GTA IV Rumours

Every time there's a release of a new GTA game, rumours begin to circulate about what might appear in the next one. Many of them get exaggerated or perceived in such away that others may believe it to be real.

With the game being called "Grand Theft Auto IV", Rockstar have an unlimited number of places in which to set the game, rather than being tied to one location such as "San Andreas". As one might expect, lots of places have been mentioned...

Among the first array of cities to be debated about was London, England. This is a very valid city to choose as it fits in perfectly along the current trend of GTA games. GTA1 had Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas, Rockstar converted all these to full 3D environments on the PS2, in that order. The following game was GTA London, this was an addon pack for the original GTA, which as the name suggests featured London in an old 1960's era. So if Rockstar continued the pattern, we would see London as the setting for the next game.

Other cities to be mentioned were Tokyo and Bogota. The reason these cities were rumoured is because they appeared on a scrolling billboard in GTA3, along with other GTA related cities at the Francis Int'l Airport. Then the domain names were registered for both cities which led some people to believe these were going to be future games.

One last rumour is that the entire game of GTA2 will be recreated in a fully 3D environment. Seeing as some people disregard GTA London as an actual game itself, leads them to believe the next is GTA2, thus believing Rockstar will make it. No other specific cities have been rumoured, at least not on a huge scale. What has happened is that people's ideas of the vastness of the next GTA game have escalated dramatically. A common rumour circulating now is that the next GTA will be set throughout the entirety of Europe, as a representative from Rockstar is alleged to have said they want to move away from America as the setting of the game. This is actually quite a feasible idea.

The game will be released on the next generation of consoles i.e. the PS3 and Xbox 360, this means everything will have improved from previous game, and giving Rockstar a massive 50GB of space to utilise on a (Dual Layer) Blu-Ray disc for the PS3 version. This immense size gives Rockstar enormous possibilities to expand the game as a whole, not just size.
On an even bigger scale, some people are suggesting the USA as a viable country to set it in, however with Rockstar supposedly not wanting to have it in America, I can't see this happening.