Grand Theft Auto | Rockstar Games Newswire

Grand Theft Auto III: “O Mio Babbino Caro” 10th Anniversary Remix Now Available on iTunes

Rockstar Games — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:47:00 -0500

By popular demand, we present the 10th Anniversary Remix of one of Grand Theft Auto III’s most signature soundtrack selections, the classic aria “O Mio Babbino Caro” – now available on iTunes (European iTunes users, click here).

Related: Grand Theft Auto III 10th Anniversary Edition Official Launch Trailer (featuring the “O Mio Babbino Caro” Remix)

Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition Official Social Club Multiplayer Event on Xbox LIVE (January 26, 5-8 PM Eastern)

Rockstar Games — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:00:00 -0500

Update: The multiplayer event and sweepstakes have ended. Thanks to everyone that joined us, whether you were playing, watching, chatting or just stopping by to enter the sweepstakes.

We've got 20 prize packs to give away Thursday January 26th in the Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition Social Club multiplayer event on Xbox LIVE, running from 5-8PM Eastern.

To enter the sweepstakes, head over to the multiplayer events page and scroll down to 'Sweepstakes Entry'. Submit your details and you're all set. Winners will be randomly selected and contacted the next day. Prize packs include a shirt, foam hand, pin set, license plate, Grand Theft Auto IV stickers and Rockstar stickers.

We'll begin the event in Grand Theft Auto IV and later switch over to The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, about an hour for each. Keep up with the modes we're playing in the chat while watching the live video stream. You'll be able to play with us no matter what version of the game or episodes you use. GwRockstar6 will be in original Grand Theft Auto IV multiplayer for the entire event for those that don't have the episodes.

OFFICIAL ROCKSTAR GAMERTAGS
Participating Xbox LIVE Rockstar Games Gamertags for the event will be:

GwRockstar3
GwRockstar4
GwRockstar5
GwRockstar6

HOW TO FIND US
Again, we'll begin the event in original Grand Theft Auto IV multiplayer. To join, start the in-game Party Mode using the cellphone. Make sure that your in-game Party Mode team size is at least two people. Once ready, head to the chat to find out the mode we're beginning with, and type your Gamertag into the chat. Another way is just to send over a friend request to the Gamertags above. We'll do our best to get you in for a few rounds. More info on using Party Mode is listed below.

NEED A PARTNER?
Hit up the chatbox during the event or just post your Xbox LIVE Gamertag in the Comments section below.

ABOUT PARTY MODE
Grand Theft Auto IV's in-game Party Mode is an easy way to get your group together and find matches. Here are the three quick and easy steps to get you up and running:

Save your current game. To get started, fire up the in-game mobile phone by pressing "Up" on the D-pad. Select Multiplayer > Party Mode > Yes.
From here, open up your phone again and select the Friends option to invite your friends (you need at least one friend to play with Rockstar).
Once your team is ready to roll, open up the in-game phone again and select Ranked > Team Deathmatch for this event. Follow us in the chat to find out the modes we're playing.

SPECTATE AND CHAT
Can't jump in and play? As we stated above you can still follow the event at the multiplayer events page. We'll have a live streaming video broadcast of the in-game matches plus a chat box so you can discuss the stream with others. Look below for specific directions you can follow to get online, grab a partner, and jump into the fray.

We will be giving instructions and updates in the chat box as the afternoon rolls on. Get ready...

Previously:
Recap with Screens and Fan Video from the Red Dead Redemption Official Social Club Multiplayer Event on Xbox LIVE (December 15)
Recap with Fan Videos and Screens from the GTAIV & Episodes from Liberty City Official Social Club Multiplayer Event on PC (December 2)
Recap & Screens from the Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition Official Social Club Multiplayer Event on PSN (November 18)

Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition for Android Updated with Additional Device Support and More

Rockstar Games — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:15:00 -0500

The Android version of Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition has been updated today to version 1.3, featuring new support for the Asus Transformer Prime and Medion LifeTab tablet devices plus a host of other updates, including:

The addition of Integrated with Immersion Haptic Vibration Feedback
The ability to tailor your visual experience with new video display settings
The ability to install the game to an SD memory card
Improved controls for Xperia Play and supported gamepads plus full support for the GameStop Wireless Game Controller
Additional technical fixes

To update your game just hit up the Android Market where you'll be prompted to download the latest version. An update for the iOS version is also in the works, stay tuned as we’ll have more information on that soon.

If you're experiencing any issues with your download of Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition, be sure to contact our support team at www.rockstargames.com/support for assistance.

Congrats to Social Club Winners of the GTAIII 10-Year Anniversary #1 Lithographs Heist

Rockstar Games — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:30:00 -0500

Shipping out now, as glimpsed in the photo above, are each of the six #1's (of a total 500 total run, all individually numbered) from the Grand Theft Auto III 10-Year Anniversary special lithographs collection to our lucky prize winners.

Congrats to Social Club members Mathias2, JEremiahcamel, SilkTT, Swissfire1291, KnottedRaider and Bear72 who each made off with a #1 edition print from the total set of six designs as part of the Grand Theft Auto III 10-Year Anniversary #1 Lithographs Heist sweepstakes - that's the US Cover, EU Cover, Claude, Kenji, 8-Ball and Misty. For the rest of you trying to score one, some remaining prints are still available for sale at the Rockstar Warehouse while supplies last.

Thanks to everyone for entering, and look out for more giveaways and special opportunities coming up on Social Club as well as on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

Grand Theft Auto III: Your Questions Answered – Part Two (9/11, The “Ghost Town”, The Dodo and Other Mysteries)

Rockstar Games — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:00:00 -0500

Presenting the conclusion of our two-part series answering your questions about Grand Theft Auto III – in honor of the game’s 10-Year Anniversary and the Edition for mobile devices that was released last month. Part one delved into questions about Claude and other characters from the game – today’s part two covers many of the long-standing rumors, mysteries and myths about Grand Theft Auto III – and also features a few behind-the-scenes images being released for the first time. Thanks to all GTA fans for submitting these great inquiries – and enjoy!

A glimpse of some never-before-seen work in progress logos, cover art and other visual concepts explored early on during the making of Grand Theft Auto III.

VBProject
Did you cut off any missions or stuff after 9/11?

gtaencyclopedia (via Twitter)
How different would be #GTAIII if 9/11 wouldn't have happened?

Rockstar says:
About 1% different. We removed only one mission that referenced terrorists and changed a few other cosmetic details – car details, a couple of ped comments, lines of radio dialogue etc – the game came out a very short time later. The biggest change was the US packaging which remixed the previous packaging into what became our signature style – because the previous packaging [which was released as the cover of the game in Europe] was, we felt, too raw after 9/11. All of the more extreme rumours are amusing but impossible to have been achieved in such a short period of time.

CrazyNiko187
Any chance of releasing GTA3 with all the stuff that was removed due to 9/11?

Rockstar says:
No. As above, it really was not very much stuff – just one mission and other than that some superficial and cosmetic details.

Magic_Al
The game was released only 41 days after 9/11. It's known that last-minute changes were made to game content because of the traumatic emotional situation at the time. Some are known, such as police vehicles being changed to not look like NYPD, but rumors of bigger changes won't completely go away. Such as: there were school buses and children in Liberty City that were removed, Liberty City had twin towers that were changed into a construction site, and Donald Love was killed by airplane hitting his building and this was edited out so he just disappears. Big changes seem unlikely to do in 41 days considering Rockstar New York was literally in a war zone and there had to be time to test and physically ship the game. Once and for all, can you list everything that was changed after 9/11 and debunk the most ridiculous rumors about this situation?

Rockstar says:
As far as we can remember, the list of changes is covered above – the other stuff is nonsense.

tytiyuiyitytiy
Is the location in the beginning where the bank robbery takes place supposed to be a part of Liberty City? Or is it supposed the be another town?

Rockstar says:
Yes – it is meant to be part of Liberty City.

bcinvestor1
Is the name of the Island taken out of the game named "Jakota Island," referred to in the game as "Ghost Town?"

Rockstar says:
We didn’t take an island out of the game. There were only ever the three. We think what people refer to as “ghost town” is just the small area of a city we built for the bank heist scene at the very start of the game. It never had a name, but we wanted it to be somewhere separate from the liberty map and so we built these few streets floating in space and assumed no one would ever find them. We noticed someone built a bridge mod so you can actually drive there now - amazing…

Blazinbash
Was the Dodo ever supposed to stay in flight? don't get me wrong my friends and I spent many fun hours trying to see who could fly the longest, in a plane with clipped wings before crashing into the sea.

CrazyNiko187
Was the Dodo intended to be a actual plane, or was its wingspan reduced because of 9/11? (I know it can be flown with practice)

Christobell46
How come the Dodo plane in GTA3 can’t fly?

Rockstar says:
Because we were making a driving and shooting game - even that, as a combination of core gameplay elements, was very, very radical at the time. The Dodo was never meant to be flown very much at all, and it certainly wasn’t grounded as a result of 9/11 – it was just a fun thing that people then went crazy with when they figured out various bugs that let them fly it!

BenDeR.
The tunnels in Shoreside Vale, so much speculation has been made about them. They seem to be closed 24/7 due to construction work. Were they originally supposed to lead somewhere or are the workers just too lazy to finish the work, ha!

Vortex94
Also why was the tunnel to upstate blocked in the Shoreside Vale island?

CrazyNiko187
The tunnel in Shoreside Vale, was it just for looks?

Rockstar says:
There was never meant to be anything on the other end of the tunnel, we were just playing with ways to make the world feel like it continues past the physical boundary. It’s something that we’ve been pushing in all sorts of ways ever since, making the world you experience as a player feel like it’s part of something bigger. This tunnel was one of our first little baby steps in that direction.

WolfRogers
Hidden away on the PC version of Grand Theft Auto III are menus and listings for Multiplayer, what was supposed to be planned for Grand Theft Auto III and at what point was it removed?

Rockstar says:
We played around with the idea of multiplayer back then but never got very far with it. At the time, we decided to make Vice City instead of dedicating a big team to multiplayer, as we did not feel it would ever really be good enough. When we finally made a multiplayer game, we wanted it to rival the fun and experience of single player, and this was something not possible until much later.

tytiyuiyitytiy
Who wrote the "My mother's my sister" pedestrian dialogue line?

jesse45
How does "My Mother is my Sister" work?

Rockstar says:
Ha – to be honest, we are not sure – we all work together on this stuff – and we supposed too many of us just find rural inbreeding amusing.

OrIGInalPyRO
Where did the 'squish' noise that played when you ran over a pedestrian come from? That always made me laugh.

Rockstar says:
The pedestrian squishing sound was made up from a combination of squelchy sounds that Rockstar North Audio Designer, Allan Walker recorded live (Rockstar North Lead Music Producer, Craig Conner seems to recall crushing fruit and raw chicken in a vocal booth...) and then they added a few more layers from our SFX library.

Left: An early screenshot shows the bus that was removed and a more cartoony style for the Claude character. Right: A screenshot from the final PlayStation 2 release in 2001.

Bruciesautos
Why were the graphics in very early screenshots cartoonish?

Rockstar says:
Before we properly got started on building the game we tried out a few different looks. Some of these were released during development. We toyed with a very cartoony style but pulled it back quite a lot.

cannoman5
Is it true that the Ammu-Nation clerk's appearance and voice was Dan Houser?

Rockstar says:
No, not true. However it does look (but not sound) like a relative of his.

Luc de Mooij (via Facebook)
How is the cannoli at Marco's Bistro?

Rockstar says:
Horrible! Stale as hell.

Jamie Press (via Facebook)
What's the script like for all GTA games?? How long do they roughly last and how are they formatted? also would you ever consider releasing a script from a GTA game?? Thks :) Can't wait for GTAV!

Rockstar says:
They are long. Very long. And they only seem to get bigger with each subsequent Grand Theft Auto production. Check out the image set below which shows a picture of the GTA3 script alongside the GTAIV script for some sense of what we mean.

Left: The original story and mission scripts from Grand Theft Auto III. Right: Seven years later - a glimpse of the voluminous Grand Theft Auto IV script.

Previously:
Grand Theft Auto III: Your Questions Answered – Part One (Claude, Darkel & Ray)

UPDATE - Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition for Android Updated with Additional Device Support

Rockstar Games — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:38:00 -0500

*** A new update (v1.2) has gone live on the Android Market that addresses issues some users were having on the Xperia Play and adds support for the Motorola DROID RAZR as well. ***

We're pleased to report that the Android version of Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition has been updated today to version 1.1 with a number of fixes along with new support for the Droid Bionic, Galaxy Nexus and Samsung Galaxy S II devices.

This update includes:

A fix so that immediately skipping cutscenes will no longer cause issues
The addition of PowerVR GPU support
Improved shader error handing and a few additional technical fixes

To update your game, just go to the Android Market where you'll be prompted to download the latest version and as always, if you're experiencing any issues with your download of Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition, don't hesitate to contact our knowledgeable support team at www.rockstargames.com/support.

Social Club Holiday Giveaway: The Grand Theft Auto III 10-Year Anniversary #1 Lithographs Heist

Rockstar Games — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:10:00 -0500

In honor of this month's release of Grand Theft Auto III: 10-Year Anniversary Edition for iOS and Android devices, and in the spirit of giving our Social Club members an exclusive crack at scoring a truly one-of-a-kind prize this holiday season - we present the Grand Theft Auto III: 10-Year Anniversary #1 Lithographs Heist sweepstakes.

This is your chance to attain the #1 edition of the 500 individually numbered limited-run Anniversary Lithographs currently offered for sale at the Rockstar Warehouse. Six lucky winners will each walk away with one of the six #1 Lithographs pictured above - either Claude, Kenji, 8-Ball, Misty or the Anniversary designs of the original US and European cover art (note that winners will not get to choose which they receive, this will be selected at random). These premium, 12"x18" lithos are printed on high-quality cover stock accented with shiny gold-colored foil - the perfect complement to any gaming room or den.

Social Club members, head over to the contest page any time between now and the end of day on January 1st, 2012 and fill out the form to enter (and if you're not already a Social Club member, sign up here). Winners will be selected, verified and announced in the weeks that follow. Of course, if you'd like to guarantee yourself one of the other (non #1) numbered Lithograph designs, hit up the Rockstar Warehouse to shop from the Grand Theft Auto III: 10-Year Anniversary collection.

"Looks and Sounds Amazing..." A Round Up of Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition Reviews

Rockstar Games — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:00:00 -0500

With Grand Theft Auto III's arrival on select iOS and Android devices this past week, we've amassed a handful of reviews from gaming and mobile sites across the net. Here's a sampling of the early word...

"The great thing about GTA III is Rockstar has given the keys to the game’s control scheme to the player. Don’t like how small certain on-screen inputs are? Resize them to your taste. Are you lefty? There’s a setting for that. Want all of the user interface to be microscopic so you can enjoy all of the wonderful HD detail? Yep, you can do that too. In other words, there should be no complaints about the game’s controls as it’s completely customizable." - InToMobile

http://www.intomobile.com/2011/12/15/review-grand-theft-auto-iii/

"GTAIII looks and sounds amazing. The game’s graphics have actually been improved from the console version with an increased drawn-in distance equivalent to the updated, PC-version of GTAIII." - Mashable

http://mashable.com/2011/12/15/gta-3-mobile-review/

"It’s the whole great big game you remember-- radio stations and all-- and it's on your iOS device.... Rockstar Games has done something fairly incredible here. They’ve taken one of the biggest, best, and most important games in the history of the medium, and ported it, fully intact, to a cell phone. This is a game that pushed the limits of the PlayStation 2 when it came out 10 years ago, and recent iOS devices can handle it without breaking a sweat." - Slide To Play

http://www.slidetoplay.com/story/grand-theft-auto-3-review

Previously:
Grand Theft Auto III: Your Questions Answered – Part One (Claude, Darkel & Other Characters)
Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition Now Available for iPad, iPhone and Android Devices - Watch the Official Launch Trailer

Announcing the Jan-Feb 2012 Official Social Club Multiplayer Events Series Calendar

Rockstar Games — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:50:00 -0500

Announcing the first scheduled Official Social Club Multiplayer Events of 2012 with our January and February slate of Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto IV sessions across PSN, XBL and PC. Mark your calendars to join us for live streaming online multiplayer action plus live chat with Rockstar and other Social Club members at the Events page, along with prize pack giveaways, special guest players, and more.

Look for another calendar with dates for March and beyond after we've announced the release date for Max Payne 3 - for now, let your mind run wild with what the future will hold by reading up on the first multiplayer details for Max Payne 3 as revealed at IGN this week.

CALENDAR OF MULTIPLAYER EVENTS

Friday, January 13 (4-7PM Eastern)
Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition w/ Triple XP
For PlayStation 3 on PSN
The first multiplayer event of 2012, battling it out on PSN with you and your whole posse across modes from the entire Red Dead Redemption online multiplayer experience - including Undead Nightmare's Undead Overrun. (Note you do not need the Game of the Year Edition specifically to play in this or any of our Red Dead events. Any version will do as long as we're playing relevant modes.)

Thursday, January 26 (5-8PM Eastern)
Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition
For Xbox 360 on XBL
Since our most recent GTA console event was held on PSN, the Xbox LIVE crowd gets there proper due with some Cops n' Crooks, GTA Race, Witness Protection and just about every other multiplayer mode from the original Grand Theft Auto IV as well as the Episodes, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony.

Friday, February 10 (4-7PM Eastern)
Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition w/ Triple XP
For Xbox 360 on Xbox LIVE
Red Dead on Xbox LIVE with everything from Grand Prix Horse Racing to Gold Rush to Stronghold to Undead Overrun and plenty more. As with most of our events, we'll have 20 runner-up prizes and one Grand Prize. Good luck...

Friday, February 24 (4-7PM Eastern)
Grand Theft Auto IV & Episodes from Liberty City
For PC on Games for Windows LIVE
Yup, 32-player mayhem crashing things up in Race, going wild in Free Mode, and some classic Deathmatch - will be just part of this one.

These official multiplayer events are your chance to:

Play online multiplayer with Rockstar Games, including folks from some of the development teams who helped create the games themselves
Enter Social Club member-exclusive event sweepstakes at the multiplayer events page during the event, including prize giveaways you won't see anywhere else like custom controllers, consoles and more
Watch the live video stream broadcast of the online play at the official multiplayer events page
Join the live event chat to discuss the stream and challenge other players as the action unfolds
Gain Triple XP in Red Dead Redemption in addition to during our separate Twitter/Facebook announced playsessions such as these

HOW TO PLAY WITH ROCKSTAR
Look for Gamertags, IDs and details on how to find us in each event to be posted a day or two before each of the dates listed below. Keep in mind that the easiest way to get in on a game with us during these playsessions is to send a friend request the night before and then request in the chat or the corresponding Newswire post to be invited.

If you want more chances to play with Rockstar or, as mentioned, get more +XP in Red Dead, be sure to follow us on our Twitter and Facebook pages. At unscheduled dates and times, every now and then we like to tweet out that we're about to play one of our titles online, and we invite everyone by posting a Gamertag. If Triple XP is happening, we'll let you know about how long it will be on. We've recently been keeping it on at least 24 hours a week. Watch closely for the next one...

Grand Theft Auto III: Your Questions Answered – Part One (Claude, Darkel & Other Characters)

Rockstar Games — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:58:00 -0500

In honor of today's release of Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition for select new generation iOS and Android devices, we're pleased to present the long-awaited official answers to some of the fan submitted questions about GTA3. Check out part one which focuses on some of the game's characters and stay tuned for part two next week.

CrazyNiko187
Was Claude always intended to be silent with no spoken dialogue?

SCORPIO7188
Is Claude a mute or is he a man who doesn't talk? I remember CJ calling Claude a mute in the race in San Andreas.

XxMETALMONSTERxX
Why doesn't Claude talk? I mean he doesn't even react when he's on fire lol.

Rockstar says:
It may now seem obvious that people should all talk in games, but this was not necessarily the case in 2001, certainly not in an open world game. We were making up a lot of procedures as we went along, and we decided that the NPCs (Non Playable Characters) should talk and we would have to figure out how to make them talk (using motion captured cutscenes, something that had never really been done before, at least not on the scale we were doing it). So we decided that the game’s protagonist would not talk, partly to aid people identifying with him, but mostly because we had so many other problems to solve and this did not seem like a major issue. We started to discuss introducing a talking lead character when working on Vice City, but it was a lot of work. While the structure of GTA3 may seem obvious or natural now, and the use of cutscenes made in the game’s engine that look and feel like the game may seem simple and easy, it really was not the case back in 2001 when we had to figure out all of these things for the first time. Oh and in San Andreas, CJ calls Claude a mute because he does not talk and CJ finds this unnerving.

D.E.LB
Please shed some light on if this is actually Claude's voice from a beta version of III: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOGs2w40SyA

Liberty_King
Actually, I heard Claude yawn sometimes when he falls from a big height, and/or drowns in sea. Also this is interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddJ_SF596HE. At 0:18 Claude seems to say quote "Get out of the car" quickly, it seems he had a voice at some point, this is really a mystery :D

fan_GTA
On one of the trailers GTA3 beta, Claude says, "Get out of the car". What were the reasons that Claude did not say any words?

Rockstar says:
This is fake. This is an old bit of gameplay footage, for sure, but we think the voices were added at a later date by someone online as at no point did we plan for Claude to have a voice or even design how a speaking protagonist would be implemented until Vice City.

ARMORALLL
After the last mission is complete is that Claude who says "When the chopper finally got taken out, better than the fireworks on the 4th of July"??? I've always wondered about this!

Rockstar says:
No – it is a witness in a news report who says that.

Vortex94
Who was the inspiration for character Claude? I really like his attitude i.e silent but deadly.

Rockstar says:
There wasn’t any one single inspiration – we just liked the idea of a strong, silent killer, who would be juxtaposed with all of these neurotic and verbose mobsters in an amusing way. He seems stronger and in control, while they seem weaker and frantic.

-AlSar-
Can you tell us more about Claude's biography?

Dapunkilla
What’s the backstory on Claude? For example his last name, family relatives? Where he's from? Or maybe even a short bio?

Rockstar says:
He’s a bank robber with a noisy and psychotic girlfriend. More than that, it is hard to say. Definitely a drifter, probably from the west coast, new to Liberty City. Surname may or may not be Speed.

Dapunkilla
Did Claude kill Maria?

nikobelic2500000
At the end of Grand theft Auto 3, did Claude actually shoot Maria?

Rockstar says:
We're not sure about this. Some think he did, and some think he didn’t. Certainly in an original version of the script, Maria had a longer, really annoying speech, but then someone in the audio department wisely put an end to that. Quite what that means for Maria, who can say.

Dapunkilla
What became of Claude’s fate? Is he dead in the GTAIII canon or he alive?

Rockstar says:
He certainly isn’t dead. What else became of him, we don’t know.

therealtreefitty
How did Claude's appearance change or take shape during development?

Rockstar says:
We iterated his look many, many times until we were happy – usual sort of things, weight, face, some clothing.

BenDeR.
Darkel, such a strange character... Pictures of him are available on GTA III's official website and his name appears in GTA III's booklet. I heard somewhere that he was supposed to give you some kind of "rampage-like" missions. What was exactly his purpose? Why wasn't he included in the final version of the game?

GTAOVER9000
Hey Rockstars... tell me if you can. Is it true that removed character from Grand Theft Auto III named Darkel was a Russian communist ?

11205885
What was the whole fuss with Darkel? Was there really a mission where you blew up a school bus full of children?

Tbirdsc
Who was Darkel?

Rockstar says:
Darkel was just a crazy bum who gave you some crazy missions. They were removed a few months before the game was done and long before 9/11 because they just weren’t as good as the rest of the game, and tonally they were a little odd. He started with 5 missions and they were slowly all cut. When only one or 2 were left, they were all removed as the character just didn’t work alongside the other characters.

None of these missions involved blowing up buses of school children although that is a funny rumor!

Etoddgta
Will we ever see a release of the beta Darkel missions?

Rockstar says:
No. The guys at Rockstar North are far too busy working on future stuff to ever figure out how to fix these old unfinished missions and get them running.

SammiiDoogles
There are many references to GTAIII characters and brands (El Burro graffiti in LC for example) in GTAIV, but do any characters (other than Lazlow) actually exist within both 'universes'? Is that where Donald Love went? Did he hop dimensions into the GTAIV universe?! Plot twist!! Are the two universes completely separate? I understand it'd make almost no sense having two Liberty City's but is there any way we'll see characters from GTAIII return? GTAIV has some amazing characters, but some of the characters in the III era are just unforgettable.

Rockstar says:
El Burro is referenced as he was also referenced in GTA 1, so it felt appropriate that he should cross “universes” – the “universes” are the worlds interpreted at different definitions, 2d, 3d and high definition, so we felt brands and radio / back ground characters would exist in both, but 3 dimensional characters would not. This is the logic (as far as it could be considered logical) behind it – so no, we don’t believe any GTA3 characters could exist in the GTA4 universe.

FeelThePayne
Why was Ray so paranoid? lol < He was also voiced by Robert Loggia too WOW!

Rockstar says:
He was a bent cop who knew his luck was almost up and he was about to come to an unfortunate end – this would make anyone paranoid…

VladTheZenga09
Guy with the baseball bat on the artwork.. who is he? I'm pretty sure it isn't Toni Cipriani 'cause on the artwork he is the guy with hands in his pocket, and these two guys are not the same.. at least to me.. cheers.

eat-THE-phoenix
In celebration of GTA III's 10th birthday, I decided to dig up the game to play it again for old time's sake. However, every time I look at the cover, the guy with the glasses and pistol always make me wonder...
Who is the guy with the glasses prominently features on the cover, manual, and loading screens?

Rockstar says:
He is a character from an early piece of concept art by our long standing character concept artist at Rockstar North, Ian McQue, that Stephen Bliss (who is one of the guys who illustrates our Grand Theft Auto cover art) liked and used to make a cool piece of montage art that embodied the game – we were less concerned with the art really representing characters as much as capturing the vibe of the game – so some of the characters in the art are not necessarily game characters. We did not really think the characters would be such a big deal until after the game came out.

Look for the final part two of this special series next week where we’ll officially address some of your questions about a few of the long-standing rumors related to the game’s content...