Apparently the additional months given to the game are being well spent. The framerate problems that were in earlier builds of the game appear to have been addressed. The only strange thing is the fact that the PS3 version of the game has still not been previewed dispite the fact that the 360 version has now been shown several times to the press in the past 8 months.
Here is the opening paragraphs of the preview:
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/847/847102p1.html
Grand Theft Auto IV UK Update
UK, January 23, 2008 - A lot can happen in six months. Just look back over the last half a year: England were knocked out of Euro 2008, the Spice Girls got back together and Dumbledore came out of the closet. So with that in mind we were anxious and excited in equal measure when we got the call from Rockstar to check out the latest version of Grand Theft Auto IV. After all, it's been six months since we last walked the streets of Liberty City, so could all of the little niggles we'd noticed in previous versions – the stuttering frame-rate, restricted freedom of the city and overall lack of GTA's signature humour – have all be ironed out in a few months?
Yes. There, we said it. Yes, the frame-rate has been smoothed out; yes, the city is now fully populated meaning you're able to explore however you see fit; and yes, the trademark satirical dialogue and larger-than-life characters are very much back. Grand Theft Auto IV looks and feels like a GTA game, but one that's been punted into the next generation. And while the build we saw wasn't final – the music was still placeholder and there are a couple of visual tweaks to be done over the next couple of months – everything else is in the game. Better still, any worry we had that Rockstar wouldn't deliver on a proper next-gen GTA experience was instantly dispelled within the first few moments of our latest 90-minute tour of Liberty City.
