14 DAY TRIAL // At long last, Rockstar and Take Two have announced that Grand Theft Auto IV is coming to the PC. The release date is set for November, with the game arriving in North America on November 18 and with Europe getting it on November 21. According to the announcement, the game may remain pretty much the same as when it was launched on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 earlier in the year, with only vague references made to "newly expanded multiplayer" features that are exclusive to the PC.
GTA IV was originally launched in April for gaming consoles, bringing on more than 300 million on the first day, when it managed to sell 3.6 million copies, and over 500 million in the first week, with sales of more than 6 million units.
The game builds on the open world foundation already present in the previous iterations of the franchise, while creating a new world which is great in scope and very detailed in execution. Liberty City, as close to New York as a virtual space will ever be, pulses with life and against its backdrop, the developers managed to create a very interesting story, that of Niko Bellic, an immigrant from Eastern Europe who carries the burden of his past.
Most of the gameplay is the same as in other GTA releases, but it is all very polished. Cars handle smoothly even with a gamepad and the control scheme will benefit greatly from a mouse and keyboard setup. We can also look forward to a more beautiful game, as the textures and polygon counts are upgraded to the specifications of the latest video cards for the PC.
Initially, Rockstar and Take Two promised that GTA IV would receive DLC for the Xbox 360, with speculations pointing to the addition of a new city, but so far nothing has officially been confirmed.
Sam Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games, stated that "We are very excited to be releasing the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV. The whole team is dedicated to bringing an amazing gaming experience to the PC. The game looks and plays beautifully on PC and we can't wait for people to play it".