Is it true that GTA IV's map was supposed to have a countryside?

[FanEu7]

I read about that on reddit, would you have liked to see it or do you prefer to just have a city?  LC is easily my favourite city in any open world game, it feels bigger and better crafted that V's LS even so I'm glad they just focused on that

[RamsaySaint77]

Yeah Liberty City was supposed to have a countryside, but I guess Rockstar wanted to keep Gta IV's story grounded in LC so they removed it. I'm not sure if it was meant to be Upstate Liberty because nothing's said that. You can see a house in the I'm rich show which is supposedly in the countryside 

Edited January 8, 2021 by RamsaySaint77

[Homicidal Hipster]

New Jersey baby

[Algonquin Assassin]

Yeah. They had plans for Liberty State, but scraped them I guess because it would’ve been pretty taxing considering  GTA IV was using a new engine.

 

Also they really wanted to give NYC justice as it was something they felt wasn’t done in GTA III properly so I suppose focusing on a metropolitan area allowed them to do that.

 

As for what I prefer, I prefer the city. Countryside is nice, but some people make it seem like it’s an absolute necessity to have which is just ignorant IMO. It annoys me when people undermine R*’s hard work when they say the city is “boring”, “grey” etc just because there’s no countyside or whatever.

 

If they could’ve included it with the same quality as Liberty City/Alderney, fine, but if they excluded because they felt like it was going to be a burden I fully support their decision to focus on other things that are arguably more important.

Edited January 8, 2021 by Algonquin Assassin

[FanEu7]

9 hours ago, Algonquin Assassin said:

Yeah. They had plans for Liberty State, but scraped them I guess because it would’ve been pretty taxing considering  GTA IV was using a new engine.

 

Also they really wanted to give NYC justice as it was something they felt wasn’t done in GTA III properly so I suppose focusing on a metropolitan area allowed them to do that.

 

As for what I prefer, I prefer the city. Countryside is nice, but some people make it seem like it’s an absolute necessity to have which is just ignorant IMO. It annoys me when people undermine R*’s hard work when they say the city is “boring”, “grey” etc just because there’s no countyside or whatever.

 

If they could’ve included it with the same quality as Liberty City/Alderney, fine, but if they excluded because they felt like it was going to be a burden I fully support their decision to focus on other things that are arguably more important.

True I don't get the obsession with the countryside, I'm not against it but it didn't really add much to SA or V and becomes pretty boring outside missions

[billiejoearmstrong8]

They were also going to have a rich small town area away from the city that was meant to be like the Hamptons called the Caraways, it gets mentioned by different characters a lot and is featured in the "I'm Rich" tv show so I guess it must've been quite far into development when it was cut. That along with a small rural area to separate it from the city could've been cool. But I don't mind that it's just the city and I don't think extensive countryside was necessary for this particular story/setting, I love the map as it is.

Edited January 8, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[HOW'S ANNIE?]

I wouldn't say it was ever "supposed to" have countryside, it was simply something proposed in the game's conceptual stage. 0% chance any countryside ever existed at any stage except for the "spitballing" phase.

[billiejoearmstrong8]

17 minutes ago, HOW'S ANNIE? said:

I wouldn't say it was ever "supposed to" have countryside, it was simply something proposed in the game's conceptual stage. 0% chance any countryside ever existed at any stage except for the "spitballing" phase.

 

I think there could've been some semi countryside to go with the Carraways that could've got developed further. Since they went far enough with that part that it's mentioned multiple times in the game.