Those clever hackers have done it again! Hacker group VladsBoys’ analysis of the pirated copy of GTA IV for the 360 (leaked days before retail release) has reeled in a big one. The cyber-sleuths knew they were on the trail of something big and yes, you guessed it, they found another never-intended-for-retail-consumption chunk of code in a GTA game.
What the hackers found seems to be an abandoned mission that Rockstar at some point intended on including in the game. We have no idea how far into the process this mission got before it was pulled, but we’re pretty sure they knew what they were doing by the mission name… that name was Hot Coughing.

Hacker R*Fan4Lyfe noted in a forum post that while the audio files for the mission were not included in the disc image (and presumably are not on the retail disc either,) the subtitles for the mission dialogue were still present. The mission involves Niko going to the hospital after pulling a groin muscle in one of the game’s side missions; a mission that is actually present in the retail game. While in the hospital, Niko is hounded by an ambulance chasing attorney humorously named Jerk Thompson. The attorney pesters Niko about his accident, trying to convince him that violent cartoons such as Tom & Jerry or Looney Tunes were to blame. The attorney is apparently reluctant to leave as the doctor examines Niko. Niko is finally able to get him to leave as the doctor performs the stereotypical “turn your head and cough” test to check for a hernia. As Niko turns his head to cough, he apparently spies the attorney gazing longingly at Niko through a gap in the curtain and that’s when all hell breaks loose.

The rest of the dialogue from the mission is mostly swearing and threats, so the actual context of the action taking place is unclear.  It doesn’t take a big stretch of the imagination to picture Niko chasing Jerk Thompson around the hospital trying to choke him to death. The hackers say they’re pretty confident they’ll be able to reconstruce the mission with user-made voice acting, so expect to see Hot Coughing coming soon to YouTube.com!

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