they claim it to be a review, no pictures of the hud, and no screens that are marked as in-game, although, they seem in game though, and they look just like most of the cutscenes, looks pretty good.
they said they played it for 2 days, and that some areas where locked down for their review - they didnt complete the story.
they mention that the game world isnt completely open in the beginning, bridges closed due to terrorist threats was one reason. also that most of the characters shown so far are from the early missions of the game, most be quite a few more.
they mention about using the phone as a camera, and that you can use a police car's internal computer / database to upload any taken pictures to get the name and address of the person - depending on how indept that is, there could be a whole world of fun just hunting people down - stalker style! you can also type in the names of the people you are looking for, but they didnt go into it indept.
there are some images of the mini game Darts... looks like Darts...and a picture of the new motorbike thats apparently the fastest in the game.
they said that you can walk all the way up to the top of the "empire state" building and when you look out on the city there is no slow down what so ever.
spray n pay is mentioned in the review, although i had heard that it was removed from IV.
you can go onto Coney Island and use the rollercoaster and anything else that it has to offer. there is no zoo in the final game (maybe thats common knowledge, although i didnt know....)
the "day" lasts 48 minutes rather than 24 as in San Adnreas.
the whole map isnt massive, but its dense. Since some of the map was locked off for the review, they didnt say how long it takes to drive from point to point or all around it.
they say they will have more information for the next mag - but by that time it will be played and completed (as in story) by quite a few people, so not a great help!
they say the graphics are amazing, but not the best the 360 has to offer - all gta games since 3 looked awesome, but were never the best, its fair, they are offering a massive amount of gameplay, so it looks good enough to not be an issue, but not the definition of quality some people may be expecting.
they mention the hud, but only as far as to say that the health and armour is located around the map, one side the health, one side the armour if any.
they mention setting way points, but not how they are displayed on screen, only that its marked on the radar (i would image that some visual indicator was on screen - although, not exactly realistic is it?)
they mention that frame rates online have some small issues, like when 100 cops are surrounding 8 players at a petrol station and a rocket launcher blows up the entire petrol station - even though this is mentioned, they dont seem too bothered about it, suppose there will always be flaws like every game, but the flaws are not bothering reviewers too much at this stage anyway.
they mention that you can buy property, to make some money - no mention of owning businesses
they speak of the first 2 missions - Harbouring a Grudge - where you play with Packie Mc Reary (the crooked cops son) and the second mission is - Search and Delete - and it involves getting into the police database to get information on someone, then eliminating them - they say this feature is available at any time, not just in this mission
in previous previews / reviews i remember that the first 2 missions where different, so it may be that these will not be the exact same 2 we get on release day - perhaps its all part of the r* master plan - confusion and unique reviews.
you can eat in the game to top up health, but not for weight gain like in San Andreas. also no mention of working out etc, seems that he physical appearance cant be changed at all during single player, of course clothes and accessorries can be altered accordingly.
restaurants, pubs, clubs, cafes, delis that will feature in the game are more for social reasons, meeting business people, and doing whatever... anythings better than standing in the middle of the club and dancing like in vice city (as funny as it was)
girlfriend missions are mentioned, although in no detail - just they exist during the course of the game.
they say that the action is awesome, handles exactly how it is expected to handle. cover, shooting, everything feels right.
driving is handled well, feels "like a racer"- dont know if thats awesome or not, but better than driving square blocks around.
cars can be damaged to almost complete destruction but remain drivable, just very difficult and pointless trying to get away when damaged to such an extent or when the tyres have been blown out - if being chased or giving chase.
helicopters feature, boats feature, nico can swim, climb. - nothing new there
possible exclusion of airplanes due to 9-11, and the game being centred around new york (not my words!! - although is it a possible reason due to the problems r* face when trying to get rated, perhaps they removed certain things that would cause them a problem in the future - although, no doubt mods will appear including the Dodo, or other such planes in the future (if released on the PC))
theres a screen shot(no hud) in the mag, with nico surrounded by 4 cops, and 1 police car, 3 of them aiming at him, he has no weapon, small amount of blood on his leg and he appears to be limping (still shot - hard to tell), small amount of blood near his foot on the ground also, and damm, it looks like it is in game- its not as polished as the trailers, but no rough edges are noticed in the image, and if it was retouched, they would have tidied it up better, the cops faces have nice definition, although not awesome, enough to tell what there thinking, lol - basically if this is how it looks, possibly the worst screen shot i have seen of this game (forgive the screen shot term.... image perhaps..) - and it doesnt strike any fear, if anything, its pretty impressive still.
there are also images of cars going into a tunnel, and images of people in cars, all doing something different in each car. its referenced as a point of how dynamic the world is, so cant be a video / cut scene, as thats not exactly dynamic - and the images look mint!