IF Liberty City looks familiar to you, that’s because you’re livin’ in it, baby!
“Grand Theft Auto IV,” the latest addition to Rockstar Games’ hit video game franchise – finally due in stores Tuesday – has been lovingly set right here in Gotham.
And please don’t take offense that game creators have labeled Liberty City – gorgeously detailed courtesy of next-generation console capabilities – the “worst place in America.”
They kid because they love.
The Post got a sneak peek at the new game and spoke with Rockstar’s co-founder and creative VP Dan Houser.
“We wanted to set ‘GTA IV’ in a city that we had a strong base in, so it would either be New York, London or Edinburgh,” Houser says. New York was the obvious choice because “a lot of ‘GTA’ is about cultural satire, so it had to be based in America.”
To get the virtual city just right, the Rockstar team sent out photographers and videographers to capture the essence of the real city – including what people on the street wear and how they speak in different neighborhoods. No detail was too small: They got footage of traffic patterns, different types of weather, the sky during different times of day.
With “a large number of people [in the office] who were born here or have lived here for the last 10 years or more, we can be pretty confident that we’re doing [the city] justice, capturing the essence and spirit of it,” says Houser.
He’s not just boasting.
New Yorkers will chortle over details like those guys who try to sell you hip-hop CDs on the street – talk to them and you’ll get a quick side mission – doomsday preachers and street musicians.
But don’t cry if you don’t see your apartment building or local bodega in the game. Houser says that “GTA IV” is not “trying to be a photo-realistic re-creation of [New York], it’s trying to capture the spirit of it in a video game.”
This is especially true if you happen to be a newbie to the city, like the game’s main character, Niko Bellic, an Eastern European war veteran who comes to the States to get a piece of the American Dream – one that’s probably more violent than he anticipated.
The immigrant story line came about because “on the one hand, it was classic Americana, and on the other hand, having an Eastern European felt very contemporary,” says Houser.
“We’ve done so much Mafia stuff and every other conventional American gangster story in the games before, this was something that felt very new.”
Houser, who wrote the story for the game, loosely based the wide-eyed wonder with which Niko views the city on his and his brother Sam’s own experiences when they first came to America from the United Kingdom and founded Rockstar.
“We wanted that feeling of when you turn up here and you walk down the street, like, ‘Wow, the buildings are that big – and the people are that weird,'” says Houser.
As you play the game, you’ll find that Niko probably has a better social life than you do. But between all the gun-toting, knuckle-bruising and high-speed driving action, “GTA IV” has plenty of purely fun activities.
There’s online dating, playing pool, shooting darts, going to comedy shows, nightclubs and cabaret shows. You can even get drunk – and walk out of the bar with distorted vision, which makes “being drunk look horrible.”
“What we tried to do was give you a good range,” says Houser. “Obviously, there’s all the action stuff he’s got to do – the driving, the shooting, the fighting, the setting off of bombs, the assassinating of unpleasant people – but then there’s the play stuff, being in a digital version of New York and trying to give you as many activities as you can do there.”
Just how excited are people for Tuesday’s launch?
Jeremy Dunham, editorial manager at IGN Games, puts it on par with the soccer World Cup or the Olympics.
“There are a few games like this – the new Mario game or ‘Halo’ game – that come along every couple of years and is a really big deal,” he says.
“What’s great about ‘GTA IV,’ is that it lives up to the anticipation. This game is actually very, very good, and it’s going to prove that there’s a reason why the series is so popular and so big and why mainstream media and people who don’t normally play video games are so interested in it – it actually delivers.”
GTA IV’S NIFTY NEW FEATURES
* Online multiplayer: Supporting up to 16 players and using customizable characters, you can roam around the “GTA IV” map while death-matching, racing cars and playing “Cops N Crooks.”
* Cover system: Now you’ll be able to hide behind stuff and lock onto your target (with an overhauled targeting system) and peek out. Or, you can blindly fire around corners.
* Story choices: Your choices and decisions – the path you take to complete a mission, killing people instead of beating them up, being friendly – affect your story line.
* Cellphone navigation: Instead of heading back to one spot to pick up missions, you’ll be buzzed on your cell or get sent a text message with instructions. Sometimes, people (like your girlfriend) will just call to chat.
Get the lay of the land
* Algonquin = Manhattan
* Dukes = Queens
* Bohan = The Bronx
* Broker = Brooklyn
* Alderney = New Jersey and Staten Island
* BOABO = DUMBO
* Twitchin’ Sugar Factory = Williamsburg’s Domino sugar refinery
* Star Junction = Times Square
* MeTV building = MTV Studios
* LCPD kiosk = Armed Forces recruiting station
* Middle Park = Central Park
* Firefly Island = Coney Island
* The Screamer = The Cyclone
* The Statue of Happiness = The Statue of Liberty
* Steinway Beer Garden = Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden
* The Majestic = The Ritz
* Pirate Music = Times Square’s Virgin Megastore
* Candy Box = Hershey’s store