LibertyCity
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GTA's Liberty City recreated in Google Street View, reveals your nearest Ammu-Nation
Type "Liberty City" into Google Maps and it whisks you to some place east of Wichita, Kansas. Yup, Wichita, for Pete's sake. No self-respecting Grand Theft Auto fan can stand for an omission like that, and thankfully now they don't have to. Those hardcore Niko-lovers at gta4.net have not only recreated the real fictional Liberty City using the Google Maps API, they've even cobbled together 80,000 screenshots to provide full-blown Street View too. Man, we haven't seen this much Gay Tony passion since the Trashmaster. Oh, wait a minute -- apparently this so-called Street View leaves out a couple of ramps that gta4.net considered to be "not very interesting." Hush, and you call yourselves fans?
Explore Liberty City with Google Map application
Between the comprehensive in-game map, the GPS-imbued minimap, and the TomTom-esque functionality of certain vehicles, we've yet to misplace ourselves within Liberty City's digital boroughs. Still, if you find yourself lost whilst playing Grand Theft Auto IV, we guess this Liberty City map application (mapplication?) using the Google Maps interface would come in handy. A number of user contributions have already been made to the map, showing the location of hidden items, easter eggs, pigeon locations, stunt jumps, and yes, even hookers, whom we assume were fitted with GPS locaters by trained prostitute handlers before being released back into the wild. It makes for a useful cartographical companion for those with a laptop near their console of choice -- if you don't mind ruining the fun of exploring the nooks and crannies of Rockstar's intricately crafted metropolis for yourself, that is.
GTA IV briefing in Game Informer, multiplayer and more
Game Informer gets the scoop on GTAIV in the May issue (not on "newsstands" yet), getting a peek at the Xbox 360 work-in-progress running on a debug unit. So, what's new besides what we saw in the trailer? Lots. Setting: re-created Liberty City (better mirrors real-world NYC; smaller "geographical mass" than San Andreas, but more densely populated) MetLife building = "Getalife" Statue of Liberty = "Statue of Happiness" DUMBO = "BOABO" (Beneath the Offramp of the Algonquin Bridge Overpass Area includes an adaptation of four of NYC's boroughs (no love for Staten Island), and a section of Jersey: Manhattan = "Algonquin" (The Lenape did speak an Algonquin language from which our word "Manhattan" is derived) Brooklyn = "Broker" Queens = "Dukes" (a duke ranks just below a prince) Bronx = "Bohan" New Jersey = "Alderney" (also named for one of the British Channel Islands -- or a breed of cattle) Main character: Niko Bellic; "Eastern European" ('cause who really keeps track of the countries over there?) Lured to Liberty by cousin Roman's suspicious emails (Roman claims to be living the America Dream: 2 women, 4 hot tubs, and 15 sports cars); Roman actually operates a rundown taxi depot in Broker and has gotten himself into a "load of trouble" NEWS FLASH: "Many of Niko's activities revolve around being a criminal"
Rumor: GTA IV to be in New York City?
While we're going to categorize this as a rumor until we get a better insight upon the release of the trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV on the 29th, it definitely is worth consideration. Apparently, word on the street is that GTA IV will be taking place in New York City and have NYC stylized music. When we first got wind of this, the first thing that popped into our heads was, "Uh, wasn't the Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto I, GTA III, San Andreas, and Liberty City Stories supposed to be at the very least an homage to New York City (with a hint of New Jersey)?" If you look at the map for Liberty City from GTA I (pictured above), it's even more apparent. Or this could be a completely new direction for Rockstar, where instead of doing fictional places that are inspired by real world locations, they cut the middle man as it were, and just use the actual city. Either way, we could see a return to Liberty City, or Rockstar's rendition of the real life counter part. Which would you rather play in?
Liberty City Stories now a Greatest Hit
It appears that the first GTA PSP game is now a budget Greatest Hits title. Best Buy lists the game with a $20 price tag and the trademark red banner on top. At this price, the PSP version now competes with the PlayStation 2 version of the game, and still retains PSP-exclusive features like multiplayer. Liberty City Stories may feature slightly worse graphics than the Vice City follow-up, but with a better storyline and funnier missions, this might be the game to pick up for GTA newbies, especially at such a bargain price.[Via CAG]
Extreme airtime in GTA:LCS
Weekends aren't usually filled with breaking news, so it's usually the time we look back and reflect on the cooler aspects of the PSP community. I'm not too interested in the musings of an illiterate fanboy, but I am totally awe-inspired by the crazy things that people have been doing in GTA:LCS. The cheat devices for GTA have come a long way since the first time PSP Fanboy reported on it. People are now defying all logic, performing gravity-defying tricks, riding on walls, spawning helicopters and even creating trick ramps for those that want Liberty City to be one giant level of Tony Hawk. Here's some of my favorites from the GTA cheats and trick community.
Vice City Stories to be PSP exclusive
The latest episode of the 1UP Yours Podcast held an interesting revelation about the highly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. Some fans felt burned by Rockstar's decision to bring the beloved Liberty City Stories over to the PS2 in a direct port. Well, according to the podcast, an editor that had a chance to play the game found out that Vice City will not makes it way to the PS2. Why? Because the game's going to be completely optimized for the handheld, making it more difficult to do a straight port Considering how Liberty City sold 2.2 million copies worldwide, it doesn't seem like a bad decision at all. [Via IGN Boards]
GTA:LCS PS2 coming 6/6/06 for $20
Just as we reported, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for the PS2 has been delayed. Apparently the game will debut on June 6th at a RRP of US$19.99/€29.99/£19.99. The game was originally scheduled to be released on April 24th at $29.99.On the surface the reduced price looks like an attempt to appease impatient gamers. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter thinks that it goes deeper than that: "we believe that the lower than expected price point for GTA LCS implies that the game is a straight port from the PSP, with few (if any) enhancements to graphics or game play" and that "although we believe that the game will sell a greater number of units at a higher [sic] (we think he meant lower) price point, we think that overall sales may suffer if the game is not sufficiently different from the PSP version." As it is, Wedbush Morgan thinks that Take Two could sell "3 million units at $16 (for total revenues of $48 million) instead of 1.9 million at $28 in our model (total revenues of $53 million)", which mean the delay might cost Take Two $5 million. Ouch.Of course, there's still the possibility that Morgan is underestimating the game's sale figures: they predicted that T2 would sell 900,000 copies of Elder Scrolls in the time immediately after its release, when in fact Take Two recently announced that they've sold 1.7 million units.
