“Rockstar North is creating a specialized game engine for PS3 that will bring GTA 4 to life to a degree that PS2 games could only hint at. Specifically, they’re going to be using the high data transfer bandwidth of the Cell CPU, RSX GPU, and Blu-ray Disc to use several streams of game info simultaneously. The game’s city - unfortunately yet to be even hinted at - will still be free roaming and seamless, but broken down into smaller, more detailed areas at the engine level, into which the game designers are going to be able to pour more textures, more object variety, and tons of details (such as discarded soda cans with their own physics), just for starters. The goal is a city that’s less repetitive and where everything - and everyone - looks and acts more like they would in the real world on every level.”

– PSM Magazine USA

Microsoft Announces Exclusive Grand Theft 4 Content for Xbox 360

At Microsoft's X06 event currently taking place in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft's corporate vice president of marketing Peter Moore gave gamers the latest on what's in store for the game on Xbox Live Marketplace. He announced that Rockstar Games is working on two downloadable packs for the game--to be made available within months of the game's release.

"We're not talking about an extra car or character here," Moore said when describing the "epic" episodic packs. He then joked about Rockstar keeping even him in the dark about the content packs, but emphasized that the packs would be lengthy.

A press release issued during the conference said only that the packs would add "hours of entirely new gameplay" to GTA4. No additional details on the downloadable packs were released, but industry sources have said they will be along the lines of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories in terms of length.