One of the most anticipated mods for Grand Theft Auto IV and Episodes from Liberty City has just released its first public beta! This first beta of the mod includes the map and an number of basic work in progress things from San Andreas such as CJ, audio, weapons and vehicles. The next beta version of the mod the team has planned aims to improve on a number of things such as animations in the world, traffic/peds, more audio and a number of other things the team is still working on. Since this is beta, things can go wrong and there will be bugs that will need to be sorted out however the mod is already extremely stable. If you're feeling adventurous, you can download the mod from the official website..
Official Website: GTAIV San Andreas
GTA IV: Complete Edition is now available in North America, and will be available October 29th in Europe. The Complete Edition of Grand Theft Auto IV includes the original game, plus Episodes from Liberty City - which itself encompasses both DLC packages: The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony.
Currently, the edition is only available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and no PC version has been announced nor dated. However, several retailers, including Amazon, have been listing a PC version for some time now. We'll let you know if any information regarding a possible PC version is revealed.
UPDATE: The Complete Edition is now available on Steam for PC, nothing is currently known about retail versions though.
According to CVG, A Brazilian court has ordered Rockstar to stop selling Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City worldwide or face a $1,900 fine for each day it is sold. The reason? Rockstar doesn't seem to have the proper rights to use the song titled "Kid Conga feat. MC Miltinho" by Daniel Haaksman. While Rockstar does have signed documents by the author authorizing the use of the song, the song uses an unauthorized sample from the song "Bota o Dedinho pro Alto" by Hamilton Lourenço da Silva, which is interesting as he's the father of MC Miltinho. Even though this would technically fall in the Fair Use territory here in the States, Brazil seems to think differently and wants the game to be removed worldwide. They also want the digital versions pulled from digital distributors such as Steam. Since the ruling was just announced a few hours ago, it's unknown what Rockstar will do. The most obvious would be to disable the song from playing in the form of a patch for current copies and remove it all together for future copies. Although, Rockstar may choose to fight it. If you have a digital copy of Episodes from Liberty City, we would advise you to back up your copies in case of the worst.
Source: CVG
Steam is having a deal on Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City today. The discount is a heavy 50% off bringing the pack to just $15 USD. If you have yet to pick up the Episodes or don't yet own the PC version, this is practically a steal! Hurry though as the deal will only last through today.
Steam: Episodes from Liberty City
For those of you who are keen on digital copies or want to be one of the first to play, Steam will be selling Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City tonight starting at 12:00 AM EST.
Source: Steam
Rockstar has announced the change log for the next patch for Grand Theft Auto IV on the PC. The patch, which will be required for Episodes from Liberty City, is not yet released but should be releasing later today/tomorrow.
Rockstar Games Social Club
• Remove Rockstar Games Social Club application
• Separate RGSC application no longer required to launch game
• Social Club login now occurs during the launch process
Shadows
• A new, less memory-intensive, and better-looking scalable shadow solution has been implemented
• Enhanced Night Shadows added with user-selectable level of detail (replaces Shadow Density)
Performance
• Rendering optimizations have been made to improve performance, particularly when enabling shadows
• User-configurable graphics settings have been added for shadow control
• Improved memory management
Multiplayer
• Enhanced security to isolate users from cheaters and hackers
Episodic Content
• Provide in-game support to purchase "The Lost and Damned" and "The Ballad of Gay Tony" (Not available in Russian/Japanese Versions)
Bug Fixes
• Vehicle shadows re-enabled between 8pm and 6am
• Fix floating street textures
• Pedestrians in vehicles appear further out from the player to allow for long range sniping
• The Moon has been implemented with simulated lunar phases
• Fixed garbled text in Japanese Multiplayer menus
• "RESC 10" error fix for specific hardware configurations
As promised, Rockstar has released a trailer for the PC and PS3 versions of Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
As a reminder, the Episodes release tomorrow and the Social Club multiplayer events start soon after so be sure to get some practice. Folks from Rockstar could be seen practicing on the PC just this past weekend with their GW gamertags. If you need someone to practice with on Games for Windows, feel free to add my gamertag: Gamerzworld.
Rockstar has announced via their Twitter account that they will be releasing a trailer of the PC and PS3 versions of Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City on Monday. Stay tuned!
Rockstar has posted some footage of the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City that was made with the included video editor. The video is entitled "Bahama Mamas":
Rockstar has released the first four screenshots of the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
