Ooooh a GTA IV preview!

Now this I DO want to see, looking forward to this baby for sure!

And if one detail of GTA IV is telling, it comes during the series’ signature activity – stealing a car. Approaching a parked vehicle, eastern European hardman Niko Bellic doesn’t just yank the door open, jump in and drive off – he smashes the window to gain access, and has to hotwire it to start the engine. It may be a mere animation flourish, but it speaks volumes. A world that looks real also needs to feel real, and GTA’s cartoonish excess – and, perhaps, some of its freewheeling spontaneity – has had to be reeled in.

The visual treatment is grittier, more sober, more adult, and there’s every indication that the action and story will follow suit – although Rockstar is keen to stress that the series’ sense of humour has not been lost. Niko’s journey won’t take him to Tony Montana highs of wealth and influence; this, we’re told, will be a game of survival rather than supremacy, where he’ll climb the criminal ranks but only so far, and his past as a human trafficker will eventually catch up with him.