Grand Theft Auto IV gets a little respect

There are certain pivotal moments in videogaming history when new technology has introduced new ways to experience the gaming world, or innovative software has set new standards in fun – or even created entirely new genres of gameplay. With regard to the latter two, the Grand Theft Auto series is the biggest and baddest of them all.

The original GTA (from 1998) was a very different beast to the controversy-devouring entity the franchise has become today.  Of course a lot of water and technological advancements have flowed under the bridge in the intervening years, and the series really came alive with GTA III, which ushered in a stylish new era of hip soundtracks, cinematic criminality, lavish 3D visuals and gameplay to die-for – often literally so, in GTA’s brutal world. Since then pretty much every GTA outing has been a must-play event.

Of course, loyal Xbox players (that’s you lot) have had to grimace privately while the owners of ‘other’ consoles have enjoyed all the GTA fun. However that will soon change, thanks to Rockstar Games’ announcement that they’re creating brand new GTA IV content for Xbox 360. We knew they’d want to join the winning team sooner or later.

GTA IV will take the form of two distinct episodes, both downloadable from Xbox Live and each a minimum of 10 hours long. Of course being a 360 game it’ll look simply awesome too, and the downloadable episodic format means that we won’t have to wait ages between games either – or waste the bus fare going to the shops to buy it! It’ll be worth the wait, we promise, but if you need to satisfy your ‘gangsta’ cravings before then Saints Row will keep you nicely busy. More details soon.

• Xbox Live
• Saints Row