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Grand Theft Auto IV PC Now Available

Niko's American dream is now available on your Windows machine.

The boys are back in town.
The boys are back in town.
Yesterday was the day for GTA IV on Steam, and the game is also popping up in stores this week, as well. I had originally hoped to actually play the game last night, but instead spent a good long time watching Steam download the game. It's around 15GB, which is computer talk for "big."

Of course, it's big in scope, too, and it's gotten a bit bigger on the PC with additions like a doubled multiplayer count and a video editor that lets you toss together replay clips for... well, I'm not actually sure what that's good for. The clips that Rockstar released to showcase the editor seemed kind of plain. Plus, GTA IV's not really the wacky sort of game that needs a replay editor. We'll see, I guess, if anyone does anything rad with it.

It also sounds like there's a group of users having a lot of trouble getting the game going or that the system requirements are quite a bit higher than advertised if you want the game to look decent. For the record, here's what Steam is reporting on that front...

  • OS: Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 / Windows XP - Service Pack 3
  • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz, AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4GHz
  • Memory: 1.5GB Vista / 1GB XP
  • Graphics: 256MB Nvidia 7900 / 256MB ATI X1900
  • DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c Compliant Card
  • Hard Drive: 16GB of Hard Disc Space
  • Sound Card: 5.1 Channel Audio Card

...requires a 5.1 sound card? Hmm... yeah, that seems like an error. If not, I guess I'll have to rush out of the house when I get home tonight to buy a sound card. I'm still rocking onboard sound.

I'm pretty excited to play GTA IV again, as I haven't really touched it since April or May. But if the game chugs as badly as a lot of people are claiming, it could be a pretty disappointing return to Liberty City.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Have any of you taken the plunge yet? If so, how's it running?
Jeff Gerstmann on Google+