the hospital when you get injured/wasted? What can you do in there? If you're injured can you get them fixed in hospital as you would in real life?
You can go inside and see people sitting on chairs waiting to be seen. There's some pretty funny posters in there, but there's not a lot you can do apart from walk around a few of the wards. Perhaps some missions are involved here, and I'm pretty sure you can get healed back to full health, but for the most part it was just another cool place to go inside and start some mass murder.

What keeps you inbounds(for lack of a better term)?...like the endless ocean in SA was more realistic than the glass wall in III or VC. Or,like,did you get the chance to like,try ta leave...Like you know,totally.
Well for me it was the fact that the city is amazing. I didn't even think about leaving it, but perhaps it goes on forever like San Andreas. I didn't try it though, and I can't see any reason why anyone would want to leave the city. It's probably the best location for any game ever made.