roaddog66 4 Report post Posted November 30, 2011 The Road to GTA V: Saying Goodbye to Liberty City It's been well over a year since I stepped foot in Liberty City. For a while there I never wanted to leave; it was a playground unlike any other I'd ever been in. GTA IV's rich, dense world was really something else. Sure, I played GTA: San Andreas for longer than I care to ponder. Once every bit of provided gameplay had been milked I set about losing days to other tasks. Weeks, perhaps. Who else experimented with how many tow trucks they could hook together, or the smallest gap they could thread the AT-400 through? And the cheats. No game has ever had better ones. Still, GTA IV was different to its PS2 forebear – and yet I played it for even longer. The generation jump brought with it the ability to craft vivid, more believable worlds. The grittier, more grounded game we ultimately got in GTA IV was married perfectly to its far more realistic and more authentic environment, and I became hopelessly addicted to it. Gaming moves fast, however, and after a huge amount of time sunk into messing about in Liberty City I eventually needed to move on. Like always, there are other games to play. The past two months has been heaving with titles worth investing in but after the recent debut trailer for GTA V I took some time to revisit GTA IV and the city I spent a significant part of this generation a temporary resident of. The most amazing thing about Liberty City is that, after all these years, it remains a fascinating place to be. The credibility and character of GTA IV's Liberty City still impresses; it has this remarkable ability to make one feel like a tourist. Emerging back onto an Algonquin sidewalk after all this time it feels like I'm returning to a favourite holiday location. I don't want to run; I want to walk. I want to absorb what's going on around me. I want to read the storefronts. I want to observe the hustle and bustle and admire the simulation of a living, breathing digital metropolis. I stroll down into the grimy Hematite subway station, on Union Drive West between Hematite and Iron, admiring the painstakingly crafted filth. I take the first train down to Easton and emerge to take in The Triangle, before strolling back north to see Star Junction. A man crossing the road ahead of me is clipped by a cab; he drags the cabbie out and a fight breaks out. There aren't any cops nearby but, while I could call some on my cell phone, the scuffle is over quickly. The taxi driver loses and limps off. I move the cab to the kerb and the traffic starts moving again. I hail the next empty taxi I see and take it to Funland out at Firefly Island. The cab ride is long but I'm seeing this city at a pace I've never taken the time to do so before. The workmanship on every block is just something else. After all that time I spent here years ago I'm still seeing stuff I never noticed before. A piece of unique graffiti here. A quirky sign there. It's a deliberately imperfect world; built from the ground-up and then aged, weathered and even vandalised to look like it's evolved over more than a century. The taxi crawls across the patchy bitumen, wallowing over hasty road repairs, past just enough hints of debris and decay to give the whole place a genuine lived-in feel. If this trip back to Liberty did anything it encouraged me to be even more enthusiastic about seeing the full breadth of the new Los Santos Rockstar North is shaping now for GTA V. The GTA V trailer may have only been just over a minute long but the signs are exceedingly good. The precise traits that made the GTA IV rendition of Liberty City feel so real and not only back, they're clearly amplified. The GTA V trailer hints at a city even more thick with detail and nuance than ever before. This is a game that I'm ready to live in. What is GTA V's reimagined Los Santos likely to do to what we expect from virtual urban worlds? Like Liberty City, Los Santos 2.0 will be a character unto itself – but it's likely to rewrite the rulebook entirely. I can't wait to visit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Marney1 Report post Posted November 30, 2011 I've read that before but I'll trust you to link to the source, plus it's not worthy of it's own topic. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
marneyknuckle 30 Report post Posted November 30, 2011 Yeah gaming changes fast. 20 years ago we had 16/32 bit graphics to brag about. the Nintendo vs sega fan boys were forever duking it out. Now I look back at gta sa era way kinda like that xbox vs ps2 that game brought so much to the table and and is probably in the top 10 best ever games. Then we got gta4 with the graphics on 360/ps3 were truly something to behold. Gta in a realm that was so life like the AI was more aware of the little details As for gta5 we can expect so much. The graphics will play a major roll. gta5 is gunna be beautiful and breathtaking. The hours and memories of gta sa will live on 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mocha 3 Report post Posted December 1, 2011 reading this topic i almost shed a tear. really made me want to jump out of bed and play GTA IV. I remember when i first played vice city i thought it was the best thing in the world. it was so amazing i was only 6 and i begged my dad for years until he got me liberty city stories for in 2006 it was the best day. i remember my good friend dylan whos mom passed away from cancer and now lives in kansas (i live in LA he used to) we used to take his ps2 to my house and we would play san andreas till 5 AM those were the days :'( Then i remember i saw the 3rd trailer for GTA IV and i was so excited i diddnt even know it was under development i remember me and my friend mike would go to his house and we would do stunts jump from the helicopters it was all great times in back in 2008. I still play IV till today along with lcs and vcs lost my san andreas though. GTA has had a huge impact on my life and when i heard GTA V was gonna have a trailer i was so happy. I was in school when the trailer came out i couldnt get access to a computer so i watched it on my shitty blackberry and i only got to watch like 20 seconds of it because my phone was so glitchy but i jumped around my class and this girl next to me said what are you so excited about its just a trailer my reply was fuck you i got sent out but i diddnt care i did it for GTA V. GTA V literally looks amazing id probally break a bone on purpose or some gnarly shit just to get my hands on a copy. The trailer song is amzing also its just so epic ive prolly watched the trailer like around 60-70 times. Anyway you could call me gay for a QD i dont really care just expressing some emotions haters gonna hate i dont give shit. i know everyone has a story like this. whoever reads this thank you regardless if its hate or compliment. #GTAV Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mercy 30 Report post Posted December 1, 2011 A simple hi would have done Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ConQueSteD 552 Report post Posted December 1, 2011 reading this topic i almost shed a tear. really made me want to jump out of bed and play GTA IV. I remember when i first played vice city i thought it was the best thing in the world. it was so amazing i was only 6 and i begged my dad for years until he got me liberty city stories for in 2006 it was the best day. i remember my good friend dylan whos mom passed away from cancer and now lives in kansas (i live in LA he used to) we used to take his ps2 to my house and we would play san andreas till 5 AM those were the days :'( Then i remember i saw the 3rd trailer for GTA IV and i was so excited i diddnt even know it was under development i remember me and my friend mike would go to his house and we would do stunts jump from the helicopters it was all great times in back in 2008. I still play IV till today along with lcs and vcs lost my san andreas though. GTA has had a huge impact on my life and when i heard GTA V was gonna have a trailer i was so happy. I was in school when the trailer came out i couldnt get access to a computer so i watched it on my shitty blackberry and i only got to watch like 20 seconds of it because my phone was so glitchy but i jumped around my class and this girl next to me said what are you so excited about its just a trailer my reply was fuck you i got sent out but i diddnt care i did it for GTA V. GTA V literally looks amazing id probally break a bone on purpose or some gnarly shit just to get my hands on a copy. The trailer song is amzing also its just so epic ive prolly watched the trailer like around 60-70 times. Anyway you could call me gay for a QD i dont really care just expressing some emotions haters gonna hate i dont give shit. i know everyone has a story like this. whoever reads this thank you regardless if its hate or compliment. #GTAV tl;dr seemed pointless also A simple hi would have done Thanks for shorthand. Yeah gaming changes fast. 20 years ago we had 16/32 bit graphics to brag about. the Nintendo vs sega fan boys were forever duking it out. . . . . . . . ECT It's really hard to believe that not really long ago we had crap 2D and now we are pushing 3D. I'm really interested to see consoles/graphics 15 years down the line and how far they've progressed. I just can't wait to actually play the character and finally Pick up a hooker get shagged and then run her over and get my money back. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Qdeathstar 1763 Report post Posted December 2, 2011 nice, um... treatise Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pitbull 13 Report post Posted December 2, 2011 Yeah'p, the old gta's were great and the ones to come will be better. Can't believe i've just wasted my time reading that. lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
