Liberty City
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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?
Heavy Rain in Liberty City: a GTA IV Machinima
If you've played through Heavy Rain, you know that most problems can't be solved by shooting a dude in the face. For GTA IV's Niko Bellic, that's very much a real problem solver -- a tactic he has no problem using. So it's a pretty odd juxtaposition to see the two games spliced together like they are in the video past the break. It's a pretty great video, but we feel we should warn you that you probably won't get it if you've never played Heavy Rain. Unless you're watching this part, which we're pretty sure is funny no matter what game(s) you've played. [Via Kotaku]
Watch GTA IV's Liberty City tourism ad
We're sure many of you have already seen this Grand Theft Auto IV ad, as it's floating around the internet for "a fair piece," in the parlance of the hills. But we like it and we wanted to make sure you put your eyeballs on it as well, because we care about you. Also, we had to make sure you saw the part where the guy was drunk. How cool does that look? Man, we're going to be drunk all the time while we play. ... In the game, of course.By the way, you should know that this ad's from GameStop, which is probably just trying to trick you (and us) into pre-ordering the game. The bad news is that it totally worked.
GTA IV: subway map, PS3 controls revealed
The news keeps leaking out of Rockstar today. Images of Liberty City's surprisingly complex subway system have been found at GTAGaming.com. While it doesn't come close to matching the true depth of NYC's real world subway, Rockstar clearly goes beyond any effort in the gaming world to date. Even lesser known NYC locales, like Roosevelt Island, get a treatment in this faux recreation of the Big Apple.It doesn't take much to imagine the scale of GTA IV. Simply think of all the blocks, buildings and landmarks that fit within this map. It boggles the mind, and makes us wonder if anyone will be playing anything but GTA in the months following its release.[Thanks, Neil C.!]
GTA IV's handy upgrade in graphics
To understand the upgrades in the Grand Theft Auto series' graphics just look at the hands. Like a palm reader, Games Radar just examined the hands of GTA's anti-heros to observe how the series has evolved over time. From GTA 3's "The Stump" to GTA IV's "The Real Hand." Nikko (if that is the real main character) apparently "grasps objects in an entirely realistic fashion." We're sure to get a better idea of what GTA IV actually holds when we hopefully see the first gameplay footage in the near future.
Mayor Bloomberg defends NYC in wake of GTA trailer
Mamma Mia! Here we go again, GTA, does it show how much politicians can't resist ya? GamePolitics points to a New York Daily News piece this morning where politicians are incensed by Liberty City's striking resemblence to New York City. The Daily News had city councilmen, Police Commisssioner Ray Kelly and even Mayor Bloomberg's office commenting that the game has nothing to do with reality. Bloomberg's office even whipped out statistics showing auto thefts have dropped 58 percent since Bloomberg took office, and so far this year New York City's murder rate is down 28 percent. Apparently that will all change once GTA IV hits the streets. Following yesterday's takeover at Take-Two, it doesn't look like protocol on GTA issues is changing, Take-Two refused comment on the story.Real life mayors getting upset about games taking place in their cities is a pretty recent phenomenon. Las Vegas was upset with Ubisoft over Rainbow Six taking place in the city of sin and Mexican government officials confiscated GRAW 2. For the record, this wouldn't be the first time Liberty City was the setting for GTA. In the latest incarnations Grand Theft Auto III and GTA: Liberty City Stories were also set in pseudo-New York. We don't fault politicians though, sometimes the activists who get these balls rolling are bit late. The groups that helped get GTA ads banned in Boston with GTA: Vice City Stories weren't on the ball or enraged enough when GTA: Liberty City Stories' ads ran a year earlier.
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.
