Fun in Liberty City

Games like Grand Theft Auto might seem limitless in their scope, with travel limited only bythe vast expanse of water around each city that seems to go on forever. But does it? Anyone exploring GTA: San Andreas would say yes, as the ocean around that game's fictional state went out about as far as the player's patience.

We're assuming that most of you don't have the time or interest to see where all that water goes, mainly because we don't. But we made an exception for this article, trucking out as far from land as we could to see just what, if anything, was out there.

The results were disappointing. No monsters. No secret areas. Not even an endless sea. When we reached the edge of the map, we were automatically turned back around in the direction of land. Backing toward the border just bumped us into an invisible wall.

Head north of Liberty City, however, and you'll hit an impassable fence that rises just slightly out of the water. Beyond it are some really poorly rendered cliffs that appear to be part of the massive, inaccessible region at the north end of Shoreside Vale. You know, the one with the blocked tunnel bearing a sign that says "Upstate." What could it mean?

One thing is certain: the edge of the map is not, in fact, a magical gateway to a far-off land of fairy hookers. At least now you know.

Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.