NIKO BELLIC

Niko Bellic is the main protagonist and playable character in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV. He is a 30-year-old former soldier who moved to Liberty City to escape his troubled past and pursue the "American Dream". Niko was persuaded to move by his cousin Roman, who claimed to be living a life of luxury, with beautiful women, sports cars and lots of money. It soon becomes apparent, however, that he runs a failing taxi business, has mounting debts and various criminals from Liberty City's underworld have put a price on his head. Aware of Niko's violent past, Roman had lied to convince his cousin to move to the city, knowing that Niko would fight against his pursuers, and eventually be the one to turn his lies into a reality. (It is also stated that Roman is motivated partially by desire to see his cousin again.) Niko, however, also has other, underlying motivations for moving to Liberty City, which are revealed as the story unfolds.

GTA IV OVERVIEW

Grand Theft Auto IV is a sandbox-style action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North, and released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles in Europe, North America and Oceania, on 29 April 2008, and in Japan on 30 October 2008. A Windows version of the game was released in North America on 2 December 2008 and in Europe on 3 December. It was made available on Steam on 4 January 2009. It is the sixth 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto series.

Two episodic packs have since been released for the Xbox 360, the first entitled The Lost and Damned, released on 17 February 2009. The second is entitled The Ballad of Gay Tony, released on 29 October 2009. Both episodes were released for PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows on 13 April 2010 in North America and on 16 April 2010 in Europe.

The game is set in a redesigned rendition of Liberty City, a fictional city based heavily on modern day New York City. It follows Niko Bellic, a war veteran from Serbia. He comes to the United States in search of the American Dream, but quickly becomes entangled in a world of gangs, crime, and corruption. Like other games in the series, GTA IV is composed of elements from driving games and third-person shooters, and features "open-world" gameplay that gives players more control over their playing experience. It is the first console game in the series to feature an online multiplayer mode.

As the first game of the critically acclaimed series to appear on seventh generation consoles, Grand Theft Auto IV was widely anticipated. A major commercial and critical success, it broke industry records with sales of around 3.7 million units on its first day of release and grossing more than $500 million in revenue in the first week, selling an estimated 6 million units worldwide. As of 9 June 2010, the game had sold over 17 million copies.

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Rockstar Games Distributors

Name	Years as Rockstar division	Notes
Rockstar Japan	2005–present	Japanese localization studio, in which they work in conjunction with Capcom.
Rockstar Leeds	2004–present	Previously known as Mobius Entertainment and based in Lower Wortley, Leeds. They created Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories for thePlayStation Portable, Max Payne for the Game Boy Advance and recently finished developing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and the music gameBeaterator.
Rockstar Lincoln	1999–present	Quality assurance and localization studio based in Lincoln, England, previously known as Tarantula Studios.
Rockstar London	2005–present	Formed in November 2005. Took over development of Manhunt 2 after Rockstar Vienna had been closed and recently developed the portable adaptation ofMidnight Club: Los Angeles.
Rockstar New England	2008–present	Acquired on April 4, 2008, this studio is based in Andover, Massachusetts and was previously known as Mad Doc Software. They developed the Xbox 360 and PC ports of Bully.[3]
Rockstar North	1999–present	Founded in 1988, Rockstar North is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was previously known as DMA Design. They are famous for the Grand Theft Auto andManhunt franchises, as well as the original Lemmings games.
Rockstar San Diego	2003–present	Previously known as Angel Studios, they developed the RAGE engine, Red Dead Revolver and Red Dead Redemption, the Smuggler's Run series, the first twoMidtown Madness games and the Midnight Club series.
Rockstar Toronto	1999–present	Take Two's in-house development team, previously known as Rockstar Canada. Their most well-known work is their adaptation of the cult classic film The Warriors and the PC and PS3 port of GTA: Episodes from Liberty City.
Rockstar Vancouver	2002–present	Previously known as Barking Dog Studios, they created the PlayStation 2 title Bully and are currently developing the third game in the Max Payne series, Max Payne 3.
Rockstar Vienna	2003–2006	Previously known as Neo Software; closed on May 11, 2006.[4] They ported the Max Payne series to consoles, and created most of Manhunt 2 before being closed down.