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Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Also known as: GTA: Chinatown Wars

Liberty City landmarks: GTA IV vs Chinatown Wars

See how the handheld Grand Theft Auto stacks up against its full-sized cousin

Words: Mikel Reparaz, GamesRadar US

In bringing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars to the DS, its developers faced a seemingly impossible task: take GTA IV’s Liberty City, one of the biggest, most detailed virtual worlds ever created, and squeeze it onto the least powerful handheld on the market. In the end, a few corners were cut (the biggest being the entire island of Alderney), but overall Chinatown Wars does an excellent job recreating the streets and landmarks that made Liberty so much fun to explore.

To find out just how complete Chinatown Wars’ scale model of GTA IV’s model city is, we trucked around to notable points in GTA IV, found the corresponding spots on the map in Chinatown Wars and recorded what we found there. It turns out CTW’s Liberty has barely been scaled back at all, and while the blown-up screens below don’t quite do the game justice, they should give you an idea of the incredible attention to detail that went into the game.

Associate Editor Chris Antista contributed to this article.


 

 


Above: Also, this is pretty cool

 


 


 


 


 


You can always find a high-end Turismo sitting around for the taking in a driveway near Mikhail Faustin’s house in GTA IV. What’s weird is that there’s an identical car that’s always in the same spot in Chinatown Wars.

 


 


 

Or, in case you can’t quite see it…

 


 


 


 


 


 


 



 
30 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
Cyberninja  - 7 months 21 days ago 
great comparison and is it the week of picture articles
and first
Samael  - 7 months 21 days ago 
Very cool. Amazing how much attention to detail they were able keep.
jamminontha1n2  - 7 months 21 days ago 
I didn't even know there was a playground on the beach. I guess I didn't explore well enough.
RebornKusabi  - 7 months 21 days ago 
I love this game. I'm taking a bit of a break from it so I can wait for some good FAQ's to come out so I can 100%... I would just buy a strategy guide for this game but I can't seem to find it anywhere >_>
MagicArmadillo  - 7 months 21 days ago 
very nice GR
NeoKef  - 7 months 21 days ago 
Nice to know some people pay attention to detail.
Tasty_Pasta  - 7 months 21 days ago 
Wow, that's pretty sweet. They did a much better job than I was expecting recreating LC.
TrevorISme  - 7 months 21 days ago 
I really like that, its almost amazingly incredible that all they did was take LC from 4 and turn it into a birdseye, scaled down graphics view of everything. I LOVE IT!
iluvmyDS  - 7 months 21 days ago 
Wow, Rockstar worked their asses off.
Defguru7777  - 7 months 21 days ago 
My favorite bit was the "Here Be Dragons" sign. Rockstar needs to patch GTA IV so we get that.
ELpork  - 7 months 21 days ago 
HA! here be dragons.
madsick1  - 7 months 21 days ago 
Thank god they didn't forget the giant ass billboard in Star Junction!
iKOemos  - 7 months 21 days ago 
Rockstar did a wonderful job cramming in Liberty city onto the DS, I can't wait until I get this game!
Unoriginal  - 7 months 21 days ago 
That is really impressive. I wish all DS games looked like this.
Tomsta666  - 7 months 21 days ago 
I've noticed a few familiar sights too as i've been driving around. The attention to detail really is impressive. I thought GTA:CTW was going to be dumbed down too. It wasn't the case!!
deathrebellion  - 7 months 21 days ago 
whoa they have an eye for detail O_o
and i love how Rockstar throws a little laugh here and there
ssj4raditz  - 7 months 21 days ago 
It's just amazing that they were able to cram so much onto a DS cart! Great article.
HolyHandGrenade  - 7 months 21 days ago 
Whoa, that's huge!

(100 pts for anyone with the follow up comment.)

reCAPTCHA: Chapel vodka
cowsrule  - 7 months 21 days ago 
@HolyHandGrenade

Dreaming for a bite of Johnson
LionheartAce  - 7 months 20 days ago 
LOL! Nice job on this. Loving the "Here be Dragons!"
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