Rumor: First glimpse of GTA4? [update 1]

by Joystiq Staff { Jun 22nd 2006 at 11:05AM }

A GTA fanboy has posted on the Games Radar forums what could be one of the first images of what Grand Theft Auto 4 will look like. Going by the name of "fishfingers," the poster claims: "With my work as a GTA fansite owner ... I get a lot of fan art submitted to me. However, this one was different. It came from 'A disgruntled Rockstar Games employee.'" But haven't we been down this fake image road before?

So, really, there's not much to go by except pure speculation. But, the image appears to have many similarities to the GTA franchise -- notice the wanted stars, 3rd person view, and generic street scene. Other than that, it's almost impossible to say. The player character appears to be a female which may suggest a more open world game that some have hinted at. The only potential downsides of this image actually being GTA4 is that it doesn't look as pretty as the engine used for Rockstar's Table Tennis game. Of course, because it's a vague screenshot and the game is still in early development, the actual quality might not be indicative of a final product. Either way, if this thing's real, that ball and chain weapon would be a nice touch ... the dog pissing on the wall is also pretty funny. Mmmmmm, I can smell the litigation now.

[Thanks, DC; via News4Gamers]

[Update 1: Eurogamer says, "Rockstar told us this afternoon. It really is a hoax." We've contacted Rockstar for an official comment. Thanks, Josh.]

Tags: Grand Theft Auto 4, GrandTheftAuto4, GTA4

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

apoc06 @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:11AM

if it is legit, they will definitely need to ditch that 3d map.

Burgundy @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:12AM

Looks like 1969 to me. ;)

Azslic @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:13AM

I'm not a huge fan of the series. I never understood the hype at E3. I havent even finished GTA:San Andreas. I just lose interest in games like these.

Josh @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:19AM

This has already been debunked by Rockstar (link below). Google it before you post KTHX.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=65665

Nolan Benbrook @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:20AM

You guys are so gullable! Look at life and body armor meters. They look like the ones in GTA3! Not to mention the ones in San Andreas are a lot more slick.

GamerX @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:20AM

Does that environment remind anybody else of Crazy Taxi on the DC?

KilgoreTrout XL @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:25AM

To #1:
Agreed, that looks awful.

At first glance I thought our friend had decided to set up a BBQ in the middle of the road and was determined to defend it with his +3 "The Thompsonator" mace.

Izuna Drop @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:27AM

#5

I thought the same thing. Tofu steaks anyone?

Trevor @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:33AM

While fake, I would bet good money on the main character being a woman in GTA4. That would rattle some cages and force politicians to look at GTA in a new light -- it's not all about "killing hookers for points". It's a fun *game* (read: not real life) where you get to blow shit up and do insane jumps off of rooftops.

Let's all just pray that Woozy isn't in this one, though.

Armin @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:42AM

The game isn't in development yet. Rockstar just assembled the team... There won't be any coding done in the first 6 months...

Come on Joystiq, think for a while.

jason @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:50AM

Fake! That is a total Poser3d Model as the character. And if this was gta4, consider me unimpressed.

martin @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:52AM

Just because RockStar said it wasn't real doesn't mean you should believe them. They did lie about the Hot Coffee Mod if anyone remembers!

GTA4: Tofu Barbecue village

apoc06 @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:52AM

This is a fake. First of all, the perspective is kinda jacked up to start with. The main character is offcenter with the midpoint of the screen.

Secondly the 3d maps would be useless for navigation; half of your objective/ waypoints would be blocked by buildings.

Third, the curb looks like its level with the street

Fourth, the yellow lines should be center of the street, and the white lines should be near the curb. [unless this version is somewhere outside the US]

Fifth, the lightposts are WAY too close to the curb/street. From the pic it looks like the light post is halfway in the curb and goes down into the street.

Sixth, the building on the right looks like its haflway underground. Notice the windows. Thats not a basement... theres a fence all the way around the building.

Seventh, thats a crappy excuse for a dog.

And finally, the sure fire way to know this is fake: the lighting is off. Assuming the light source is coming from the bloom in the upperleft hand corner, the shadows should be facing towards the screen on the right. Instead, the shadows are facing the upper right, as if the light source is coming from over the back of the character's left shoulder. The shadows left on the ground by the character and the lightpost on the right match up, but the car on the left and the guy waking's shadows do not. Lastly, the shadows left on the character model indicate a light source coming from the upper right of the character. [notice there is no shadow on her right arm, but plenty on her left?]

There are prob more goofs, but the pic is too small for me to /really/ nitpick... =)

Ikram @ Jun 22nd 2006 12:12PM

Oh well, since Rockstar said its fake,then it must be true. I mean its not like they've ever lied to us before, right?

T-Prime @ Jun 22nd 2006 12:16PM

I've always wanted Crazy Taxi on the 360.

Jay @ Jun 22nd 2006 12:18PM

hahaha... you can imagine some sad act actually sat there and spent hours making this. well done. special star for you.

Osiris @ Jun 22nd 2006 12:21PM

It's bloody cell shaded.
They wouldn't make a GTA for the 360 and PS3 only to laugh at their power and throw pretty colours at it.

Besides, that would hide the gore etc, i dont think that's part of Rockstar's agenda.

I'm thinking it will be pretty realistic graphics, they've shown they can do that with their Table Tennis game.

Azrael @ Jun 22nd 2006 12:28PM

"The game isn't in development yet. Rockstar just assembled the team... There won't be any coding done in the first 6 months...
"Come on Joystiq, think for a while."

Yeah! I mean, the game is slated for release early NEXT YEAR, how much time do you think they need to build a NEW GTA from scratch for 2 Totally different Next Generation Consoles? YEARS? Pff! is built over a few weekends while watching columbo!

I assure you theres no work being done in the game as we speak, they are sitting on their asses "assembling the team" and planning to start working on it maybe next weekend (if theres nothing good on tv).

David Hamilton @ Jun 22nd 2006 1:00PM

Maybe you can play multiple charactors this time and since it is in early development, the graphics are not going to be good

vidGuy @ Jun 22nd 2006 1:11PM

While a fake, that pic is probably what we'll see for GTA4 graphics-wise. After all, it is a huge step over the past GTAs visually, and even though it'll be running on the Table Tennis engine, there's quite a bit more to render in GTA.

The little things the artist missed, as pointed out by apoc, will obviously be right in the game, but I wouldn't expect much more graphically from the game.

Now, can they make a game that stands out from the past three in more than just graphics?

retro @ Jun 22nd 2006 1:22PM

Okay, http://www.joystiq.com/2005/10/11/fan-fakes-gta-vice-city-stories-announcement/ would've worked as a reference to another GTA fake if VIce City Stories wasn't a real game.

C. Grant @ Jun 22nd 2006 1:27PM

Haha Azrael! I was thinking the same team. Next-gen dev time is supposed to be MUCH shorter than current consoles ... because of, uh, magic.

Tush @ Jun 22nd 2006 1:40PM

To Osiris:

I think it would be a bold move to make it cell-shaded. No one would see it coming! But by making it cell-shaded, they could do some pretty cool effects. By stylizing, they could become really creative and make absolutely massive maps.

I'm not saying cell-shaded in the Windwaker style, maybe more akin to Killer 7.

With all that raw processing power, one could do some pretty kick-ass stuff. Realism isn't always better.

Monet isn't a bad painter because he's an impressionist...

Seroth @ Jun 22nd 2006 2:14PM

I think it would make sense to have a cel-shaded GTA game. Notice how the characters in the GTA games look NOTHING like the artwork. Lame.

Killer7-style cel-shading would be awesome for GTA.

coalhalo @ Jun 22nd 2006 2:35PM

". The game isn't in development yet. Rockstar just assembled the team... There won't be any coding done in the first 6 months..."
I read another post like this earlier at another site, almost verbatim.
Like other people pointed out above, games nowadays get made in only a few months, never more than a year and a half, especially one like GTA4, which is on record as being released on two next-gen platforms on the same day. DOOM 3 was done over spring break.

stray @ Jun 22nd 2006 3:12PM

I think I'd have to agree it's not a shot of GTAIV. But... it looks GTA-esque enough to make me wonder if Rockstar isn't working on a 360 (or even PS3) port of Vice City Stories with the RAGE engine. October of '07 is just too long to wait for a next gen GTA.

Jeff @ Jun 22nd 2006 3:20PM

"The game isn't in development yet."

Are you kidding?

I worked on the marketing for GTA3 and Vice City; I left the company before San Andreas. I can guarantee you this game has probably been in development for more than a year already. There is much that can be done before the dev kits are even released.

"Just because RockStar said it wasn't real doesn't mean you should believe them."

There has never, ever been a real leaked screenshot of a GTA game since Rockstar bought the series. I want to say there's never been a real leaked screenshot of any Rockstar game at all but I'm not sure if that's true or not. But Rockstar goes to extreme lengths to protect themselves against any leaks on the GTA franchise. Not only would any "disgruntled employee" be in court the next day for breaking his NDA, he'd probably wake up the following week with a horse's head in bed next to him, and find himself with a couple of broken kneecaps later that day.

The only "leaked" screenshots come through sites like KentPaul.com. It's kind of a game at Rockstar to put up sites like that and see how long it takes people to notice.