ClassicRadar: Pushing people down steps in GTA IV

It's Sunday, which means it's time for another ClassicRadar moment. This week, Justin talks us through his custom video of Niko pushing people down the stairs in Grand Theft Auto IV. It's incredibly irresponsible, malicious and dangerous behaviour that we obviously don't condone in real life, but these Liberty City residents clearly have it coming. Honestly, even two years on, this video still makes us laugh more than we probably should. All hail the Euphoria engine!

GTA IV just keeps on giving. It's been out for a whole year and we're still finding hours and hours of entertainment in little things. Like... pushing people down steps.

The Euphoria engine allows pedestrians to react realistically to forces from any direction. Which means a gentle nudge on the steps (or a less gentle thwack with a baseball bat) will send them tumbling arse over tit. It really shouldn't be as fun as it is but it kept us amused for ages. Especially when they say things like 'Aw, Hell, I don't need this!" Enjoy.

Note: There is some violence, swearing and blood in this video of an 18-rated game.

First posted 02 Apr, 2009

The idea for this video came about after recording the very first clip and watching it back to laugh at it a few times. The sympathetic 'ouch' as he hits his headon the step turns into laughter for some unknown reason.Like Tom and Jerry cartoons, the fact it isn't real makes awful accidental violence very, veryfunny. Better still were the soundbites that came from the pedestrians as we pushed them around.

The bit near the end where the guy is back-pedalling down the stairs came with a French accent saying 'excuse me, monsieur' which had me in sticthes but I think one of the team thought it was funnier without so it was cut from the soundtrack.

It actually took us a while to settle on the title for the feature. 'GTA IV stair pushing' was ventured, then 'Pushing people down stairs in GTA IV'... but then-editor George didn't like the word 'stairs' and so we had 'steps' instead. How's that for fascinating insight, eh? It's like you were there!

Even though it's been another two years, GTA's Euphoria engine is still unbeaten in terms of potential for video fun. Red Dead Redemption was sorely lacking in the 'steps' department. And nobody says 'shitcock' in that game. Nosiree.

12 Apr, 2011

Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.