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In the GTA Online character creator, players can choose Claude from GTA III, Niko Bellic from GTA IV, or John Marston from Red Dead Redemption as their custom protagonist's father, quietly tying the online world into the wider Rockstar universe.
There's a hidden chamber inside the Statue of Happiness that most players never find, and honestly it's not exactly signposted - there's literally a sign at the base that says 'No Hidden Content This Way,' which is Rockstar being cheeky. Steal a helicopter, land on the upper platform of the pedestal, and climb a ladder up through the statue's body. What's waiting for you is a huge, slowly beating heart wrapped in chains. Nobody's ever officially explained what it's supposed to mean, it's just there for the people determined enough to go looking.
During the heist mission Three Leaf Clover, if you fiddle with the camera angle just right while Patrick 'Packie' McReary is on screen, you can actually clip inside his head. Sitting in there, instead of anything gross, is a little box with a picture of a brain drawn on it. It's a throwaway modelling joke that almost nobody stumbles across by accident, since you have to be actively trying to break the camera to see it.
Want to run around Liberty City dressed as GTA III's silent protagonist? It's possible, but you have to make a specific, fairly cold-blooded choice first. During the mission where you decide whether to kill Playboy X or Dwayne, choosing to let Dwayne do the deed opens up Playboy's now-empty apartment, and tucked away inside is Claude's classic outfit from GTA III, ready for Niko to put on.
In one of the Bohan safehouses there's a paperback lying around called 'Madness and Blasphemy: The Do's and Don'ts.' Doesn't look like much until you shoot it and get a close-up of the cover, where the author is credited as 'Nuck Chorris' - a not-so-subtle wink at a certain roundhouse-kicking action star.
Niko's default hand-to-hand combat isn't just generic brawler animation, it's actually modelled on Krav Maga, the close-quarters fighting system developed for the Israeli military. Makes sense once you think about it, given Niko's background as a war veteran who's clearly had to defend himself in ugly situations long before he ever got to Liberty City.
Back in April 2008, producer Leslie Benzies told The Times that GTA IV's production costs had climbed to somewhere around $100 million. At the time that absolutely smashed the previous record for game development spending, which had been set by Sega's Shenmue at roughly $70 million.
Actor Karel Roden pulls double duty in GTA IV without most players ever clocking it. He voices Mikhail Faustin, the volatile Russian mobster Niko works for early on, and also Wade 'The Fixer' Johnson later in the story. Two very different guys, same voice underneath.
Niko's look was partly based on actor Vladimir Mashkov, who's known for playing Sasha in Behind Enemy Lines, and Rockstar actually approached him to voice the character. He turned it down - reportedly he wasn't that interested in video games, Rockstar were being extremely tight-lipped about the whole project, and the recording setup would've meant constant flights between Moscow and New York. Word is he ended up regretting the decision once the game blew up.
Michael Hollick wasn't originally brought on to be the voice of Niko Bellic at all - he was hired purely to handle motion capture work. It was only after he auditioned that Rockstar decided he should be the actual voice too, and Niko went on to become one of the most well-regarded protagonists in the series.
