A beta version of GTA IV which features lots of changes to the final product Rockstar Games put out has leaked. Fans have begun digging into the files of this pre-release build to extract as many interesting details and differing content which is not present in the final game.
We’ll be taking a look at what has been found in what has been described as “Christmas” for GTA 4 leaks. This is a seriously huge discovery. So far, things like working ferries and zombie minigame assets have been picked up on.
Where Leak Did This Come From?
GTA Forums user janmatant revealed he is the one who leaked the build. This person claims he bought an old Xbox 360 dev kit that was from Rockstar North for £5 at a carboot sale off a scrapyard lurker. Given he is located in Edinburgh, it is not a surprise this dev kit has ended up far from Rockstar North’s office. An image of the dev kit complete with a Rockstar North sticker can be found below.
“Hey, I’m the guy who found the XDK with the IV files. I’m happy to see yous are having fun w it.
Btw, if anyone is interested, I’m looking to sell the console, it’s a phat white Xbox 360 XDK with a Rockstar North label on it.
Found it at a car boot sale for a fiver :)”
Janmatant dumped what was on the dev kit hard drive onto the Internet Archive. Titled by him as Great Stealing of Vehicles four XDK, it clocks in at around 118GB and is somewhat playable on a real Xbox 360 with debug tools. All of the file have been extracted to take a closer look. The build is seemingly dated to be around November 2007 so several months before release.
Working Ferries
Liberty Ferries were boats you would be able to see working in the game. We first saw them all the way back in the first trailer for the game. However, they did make their way into the final release. The model and textures have been discovered by HeySlickThatsMe in this build. You can find an image below.
Former Rockstar North technical director Obbe Vermeij gave us some additional info on Twitter. He said that despite appearing in the game’s first trailer, the Liberty Ferries were canned late into GTA IV’s development. They would have moved backwards and forwards much like the train. However, there were “too many issues” with things such as collision plus NPCs and vehicles sitting on top of other vehicles.
Zombies?
We’ve known for some time that Rockstar possibly were working on a zombie mode within GTA IV due to various assets in the final game.
However, Lukakion and HeySlickThatsMe have found a bunch of assets that reference a zombie minigame. Some of the file names literally contain the “Zomb” naming convention. According to Obbe Vermeij, he does not have any knowledge of a zombie mode but does state “artists were always trying to put zombies in things. Not something that got very far.”
Cut Scenes And Cutscenes
Meanwhile a serious list of radio station changes have been noted. MGgames100 found over two dozen songs spanning 11 radio stations that were different to the full game’s list. There are also a few placeholder bits and intro changes too.
Speaking of audio, lots of dialogue in cutscenes is different from the final game. For example, Niko and the ULP contact say FBI instead of FIB. Lots of different voice over takes were used during the beta compared to the final game. Here are some of them. Meanwhile some cutscenes have different angles or are extended from what we got in the actual release.
There’s so much more smaller things too. Some vehicles have very minor visual changes, there are several NPCs with different clothing. Some story characters have minor tweaks to their appearance as well. Some of the vehicle changes can be seen below as found by Algonquin Hood.
As time goes on, more and more will be found so this is a developing story. If there’s anything more significant, we’ll keep you updated.
What do you think of all of these findings? Which are your favourite? Let us know down in the comments section below.
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