The Grand Theft Auto series has picked up a Golden Joystick award for the seventh year running. GTA IV picked up two trophies at this years awards ceremony, BBC 1Xtra Soundtrack of the Year and ARVATO Xbox Game of the Year.

Rockstar Games also won an award, scooping CVG.co.uk UK Developer of the Year. The big winner tonight though was Call of Duty 4, check out the full list of winners over at C&VG.

Following on from their hands-on preview earlier, IGN have released the official minimum and recommended PC specifications for GTA IV. They did it at the same time as officially (sort of) announcing that the game will be delayed, as was rumoured recently due to many online retailers pushing back the date to 2nd December.

There's no word directly from Rockstar yet, but we suspect IGN has better sources than Amazon. We'll keep you updated if we hear anything from R* on the matter.

Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 / XP - Service Pack 3
  
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8Ghz, AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4Ghz
  
• Memory: 1.5GB, 16GB Free Hard Drive Space
  
• Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA 7900 / 256MB ATI X1900
  

Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 / XP - Service Pack 3
  
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz, AMD Phenom X3 2.1Ghz
  
• Memory: 2 GB (Windows XP) 2.5 GB (Windows Vista)
  
• 18 GB Free Hard Drive Space
  
• Video Card: 512MB NVIDIA 8600 / 512MB ATI 3870
  

Still not sure if your PC is up to the job? Check our helpful forum thread. For convenience, the specs will be permanently on our GTA IV system requirements page, to save you having to find this news post.

Link: IGN

IGN recently got their hands on the PC version of GTA IV at an event in San Francisco. The game was installed on a rig boasting hardware including a Core 2 Extreme X9650 CPU, GeForce GTX 280 graphics card, and 3 GB of RAM. IGN ran the game very well at max settings on a huge screen resolution of 2560 x 1600.

A reminder to what's new in the PC version:

There'll be custom match filtering for multiplayer games, though it sounds like there might be something else in the works. "At this time, all we're talking about is the custom match filtering," said Nelson. "You'll be able to create a multiplayer match with any number of specifications, and others can search for something that is just right." Players also get a built-in video editor to splice together replays, more control options and, as you might expect, better graphics.

Also of note is that you can use the keyboard and mouse in tandem with a game controller, such as the wireless Xbox 360 controller, allowing you to use the keyboard and mouse for precision aiming and the controller for driving. Or whatever you like best.

The article is very interesting, especially if you've got a great PC and are looking forward to playing the game. If your computer is, shall we say, sh*t, then you may find the article upsetting. Check it out at IGN.

The R* Social Club received a minor update last night.

There is a virus sweeping through Grand Theft Auto IV turning many unsuspecting players into Zombies. If you’ve seen the special Zombie-with-yellow-briefs player skin running around during Grand Theft Auto IV multiplayer, then you may already know that the virus can be contracted in any and all multiplayer modes and is spread when an unsuspecting player kills someone who has the infection (note that the infected don’t necessarily have to be wearing the Zombie skin, some show no symptoms!). The signs of infection are: access to the zombie skin and having the Achievement “Let Sleeping Rockstars Lie”. With the all-new Viral Infection feature at the Rockstar Social Club, members can now see whether they are currently infected, the number of total global infections and the number of infections in the last 24 hours. Digging deeper, Social Club members can also browse a color-coded world map tracking the spread of the infection worldwide, including breakdown for all 50 US States. Click here for the Viral Infection feature.

Link: Rockstar Social Club

Word is out that PS3 owners will very soon be able to win trophies with a GTA IV game update on Monday. The rumoured list we put up when news first spread about this last month does appear to be true, the trophies being the same as the achievements available to Xbox 360 players.

The trophies are not retroactive, so if you need an excuse to play through the game again, this is one. Head on over to our PS3 trophies page to see what you'll need to do.

Coverage of Chinatown Wars has been somewhat thin on the ground since it's announcement back in July, with interest for the PC version of GTA IV and DLC for the Xbox 360 version being of far greater importance to many fans. Today we do have some GTACW news for you though. EDGE magazine, who previewed Chinatown Wars earlier this month have published their preview online for all to see. The preview is complete with the 8 screenshots provided to the magazine in their original digital form (you may have seen scans of these floating around previously - if not they'll be new to you).

Our Chinatown Wars section isn't quite ready yet, mainly due to the fact we have hardly anything in the way of content to provide - apart from the few details we've posted from magazines, but it'll be appearing some time soon.

Links:

GTA Chinatown Wars screenshots

EDGE preview

Following on from last week's announcement, GTA: San Andreas is now available for download through the Xbox Originals service on the Xbox Live Marketplace, priced at 1200 points - currently equal to £10.20 (or USD).

Originally announced for North America only, the download is actually available in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.

Microsoft has announced that the next title to be added to the Xbox Originals download service will be Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The game will be available to download on October 20th in North America - there is currently no release date for other regions. The download will cost 1200 Microsoft Points, which equates to just over £10 (.99 in USD).

There is also no word on whether or not any of the other games in the series will appear on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Links: MCV

GTA San Andreas on Xbox.com

The first official GTA IV PC trailer has just gone live exclusively on Gametrailers.com. Check it out below!

Rumour has it that a trophy patch for the PS3 version of GTA IV is coming soon, and a few PS3 sites have managed to get their hands on the list of what you'll be able to get. The list is actually the same as the Xbox 360 achievements as most people assumed it would be should a patch come forth, with the addition of a platinum trophy for "Taking A Liberty".

See the full list on our GTAIV trophies page, which we'll update soon with the proper icons. Still no word on an exact date for if/when these will be available.

Source: PS3trophies.co.uk