We’re one month and three days away from one of the biggest game launches in the past decade, Grand Theft Auto IV on the next-generation consoles.  It seems like just yesterday when we had just imaged this happening, and we’re finally closing in on the day.

In the latest OXM, quite a bit of details are revealed about the GTA IV multiplayer aspects:

- The entire portion of Liberty City will be available for gamers to use in the multiplayer modes.  The host has the ability to set the stage for the main area of battle for the players, and what area(s) players may respawn at.

- Along with the online characters being customizable, there will be female and male characters, contrary to original reports.

- You earn in-game money online from doing various things, mainly killing opponents, and that money you earn determines your online rank.

- One of the major reasons why GTA IV was pushed back in the first place was due to the networking and mapping code being tweaked for multiplayer so that all of Liberty City was available to players.

- In Hangman’s NOOSE, you start at the airport and must take Kenny Petrovic to a safe area within the city while persued by the NOOSE team.  NOOSE stands for National Organization of Security Enforcement.

- If you aim rockets at the right angle, you can actually have them skip across the ground before they reach their target.

- The host makes the settings for voice chat, which can be set at everyone hears everyone, you can only communicate with your team, or proximity chat.

- When you enter the race mode, you can use any type of vehicle that you get your hands on (helicopters, boats, or even sprint across the finish line).