Men Free Blog

Each week, X3F tips gamers to the tricks of the trade of Achievement hording in Points>Life. Every week a new achievement is unlocked to help you continue your unhealthy obsession with the Xbox 360 meta-game.

This week Points>Life has been carjacked by Grand Theft Auto IV and we bring you a tip that is both hilarious and informative. Utilizing the easter egg found at the heart of the city, we show you how to nab the achievement for a surviving a 6-Star Wanted level for 5 minutes. Check this one out!

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Hey, remember those ridiculously high Grand Theft Auto IV sales estimates Chart-Track provided for the UK? It looks like they weren’t ridiculously high enough, as the final numbers have now been released. Sales for the first week of GTAIV availability in the UK reached a whopping 926,000 copies (approximately) with 631,000 being sold on the first day, handily topping the original day one estimate of 609,000. Of the 926,000 copies sold during the first week, 514,000 were for Xbox 360 with the remaining 413,000 going to the Playstation 3.

The game also managed to drive console sales, raising Xbox 360 sales by 125 percent and PS3 sales by 127 percent from the previous week. Perhaps most impressive of all, in its first week of sales GTAIV has already surpassed all but the top three UK titles of 2007 (FIFA 08, Brain Training, and Call of Duty 4). Just to clarify, that’s one week sales versus total sales for 2007. One last statistic: GTAIV is now the record holder for one week sales for a multiplatform game in the UK.

[Via Joystiq]

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Someone’s knocking on Nintendo’s door, and he just drove through seven red lights in a hijacked car with a shotgun in tow to get there. Forbes has published a piece on how Grand Theft Auto IV’s success threatens the Nintendo Wii since the console, you know, doesn’t have the game. In fact, that’s all the article seems to be saying: the Wii is doing great, but because it doesn’t have GTA IV, that money-printing success might be at a halt.

While that’s how the article is framed, the direction seems to split off from there, with the author talking about GTA IV’s success juxtaposed with complaints about the Wii’s hardware, online and abundance of shovelware — he even bring up Chris Heck’s duct tape rant. Said the article, “The problem is, it could get tougher and tougher to go the other way. It’s hard to imagine how the sprawling world of Grand Theft Auto IV–which already taxes the multicore processors powering the XBox and Playstation–could be recreated on the Wii.”

We’re not saying Nintendo doesn’t have problems with shovelware or appealing to the more hardcore gamer crowd, but we also think the way the article presents its case makes the GTA IV issue feel a little taped on. If the UK Wii Fit launch is any indication, Nintendo’s money train is still right on track.

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We realize that many, many Grand Theft Auto fans have already perused the contents of their shiny, new Special Editions of Grand Theft Auto IV — which includes an actual safety deposit box, among other things — but there are also plenty of gamers out there who opted to grab the vanilla edition instead. It is with this in mind that we point you to 360Sync’s unboxing of the Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition (it’s the Canadian version — note the “Édition spéciale”). Grab your smoking jacket, pour the Courvoisier, and savor the images.

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Is it all that surprising? Xbox 360 director of product management (and all around snappy dresser) Aaron Greenberg told Reuters that it wouldn’t be surprising to see Grand Theft Auto IV snag the top position on Xbox Live. While most Xbox Live gamers know that shooters like Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 are generally the major competitors for the number one slot on Xbox Live, Greenberg said of GTAIV, “The multiplayer in this game is so well implemented that I can’t imagine anyone owning a copy without trying to play it on Xbox Live.” Greenberg is probably right about that. After all, he forecasts (correctly, we’d guess) that GTAIV will be the highest selling game of 2008, so there will certainly be plenty of players ready to go online. The question is whether or not players will continue to play once they’ve given multiplayer a try.

Will GTAIV take the top spot? We’re going to go out on a limb and say yes. Will it stay? We’ll have to wait and see.

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A forum poster at GTAForums that goes by the name oPg^ has uploaded a seven pictures of what looks like the Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition box, opened to reveal the metal tin and subsequently the game itself (it’s the PS3 version). The setting is a nondescript factory or retail backroom, where you can also see shots of Mario Kart Wii being poised for Sunday’s release.

We hope their hands aren’t easily identifiable, as Rockstar will probably want to crack some skulls with a baseball bat in a faux-urban environment after partaking in a health-boosting car ride with a prostitute over all this.

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Update: Yikes! Video’s been yanked. (Additional gameplay footage still standing … for now. Nope, it’s now gone too!)

Maybe proof is all you want. Or maybe it’s a dirty, tainted fix you’re after. Whatever the case, Grand Theft Auto IV is real — like, “really, really real” — and now in the hands of a few (probably not yours). If you prefer to take your first impression from the outside looking in, press ‘Play’ now.

Skip past the break for some additional gameplay footage.

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Gasp! Pirated Grand Theft Auto IV game data has begun popping up on BitTorrent sites today. One alleged rip (6.32 GB) was compiled by a group known as “iCON” and apparently stripped from a PAL-region, Xbox 360 disc. A description of the file warns that the data is not region free and teases, “sorry bushlovers!” (Hey, that’s “Mr. President George Dubya Bush lovers” to you, ya stinkin’ pi-rats!).

An additional warning recommends would-be players stay off of Xbox Live lest “dirty little spies” catch them and ban their accounts. Ironically, at the end of the file description, the thievery and paranoia gives way to a glowing endorsement: “and guys, seriously, go and buy this one! R* deserves it…” How’s that for a back-of-the-box quote!

[Note: We’ve chosen not to link to any torrent sites hosting the GTA IV tracker — just take our word for it whydontya!]

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With Grand Theft Auto IV’s release ever-looming, it’s easy to forget that Rockstar isn’t just about guns and ladies of the night. The company’s San Diego outfit announced this morning that its previously announced Midnight Club: Los Angeles,the fourth title in the studio’s racing series, will drift to North America for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on September 9, with Europe getting the title three days later. In addition, the game will share self space with the Rockstar London-developed Midnight Club: LA Remix for the PSP as well.

While little is known about what to expect from the portable racer, the console versions promise to let players rev their officially licensed rides in a variety of LA-themed environments, with “no load times, no tracks, and no rules.” Rockstar San Diego adds that players will be able to dress up their cars inside and out with an array of licensed paraphernalia, from rims and spoilers to interior gauges and tires, giving those of us with an eye for bling an outlet to flex our garish sense of style.

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