Does anyone that plays GTA5 live or have lived in LA?

[AceThaCreator]

How does the map of this game compare to the real life LA?

[Varios Los Aztecas]

Never lived there but I've been a few times. I would say it feels and looks alot like LA, but it's nowhere near the scale of the real LA, LA is mind-blowingly big

[phunkism]

I think GTA V map is bigger than USA

[jbarb78]

Never lived in LA, but 20yrs in construction has had me doing a lot of work in the city, and there's lots of places that bear a strong resemblance. The stretch near Eclipse Towers and to the west is erily similar to Sunset Blvd leading into Santa Monica. Vinewood and Hollywood Hills are pretty close, nothing in the map is spot-on obviously but they got the general feel for the topography and a few landmarks. They pretty much took a scaled model and tweaked it a bit, but it does give you that feel sometimes. Thankfully it isn't too accurate, I can't stand LA, everytime I drive there I get roadrage and want to plow through cars and pedestrians. Atleast in this version of it, it's acceptable.

[Mattyp1514]

How does the map of this game compare to the real life LA?

A lot of similarities. The Rodeo section in San Andreas was eerily similar. police station in LA is also massive and looks more like a mansion than station. Santa Monica Pier, which is Vespucci beach did well to give you a mini me version of it. The ferris wheel was a nice touch.

 

Basically as the person said above, they did a great job hitting some nice touches, but its a smaller version of itself. If you're from the East Coast, LA and San Diego as major cities with MASSIVE land coverage by comparison

[Varios Los Aztecas]

Im from NY, and there are parts of Liberty, especially around Holland, Dukes, Bohan and Alderney, that feel so real to me, it's really f*cking weird.

[Mattyp1514]

Im just happy traffic on "the 5" isn't nearly as bad as real life. It'd be a 4 hour trip from East Los Santos to the Blaine County air strip.

[GTA-Freak-Vi]

Real life LA

 

Los santos

 

As you can see, there's a vast difference in scale but R* did an excellent job in remaking it. Almost looks identical

[djmatao]

I live in LA and they did a good job capturing LA, obviously as other stated it couldn't be on the same size scale as real LA but they did a fantastic job, even with the San Bernadino wind farm area and Paletto Bay which reminds me a bit of Big Bear Lake area, where exactly is Paletto bay suppose to mimic?

[ll Noble 6 ll]

I grew up in Los Angeles and while I've not been back in 13 years, I still consider it "home."

 

There are a lot of elements that perfectly match LA. From the projects, to the rough roads, to the bedroom communities on the outskirts, it's pretty much a replication. They had to remove immense amounts of housing, since LA is so spread out with it, in order to make it work (and not have you driving forever to do anything, like you do in LA).

 

As a result, you get a lot of landmarks crammed close together. For example, the ginormous mall they have sitting outside downtown is, in reality, about 20 miles away. The pier is located in Santa Monica, which is about 5 or 6 miles north of Venice Beach, where the muscle-builders are. In GTAV, you jump off the pier, and you're in Venice. Similarly, Venice is about 3 or four miles north of Marina Del Rey, which is about 2 or 3 miles north of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). As you can see with a quick jaunt down the beach, you can get from the pier to the airport in a few in-game minutes, without really driving through a lot of housing. There IS housing, especially in the Venice Beach area of the game, but there is a LOT more to it in the real world.

 

Another area of some confusion/mish-mash, is around the "forum" - which is actually right next to the racetrack in the real world. Both of them sit in what used to be middle-class neighborhoods, but which have descended over the years into some pretty dangerous territory (I grew up across the street from the real forum). That area is NOWHERE NEAR the docks, but the game has it right up against the airport. In the real world, the airport sits in the middle of the city's beaches, with a TON of housing south of it. The game has the airport on the water.

 

The docks are actually a pretty good distance away from the airport, but they've reproduced the look and feel of the area very well. There ARE two bridges across the dock area, but no bridges go underneath one another and the dock system itself is incredibly large.

 

As far as the rest of the map goes, they've jammed everything there is about California into the northern part of the map, whether it's the mountains or the central valley, or the redwood forests at the far north. In that area, it is more about the feel of Central California than any attempt at reality.

 

As a final note, and in addition to the other comments, it really DOES give the feel of being in Los Angeles. A lot of the buildings are instantly identifiable to an Angeleno, from the museum on the hill, to the feel of playing golf while surrounded by busy traffic, to the wind farm (which really exists - it was an important part of the end of the movie "Se7en") and the water pipes going up and down the hills. The oil fields really are there (but they're more scattered about) and they replicated the Sunset Strip so well that I can recognize most of it.

 

As a side note, I worked in one of the buildings in downtown - I recognize it. It's weird going back in time in my memories every time I drive by it.

Edited February 11, 2014 by ll Noble 6 ll

[AceThaCreator]

Real life LA

 

Los santos

 

As you can see, there's a vast difference in scale but R* did an excellent job in remaking it. Almost looks identical

Yea thats damn close just imagine the graphics and size of the map of gta 6 on the new gen consoles

Im from NY, and there are parts of Liberty, especially around Holland, Dukes, Bohan and Alderney, that feel so real to me, it's really f*cking weird.

Man it must be cool as hell to live in a city that the latter gtas have been based off of my state is right next to ny and someday im going to visit nyc and la.

[ReverendPain666]

It looks nothing like L.A.

 

I can see how it was inspired by it, in some ways.

[BuckScrotum]

Yes I live neat Venice (Vespucci beach) and it's very similar, but everything is smaller and some streets and sections of LA are missing. They did a good job for the most part, but it's much smaller and not to scale.

[RussianCommie]

I live in L.A. and have for the last 19 years. To me personally, I'm quite satisfied with the job R* did creating L.S., as well as, Blaine County. While, of course, the in game version of L.S. is really scaled down when compared to the true size of L.A., and for obvious reasons, I am content with the job that R* did in recreating real life L.A. in their own version of L.S. I give R* a for their effort.

[UtterTehSEAL]

It looks extremely close to real world LA. They also captured the feel and vibe perfectly imo

[owlboogie]

My friends from LA (born and raised and not gamers) were watching me play while visiting in SF. They said it looks like LA. I was driving in Rockford Hills and they said "If you turn here, that's where we work!" So good job R*.

[CHIEFSTA]

LA is f*cking huge! I like how R* put a few graffiti legends to give it more of an LA vibe. I straight recognized the graffiti when GTAV first came out.

 

Edited February 11, 2014 by CHIEFSTA

[Zondar]

Real life LA

Only been to LA once. This view at night was the highlight for me. (It's from the observatory right?)

It just blew my mind looking at the scale of the city and thinking this should be a f*cking desert!

[Lorajet]

R* did a really good job of capturing part of LA. I live south of Venice (Vespucci Beach) and it was weird seeing some landmarks that are so familiar. Santa Monica Pier for instance....

[Digitalbulletz]

I live in LA and they did a good job capturing LA, obviously as other stated it couldn't be on the same size scale as real LA but they did a fantastic job, even with the San Bernadino wind farm area and Paletto Bay which reminds me a bit of Big Bear Lake area, where exactly is Paletto bay suppose to mimic?

The wind farm area and blaine county I belive are supposed to mimic the palm springs area and Salton sea look it up on Google maps sat view

[soundism]

LA is f*cking huge! I like how R* put a few graffiti legends to give it more of an LA vibe. I straight recognized the graffiti when GTAV first came out.

 

Yep I recognized the ruets tag straight away in the pre-game trailer. (although that's more of a SF thing right?)

 

I visit the LA area for work once in a while, and the feel is pretty spot on. I'm glad the real scale of LA's sprawl wasn't reproduced... like others have stated: drive times are outrageous IRL.

[MookStunna]

They did another great job with this map. MCLA's map was set in a similar "city", but this one is way better.

[ShinobiFixer]

I'm from San Bernardino, but I wish this sh*t had more desert it could have done without Paleto bay.

 

Los Santos looks better because you can see the skyline from anywhere in the city. IRL, you'd have to go on a nearby hill to see the skyline plus everything is way more spread out. Other than that they caught the essence of Los Angeles.

[CaliMeatWagon]

I got a buddy from North Hollywood that came up for a visit. I was flying around in a helicopter to show him the city and get his impression and he was just naming off buildings and neighborhoods, so I would say they did a great job. I just hope at some point in time the give us San Fierro (San Francisco). It's the area i grew up in and those hills could be so much fun in the game.

[GTA-Freak-Vi]

 

Real life LA

Only been to LA once. This view at night was the highlight for me. (It's from the observatory right?)

It just blew my mind looking at the scale of the city and thinking this should be a f*cking desert!

yep , it's taken from the Griffith observatory, the view is quite breathtaking at night

[Gunslinger_GK]

They did another great job with this map. MCLA's map was set in a similar "city", but this one is way better.

I like both, MCLA was really great too.

 

[SuperJude™]

I live in the middle of Hollywood.

 

Rockstar did a great job of capturing the "feel" of various neighborhoods.

 

Have played with friends watching who know nothing about GTA and they knew exactly what certain locations were supposed to be.

 

Chinese Theater, Griffith Observatory, Hollywood Reservoir, Venice Beach, Palladium, everything has touches that make you feel like "wow I just saw that the other day!"

 

Strangely there is no "The Valley" in this game. Or rather, thankfully as endless waves of suburbs would be the worst.thing.ever.

[jbarb78]

They forgot to add the smog.

[Streiht Up Menace]

East LA signing in. They nailed it.

[Thr33X]

I lived in LA for about a year, and while the scale of the city isn't there, the vibe and "feel" of LA is captured in a great detail. I'm back in NYC now, and the same can be said for LC in terms of GTAIV as well.

Edited February 12, 2014 by Thr33X