Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned Makes Video Game Awards Debut

It was announced last week that we can expect several major premieres during the Spike TV Video Game Awards, which will be held on December 14. New footage from God of War III, Mafia II, Uncharted: Among Thieves and ‘the future’ of Gears of War 2 has already been revealed, but there’s more to come…

During the show, the first images of the upcoming downloadable content of Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360 will also be shown. In this extra content we experience adventures with motorcyclist Johnny Klebitz and from February 17th Xbox 360 gamers can download the content. .

Players re-enter Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto IV, this time in the shoes of Eastern European immigrant Niko Bellic. Niko is lured by his cousin with the promise of big houses, shiny cars and other luxuries that can’t be afforded in Eastern Europe. Once he arrives, however, his nephew turns out to live in the ghetto, only the rich elite drive luxury cars and America turns out to be just as corrupt as at home. Niko ends up in the mafia circuit and has to clean up all his cousin’s mess.

To do this Niko uses his mobile phone. You can now call people to take missions, listen to radio and arrange dates. To get anywhere in the city you can rob cars, but now also just take a taxi. All in the name of realism, because GTA IV is suddenly a lot less cartoonish than its predecessors. Liberty City is of course not the same as in GTA III. The city has changed and is now more the spitting image of the New York metropolis than before. Importantly, the game will be more vertical: players can climb all buildings, take fire escapes and so on to get away from the police.

Grand Theft Auto has already been released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. Additional content, titled The Lost and Damned, will be released on February 17 for the Xbox 360.