Beta Releases in Grand Theft Auto IV and Episodes

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Before the release of Grand Theft Auto IV and its episodic expansions, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, there were features that were removed from the final product. These changes range from deleted vehicles and player skins to the removal of entire characters and mission strands.

Missions

• Final Interview was originally called Small Fish in Big Pond.
• Missions American Dad, Jacob's Ladder, American Dream and I and High were cut.
• Originally, It's Your Call was set at night.
• As seen in the third trailer, The Cousins Bellic took place in the early afternoon.
• Originally in the mission Pest Control, the player would get to choose whether they killed Ray Boccino or Phil Bell, much like in missions The Holland Play and Blood Brothers, but the final version instructs the player to kill Boccino.
• As seen in the third trailer the end of A Revengers Tragedy is shown to be sunny when it is supposed to be raining.
• As seen in the third trailer there was going to be a mission involving Niko, Roman, and two unnamed people who were trying to escape on a boat with police boats chasing them.

The Lost and Damned

• There was going to be a mission where Johnny, Billy, Brian and Jason did drive bys on a Police car.
• The full nude content from the mission Politics was cut.
• Malc would originally give missions to Johnny.

The Ballad of Gay Tony

• An early interview stated that there would be a random character encounter where a "crazy" ex-girlfriend of Luis would rig a bomb to her car (possibly Margot).
• According to the GXT files for the mission High Dive, Luis would given a chance to spare Ahmed Khalil.
• In the Meet Tony Prince trailer, Tony would accompanied Luis in the mission Bang Bang, but the reason for that to be cut is unknown.
• In Caught With Your Pants Down, Luis was supposed to go toWestminster with Yusuf to pick up his Swift. In the final version, you meet Yusuf at Star Junction, where he already has his Swift.
• In Boulevard Baby, the owner originally wanted to see Luis in his office.
• In Departure Time, Bulgarin was supposed to have a meeting with his entourage at the airport, which would be interrupted by Luis, resulting in a shootout. Bulgarin would flee in a Huntley Sport with a convoy of cars and the player would chase after him.
• During In the Crosshairs, the building Luis is on was supposed to catch fire, leaving him to find another way out.
• There was another mission for Ray Bulgarin that was going to be the third mission for him before in the In the Crosshairs, its unknown why it was cut it can be found in the as "RBULG3" which is missing since the missions that are in the final are marked as Going Deep "RBULG1", Dropping In... "RBULG2" and In the Crosshairs as "RBULG4".

Vehicles

• The Coach from the 2D and 3D games was supposed to appear but was cut for unknown reasons. It can be seen on the Higgins Helitours commercial on in-game TV. Its design was reused for GTA V's Dashound.
• The handling of the Dodo, Andromada and S.W.A.T. from San Andreas can be found inside the game files.
• A new jet called Fighter was supposed to appear but was removed. Its handling remains.
• The Previon and Majestic from San Andeas both have unused police scanner audio referring to them. It's possible that they were the original names of the Hakumai and Faction, repectively,
• Unused police scnner audio suggests that the Buffalo was already planned to be in the main game.
• A NOOSE Boxville was cut. It can be seen on an early screenshot.
• On "I'm Rich" an unnamed SUV (possibly a beta Landstalker) and a private jet resembling the Shamal can be seen but are absent from the actual game.
• Eight choppers from TLaD were already planned to be in the game. They still exist in the game files and can be spawned with mods.

The Lost and Damned

• An "admiral2" and "biff2" exist within the game files.
• Mentions for the Rhino exist although it is absent from the game.
• Based on the beta models found in the files of the original game, the Daemon, Diabolus, Hexer and Nightblade had their names written on them and the Angel had side panniers.

The Ballad of Gay Tony

• The Skylift originally resembled more closely its real life counterpart, the Sikorsky S-64 "Skycrane". This can be seen in the first trailer.
• A large armoured truck called Brickade and a wrecked drivable Police Cruiser "policew" exist within the game files but are unused. They can be spawned through trainers.

Peds

• There were originally female police officers.
• Soldiers were cut from the game.

Characters

• A mobster, Raymond Alberga, was deleted from the final version. It was possibly supposed to be Ray Boccino's original name.
• Little Jacob originally did not wear glasses, and prominently wore a zebra patterned jacket. This is obvious if you look closely at him during the short cutscene of him selling guns during First Date.
• Michelle had a different looking face as seen in the GTA IV "Move Up Ladies" trailer.
• Playboy X used to have a plain maroon hoodie.
• United Liberty Paper had a different voice.
• Real Badman did not wear a hat.
• Roman's face and clothes were different.
• Mikhail Faustin had gray hair and his hairstyle was different.
• Ilyena Faustin had different clothes, as seen in 2nd trailer.
• Ray Bulgarin's face was paler, and was less detailed.
• Carmen Ortiz had a shorter ponytail.
• Originally, Real Badman, Phil Bell, and Bernie Crane could be taken on friend activities.
• Roman had a different outfit. The clothing was a white jacket, much like Roman's brown and tan jacket, and white pants. Roman's beta clothing was seen in the second trailer.
• Niko's hair was a bit longer in the front. This is seen in the third trailer.
• There was going to be a character called Pauline Simmones who was going to be the host of Head Radio, but he was removed for unknown reasons.
• According to a unused text, Victor Rivas was scheduled to appear in the game but was cut.

Maxwell Caughlin's beta name.

• A Most Wanted criminal Maxwell Caughlin's last name was originally going to be named Maxwell Caddy.
• Johnny Barbosa's original first name was Vinny.
• In the game files, Kenny Petrovic's character model was originally going to be Frickie Van Hardenburg's character model, but was changed before the final release.

The Lost and Damned

• According to previews, Johnny had the ability to date girlfriends.
• Jason Michaels originally had a bigger role in the game, as seen in several trailers.
• Johnny originally had Jason, Malc and DeSean's phone numbers on his phone's contact list.
• Terry wore a different outfit as seen in a screenshot.
• Jason originally wore the same outfit that he wears in the GTA IV mission No Love Lost instead of the one he wears in TLAD missions.

The Ballad of Gay Tony

• Tony wore different glasses that were tinted purple instead of clear as seen in the main game and the TLAD expansion.
• In the game files, Aleks Thornton was meant to appear in the game but was removed for unknown reasons.

City

• Some areas named Anger Bay, Norfolk, Jefferson Heights, Acter Bay, Richmond , Frogtown, Washington Heights were cut. Two areas called Hedgebury and Goatherd can be seen on roadsigns on the Broker-Dukes Expressway. It is likely that they are two more cut neighborhoods, or they could be beta names of the neighborhoods that are where Hedgebury and Goatherd supposedly lead to (Firefly Projects for Goatherd, and Outlook for Hedgebury).

• 

  Early map showing Beta Liberty City in GTA IV. Notice the extra space in Northeast Alderney, and the third runway at Francis International Airport.

The setting of the game was originally going to be Liberty State, rather than just Liberty City, and it would have included countryside surrounding Liberty City, mountains based on the Adirondacks and Catskills , and possibly The Caraways. The article mentioned that there were three cities. First is Liberty City, next is possibly The Caraways and the last could be Carcer City mentioned as "nearby"

• A street called Liberation Street was either cut or renamed.
• A street called 128th Street was either cut or renamed.
• The Statue of Happiness was originally going to be called Statue of Freedom.
• The Statue of Happiness had a different face.
• The body of water had a different color than blue.
• Liberty City was different and only had three islands like in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.
• There was probably an airport in Alderney according to an extra space in the south-western part of the state.
• In Alderney State, there was a peninsula in the north-western part that shows only land. It is unknown what was located here.

Clothing

• Fingerless gloves were probably available during gameplay. Pre-release screenshots, posters, trailers and videos of the PC version also show Niko with fingerless gloves but were still not available in the game. They still however can be found in the game files.
• Binco was going to be the first clothing store. It is replaced by the Russian Shop, while ZIP became Modo.
• The Rockstar Games hoodie, from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, had been removed.

Niko's clothes without stripes

• Niko's clothes originally did not have stripes. This can be seen clearly in the trailer Things Will be Different.
• Originally the player could buy clothes from Didier Sachs, but ended up cut. The building still exists in a few places.
• The Perseus suit had a yellow tie.
• The Blue Jacket had been cut.

The Lost and Damned

• The Russian Shop would have been accessible but was cut because the clothes in the shop wouldn't fit for the biker-style theme in the game. If the player goes to the front door, an icon will appear.

Weapons

• Beta weapons included a Silenced 9mm, Pool Cue,Minigun, and the revolver These weapons, were featured in San Andreas and Vice City respectively and were likely to return. But the Pool Cue came back in The Lost and Damned
• The Baseball bat was originally wooden, like in GTA III.
• In an early preview, Little Jacob would sell a rocket launcher to Niko. It was originally attached to the underside of his car.
• The weapon pickups were originally yellow instead of orange.
• Originally, there was a Yugoslavian Zastava M70, which had appeared in trailers and several screenshots. But it was cut and replaced by the AK-47.
• The Sledgehammer was cut but can be seen being held by construction workers.

The Ballad of Gay Tony

• The Automatic Shotgun was fully automatic.
• The Advanced Sniper's scope was not tinted green.

A beta screenshot of the Assault SMG without the silencer.

• The Assault SMG did not have a silencer.
• The Parachute was entirely yellow in the beta.

Soundtrack

As mentioned in early previews there were several songs that were removed from the final version and found in the american.gxt file:

Electro-Choc:

• Louis La Roche - Love (2008)

Liberty Rock Radio:

• The Rolling Stones - Fingerprint File (1974)
• The Rolling Stones - Under My Thumb (1966)
• Elvis Costello - Radio Radio (1978)

Radio Broker:

• The Virgins - One Week of Danger (2008)
• Celebration - Fly the Fly (Holy Fuck Remix) (2007)
• Datarock - Computer Camp Love (2005)
• The Dead Fish - Shallowlead (2007)
• The Go! Team - Junior Kickstart (2003)
• UNKLE feat. Josh Homme - Restless (2007)
• VHS or Beta - Burn It All Down (2007)

The Beat 102.7:

• DJ Green Lantern feat. Akon, Fabolous & Fat Joe - I'm So Fly (2008)
• Fat Joe - Shit Is Real Pt. III (2002)

The Classics:

• M.O.P. - Downtown Swinga (1994)
• M.O.P. - How About Some Hardcore (1993)
• Run-D.M.C. - Sucker M.C.'s (1983)

The Vibe 98.8:

• Cassie - Me & U (2006)
• Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl (2004)
• Res - They Say Vision (2001)

Tuff Gong:

• Bob Marley & The Wailers - Get Up, Stand Up (1973)

Vladivostok FM:

• Max Lorens – Схожу с ума (Shozhu s uma / Going Crazy)
• Quest Pistols – Мама (Mama / Mother)
• Dyshi – Взгляни на небо (Vzglyani na nebo / Look on the Sky)
• The Beat 102.7 was called Hot 95.
• Tuff Gong Radio was called Babylon.
• According to a French preview, some Rolling Stones songs could be heard on Liberty Rock Radio.
• Head Radio was due to appear but was dropped during development.

The Lost and Damned

In the american.gxt file lists additional songs for radio stations: Jazz Nation Radio 108.5, Liberty Rock Radio, and Radio Broker. They are:

Jazz Nation Radio 108.5:

• Billie Holiday - Fine and Mellow (1939)

Liberty Rock Radio:

• Steppenwolf - Ride With Me (1971)
• Tubeway Army - Bombers (1978)
• Nazareth - Changin' Times (1975)
• Black Oak Arkansas - Hot and Nasty (1971)
• Breakwater - Release the Beast (1980)
• New York Dolls - Private World (1973)
• The Doobie Brothers - Long Train Runnin' (1973)
• Warren Zevon - Lawyers, Guns and Money (1978)
• Python Lee Jackson feat. Rod Stewart - In a Broken Dream (1970)
• Rare Earth - (I Know) I'm Losing You (1970)
• Robin Trower - Day of the Eagle (1974)
• Billy Squier - The Stroke (1981)
• Ted Nugent - Hey Baby (1975)
• The Cult - Born to Be Wild (1987)
• Love and Rockets - Motorcycle (1989)
• Motörhead - Ace of Spades (1980)
• Iron Maiden - The Trooper (1983)
• Mötley Crüe - Kickstart My Heart (1989)
• Judas Priest - Breaking the Law (1980)
• Lou Reed - Vicious (1972)

Radio Broker:

• Blonde Acid Cult - Calypso (2008)
• Free Blood - Quick and Painful (2007)
• The Carps - Porgie & Bess (Big Booty Girls) (2008)
• The Carps - Veronica Belmont (2008)
• TK Webb & The Visions - Shame (2008)
• Scissors for Lefty - Consumption Junction (2008)
• The Soft Pack - Nightlife (2008)
• Foxylane - Same Shirt (2007)
• Kudu - Give Me Your Head (2009)
• Tame Impala - Half Full Glass of Wine (2008)
• The Bronx - Knifeman (2008)

The Ballad of Gay Tony

K109 The Studio:

• Alicia Bridges - I Love the Nightlife (Disco Round) (1978)
• Chic - My Forbidden Lover (1979)
• Gloria Gaynor - Never Can Say Goodbye (1974)
• GQ - Disco Nights (Rock-Freak) (1978)
• Hamilton Bohannon - Let's Start the Dance (1978)
• Michael Zager Band - Let's All Chant (1977)
• Peaches & Herb - Funtime (1980)
• The O'Jays - I Love Music (1975)
• Vicki Sue Robinson - Turn the Beat Around (1976)

Self-Actualization FM:

• Erik Wøllo - Monument (1990)
• Pete Namlook - You (1st Impression) (1993)
• Spacetime Continuum - Voice of the Earth (1994)
• Coldcut - Autumn Leaves (Irresistable Force Mix Trip 2) (1993)
• System 7 - Masato Eternity (2008)
• Moby - My Beautiful Blue Sky (1993)

Vice City FM:

• Belouis Some - Imagination (1985)
• Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run) (1984)
• Club Nouveau - Lean on Me (1986)
• Culture Club - Time (Clock of the Heart) (1982)
• Go West - We Close Our Eyes (1985)
• Morrissey - Everyday Is Like Sunday (1988)
• Tears For Fears - Head Over Heels (1985)

Others

• The first removed haircut design for Niko was a cut that seemed to resemble helmet-hair.
• The second removed haircut design for Niko was a buzz cut.
• The Well Stacked Pizza Co. was originally meant to return but was removed before release. Outside Pizza This, the logo can still be seen and employees in the Alderney branch have "Well Stacked Pizza Co." on the back of their shirts. This may also indicate that this was once the original location for one of the stores.
• According to an early in-game preview by Official PlayStation Magazine Italy (dated May 2007), a city bus service was available for Niko to use, with a bus schedule popping up after walking to a bus stop. A bus driver character model is also found in the in-game files. Occasionally, an operating bus with the driver will be seen exiting the runway roads of Francis International Airport, however, if the player attempts to get in, the driver is 'pulled' from the bus.
• Niko would have been able to get limo rides just like taxi rides.
• According to the model names of Roman's taxi depot, he was originally supposed to use limos. This may have a connection with the limo rides mentioned above.
• Niko would originally bring prostitutes to his home as seen in the Pre-Release Screenshots.
• Originally, the bailing out animation involved Niko diving forward, as seen in the second trailer.
• Niko had these contacts in his phone: Cab, City, and Dock.
• Snow was a weather condition but it is only seen as an unused scenario for pedestrian behavior in the game files. However if the player leaves Niko sitting there for a bit, they may see him rubbing his hands and warming them, showing that the weather is cold.
• Developers originally considered letting players purchase music by going to an in-game record shop and for Niko to have an MP3 player, but both ideas were cut.
• Niko's cell phone had a different shape.
• The weapons in the beta version had different names.
• United Liberty Paper's contact's office was much more dirty, and his voice sounded different, as seen in the second trailer.
• Higgins Helitours was called Magnum Helitours. There is a calendar in Brucie Kibbutz' garage with the Magnum Helitours logo on it. (This can be seen in multiplayer and Brucie's Car Theft missions as the garage is open.)
• Car modifications from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas were planned to be available in GTA IV but postponed until Grand Theft Auto V.
• Vehicles had more intense reflections.
• There were meant to be flyable planes and jets that the player would fly, however according to a recent Q&A by Rockstar Games, they were cut because the map was too small.
• The inside of The Peep Hole looked different as seen in a screenshot.
• According to a unused dialogue, Niko would originally able to go inside Fanny Crab's's and order food but was removed.

Beta Reflection

• There was a helicopter with only two propellers, and a design which looked just like the Police Maverick but with no LCPD logos on the side. This could have been the earlier version of the Police Maverick or it could have been an earlier version of the Maverick, although it is unlikely because the design is not similar in any way.
• The classic death animation from 3D Universe was meant to be in the game but it was replaced with Ragdoll Physics. This can be seen when dodging their melee attack then follow a counter-attack with any melee weapon, or sniping them from far away.
• A fast food restaurant called Ping's, where Niko would order food inside the restaurant was in the beta but was cut.
• A café restaurant called Rockstar Café was cut and was renamed Superstar Café, however, the beta name is still on the employees outfits.
• According to the cut audio files, Niko would originally purchase ice cream from the vendors in the gameplay.
• Some Weapon have Full 9999 max ammo in like in previous GTA series Even GTA V.

The Lost and Damned

• The Lost MC Clubhouse originally had a newer exterior; it had white walls with the door moved more to the right and it was also much smaller, which can be noticed in several early pictures.
• The Fight Club was supposed to appear, but was introduced in The Ballad of Gay Tony instead.

The Ballad of Gay Tony

• In the Meet: Luis Lopez trailer for TBoGT, Luis is seen wearing the brown and black Perseus suit, but with blue jeans. This implies that it may have been one of Luis' already available outfits.
• Armando and Henrique had a bigger role in the game.
• Armando would be able to sell every weapon in the game from his gun van including the Desert Eagle and the Micro Uzi.
• Tony, Mori Kibbutz and Yusuf Amir could be taken on friend activities
• The new Vladivostok FM playlist was meant to be on its own station called EuroDANCE FM, as seen in the folder holding the playlist.
  • Also, Jonathan Peters' song was originally supposed to play on Electro-Choc, not on Vladivostok FM.
• According to a GXT File, the APC was supposedly parked at Yusuf Amir's construction site, presumably after the events of Caught With Your Pants Down via a text message.
  • The message even says to "blow of anything other than Seagulls" - referencing to the fact that the player has to kill 50 Seagulls around Liberty City in EFLC.