Car-stealing, hooker-hitting classics GTA 3 and GTA Vice City are both making their way to the PS3 via the PSN, according to a recent filing by the trusty ESRB. Both PS2 classics were re-rated by the ESRB to include a PlayStation 3 category. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was not re-rated though. My guess is Rockstar will wait to release San Andreas until GTA 5 is closer to hitting its launch date. The two games share the bea-u-tiful city of Los Santos.

No word from Sony on when these titles will be available on the PSN. When they are released, will you be downloading them?

It's all the rage these days to port older games to handheld devices. As the number of people gaming on the phone increases, so do the offerings. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Grand Theft Auto III, Rockstar has released a port of the game for iOS and Android devices called Grand Theft Auto 3: 10 Year Anniversary Edition.

Does the on-the-go version live up to the excitment of the original? Our reviewer Ashley Esqueda chimes in:

"The best part of GTA3’s open ended world is still here for you to enjoy and all of the fantastic side quests and mini games are available from the original. If you want to drive around town seeking ramps to launch your freshly-stolen ride off of to gain points (and feel like Steve McQueen), they’re waiting for you. If you’re a more gentle criminal, and feel like ferrying about citizens of Liberty City, carjack the nearest cab and start collecting fares. Completionists and overachievers (like myself) will recall the days of yore when one spent 100+ hours seeking out every bonus and exploring every nook and cranny of Liberty City."

To find out more, read our entire Grand Theft Auto 3: 10 Year Anniversary Review!
 

According to Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick, Grand Theft Auto 4 has passed 22 million units shipped since its release in April 2008. The GTA franchise as a whole has exceeded a ridiculous 114 million units shipped. That's one hell of a lot of games.

• NEWS: Dead Island Ships Over A Million Copies In North America

Zelnick also mentioned the shipment totals on some other Take-Two franchises including Midnight Club at 18.5 million, NBA2K at 17 million, Red Dead Redemption at 12.5 million, Civilization at 11 million, BioShock at 9 million, Carnival Games at 8 million, Max Payne at 7.5 million, the Mafia franchise at 5 million, Borderlands at 4.5 million, and The Darkness at just 1 million.

Does this huge number from the GTA franchise surprise you? Hopefully by seeing such success from the naughty franchise we'll see some more news on GTA 5 popping up soon.

Source: Industry Gamers

Niko Bellic has a lot of problems, but nothing supernatural... until now. Witness, friends, YouTube user cp0020's video of a mod that adds shuffling, murderous zombies to the PC version of Grand Theft Auto 4.

The mod uses the recently released fan-created ICEnhancer tools for the PC version of GTA 4.

I'm a pretty committed console gamer, but when it comes to breathing new life (or death) into older games, the PC is the way to go!

Although retail listings for video games are rarely accurate, I feel it's worth noting that GameStop, in Germany, has listed Grand Theft Auto 5 for a January 15, 2012 release. Don't mark it down in your calendar, though. Often, retailers create records for games they expect to see in the future, without having much concrete information, so it's more of a projection than anything else.

I predict, though, that we will be getting a fat Grand Theft Auto 5 announcement at E3 in June, and you can mark your calendar for those dates: June 7-9. We'll be bringing you all things E3 here at G4, as we do every year.

Source: VG247

This isn't  the first story we've written about casting notices that may lead back to Grand Theft Auto 5, but it's pretty interesting. According to Eurogamer, some private ads on ActorPages.com indicate Take Two is looking for five performers to play ancillary characters in the next Grand Theft Auto game, including "James Pedeaston," a character that was a radio performer in Grand Theft Auto 4.

All five of the characters are represented below the "Read More" tag.

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A poster at a Grand Theft Auto forum recently made an interesting discovery: He looked at the IP address of the registrant of grandtheftauto5.com and checked out what other domain names are linked to that IP. The idea is that Rockstar may have registered these domains in connection with GTA 5.

Some of the names (Californiahomesbyowners.com) suggest a California setting, while others ("carolinabrokers.com" "myrtlebeachattorney.com") seem to indicate a South Eastern setting for the game.

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The internet detectives over at Superannuation have dug up some interesting news on what could point to the first details of not-yet-announced Grand Theft Auto 5.

The news come in the form of casting notices from talent agency called The Agency for something called "Rush," a project many believe is Grand Theft Auto 5. If this shakes out (and that's a huge "if"), the next Grand Theft Auto game will be set in Los Santos (fictional Los Angeles) and will feature an interesting group of colorful lowlifes and criminals.

I've posted the character descriptions under the cut (Spoiler?), so you can make up your own mind:

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What happens when you create cars with no friction in Grand Theft Auto 4? Hilarity. Destruction. Hilarious destruction. Check it out in the video below, from YouTube user dot12321. This, my friends, is CARMAGEDDON!

Last night's Daily Show featured a hysterical report on the video games in the violent games Supreme Court case that began earlier this week. Check out proto-geek John Hodgman putting NPR's This American Life host Ira Glass in Grand Theft Auto...

Click the cut to see "This America Grand Theft Auto..."

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See all of our sweepstakes at g4tv.com/5starsweeps!!

2010 has been a great year for gaming. So many fantastic titles have made their way into our disc trays over the past 10 months, but only a select few have received that ever elusive “5 out of 5” from our crack team of editors. And since we know not everyone can get around to playing every potential game of the year contender, we’ve put together a little sweepstakes that will help get these exceptional titles into your hands with absolute zero cost to you. In other words, free games!

So, over the coming weeks, we’ll be handing out five free copies of five-star games every day based on when the game was released. So we’re going to kick things off on Monday with Capcom's visually stunning Wii fighter Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars.

Want to see what other titles could be heading your way for the low, low price of $0.00?

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In the event that you're a PS3 or PC owner who's been waiting to rack up some kills for The Lost or blow up a garage full of cars for a Russian mobster, you'll be slightly dismayed by the following news: Rockstar Games has announced that Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City has been delayed for two weeks.

According to a recently-received e-mail from the publisher, Sony Europe requested some "minor content changes" to the PAL version of the disc, which bumps the release from March 30 to April 13 in North America (April 16 in PAL-land). The Rockstar rep also clarified:

"Despite our best efforts to work through this quickly, the two weeks were needed to complete submission.  We understand and sympathise with the fans that will be upset by this delay.  We want to assure our fans that the minor changes made to the game will not affect the gamers (sic) enjoyment of the games, these will not affect any gameplay elements and were not related to any local ratings requirements."

So, can you handle a two week-long wait after a year and some change since The Lost & Damned dropped on Xbox Live?

Unlike the rest of the world (seemingly), I haven't started playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 yet. A copy is waiting for me this evening and I'm anxious to join the conversation. In the meantime, I've returned to Liberty City for one final jaunt through Rockstar's faux New York City on account of the brilliant, if brilliantly flawed, Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony. The adventure's reminded me of something that's constantly nagged me in Grand Theft Auto IV, albeit a happy annoyance.

I like the dialogue too much. Rockstar's character writers are the industry's best, perfectly capturing the rhythms of the crazed men and women they drop in their ridiculous storylines. Some of my favorite Grand Theft Auto IV moments take place outside of the cut-scenes, as characters banter back and forth on the way to a mission checkpoint. I'm no fan of Grand Theft Auto IV's vehicle handling, which constantly slams me into trees and electrical posts, but I always end up at the intended destination before the character rapport actually wraps up. There's always a few more lines to listen in on.

So, I wait. And wait. I watch the traffic roll by until the dialogue finishes and, then, tap the gas every-so-slightly, finally pushing me into the floating arrow to start the next cut-scene. Of course, I constantly jump the gun and mistake a pause in the dialogue for the end of the dialogue, causing me to audibly sigh as another slice of character interaction kicks off...as the screen races to fade to black.

It's a testament to Rockstar's talents, a reminder of how the gameplay doesn't always pay respect to that work. Hopefully, the solution for the next game isn't to cut the writing short. That'd be a shame.

Earlier today, Rockstar Games released the final downloadable episode for Grand Theft Auto IV, The Ballad of Gay Tony. You might have read our launch primer, or perhaps my review yesterday, but there seems to be some confusion regarding the downloadable version, which is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace, and the disc-based Episodes from Liberty City, which also contains the previously digital-only The Lost and Damned. I popped in the disc just before bedtime last night to check it out, and wanted to clarify a few things for curious readers. I'll likely update as I learn more.

Achievements are the same across the board. Whether you buy the EfLC disc or you download the game, it's all going into the GTA4 pot. A recent title update upped GTA4's total Gamerscore points to 1500. There aren't any separate disc-based achievements that you'll get for buying the game at the store versus downloading episodes from your couch.

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Ever find yourself in a situation where all of your friends are talking about the latest and greatest game, and you can't contribute to the conversation because you haven't been paying attention? Solve that problem with our Launch Primers: everything you need to know (except the spoilers) about a game that's about to be released.

Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Xbox 360
MSRP:
$19.99 (Xbox Live Download, 1600 Microsoft Points)
$39.99 (Episodes From Liberty City retail disc, includes The Lost And Damned)
ESRB Rating: Mature

All Ballad of Gay Tony Content

Videos  |  Previews  |  Screenshot Galleries  |  News Stories

What kind of game is it?

It's a standalone expansion to Grand Theft Auto IV, much like its predecessor expansion The Lost and Damned. Many view the GTA series as the epitome of open-world game design, with rich characterization and 3D action that varies between shooting and exploration. It is also possible to steal cars, and then drive them.

Who's the Developer?

The bio on Rockstar Games is worth an entire feature story by itself, but we'll be brief: the New York City-based company was founded in 1998 by a group of developerse, most notable of which are the brothers Dan and Sam Houser. Their three marquee game franchises are Grand Theft Auto, Midnight Club, and Max Payne, while other offerings include Red Dead Revolver/Redemption, The Warriors, Manhunt, and State of Emergency. Besieged by the mainstream media for the "Hot Coffee" incident, Rockstar Games is no stranger to controversy. (You may now hand me the award for "Understatement of the Year.")

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