GTA IV to use RAGE engine? News

16 June, 2006

Why, look who's here! It's our old friend Internet Reports, with a brand new rumour for us to mull over - and this time it revolves around highly anticipated next-gen title Grand Theft Auto IV.

According to Mr Reports, the game is being built using the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine - or RAGE for short. It's the same engine that powers the excellent Xbox 360 title Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis, don't you know.

Up until now, the Grand Theft Auto games have been created using Criterion's Renderware engine. EA bought up Criterion in July 2004, and since then Rockstar has had to fork over royalties for every GTA game sold. So it seems logical that they'd knock up the next one with their very own engine instead, if possible.

But is the rumour true, or is Internet Reports up to his old tricks again? Well, we're still waiting for word from Rockstar, so we'll just have to wait and see. Grand Theft Auto IV is due out on PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 19th, 2007.

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Darren

16/06/06 @ 15:54

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OXM360 reported this story earlier but seemed to think that all the characters in GTA IV will be as detailed as those of the Table Tennis! If they are I'll eat my hat! /LOL

InfiniteFury

16/06/06 @ 15:54

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Oh good lord, it begins...

Hunam85

16/06/06 @ 15:56

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Renderware...

/shudders

gizmo

16/06/06 @ 15:57

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Renderware seemed pretty good to me...

GTA, Burnout 2.

fergal_oc

16/06/06 @ 16:01

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don't forget fight night round 3 was built using it...

nickthegun

16/06/06 @ 16:09

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I thought that table tennis started life as a tech excercise for the GTAIV engine. Cant remember where I heard it, but I thought this was pretty common knowledge.

Or has the matrix been resetting itself again

Darkedge

16/06/06 @ 16:14

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interesting - lets wait and see

Baronen

16/06/06 @ 16:15

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Aha! It all makes sense! I knew Rockstar couldn't release such a non-violent game as Table Tennis without a hidden agenda.

Adam_T

16/06/06 @ 16:16

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I hope GTA4 brings some good new elements to the table, I'd go crazy if it was the same old 'ahhh, I've got no cash, better make an empire and get my revenge'.

And I hope they fix the vanishing vehicles and everything else when you turn around with this new engine.

projectmayhem

16/06/06 @ 16:21

#10

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i thought this would have been a given. rockstar have been working on this engine since SA basically, so they needed to put something out to test the waters a bit, as it were... so table tennis is rockstar saying "does it work".

but i wonder, will table tennis be available inside the gta game, a-la snooker in SA?

nickthegun

16/06/06 @ 16:25

#11

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"And I hope they fix the vanishing vehicles and everything else when you turn around with this new engine.

It will almost certainly be more persistant, but I would imagine there will be some kind of ceiling since, inevitably someone will try and make The Eiffel Tower out of Firetrucks and bring the engine to its knees.

I dunno. I hope its pretty persistant but, to be honest if it was like a real city A) someone would eventually clean up your mess and B) if the carnage I caused in San Andreas is anything to go by, after a few hours of play the streets would just be clogged with burned out cars, dead gangsters and crashed jumbo jets, which would kinda take the fun out of it.

markypants

16/06/06 @ 16:29

#12

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October 2007... i thought it was out this year!!!! NOOOOOOOO!

York

16/06/06 @ 16:42

#13

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I just hope I can shoot the characters of Table Tennis.

To death.

Aggresively.

HarryB

16/06/06 @ 18:14

#14

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well Amped 3 did it, why can't GTA?

HarryB

16/06/06 @ 18:16

#15

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just because the engine is the same doesn't mean the games will look like each other....do not expect table tennis characters for everyone or you will be disappointed.

Hans Gruber

16/06/06 @ 19:56

#16

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I wonder if we can bitch-slap hookers with a table tennis paddle...

kgthatsme

16/06/06 @ 20:13

#17

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or make them use ping pong balls in the strip clubs

asphaltcowboy

16/06/06 @ 20:47

#18

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I don't care as long as they do something to make it look good!

HarryB

16/06/06 @ 20:52

#19

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it'll look good but not as good as table tennis, not possible in such an open game.

urban

17/06/06 @ 14:09

#20

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makes sense...when oh when will we see screenshots.

i hope they try ALOT of new stuff in this one..i dont want to play a new physics new graphics gta.

i want involvement that knows no bounds

Hunam85

17/06/06 @ 15:24

#21

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Why not have a story where you dont make lots of cash and become a king pin, say gotta do all this stuff while maintaining a 'normal' outset of life, it'd be interesting, to have a mechanic like that, and obviously you'd not want to get caught killing people...

Bezzy

17/06/06 @ 16:20

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I dunno. I hope its pretty persistant but, to be honest if it was like a real city A) someone would eventually clean up your mess and B) if the carnage I caused in San Andreas is anything to go by, after a few hours of play the streets would just be clogged with burned out cars, dead gangsters and crashed jumbo jets, which would kinda take the fun out of it.

It's a good point. In sand box games with a lot of emergence, you really want to have systems in place which bring the world back to some kind of recognizeable equilibrium, so that players can start off again from a stable launch pad. If it escalates forever, it'd basically become confusing and unmanageable (both for the developers, trying to make sure the game doesn't get broken, and for the player whose mental model of the game becomes too complicated for them to percieve any logical consequence in the system).

Swannzie

18/06/06 @ 11:00

#23

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Makes sense, why keep paying those goons over at EA when you can use your very own engine which is ultimately better.

Steroyd

18/06/06 @ 11:37

#24

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Why not take a page out of Animal Crossings book.

The city you start in starts small and basic and then it evolves over time (using a real-time clock would be a nice touch), then over online your mates can come in and see what you did to your custom city.

And have a storyline revolving around the evolving city.

disc

18/06/06 @ 16:13

#25

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Sounds like a good idea.

The Table Tennis engine is obviously proven on the Xbox 360.

But I see noone else has though of this.

Wouldn't this mean that the Table Tennis engine has to be ported to the PS3 ?

So.

Table Tennis PS3 early next year? :)

Sounds good.

Freek

18/06/06 @ 20:49

#26

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It's a multiplatform engine, doesn't mean they'll be porting over Table Tennis though.

DaveTheHutt

19/06/06 @ 10:28

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It's incredible that a table tennis game has hit No.3 in the XB360 charts... Surely this had to be an experiment to test the strength of the Rockstar name as a brand in itself?

I mean, I know it's a pretty decent little game, but if this had been released by, say, Activision would it have gone anywhere near the level of coverage and sales that it has?

Hutt out

miiiguel

19/06/06 @ 15:07

#28

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The cloth swing of RS p. Table-Tennis players' t-shirts is amazing!!!!

tengu

19/06/06 @ 15:46

#29

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"It's incredible that a table tennis game has hit No.3 in the XB360 charts..."

Not really, it's a lot cheaper than all the other 360 games out. Doesn't hurt it's been getting good reviews too.

Skooch

19/06/06 @ 17:01

#30

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"Why not have a story where you dont make lots of cash and become a king pin, say gotta do all this stuff while maintaining a 'normal' outset of life, it'd be interesting, to have a mechanic like that, and obviously you'd not want to get caught killing people..."

Because that's too much like real life, which we gamers know is not all that interesting, and why we can play for hours on end until our thumbs bleed! :)

DaveTheHutt

20/06/06 @ 12:12

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My point is, would this have done as well if it wasn't "from the people who brought you GTA"?

I suspect it wouldn't have.

Hutt out

miiiguel

20/06/06 @ 12:41

#32

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