Posted by Nik Taylor

12.00pm

The missions are starting to get really good now. I've just been chasing down some lowlife across rooftops, leaping across buildings to keep up with him. Then I had to hijack a van full of TVs and fly off a massive ramp just to stay clear of the police.

But that's about it for me today, unfortunately. I'll definitely be back on GTA pretty sharpish. As expected, this is a game that is going to finally oust COD4 from my disc tray.

Some of my favourite little bits from the game:

• Improved handling of the cars. Pulling a 180 turn is a joy.
• Ducking for cover behind a wall and then popping out with guns blazing.
• Super slo-mo cam when you make a massive jump.
• Driving aimlessly just to watch the sunset over the skyline.
• The comments from the Russian woman who runs the clothes shop.
• Being able to get around the city so quickly in taxis.
• The brilliant usage of the mobile phone feature.
• Cars that pack up when damaged instead of just blowing up.
• Choices within missions that change the path of the game.
• That moment when you realise you're starting to know your way around like a local.

I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings on the opening stages of GTA IV and that it's whet your appetite for getting stuck into the game. Do let us know all about how you get on and what secrets you find on the GTA IV message board thread.

10.50am

I've taken to being chauffeured around the city now. Trains are in the game again and by hopping on one you a great view of your surroundings. Taxis are my favourite though. Pretty quickly you get in with your cousin who will send a cab over whenever you need one. You choose where you want to be driven to, and then decide whether to appear there instantly or watch the world go by as you're driven there. It's a neat way to save time, but if you're not in a hurry it's also good fun to watch the city unfold while listening to the comedy banter coming from the cabby.

9.59am

I've been having a quick blast around the multiplayer maps, and - as you would expect - this part of the game is going to be huge. Just opening up a simple Deathmatch is awesome. You're pitched into the middle of Liberty City with up to 15 other players and from there it all goes off. All the NPC characters are still wandering about and the traffic is still flowing, so you can jack a car and go burning down the road to take on one of your competitors. Just as you're catching up with one, someone else will pop out of nowhere, take out your tyres and you're a sitting duck. It's top stuff, and there are plenty of game modes to choose from, so you can team up, take the top motors out for a race, and so on. You're not going to be running out of missions in single player any time soon, but multiplayer is a great extra.

9.07am

Ah, you can't beat a bit of GTA over breakfast. I'm loving the gun-fighting in this version. They've built in a proper covering technique which feels a bit Rainbow Six-ey. You can hug the wall and peek out whenever you want to take a shot, which makes shooting far more tactical and satisfying. Previous games often left you with little option that to run blindly into a hail of bullets. Here  you can really think through your strategy.

Posted by: Nik Taylor

Here we go then folks, the wait is almost over. GTA IV goes on sale at midnight tonight, with many shops opening up in the wee small hours to provide wide-eyed gamers with their pre-order copies.

And although I should really be doing some work, I have no intention of being left out. So I've swiped Jane's pre-release copy of Rockstar's latest epic and will be embarking on a marathon session in a few minutes. After that I'm going to be playing through until 12pm tomorrow lunchtime (aside from a few hours kip once the caffeine supplies run low.)

Throughout the next 18 hours I'll be blogging my progress with the game - but most importantly I want to hear from you. What are you looking forward to in the game? What do you hope they've improved upon since San Andreas? Are you taking a sickie to get in a full day's gaming on the day of release? And, if you're also playing the game in its first few hours of release, what are you making of it? Post your messages on the blog or add your posts to the thread on our message board.

Right, I'm off to Liberty City. Back in a couple of hours with some first impressions.

7.06pm
Well, I'm a couple of hours in and I still feel like a newcomer. As ever the beauty of GTA is in the exploring. Grabbing a car and hammering round the streets is excellent fun. The car mechanics feel more fluid than before - the first time I threw a handbrake turn made me laugh out loud.

Some other things that have made me grin inanely...

• Crash your car too hard and you go flying through the windscreen.
• Smash up an old banger too much and its engine cuts out rather than blowing up.
• Having sat-nav built in to the map system.
• Being able to call 911 and send the police out on prank calls.

It's a lot of fun so far and I'm really still in the intro tutorial section. A long way to go... :)

One other thing for now, for those of you who've said you're already playing the game. Is it just me or does Nico sound more than a little like Borat...?

Posted by: Jane Douglas

Nothing gets me through a long train journey like an immersive handheld console game and a set of headphones.

The game currently nestled inside my DS Lite is The World Ends With You, Square Enix's newest portable action RPG.

Dramatic though it is, the title doesn't give much away. This is possibly because no title could give much away. Unless you called it, I don't know, 'Urban Tokyo role-playing rhythm-based fashion-themed action game wherein sulky amnesiac protagonist is threatened with deletion should he fail to complete random tasks set by shadowy supernatural strangers.'

Which is the gist of it.

Oh, and it's played across two screens.

I don't mean there's a map on one screen and your character on another, or a helpful inventory of all your stuff on the upper screen while you run around on the lower.

I mean that you are controlling two Japanese kids at the same time, one top screen and one bottom, with your left hand/d-pad and right hand/stylus respectively.

I originally had my suspicions that The World Ends With You was designed for a putative next generation of super-powered mutant gamers. Their enormous brains, I presumed, would have evolved  to the point where each eye can independently focus on a different screen and each hand undertake completely different tasks with freakish dexterity.

Because - to me at least- gameplay at first seemed like 'rub your belly and pat your head' taken to a brain-melting new level.

And then I realised that it's more like a game of air hockey, with a glowing green power-up as the puck: you pass said puck back and forth between screens and the character to concentrate on is the one who needs to whack it back.

That'll teach me to pay more attention to in-game tutorials.

Posted by: Jane Douglas

T&G is hungry for your feedback. We feed on your feedback. We'd particularly like more on our first gaming podcast. Get in on the ground floor and tell us what you want to hear over on the message board.

As for the last month's feedback, here's a few of the best blog comments - this month we'll be scouring the message boards as well.

Byron Review

Patrick Goss, our gaming columnist, reflected on March’s Byron Review, highlighting parental responsibility when it comes to which video games children play. Tech & Gadgets reader Will responded: “Patrick Goss, Guardian of Sane Thought: ‘Adult games should not be played by kids.’

“There is no need for a new rating system. Games have clearly stated for years their intended audience, and even without the ratings it’s easy as anything to rent a game first to see if it is suitable for your child. That’s what’s missing. Parents taking an interest in what their children are doing. If parents are not strong enough to say ‘no, that game is unsuitable for you. When you’re older you can play it,’ then that says it all. Parents are at fault, not the industry.”

Technological Convergence

Following Tech & Gadgets’ article on the downside of increasingly multipurpose gadgets, reader Dave Horton wrote: “Just had to write and express how right you are, I really couldn’t have said it better myself. Camera on phone – sometimes useful, but a replacement for a camera? No!

“My biggest nightmare is the all-in-one scanner, printer and photocopier. One of them is bound to go wrong and I am the 24-hour tech support for friends and family (who, incidentally, didn’t seek my advice pre-purchase) who has to fix it or, more often than not with this machine, give them the bad news. Anyway, I am just moaning now really. Like I say, spot on article.”

Iain Lee’s ‘console wars’ column

Feedback was decidedly mixed for Iain Lee’s first column for Tech & Gadgets, in which he detailed his preference for the Xbox 360 over the Sony Playstation3.

“I understand this is a puff piece, and everyone is certainly entitled to their own opinion,” writes Jason, “but fact of the matter is the channels are all wrong. Maybe if you had a comedy column this piece would have worked to better effect.

"However, to anyone in the know statements like, ‘Firstly, the 360 came out and is as close to perfect as you can get. Don’t get me wrong, I may be in the employ of Microsoft to write this column, but there is no way I’m taking dirty money,’ is a mild slap in the face because of the obviousness of his total disregard for certain facts, such as the 360 having the highest failure rates in console history… Although I guess this sort of thing is to be expected – a good thing many of us were taught at an early age to check our sources.”

Posted by: Jane Douglas

This week Tech & Gadgets has been snap happy with a couple of new digital cameras from Fujifilm. We even drafted in MSN's Photo Editor Antony Bennison (pictured) for some expert opinion.

The experience has proved particularly instructive for me, since my formerly trusty compact camera gave up the ghost last weekend. Its LCD screen now displays a spooky, spiky, purple-tinged alternate reality that only vaguely resembles the intended subject of the photo - which makes for an interesting special effect but also, and more importantly, gives me an excuse to upgrade to a newer, flashier model.

The two Fujifilm models we've been putting through their paces come from both ends of the amateur photography spectrum: firstly, the FinePix J10, from Fujifilm's brand new 'J' range of affordable point-and-shoot cameras. Secondly, and at the other end the price scale, the FinePix S100FS, announced as "Fujifilm's most advanced consumer digital camera to date."

The J10 (pictured above right) is a neat, simple digital compact camera - with special emphasis on 'compact'. This slim gadget is less than 2 cm thick and pleasingly lightweight.

Fujifilm claims that the J10 is "as easy to use as your TV remote". That's no great accomplishment these days, given the fiendish complexity of the average digital television remote, but we take their point: the J10 is probably as simple as a digital camera is going to get.

It has just the few features that your casual snapper is going to require - including a 3x optical zoom - and with an 8.2 megapixel sensor plus a £120 price tag, it's good value for money too.

Onto the meatier (and pricier) S100FS, and onto our Photo Editor's expert opinion.

In Auto mode, this camera is easy to use and effective at adjusting to different environments; the auto-focusing works well too. A casual user could get some nice photos quickly and easily with the S100FS.

It's not a true DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera, though it may look like one. Indeed, in Fujifilm's own words the camera is for "advanced amateur photographer seeking the manual controls and functionality of a DLSR without the bulk, hassle of and expense of additional lenses."

The £530 S100FS is very lightweight for its size (about 13 cm x 9 cm x 15 cm) with a big, clear LCD screen that can be tilted to the angle you want. The furtive photographer in Antony notes that "this is very handy if you're trying to be a bit sneaky when taking your photos - you can hold the camera at waist height and look down to see where it's aiming."

On the downside, we weren't huge fans of the electronic viewfinder provided by the S100FS - rather than the actual view through the camera lens that would be provided by a single lens reflex mechanism.

"When I look through the viewfinder of a camera," Antony says, "I want to look through the lens. Otherwise I'd just buy a smaller camera."

We also have our doubts about the camera's CCD sensor. Although it boasts some 11.1 megapixels, after the 7 or 8 megapixel mark the significance of pixel count diminishes and the quality of the sensor itself becomes all-important. With 11.1 megapixels you may be getting an enormous picture, but not necessarily a better result. Comparing the S100FS shots to those of a price-equivalent SLR with fewer megapixels seems to bear this theory out.

Still, after transferring to a laptop, the photos produced by the S100FS appeared to have well-adjusted adjusted colours and were accurate representations of their respective subjects. All in all, a nice piece of kit for someone who wants the manual control (and fancy look, perhaps) of an SLR but isn't quite ready to take the plunge.