Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City - Gawker Comments

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name. — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:10:10 EDT

@sassypants: You've been able to steal boats since GTA III. Jetskis? I wouldn't be surprised.

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

ANeM — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:24:40 EDT

@nonpareil:
the article never actually stated what platforms GTA4 was coming out on, it only referred to the original GTA as a playstation game. Which is correct really, as it was released for the Playstation(1) and on PC for DOS and Windows (which wasn't mentioned) and featured Liberty City as its first zone, not that you could really tell from the top down perspective :P

ANeM

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

demonspawn2578 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:25:10 EDT

you know, i actually get quite excited when i see buildings and scenery i recognize from previous games!

demonspawn2578

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

DavidWatts — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:54:41 EDT

When's the unboxing video go up, doodz?

DavidWatts

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

coladict — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:23:43 EDT

OMG that's the same diner as in Fahrenheit.
It's exterior is a bit different, but the buildings and poles around it are exactly the same and in the same locations.

coladict

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

DorothyMantooth — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:55:31 EDT

@latinogamer: Um... okay.

DorothyMantooth

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

MisterB — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:41:22 EDT

I like that City Hall has been replaced with a Chinese restaurant. And the graffiti-covered subway is a nice nostalgic touch. Oh, 1987 ...

MisterB

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Edgehopper — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:30:57 EDT

Also, I'd note that it's close enough that I think I can see my office building in one of the screencaps. Very cool.

Edgehopper

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Spoony Bard — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:24:44 EDT

Looks like you've made your first post on Kotaku, Nick :)

Am I wrong? In any case, nice article.

Spoony Bard

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Phyllis Nefler — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:11:50 EDT

@Dickdogfood: It does have a recognizable 1 New York Plaza though, and the WFC buildings. File this under Things I Actually Like.

Phyllis Nefler

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

SidAndFinancy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:42:29 EDT

@Edgehopper: Yes, perspective makes a big difference. Here, the Woolworth Building looks pretty close to the Financial Center: [www.orbwar.com] (apologies for linking to a conspiracy site).

And in the third picture here, the Empire State Building looks similar in perspective from the downtown waterfront to how it does in the screencap above: [www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com]

@MisterHippity: And Russia's second largest city would be Chapmangrad?

SidAndFinancy

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Steverino — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:29:15 EDT

It looks like a gorgeous landscape for a tacky, juvenile simulated muderous rampage.

Steverino

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Pareene — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:16:45 EDT

that diner looks more like mickey's in st paul than cheyenne or munson diners in manhattan.

Pareene

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

jackvinyl — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:14:29 EDT

@MisterHippity: After Woody Harrelson's father died, George H.W. Bush is the only living person who still knows what to name that airport... not to get all trilateral commission-y for that ass.

jackvinyl

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:09:11 EDT

A wee bit warped, but as much as Christopher Nolan's Gotham.

Nicholas Carlson

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

latinogamer — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:09:04 EDT

hahahah to the 360 fanboys, GTA4 will always be a playstation title

latinogamer

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

MisterHippity — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:03:35 EDT

@Rizzo88: So, in Liberty City, Kennedy Airport must be called "Oswald Airport," right?

MisterHippity

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Edgehopper — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:03:09 EDT

@badasscat: I think that picture of Manhattan you linked to is actually from a significantly different angle than the one in the screencap. The one you linked to is coming from the Brooklyn side, while the one in the screencap comes from the Jersey City side. The curved building in the center of the actual picture isn't the World Financial Center, which the one in the screencap presumably is.

To properly match it up, use the South Ferry landing, which is at the far right of the screencap and at the far left of the real picture. The ferry landing at the right of the real picture is the Staten Island ferry.

Still compressed, but not quite as much as you're arguing, I think.

Edgehopper

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

fiveinchtaint — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:42:54 EDT

This game might eat up more of my time than work and commenting combined. My pants are tight.

fiveinchtaint

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Gayyker — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:29:57 EDT

Wow, Tudor Revival must have been a really popular architecture style in Liberty City.

Gayyker

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

92BuickLeSabre — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:29:24 EDT

@Spirit Fingers: Actually they do have boats. I knew one guy that parked his boat on the west side and lived out of it while in Grad. School. Cheaper than the rents for that part of the city.

Only problem I see is that the diner on the corner of 69th Street always has a specials board out front.

92BuickLeSabre

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Mark Graham — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:25:05 EDT

I wonder how many office drones will be calling in sick on Tuesday nationwide?

Mark Graham

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Botswana Meat Commission FC — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:22:43 EDT

@badasscat:
True Life: Streets of LA and Streets of NY were supposedly to scale. I believe the NY version had all of Manhattan.

The LA version covered a RIDICULOUSLY huge area. Like, you'd spend 35 minutes just driving through intersection after intersection before shooting up a school bus full of retarded kids.

Botswana Meat Commission FC

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

DorothyMantooth — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:21:39 EDT

That looks fantastic!

DorothyMantooth

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

badasscat — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:19:00 EDT

@valarmorghulis: Because NYC is fucking huge, as I said. And for every additional square mile you add, you need additional textures, additional 3D work, etc. Someday a game will have a true to life NYC, but that day is not here yet and won't be for some time.

It's not a question of "if" the city is compressed. I am telling you the city is compressed just by looking at these screenshots. This is a similar perspective to the second to last shot above:

[inhabitat.com]

You see how much further away the Empire State Building is? Or for that matter, the Woolworth Building? (It's right next to the WFC in the screenshot; about 1/4 mile away in real life.)

I'm not faulting Rockstar for this, it's just the reality of what the current systems allow them to do in a reasonable amount of time, and plus it means they don't have to fill up as much space with things to do.

badasscat

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Spirit Fingers — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:13:36 EDT

People have boats in this city? And there are no 8 foot rats lying dead in the gutter.

(There was one two blocks from my apartment. The sheer size of this behemoth rodent caused shock and awe, it actually slowed traffic. I'm thinking someone called 311 to report that the biggest mammal living had invaded Brooklyn.)

Spirit Fingers

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

YourGoldKeith — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:11:13 EDT

There is no elevated train running between BK bridge and Queens...
and there are no drug running speedboats near the ESB (they're all in Miami)...
and where are all the hookers?!?!?

YourGoldKeith

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

surreal — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:04:02 EDT

@SheLaughs: well, to be fair, we haven't seen a screen shot of times square.

surreal

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Saxon 212 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:02:56 EDT

Niko baby you can call me any time,it doesn't even have to be a date,after all dates are boring so let's just fuck I know that's what you want.

Saxon 212

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

valarmorghulis — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:59:12 EDT

I think I can make that video, but I don't get my copy till the first (seriously Amazon? you can't just fucking drive it across the lake to me? it takes two fucking days?! why?!).
@badasscat: I don't see why they couldn't make it true to scale.

valarmorghulis

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

jann9884 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:53:50 EDT

Maybe I'm not looking carefully enough, but I don't think I see anyone peeing in public.

jann9884

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Kraftwerker — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:53:12 EDT

I don't see any hipsters.

Kraftwerker

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

badasscat — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:48:51 EDT

@Nick Denton: Yeah, that is the view down Chambers St. in real life. True story: I got married in that building at the end of that street.

Chambers St. is most definitely not in Chinatown at all. So that's part of what I said about the city being compressed.

Notice also how the World Financial Center (the left-most buildings in the second to last shot) seems to be about a block away from the Empire State Building. In real life, they're about 8 miles apart.

badasscat

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

FitnessMadeSimple — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:48:09 EDT

@SheLaughs: Taken out with a blowtorch methinks.

FitnessMadeSimple

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Botswana Meat Commission FC — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:46:00 EDT

That jogger isn't being raped.

Botswana Meat Commission FC

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Nick Denton — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:45:36 EDT

I'm pretty sure Chinatown doesn't lead straight up to those civic center skyscrapers.

Nick Denton

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

BettyCrocker — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:43:44 EDT

Niko is hot. That is all.

BettyCrocker

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

badasscat — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:43:32 EDT

@pleppy: Helicopters fly over NYC all the time. Just two days ago I had one hovering right outside my window at work (I work in Times Square, so we get news copters hovering around all the time).

The NYPD has at least four police copters - you think they're not allowed to fly around their own city??

As for *real* differences, a lot of this stuff is pretty accurate but it's obviously going to be ultra-compressed. New York City is hundreds of square miles in area. I'd doubt GTAIV is going to be more than 50.

One thing is the subways don't have any graffiti on them anymore (and haven't for almost 20 years now). I'm sure the Rockstar guys just thought it was cool.

badasscat

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Oface — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:42:36 EDT

Ooh...so now you can drunkenly beat up hookers for money. Awesome.

Oface

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

allyzay — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:40:25 EDT

@allyzay: oh my god your picture function is really lame, gawker!

allyzay

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Rizzo88 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:39:43 EDT

One of the screenshots has a few cops running. To my knowledge, that has never happened in NYC.

I love that they renamed the Lincoln tunnel - the Booth Tunnel

Rizzo88

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

allyzay — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:38:13 EDT

why don't you try this game instead, nick?

[mightygodking.com]

allyzay

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

The Wintour of Our Discontent — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:35:10 EDT

Yes, because New York women respond so well to late-night phone calls from drunken immigrants.

The Wintour of Our Discontent

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

pleppy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:33:36 EDT

Helicopters aren't allowed to fly over NYC airspace. That's all. Everything else is the same. (Except for no babies -- good eye Ed)

pleppy

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

SheLaughs — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:31:34 EDT

Where are the clots of stupid tourists who walk in a clusterfuck and stop for no reason in the middle of the sidewalk? MOVE YOU FUCKERS!!!

SheLaughs

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

MenaceIISobriety — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:31:31 EDT

...and Gawker headquarters are where? i have a package to deliver. you can sign for it...IN HELL!

MenaceIISobriety

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

sassypants — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:30:53 EDT

@sassypants: um, they. I meant they. (Dipshit).

sassypants

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Geek Monkey — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:30:03 EDT

Liberty City has impressive pigeon exterminators.

Geek Monkey

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

In Other News... — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:29:48 EDT

@Hiphopopotamus: The one we'd like to sell you.

In Other News...

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

sassypants — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:29:41 EDT

Can someone explain how a sailboat off of North Cove Marina is involved in Grand Theft Auto? What, are the hijacking jet skis now?

sassypants

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

In Other News... — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:28:55 EDT

It's more realistic than the NYC in most TV sitcoms and dramas, so we're all good.

In Other News...

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

cockfightbarmitzvah — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:26:42 EDT

I heard the real challenge in this version is a mini-game in which Niko has to try and find an affordable apartment in Liberty City. Talk about MURDER!!!!

cockfightbarmitzvah

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Hiphopopotamus — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:26:38 EDT

Which bridge in NY has quaint old-timey houses underneath it?

Hiphopopotamus

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Clare — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:26:24 EDT

Where are all the hot dog carts?

I kind of recognize the church. Is it supposed to be St. Thomas on 53rd Street?

Clare

Grand Theft Auto's Warped View of New York City

Dickdogfood — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:26:24 EDT

Also, in the second-to-last-one, most of the tall buildings around Wall Street--1 Wall Street, the Manhattan Company Building, the Equitable, 140 Broadway, Chase Manhattan Plaza, the Park Row Building--don't seem to have any GTA analogue.

But who cares? When this comes to PC I'm going to waste a month or two on this baby.

Dickdogfood