grand-theft-auto-iv posts

A good portion of the country is in a deep freeze. All the better to stay at home and play some games with friends.

• Steam has a new beta version of Monday Night Combat available for download for people who pre-ordered the game.
• GoG.com has added the original version of Broken Sword for free when people buy the new Director's Cut version of the adventure game
• Bungie has filed for a number of trademarks to various names. Not really helpful but some people like seeing this stuff.
• More Far Cry 3 speculation hits the internets.
• A Battlefield Bad Company 2/Vietnam server patch has been released that fixes, among other things, the "invisible boat bug"
• The two Penny Arcade Adventures games are selling well on the new Mac App Store but a third installment is still not coming.
• Check out this feature-length movie made inside Grand Theft Auto IV.
• And finally: by this time tomorrow, Minecraft is most likely to have gone over the 1 million units sales mark.

With all of the holiday sales on the Steam PC game download service finished it's back to basics for the games on Steam's top 10 weekly best seller list. After a few weeks of letting other games have the top spot, the first person shooter Call of Duty Black Ops is once again the number one best selling game on Steam.

The new Neverwinter Nights 2 Platinum collection has the number two spot followed by the Grand Theft Auto IV Complete Collection in third place. The full list is below:

1. Call of Duty Black Ops - Treyarch/Activision
2. Neverwinter Nights 2 Platinum - BioWare/Obsidian/Atari
3. Grand Theft Auto IV Complete Collection - Rockstar Games
4. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
5. Mafia 2 - 2K Czech/2K Games
6. Need For Speed Hot Pursuit - Criterion Games/EA
7. Battlefield Bad Company 2 - DICE/EA
8. Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam - DICE/EA
9. Civilization V - Firaxis Games/2K Games
10. Amnesia The Dark Descent - Frictional Games

The latest weekly top 10 sales list on the Steam PC game service is highly affected by the service's currently holiday sales event (which shuts down at 1 pm Eastern time today). The list of games for last week shows Battlefield Bad Company 2 on top yet again after price cuts due to the holiday sales event.

The full top 10 list is as follows

1. Battlefield Bad Company 2 - DICE/EA
2. Crysis Maximum Edition - Crytek/WA
3. Grand Theft Auto IV Complete Edition - Rockstar North/Rockstar Games
4. Neverwinter Nights 2 Platinum - BioWare/Obsidian Entertainment/Atari
5. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
6. Call of Duty Black Ops - Treyarch/Activision
7. Need For Speed Hot Pursuit - Criterion Games/EA
8. Amnesia The Dark Descent - Frictional Games
9. Call of Duty Moden Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward/Activision
10. Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam - DICE/EA

You now have less that 24 hours before the third annual Steam holiday sale ends. That means you will have less than a day to take advantage of the price cuts that are available on nearly all PC games on the service. It also means that you have until 1 pm Eastern time until these extra-special price cuts (all repeats of previous one-day sales) expire:

Neverwinter Nights 2 Platinum - $9.99
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl/Call of Pripyat bundle - $4.99
Left 4 Dead 2 - $6.80
Grand Theft Auto IV + Episodes from Liberty City - $9.99
Empire/Napoleon Total War Game of the Year Edition - $24.99
The Hitman Collection - $7.49 for three-game bundle (Hitman: Codename 47, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman Blood Money)
Mafia 2 - $12.49
Dead Space - $6.80
Plants Vs Zombies Game of the Year Edition - $3.99
Amnesia The Dark Descent - $6.80
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit - $29.99
Killing Floor Complete Pack - $4.99

A dispute over the use of a song featured in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City has apparently resulted in a court order from Brazil that threatens to pull all copies, both physical and digital, of the recent open world expansion pack. Kotaku reports that one of the songs featured in the game, Conga Kid, is at the center of the issue for the Rockstar Games' title.

According to the report the court ruled that the song used an unauthorized sample from another tune, Bota o Dedinho pro Alto, in The Ballad Of Gay Tony episode of the game. The court reportedly ruled that Rockstar Games must remove all copies from the game worldwide because of this seemingly minor issue and will fine the publisher $3,000 per day until it does as the court orders. When contacted Rockstar Games claims it has yet to receive any official notice from the court on this issue.

The daily sales over at the Direct2Drive PC game web site are continuing even on a l azy Saturday. From now until 1 pm Eastern time on Sunday you can get two major PC titles for 50 percent off their normal Direct2Drive price.

The first is the PC port of Rockstar Games' open world action game Grand Theft Auto IV which is priced during the sale period for just $9.95. You can also get the stand alone expansion pack Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City for just $14.95. Don't forget that Direct2Drive also has a selection of games priced at just $6 from now until Wednesday.

Time to make sure your checking account or credit card can take another hit. The Steam download service has yet another list of games that it's marking down in price for just one day only. Get on the ball with these deals, many of which are 75 percent off their normal prices. The deals end at 1 pm Eastern time on Wednesday:

• Osmos (PC/Mac title) - $2.49
• X-Com Complete Pack (Five games) - $3.74
• Commandos Collection (Four games) - $3.75
• Grand Theft Auto IV - $4.99
• Team Fortress 2 - $6.49
• Numen: Contest of Heroes - $7.49
• Street Fighter IV - $9.99
• ArmA II - $19.99

Lists. So-called serious journalists hate them but other journalists and most of the general public love at least to talk about what is contained in the list. Entertainment Weekly's newest issue has their attempt at listing what they are calling the 100 greatest characters in the last 20 years (EW is celebrating its 20th birthday this year).

The full list is now online at the EW.com web site and there's a few PC-video game characters among the many movie and TV fictional heroes and villains. Lara Croft managed to make it all the way to the 17th position while Halo's Master Chief was rated as the 59th greatest character. For some odd reason EW put three other game characters in a group called the Game Guys in the 93 position (the group included Niko Bellic from Grand Theft Auto IV). What? No Duke Nukem or Gordon Freeman?

These patches update Grand Theft Auto IV to v1.0.7 and the stand-alone version of Episodes from Liberty City to v1.1.2. Both address many of the same gameplay issues and bug fixes across both games. Continue reading after the jump for full patch notes.

Download Grand Theft Auto IV v1.0.7 Patch (104 MB)
Download Episodes From Liberty City v1.1.2 Patch (115 MB)