Home Sweet Home…


Every hardened criminal in Liberty City needs a place to relax after a hard days work.  Safehouses are where you can go to save your game, park cars you have stolen and wish to keep, watch TV and change Niko’s clothes.   The location of a Safehouse is presented by you guessed it: a house icon on the mini-map.

In the begining, Niko will only have Roman’s apartment available as a safehouse, but as the game progresses more safehouses will crop up.  Further more, once you reach a certain point in the game, all safehouses will have a TV in them to watch.

Parking Square:

Infront of each safehouse is a rectangular yellow square marked “parking.”  Any two vehicles parked in here will be saved the next time a game is loaded.  Each safehouse has a parking square infront of them, allowing the player to save multiple vehicles throughout the game.  Use the parking space to save any vehicles that you come across that you would like to preserve.

Changing Clothes:

Changing clothes can only be done within a safehouse.  Pressing L1 at the proper spot in a safehouse will cause the camera to zoom in close to Niko.  From here you can move up and down Niko’s body, select either the torso, legs, head, feet or face and use left or right on the D-pad to cycle between all the clothes you have purchased/found.

Note:  Enemies will not attack you in a safehouse, use it to escape the Police if you are in trouble.




Character Profile: Packie McCreary


Packie McCreary is one of 4 siblings born into the MCreary family.  Niko meets him through his connections with Elizabeta at a house party.  Packie may come across as a very sarcastic, sometimes down-right hostile person, however Packie has a very strong bond with his family and portrays a very honest opinion of himself and his criminal lifestyle when prompted.

Packie is also one of the few characters in GTA 4 who consistently assists in the missions that he gives to the player.

Hours of Operation:

Packie hangs out all night, and sleeps most of the day.  He can be reached between 3:00 pm and 6:00 am.

Special Ability:

Once you reach 75% likeness with Packie, you can access his special ability which will place a bomb at a random location nearby your position.  Once you pick it up, you can plant it onto a car – then detonate it at any time by phoning Packie again.

Likes:

Booze, strip clubs, and his favorite spot is Donnie’s Bar.






 


Cheat o’ the Day: FIB Buffalo


Want to get a hold of an FIB Buffalo without the FIB stubbornly refusing to give them up?  Then input this cheat into the cellphone: 227-555-0100.  Simple as that, a brand spankin’ new FIB Buffalo hassle-free!




Pro Tip: Climbing Stairs Quickly


Niko not ascending those stairs fast enough for your liking?  Try jumping up them with the square button.  Niko will hop up the steps, which is significantly faster than running up them.




Cheat O’ the Day: Changing the Weather and Brightness


If you want to adjust the weather and brightness of the world, input this cheat into the chellphone: 468-555-0100.  Inputting this cheat will change the weather based on how many times you activate the cheat.  Mess around with this cheat to get the weather system you want.

*Remember, using cheats in GTA IV may disable certain achievements within the game, and you should not save your game if you wish to unlock them.*




Flagging Down a Taxi Cab


Ever just feel lazy, and don’t want to manually have to drive to a destination?  Try hailing a taxi cab!  Simply hold the L1 button near a taxi.  They will wait for a set amount of time for you to get in before driving off.  To enter a cab as a passenger, hold triangle down near the back seats to avoid accidentally stealing it.

Once inside the cab, you can choose a destination.  If you want to change your destination you can press the left analog up or down to select a new one. Should you wish to exit the taxi cab at any time, simply press triangle.  You can skip through the taxi cab ride at any time..  Also keep in mind that if Roman likes you enough, you can use his taxi cab service for free and skip the ride to arrive at your destination immediately.




Places to Visit in Liberty City: The Cabaret Club


The Cabaret Club is a place where citizens of Liberty City go to have a drink and view some entertainment.  It is the first form of entertainment available to Niko pretty early on in the game.  Most of the acts are pretty bad (as stated by Michelle if you take her there,) and are there as a joke for the player’s enjoyment.  The three different acts that appear at the Cabaret Club are: The magician, the Singer, and the Juggler.  Two of the three acts will be shown during a visit by the player, each with a different scripted event.

Personal favorite of mine would definately have to be the Magician’s acts.  Go check them out for yourself!




ZIT! Song Information


Love that song you heard on the radio, but don’t know who the artist is or the title?  No problem, simply type in this number: 948-555-0100.  Call them when a song is playing and they will listen to it for a few seconds then hang up.  Shortly afterwards you will be sent a text message displaying the artist and song title.  After calling this number once, it will show up in your phonebook as “ZIT!” and you can call them from there.




Studly Failure


During the Pegorino’s Pride mission, I succeeded in saving Mr. Pegorino from his would be assassins.  After chasing down the rest of the enemies in the car, in my haste and not thinking – I parked Pegorino right infront of the enemies who had AK-47s, not thinking as I jumped out to kill them.  Well, the enemies still targeted Pegorino inside the car and made pretty short work of him, causing me to fail the mission and have to restart.  Oops.




The Health System in GTA IV


Niko’s health bar is the green bar extending halfway around the radar at the bottom left of the screen.  there are several ways in Liberty City to replenish lost health.  If you go to any vendor (such as a hotdog vendor) or a restaurant, you can replenish your health by buying food for $1.  Vendors and employees will not serve “unruly” customers so bear that in mind if you need health.

There are also first aid kits scattered throughout Liberty City, which when picked up will give Niko full health.  You can also call an ambulance and have them heal you for some cash, or you can steal an ambulance which will also give you full health.




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