Got to watch the IGN review finally, and Gamespy posted their review and 10
gameplay vids today (i'm not bothering to look at blurry vids of the pirated
copy on You Tube). Both reviews were impressed with the new target/cover
abilities. The videos from Gamespy showed off more than enough examples to
satisfy me in that regard. I am going to thoroughly enjoy shooting people in
their extremities. Some great reactions from npc's !  Clipping people with
cars is going to be a lot more fun than it used to be too.

From the few helicopter clips, the new Liberty City looks plenty big for an
asphalt jungle. Maybe a little more than half the size of GTA:SA ?? Hard to
tell.

For 60 dollars it's easily safe to say you're getting your moneys worth
compared to what the last version of GTA offered for 50 bucks. Hell, i had
to spend 400 more just to play GTA4. Let the whiners whine. For the true GTA
fans, the waiting is over. Which is really the worst part of the series, the
waiting. ;) Maybe we'll get some downloadable content somewhere down the
pipeline if we're lucky.

It's not so much the amount, but how much of it a game like GT5 can be
done in the studios not at runtime. GTA has to dynamically light every
surface at runtime because sometimes it's night, sometimes it's day,
sometimes it's raining etc.. The color, shading, reflection and
lighting of the scenery in GT5 is always the same and therefore is
simply pre-drawn artwork. That's why they always shy away from car
damage, since it has to be done at runtime, not months before at the
developer studios. Car damage will hit their frame rates massively and
they'll have to make cuts elsewhere. The tracks scenery is always
drawn to be seen from a certain angle too. This helps them to 'fake'
shadows and reflections by literally drawing them onto the images. In
GTA you cannot rely on the viewing angle of the player since they have
*so* much more freedom. The shadow and reflection effects have to be
done in real time. The same goes for Burnout Paradise, which looks
superb, but everything plays at the same time of day and with the same
conditions (though of course it has car damage). GTA actually has the
better and more accomplished graphics engine of them all, but the
nature of it means that it can look poorer in a simple side-by-side
screenshot, but when you see it going, it looks *far* more realistic
and far far better.