Has GameInformer announced GTA V?
Grand Theft Auto IV is up there as one of the biggest entertainment launches ever, period. Since launch the game has gone on to sell over 11 million units. The recent release of the exclusive DLC for the 360 broke Xbox Live’s income revenue record as well as selling over a million units on Xbox Live so it’s safe to say Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest franchises on the planet. This franchise is vital to Take Two’s success. Given that, another installment is a given, but has games magazine GameInformer gone and announced Grand Theft Auto V before they are meant to? We know GameInformer gets more exclusive stories than any other publication, but even so, a GTA V announcement so soon? Well let’s have a look at the evidence.
The source of this rumor comes from Andrew Reiner, editor of GameInformer magazine. On his Twitter feed he tweeted “Rockstar was just in the Game Informer office. I can’t tell you what they showed me, but it might have been Grand Theft Auto V.” Ok, so he can’t tell you want it is but says it might have been GTA V? Although it seems to be so, that wasn’t a confirmation of GTA V at all, but his observaton that what he saw looked like it could be GTA V. Some websites jumped on this, though, calling it a confirmation and escalating the whole matter so far that Andrew Reiner had to come out and say exactly what it was. It was none other than Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption that uses the same engine as GTA IV, this was later also confirmed by a tweet from N’Gai Croal saying “The V is for Vild Vest” in other words, Wild West, which is the setting for Red Dead Redemption.
There you have it, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that it wasn’t Grand Theft Auto V but Rockstar’s other game that is in development for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Red Dead Redemption. Rockstar has yet to announce the second 360-exclusive DLC for GTA IV yet, so no V announcement is ever going to come before that. We all know it’s going to happen but what we don’t know is where it will be set, when it’s coming out, or on what platforms. Those will all be unveiled at a later date, so for now enjoy IV and its DLC.
TGR Rating: Rumor Killed
Is the new Gran Turismo information credible?
It has been a while since we have had Gran Turismo 5 here in the Rumor Killers; the last time we had it here we broke to you the supposed release date for GT5 from online retailer Play.com. That was a few months back and it has since been very quiet on the GT5 front… until now! As we all know, Gran Turismo 5 has been in the works for a while now. We got a small glimpse at what GT5 would be like with the release of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue early last year, but gamers, including myself, have been eagerly awaiting new information regarding Sony’s racing giant’s development. More specially, when is the game coming out?! Well our wishes may well be coming true thanks to a cryptic message on the gtplanet.net forums.
Asmall segment of the message reads:
“First wind whispers that final reunion will happen thirty nights before twelve months pass and that all winds from the whole world will reunite in the same moment for the first time.
Second wind says there will be more than half of dozen hundreds birds flying in the beginning of the reunion on almost eight dozen of skypaths, and some of the birds will come from the past reunion just resembling the looks of the newborn birds.
Third tale says that for the first time ever skypaths will not be just solid and already known but that new skypaths will be built by birdtamers from the parts of existing skypaths.
Fourth wind is talking that birdtamers will reunite in numbers greater than ever and will be granted with ability to talk to each other, make guilds and alliances with undisputed freedom.”
Luckily the internet people were able to decrypt this message, which would have taking me ages! So here is what they think the message reveals:
According to the internet there will be 600+ cars and 95 tracks with some being remodelled GT4 tracks/cars, players will be able to create new tracks using parts of existing ones, there will be extensive clan/team/multiplayer features, and there will be two versions of GT5. One will be the full version, and the other will be a cut version for PSN with fee-based content updates. There is also a hint of a PSP release on the oft-rumored PSP2. Now the entire internet is in agreement with the above but there is one bit of information that websites have down differently, which is the release date. Vg247.com have it down for a December 1st worldwide release, while other websites, including the forum it came from have it down as a worldwide release of March 2010. We are inclined to go with the more realistic March 2010 since we haven’t seen hardly anything of GT5 since Prologue.
This information seems credible given that the admins of gtplanet.net know more about the game than anyone else, so we fully expect the information to be correct, the only question mark is the date. December seems too good to be true, while March seems the more likely possibility. Other than that we are giving the information found here a rating of…
TGR Rating: Highly likely
Is there going to be a Zune HD coming?
Microsoft has succeeded to a point in the entertainment industry with the Xbox 360; it’s one of the main consoles of choice for gamers and has been recognized across the world. While Microsoft seems to be doing well in the gaming arena, the same cannot be said in the MP3 market where they’re up against the mighty iPod. The Zune is actually doing fairly well, but nowhere near what Microsoft expected. MS hasn’t given up hope, though, and like most good companies, is looking to improve on ithe product.
The rumors all started when Engadget.com posted pictures of what seems to be a marketing campaign for the Zune HD. According to their source, the pictures are real and so is this supposed Zune HD. The Zune seems to be a slimmed-down version of the original with a big touch-enabled screen. There also seems to be an option for the back of the Zune to come out and act as a stand for the device. Now this all seems very plausible considering that it actually looks like Apple’s iTouch and Engadge has stated that the source speaks the truth, but Yahoo tech has something else to say. In fact, they believe the whole Zune HD thing is getting out of hand.
They are commenting on another story, which reveals the supposed specs of the Zune HD. Now Yahoo is calling it a pie-in-the-sky wishlist but I will let you decide for yourself;
“Zune HD will arrive not only with a touch-enabled OLED display (capacitive = responds to the lightest touch of a finger, OLED = high output, low-power display), but also HD radio support (semi-plausible, given that there are portable HD radios on the market), HD media support (well, maybe, although I’ve yet to see—or understand the use for—three-inch 720p display), and an HDMI port on the side (ah, no—maybe an adapter, but not a port).”
Ok… but here is where it really goes crazy: “3D Xbox games." I am in the same boat as Yahoo here — I think someone is definitely yanking their crank.
The thought of a Zune HD is definitely interesting and one I would seriously look into, but the specs that are given seem a bit too far-fetched, especially the ability to play Xbox games. Engagdet seems confident that a Zune HD is in the works, though. I think there will be a Zune HD but nowhere near the specs given.
TGR Rating: Likely
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