Times Online has posted a pretty interesting interview with the president of Rockstar North, Leslie Benzies. It is very rare for anyone from Rockstar North to do an interview, least of all the studios president. As well as being the producer on every Grand Theft Auto since the series leap to 3D he also served as the development director on the original Manhunt and was a producer on Manhunt 2.

In the interview Mr. Benzies said the following of Manhunt:

We wanted to make a horror game that would scare you in the same way that a film would. It doesn't seem to me to be any worse than a film. If it's a film or a book, you can do what you want. We seem to be in a different category. Most of the people who have issues with us haven't ever played the game.

I encourage everyone to take a few moments out from playing Grand Theft Auto IV to give it a read; there is some pretty good stuff in there.

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Not that anyone needs reminding or anything but just in case you suffered a blow to the back of the head within the past week or two, tomorrow marks the worldwide launch of Grand Theft Auto IV on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Here is a brief recap of some of the review scores thus far:

Official PlayStation Magazine (UK): 10/10
Official Xbox Magazine (UK): 10/10
Games Aktuell Magazine (German): 10/10
PSM (France): 20/20
IGN (UK) - 10/10
IGN (US) - 10/10
Game Informer (US) - 10/10
Team Xbox - 10/10
Eurogamer - 10/10
GameSpy - 5/5
GameTrailers - 9.8/10
1UP - A+
Computer and Video Games - 9.5/10
Official Xbox Magazine (US) - 9.5/10

Conclusion: the game is probably pretty darn good.

I am just about as anxious to see what will be brought to my door tomorrow as I am about playing the game, I could potentially end up with 4 copies of the special edition for the PlayStation 3 and a singular special edition for the Xbox 360, plus two official strategy guides. That is a lot of money, I envision myself spending a good part of the day yelling down a phone about what I did and didn’t order.

Tomorrow will also (theoretically) see the full launch of the Rockstar Social Club, so make sure to register now and be ready for the game taking vacancy in your console.

I would also like to ask that people send in any videos that you may spot on networking, streaming or file sharing sites that may contain prominent story spoilers or the like. Rockstar are hoping that players are able to go into the game fairly fresh and experience the game as an entire entity so please respect their wishes and not ruin the game for others.

You can submit such links to us either through e-mailing us or contacting us through the forums.

While on the subject of e-mailing us, I would also ask that anyone who has emailed in over the last three or so months and was looking for a reply but didn’t get one to resubmit their e-mail, there was an error with our e-mail client and for awhile we didn’t receive them. Similarly the poll function on the site should now be working again.

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Rockstar Games have issued a press release regarding the launch of Midnight Club: Los Angeles for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as well as announcing Midnight Club: LA Remix for the PSP. Midnight Club: Los Angeles is being developed by series creator Rockstar San Diego while Midnight Club: LA Remix is developed by Rockstar Leeds. Both titles will see release in North America on September the 9th and in Europe just three days later on September the 12th. Midnight Club: Los Angeles will also be the second game to make use of the Rockstar Social Club, I imagine it will have extensive use of leader boards and online tournaments.

Rockstar Games is proud to announce the fourth installment of its critically-acclaimed and genre-defining Midnight Club franchise, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, is set for release on September 9th in North America and September 12th in Europe. Developed by series creator Rockstar San Diego, Midnight Club: Los Angeles will give gamers the unprecedented freedom to race through a hyper-realistic LA.

"From the beginning, Midnight Club has been about street racing in a open-world," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "With our team at Rockstar San Diego we have developed a game that we feel once again pushes the boundaries and expectations of what a racing game can be."

Whether driving by the beach or beating the competition by cutting through a parking garage at 200 mph, Midnight Club: Los Angeles provides a seamless, breathtaking environment for everyone who loves to compete. With no load times, no tracks, and no rules, the game allows players to race who they want, when they want, and where they want in an unbelievable recreation of Los Angeles.

"People are going to be blown away when they see how true-to-life Los Angeles looks in this game," said Jay Panek, Midnight Club Producer Rockstar San Diego. "We've added some great twists and turns that let players experience the authentic vibe and feel of the city at blistering speeds that you simply couldn't get away with in real life."

A racing game is nothing without the great cars and Midnight Club: Los Angeles allows extensive customization of vehicles for both performance and appearance. Players can now fully personalize their officially licensed imports, tuners, classic muscle cars and motorcycles both inside and out with a dizzying array of licensed rims, spoilers, interior gauges, tires and more.

Also scheduled for release on September 9th, Midnight Club: LA Remix for the PSP® system will provide another incredible portable racing experience. Developed by Rockstar London, the game will take full advantage of the hardware to deliver the unrivaled sense of speed and style that the best-selling Midnight Club series is known for.

For more information about Midnight Club, please visit our website at http://www.rockstargames.com/midnightclubla.

I find it odd that it is coming to the PSP and not the Nintendo Wii, I imagine we could see a forthcoming announcement about such a title. I have enjoyed past entries in the series but I do find that it goes a little over my head, not being much of a car enthusiast and the rather intimidating control scheme is a little bewildering, hopefully this new entry in the franchise will be a little more accessible.

As a side observation, with September now being the set release date for Midnight Club: Los Angeles I have got to believe this rules out September for the release of Manhunt 2 in the UK. I am thinking June or July myself, they may try and get the first week of July to mirror the games original proposed date.

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If you have been reading over at Techradar you will already know that they featured the first part of an interview with the BBFC director David Cooke. In the second part posted today a few Manhunt 2 questions were posed at Mr Cooke who had some rather interesting comments to make on the situation:

TechRadar: The power to ban of course is still very much an issue in the games industry, following the case of Manhunt 2 last year and early this year.

David Cooke: Let me tell you how I think about Manhunt 2. I think it was… well, it was bloody hard work! It was not a decision to be taken lightly. It was a decision that we arrived at absolutely on the merits. There was no political pressure, despite what many accused us of. Our initial decision was the same as the ESRB in the US, so there was some changes made to the game by Rockstar, which the ESRB accepted but we still thought the changes hadn’t gone quite far enough. So that was the version that then went to appeal at our independent judicial appeals tribunal [the Video Appeals Committee] where there was a 4:3 decision in Rockstar’s favour.

The main reason we then questioned this decision and took the case to appeal at the High Court was that we had very strong legal advice that the VAC had applied the wrong interpretation of ‘the harm test’ and in particular they had accepted an argument that the BBFC had to prove ‘devastating effect’ and we said this was wrong in law. So we needed to challenge their decision, not just because of the Manhunt 2 case, but because it would have been relevant to absolutely everything we do – games, films, DVDs, the lot. The VAC had also said that we had to show ‘actual harm’ and the judge corrected this and said that the correct test is to show ‘any hard which may be caused’ – so we are talking about the possibility of harm (rather than some kind of probability) and we are talking about ‘potential harm’ and not ‘actual harm’. He did also say that it had to be ‘real harm’ and not ‘fanciful harm’ so we have now got a very clear definition of the harm test which we are completely happy with.

So we won in the High Court and the judge said the VAC had applied the wrong harm test and that they must apply the correct one. So they did it again and it came out 4:3 again, so we lost. And at that point our lawyers were telling us we had no basis for challenging it any further.

So, we’re disappointed because we had spent ages examining Manhunt 2 and we felt that we had a greater familiarity with the game than the Video Appeals Committee.

I have to be very clear that we absolutely do not like anything that interferes with an adult’s ability to choose what films they see or what games and DVDs they buy. We only apply this power on the very rare occasions where we feel that the harm risk means that we have to do it.

So that was the saga! At the end of the day you have to do what you think is the right thing to do on the merits and you have to accept the decision that an independent judicial tribunal produces.

Some talk about it as a debacle or catastrophe for the BBFC, which is absolute rubbish. We often have cases that go to the VAC, as we occasionally reject DVDs as well – so maybe once every two or three years a case will go to the VAC. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose, but that’s what it means to have an independent judicial appeals system. It doesn’t mean that every time you lose it’s a catastrophe!.

Other questions posed to Mr Cooke included the feeling that games were not being treated by the BBFC in the same way as movies and DVDs and did he think that Rockstar milked the controversy a little, for those answers and the rest of the interview check out Part 1 and Part 2.

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Pre-registration is now available over at the Rockstar Social Club. As a quick recap, here are some of the features Rockstar said to expect once the club fully launches:

* LCPD Police Blotter — A virtual map and tracker of single-player criminal activity logged in Liberty City from the aggregated data of millions of connected players - showing the most dangerous areas of town, most commonly used weapons and more.

* The Story Gang — This special single-player leaderboard recognizes players who complete Niko Bellic's main story arc of Grand Theft Auto IV - The leaderboard ranks players according to the total amount of playing time it's taken to complete the story, as well as a historical rank by who has completed it first. Members of this club will receive special online widgets and merit badges marking all of their in-game accomplishments.

* The 100% Club — Watch to see who will be the first to complete 100% of the game. The first ten people to be identified on the Social Club as reaching 100% will be sent an ultra-rare commemorative 'key to the city' to mark their accomplishment. In the future, the 100% Club will then carry a historical leaderboard showing rankings of who has completed 100% of a game in the shortest span of playing hours.

* The Hall of Fame — This area will dynamically recognize those singularly elite players who have reached the top of the hill on various statistical leaderboards, and will also contain a personal awards display of special in-game landmarks and successes in Social Club competitions.

* The Liberty City Marathon — A ranking of special physical milestones achieved in the game - from the amount of miles walked, driven, or swam - to the number of bullets fired and stunt-jumps jumped. There will be additional special marathon-based competitions in the future from this area as well.

Grand Theft Auto IV will be the first game to take advantage of the Rockstar Social Club but all games released from the company hereon out will theoretically also be supported.

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MCV have an exclusive interview with BBFC director David Cooke, the interview focused on Manhunt 2. Mr Cooke said that the BBFC had benefited from the Manhunt 2 case although they were still disappointed at Manhunt 2 being allowed a release in the UK. Here is some quotes from the interview:

MCV: Has the whole Manhunt 2 experience changed the way the BBFC works – in terms of culture or processes?

Cooke: Not fundamentally. The reason for that is obviously we thought it was the right decision, or we won’t have reached it. It hasn’t affected the fact that we still base our decisions on thorough gameplay. In the case of Manhunt 2, by the end of it all, we probably spent over 100 examiner hours on the game - including more than a few hours of mine.

We actually got a fairly substantial benefit from the Manhunt episode, We went to the High Court, and it clarified the harm test – actually a benefit that flies across a whole range of games and film.

It all gets quite technical, but for instance, it showed it was not necessary for us to show devastating effect, which was what the arguments had said previously.

MCV: Are you still disappointed with the decision?

Cooke: We absolutely accept that if you have an independent judicial tribunal, like we do with the Video Appeals Committee, you have to abide by its findings and there’s no point showing sour grapes. I guess we’re still disappointed because we put quantifiably more examining hours into getting familiar with the game than the VAC was able to do, so in effect, they were substituting their judgement for ours on the basis of familiarity of the game.

You can check out the rest of the interview over at MCV.

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Rockstar Games has announced that it has acquired Mad Doc Software, the studio which recently ported Bully over to the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 will now be renamed to Rockstar New England.

Rockstar Games Acquires Mad Doc Software

New York, NY - April 4, 2008 - Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), announced today the formation of Rockstar New England through the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Andover, MA-based Mad Doc Software, one of the premier independent development studios in North America.

"The team at Mad Doc Software is extremely talented," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "Bringing them within the Rockstar Games family will enhance our core technology and further support our commitment to creating progressive and innovative gaming experiences."

Established in 1999 by Dr. Ian Lane Davis, Mad Doc Software has led development on and provided contracting services for triple-A titles, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and networking. The studio most recently worked with Rockstar Games on the Xbox 360 version of the critically acclaimed Bully: Scholarship Edition.

"To be a part of Rockstar Games is an amazing opportunity for everyone here," said Dr. Davis, Studio Head of the new Rockstar New England. "We're eager to bring our expertise to bear in the character-driven, open-world stories that make Rockstar Games titles so uniquely compelling."

It should be interesting to see what comes from Rockstar New England considering the studios background, will they be developing new original IP, porting existing Rockstar titles (Manhunt 2?) over to the more powerful systems or will they be putting most of their effort into beefing up Rockstars internal game engine (R.A.G.E.), it would make sense considering the studios past focus.

Congratulations to the guys and gals at Rockstar New England.

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Rockstar have just issued a press release regarding the pending launch of the 'Rockstar Social Club'. Rather than explain the ins-and-outs of it all, here is the press release in its entirety.

On April 29th Rockstar Games will release the most anticipated game of 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV. In addition to the game, the company is launching the Rockstar Social Club, a new website that will extend your experience of Grand Theft Auto IV and all future Rockstar Games titles.

The Rockstar Social Club is more than just a standard gaming site. It features all of the statistical leaderboards that gamers have come to expect, and combines them with performance-based competitions and awards.

Registration for the Rockstar Social Club begins on April 15th and anyone can sign up with their Xbox Gamertag and/or a PlayStation Network ID.

GTA IV, the first game featured on the Rockstar Social Club, has exciting features beyond multiplayer leaderboards, including:

* LCPD Police Blotter — A virtual map and tracker of single-player criminal activity logged in Liberty City from the aggregated data of millions of connected players - showing the most dangerous areas of town, most commonly used weapons and more.

* The Story Gang — This special single-player leaderboard recognizes players who complete Niko Bellic's main story arc of Grand Theft Auto IV - The leaderboard ranks players according to the total amount of playing time it's taken to complete the story, as well as a historical rank by who has completed it first. Members of this club will receive special online widgets and merit badges marking all of their in-game accomplishments.

* The 100% Club — Watch to see who will be the first to complete 100% of the game. The first ten people to be identified on the Social Club as reaching 100% will be sent an ultra-rare commemorative 'key to the city' to mark their accomplishment. In the future, the 100% Club will then carry a historical leaderboard showing rankings of who has completed 100% of a game in the shortest span of playing hours.

* The Hall of Fame — This area will dynamically recognize those singularly elite players who have reached the top of the hill on various statistical leaderboards, and will also contain a personal awards display of special in-game landmarks and successes in Social Club competitions.

* The Liberty City Marathon — A ranking of special physical milestones achieved in the game - from the amount of miles walked, driven, or swam - to the number of bullets fired and stunt-jumps jumped. There will be additional special marathon-based competitions in the future from this area as well.

The Rockstar Social Club doesn't stop there. With special competitions, leaderboards and challenges rolling out regularly in the weeks and months following the game's release, this is just the beginning of an on-going Liberty City experience and is a small taste of what's to come from Rockstar Games for GTAIV and beyond...

Sounds pretty cool, the 'key to the city' in particular sounds nifty. Anyone here going to step up to that challenge?

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Kent Online is reporting that Julian Brazier, a Kent MP, has blasted the BBFC over the announcement that Manhunt 2 will be released in the UK.

This shows once again that the BBFC and its appeals system do not meet the concerns of the public. The public wants a significant tightening up in this vital area.We need a consensus that videos and video games involving extreme violence are extremely anti-social.Watching these things happen does affect people’s behaviour.We’ve got to recognise that there’s a strong link between what people watch and what they do.

Today also saw the release of the Byron Review which was commissioned by Prime Minister, Gordon Brown late last year. As expected the results of which were in favour of single age rating system for games, the BBFC will be rating all games that fall under the 12, 15 and 18 categories, previously they dealt with games that fall under the 15 or 18 categories. Games rated for below the age of 12 will continue to be rated by PEGI.

Anyone in the UK that has turned a news channel on today has likely seen just how much coverage this issue has been getting, for those that are unable to view these broadcasts you can rest assured that Manhunt, Manhunt 2 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City have been the games primarily shown while discussing the issue. They do not mention the games directly but they continue to air the trailers for the games. My favourite of them all though has to be the ITV broadcasts that show some kids playing Bioshock on the Nintendo Wii, I had no idea it was out for the Wii…

As a reminder, tonight will also see the release of the fourth Grand Theft Auto IV trailer by Rockstar Games. Titled 'Good Lord, What Are You Doing?' AKA 'Everyone's a Rat’; this will be the last trailer before the launch of the game at the end of April.

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MCV has asked a few videogame industry analysts about the chances of Manhunt 2 or Grand Theft Auto IV being released as an EA published game rather than Take-Two.

The analysts appear to be in conflict over the chances of the games being released by EA with Nicholas Lovell and Nick Parker believing it is a possibility while David Cole, Colin Sebastian and the seemingly to-go-to man when it concerns commenting on the current state of Take-Two Michael Pachter believing that there simply isn't enough time for them to be released under the EA banner.

Lodestar freelance analyst Nicholas Lovell:

I do believe GTA IV will be an EA game. Whether it is the same game that it would have been under Take Two remains to be seen.

I could also imagine EA trying to keep the Rockstar brand as an edgier label, in the same way that wholesome, family-friendly Disney released films like Pulp Fiction or Gangs of New York under the Miramax label.

Parker Consulting’s Nick Parker:

The timing is crucial – hostile bids can take a long time to resolve and who knows T2 may be successful in defending it. If EA succeeds, it should benefit from some of the GTAIV revenues although the reason to buy T2 should be based on longer term potential of all IPs, not just on this year’s results.

Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter:

The deal won't close for two or three months, so neither GTA IV nor Manhunt 2 will be released under EA's watch (unless, of course, one or the other is further delayed).

DFC Intelligence president David Cole:

A takeover like this will take some time. For one it has to get regulatory approval. I don’t think there is any way GTAIV would be an EA game before release.

Lazard Capital Markets’ Colin Sebastian:

I doubt that EA could close a transaction so quickly, but clearly they would like to capture as much GTA revenue as possible this year.

For those that haven’t been keeping up to date with these events, the bid by EA to buyout Take-Two Interactive has recently turned into a hostile takeover attempt, whereby EA is attempting to purchase the company through shares and against the board of directors at Take-Two' own will. A move that has been labelled ‘the most hostile in history’.

Personally I don’t see either Manhunt 2 or Grand Theft Auto IV being published by EA, for one the move would be disruptive to the release of both games and two, as mentioned by some of the analysts there simply is not enough time left before these games are released to make this possible.

The only thing that is for sure is that EA have their focus set on acquiring Take-Two, a move which will become more difficult after the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. With any luck Take-Two will be able to stall the process, the company appears to have a strong line-up of games in the pipeline through until the end of 2009, if all the games hit their mark then they should be able to prevent the takeover.

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