In pictures: GTA IV's Liberty City vs. Earth's New York City
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ May 14th 2008 at 9:15PM }
There it was. A quiet, thoughtful moment, right in the midst of our rat-a-tat assault. There's not much room for unnecessary thought during a drive-by shooting -- aim and pull the trigger, aim and pull the trigger -- but this one provided an odd moment of stillness and clarity. As time slowed to a crawl and a prostitute's unlucky encounter with our front bumper became a slow-motion aerial ballet, we saw the world. Peering out the window at our decaying urban surroundings, we could think of only one question. "What would this be like ... in a game?"Grand Theft Auto IV attempts to answer that question, reshaping New York City into the architecturally approximate, but satirically scathing Liberty City. Flickr user (and blogger) Matthew Johnston has created a photo set that compares the Big Apple to its rotten, in-game core, with various real and virtual landmarks placed side by side. We think you should check it out.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ScottyGEE @ May 14th 2008 9:19PM
Saw these before. Its really quite amazing.
A few things let it down though:
1) Not capturing at the same angle
2) bloom infestation
3) taking pictures at sunset waashes everything with brown...Shoulda done it early morning.
I can't imagine the amount of effort that went into it all.
ScottyGEE @ May 14th 2008 9:21PM
omgosh I was first and stuffz!
Ladies will flock to me coz they rly love a man thats quick amirite?
-.-
GenBanks @ May 15th 2008 9:43AM
lol, I guess not
Zeus.:God @ May 14th 2008 9:28PM
Wow... Thats pretty awesome... He did a VERY good job... It actually took me a second a few times to figure out which one was ingame and which was real.
jackbauer (mk:4811-7496-3209) @ May 14th 2008 10:14PM
I don't know a lot of the pictures still have that "video game-y" look to them, but the are a few that did take me a few seconds to figure out (example: bank of america). Basically the ones that are more close up with no other points of distractions are the more difficult ones to differentiate. Nevertheless I am impressed with these pictures and detail that rockstar has put into them and the game as a whole, the game is very enjoyable.
Sam406 @ May 14th 2008 9:35PM
"What would this be like ... in a game?"
Probably the loudest I've ever laughed at a blog entry.
Norty @ May 14th 2008 9:46PM
Same here. That was a hilarious little intro.
Automag @ May 14th 2008 10:22PM
Hilarious. Ludwig is the man.
Carl Abrams @ May 15th 2008 10:33AM
I didn't quite catch it the first time, because I went to see the pictures. Then when I came back, I went - wait a second... THEN I did laugh out loud.
Plus one for Ludwig on the commentary.
Obie @ May 14th 2008 10:10PM
Yeah the amount of work that went into making Liberty city the best virtual rep of NY I have ever seen...actually it makes me want to go there on vacation again.
Isaac @ May 14th 2008 10:14PM
I found my house in GTA IV. Then I blew it up.
PSN: KillaKornbread (the shirt is a lie!) @ May 15th 2008 2:00AM
lol awesome.
Poisoned Al @ May 14th 2008 10:25PM
It's all well and good comapring the two, but you have to remember Liberty city is only an approximation of New York. For one, Rockstar North have a habit of hiding UK landmarks in their games. One Canada Square makes an apprance this time, a bit far from it's home on the Isle of Dogs.
Lasbrook @ May 14th 2008 10:52PM
Ahh if only we had Eva's in Liberty City... If only.
Lewis @ May 15th 2008 1:32AM
Where's the comparison pics of the Metlife building through Lexington?
http://www.buddhacab.com/images/pics/002.8-25.05ParkAveSPanAmBldg.jpg
nuero @ May 15th 2008 2:22AM
Yeah, just noting that I laughed at the first paragraph.
ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ May 15th 2008 3:54AM
This is incredible: well, not the part where he's taking pictures for comparison, but where we actually get to see for ourselves the amount of research it must had taken for Rockstar to nail the city down to so much detail.
clerkenwell @ May 15th 2008 4:18AM
Pretty good batch of 360/PS3 comparison shots.
Wait. What's that you say?
GenBanks @ May 15th 2008 9:48AM
I hope he does it again when the PC version comes out, with some screenshots of the game running at a higher resolution. On some of them, pretty much the only thing that gave away the difference was the level of blurriness.
Matthew Johnston @ May 16th 2008 10:31AM
Hey, this is the supplier of the photos, thanks for the thanks everyone, but like others have said, I'm just the middleman for this awesomeness, really its Rockstar that did all the work.
By the way, I wouldn't rely on my screenshots as a measure of the blurriness (or even the graphical depth) of the game, because the only way I could capture them was by pointing my digital camera at the TV screen! So GTA4 suffers a bit, that way.
Anyway, glad you liked.