Liberty City landmarks: GTA IV vs Chinatown Wars

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

Words: on April 1, 2009

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…

 


 


 


 


 


 


 


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Platforms:

Xbox 360, PS3, PC, DS

31 Comments
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  • BigBoss

    BigBoss  - 3 weeks, 4 days ago  - Report

    I'm just playing through this game at the minute and ipod touch. Thoroughly enjoying it. Just thought I'd comment on an interesting article that I remember from back in the day.
  • RaIdEn

    RaIdEn  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    hey weres the libertonian museum?
  • izayuh

    izayuh  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    wow i never even noticed half this stuff must have a bad eye
  • Spybreak8

    Spybreak8  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    Yea It's nice to drive around and know where you are but the details they put in every which way is astounding. I actually found the go kart place on the DS and never have seen it on the GTAIV version! lol Must go hunting for that and hunting dragons of course.
  • Hobojedi

    Hobojedi  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    Quick! Grab your guns and boats! We're going dragon huntin'!
  • cowsrule

    cowsrule  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    @HolyHandGrenade

    Dreaming for a bite of Johnson
  • deathrebellion

    deathrebellion  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    whoa they have an eye for detail O_o
    and i love how Rockstar throws a little laugh here and there
  • Tomsta666

    Tomsta666  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    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!!
  • Unoriginal

    Unoriginal  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    That is really impressive. I wish all DS games looked like this.
  • iKOemos

    iKOemos  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    Rockstar did a wonderful job cramming in Liberty city onto the DS, I can't wait until I get this game!
  • madsick1

    madsick1  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    Thank god they didn't forget the giant ass billboard in Star Junction!
  • ELpork

    ELpork  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    HA! here be dragons.
  • Defguru7777

    Defguru7777  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    My favorite bit was the "Here Be Dragons" sign. Rockstar needs to patch GTA IV so we get that.
  • TrevorISme

    TrevorISme  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    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!
  • NeoKef

    NeoKef  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    Nice to know some people pay attention to detail.
  • MagicArmadillo

    MagicArmadillo  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    very nice GR
  • jamminontha1n2

    jamminontha1n2  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    I didn't even know there was a playground on the beach. I guess I didn't explore well enough.
  • Samael

    Samael  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    Very cool. Amazing how much attention to detail they were able keep.
  • Cyberninja

    Cyberninja  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    great comparison and is it the week of picture articles
    and first
  • crossed23

    crossed23  - 2 years, 10 months ago  - Report

    Great job Rockstar, I cant wait until my copy of the game gets here, been stuck in shipping forever it feel like lol.
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