Among all the cities of the 3D Universe (LC,LS,LV,SF,VC), which one has the best feel and design?

[Algonquinn]

For me personally it's San Fierro, nicest NPCs in all of San Andreas lol.

[BrainDeadRaven]

Honestly, if they would leave you alone with the "Our hood is under attack" I would say Los Santos is the best designed of the three. If I had to rank them:

1. Los Santos - The only of the three SA cities to have everything from hoods, to uptown, and the only place I know he can get a tux.

2. San Fierro - The variety they packed on this small patch of land is impressive as hell

3. Vice City - It could have ranked higher if they hadn't f*cked off the right island, still they did a fair amount considering the size of the map, and the mall was awesome.

4. Los Venturas - All this place has is the Strip, which TBF, I hear is the same as the city they we're shooting for

5. Liberty City - I hated this city as soon as Vice City gave me options.

 

[E Revere]

San Fierro. Not sure why. Something about it just feels prettier and calmer than all the other cities. Perhaps it's the temperature. LS and LV always have this sunny feeling to them whereas San Fierro felt more chill so it stood out more. And I'm a fan of windy and chill but not cold weather. Or maybe it's how its introduction was more unique than the introductions to the other cities. The Truth and his eerie experiences are some of the most memorable GTA moments.

Edited February 21, 2021 by E Revere

[Dr Busta]

San Fierro always makes me feel calm and relaxed

Edited February 21, 2021 by DR:BUSTA

[Leather Rebel]

1.Vice City-it has the best characteristics amongst them imo and  nearly as big as HD era cities.

2.Las Venturas-It's really big also and feels like Vice City with big landmass without islands.I love the Mob influence there.

3.Los Santos-I love the gang vibe there and i love the layout more than HD era counterpart.

4.San Fierro-I think it's underdeveloped compared to other cities in SA,but still has a nice contrast,i loved drifting there,SF has the best road design imo.

5.Liberty City-I don't know,i never really liked 3D version of Liberty City though i can't say that for HD era LC.

[H-G]

San Fierro is a really neat and sleek city. No smog unlike Los Santos (thanks to lots of freshly-grown trees everywhere), no heatwave unlike Las Venturas (thanks to lots of parks everywhere), no crimes, a lot more greenery than any other cities and the best of all: Forth-Right MC broadcasts Playback FM from here.

 

Liberty City is great too.

[String]

I dont know about design but I love the West Coast atmosphere of Los Santos, it feels warm and like a home city almost so I like it the most.

 

I like the neon lights of Vice City too, not so much the darker Liberty City. Las Venturas is good but feels more like a holiday destination thats nice to spend time in once in a while but not like LS. And San Fierro is pretty cool but I dont like the sloping roads so much lol

[zyenapz]

On 2/21/2021 at 4:10 AM, Algonquinn said:

For me personally it's San Fierro, nicest NPCs in all of San Andreas lol.

I think I have to agree with you here. On that GTA SA mission where I first visited San Fierro, I really felt that it was a city that was unique from all the other cities in the GTA universe. It has a laid-back atmosphere and nice greeneries. I hope to see more of it!

[BennyGod]

5. LC. Portland is decent, with kind of an all around good design. Staunton Island is great, it feels much bigger than Portland, and it's designed well. Shoreside Vale would've been cool if they replaced half the airport with something else and god rid of that weird design with Wichita Gardens.

4. LV. The only memorable parts of LV are the casinos and kind of Prickle Pine. The heist is cool, but besides that, there isn't too much compared to the other two cities in my opinion.

3. VC. The airport is the worst thing ever. It feels like they ran out of ideas there or something. The beach also takes up a weird amount of space. I don't know what was up with the design team. Otherwise, really good.

2. LS. So cool and fun. The design varies so much, and every neighborhood feels different. The only bad thing I can think about is the docks, which is really unused besides like two missions. Couldn't they of made side content there like the San Fierro docks?

1. SF. The import/export was really cool. The valet was fun, and it was cool that they hauled vehicles even if you weren't in the mission. Two girlfriends. Driving school. You can tell that part of SF was designed late in development, but it had some of the best missions and side content.

[GhettoJesus]

San Fierro easily. It feels like a proper city. It's well designed and as it was mentioned before it has a lot more greenery than the other cities. I must also mention SF airport, it's incredibly well designed. Every 3D era city suffers from an airport taking up too much space. In III and VC airports are near pointless whereas in LS and LV navigating around the airports is weird because they take up so much space and it takes so much time to get around them. In SF it's nicely separated from the city and it barely takes up any space.

[Americana]

To be honest, Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto III is the only one that feels like a real city. 

 

Other cities, not so much. However, I really do like San Fierro.

 

I hate the design of Vice City.

[Algonquinn]

On 2/21/2021 at 3:34 AM, BrainDeadRaven said:

Honestly, if they would leave you alone with the "Our hood is under attack" I would say Los Santos is the best designed of the three. If I had to rank them:

1. Los Santos - The only of the three SA cities to have everything from hoods, to uptown, and the only place I know he can get a tux.

2. San Fierro - The variety they packed on this small patch of land is impressive as hell

3. Vice City - It could have ranked higher if they hadn't f*cked off the right island, still they did a fair amount considering the size of the map, and the mall was awesome.

4. Los Venturas - All this place has is the Strip, which TBF, I hear is the same as the city they we're shooting for

5. Liberty City - I hated this city as soon as Vice City gave me options.

 

Yeah the hood under attack is annoying. I just finished the game for the 1342832894th time and I am still getting annoyed when I am trying to move around LS

[billiejoearmstrong8]

16 minutes ago, Algonquinn said:

Yeah the hood under attack is annoying. I just finished the game for the 1342832894th time and I am still getting annoyed when I am trying to move around LS

 

Take over every area! Once you run the whole city there's no more attacks. I agree it's annoying but I personally enjoy taking over the whole city so I'm not too bothered by it as I know once I do that as an extra challenge at the end of the game it won't happen any more. Plus if an attack happens you can just save or start and quit a taxi/ambulance/other vehicle mission and it cancels it. 

 

 

I think Los Santos is technically the best but despite the flaws in its layout design I just love Vice City. Love the atmosphere of the first island and Little Havana and Little Haiti. 

Edited February 22, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[Algonquinn]

1 hour ago, billiejoearmstrong8 said:

 

Take over every area! Once you run the whole city there's no more attacks. I agree it's annoying but I personally enjoy taking over the whole city so I'm not too bothered by it as I know once I do that as an extra challenge at the end of the game it won't happen any more. Plus if an attack happens you can just save or start and quit a taxi/ambulance/other vehicle mission and it cancels it. 

 

 

I think Los Santos is technically the best but despite the flaws in its layout design I just love Vice City. Love the atmosphere of the first island and Little Havana and Little Haiti. 

Since we talkin 'bout hood warfare, I have tiny bits of land that still belong to Vagos and Ballas. I mean REALLY tiny, like a toothpick. I have a little square that belongs to Vagos and another one that belongs to Ballas. But I can never find them in those areas. Is it supposed to be like that?

[billiejoearmstrong8]

3 hours ago, Algonquinn said:

Since we talkin 'bout hood warfare, I have tiny bits of land that still belong to Vagos and Ballas. I mean REALLY tiny, like a toothpick. I have a little square that belongs to Vagos and another one that belongs to Ballas. But I can never find them in those areas. Is it supposed to be like that?

 

Yeah I think it's best to try and get those areas done before the larger adjacent ones. Haven't played SA for years but I believe it only cares about where you're standing when you kill the three gang members to trigger a gang war (not where the gang members are), so the easiest way to start one in those tiny areas is to stand in them and shoot gang members further away in adjacent areas. I think it isn't impossible though, you just have to patient/lucky to get some spawning in the small areas.

 

I guess if a larger area adjacent to the tiny one gets attacked you could try allowing it to be taken over. Then you'd be able to use it to help trigger and take over the tiny area before taking the larger area over again.

Edited February 22, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[DarkDayz]

Vice City for sure.

[Dante De Niro]

7 hours ago, Americana said:

To be honest, Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto III is the only one that feels like a real city. 

lol what?

[Dante De Niro]

On 2/22/2021 at 6:23 AM, Americana said:

To be honest, Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto III is the only one that feels like a real city. 

Nah man, you're tripping. Simpsons Hit & Run is the one with the most real city

[Algonquin Assassin]

It’s a toss up between Liberty City and Vice City. Liberty City captures the essence of a crime ridden sh*thole down to a tee. I love it.

 

Vice City gets too much flack IMO. Its size has never bothered me too much, but its atmosphere and tone are unmatched. It feels like a holiday destination crossed with the madness of Scarface.

 

After that it would be Las Venturas, Los Santos and San Fierro as my least favourite. San Fierro is so boring and has no character compared to any city in the series. Always disliked it.

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by Algonquin Assassin

[WanteD1]

1- Las Venturas
2- Vice City
 

[DeltaV20]

1-LC
2- SA
i really want to see the HD Universe build of LV and SF 
 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Algonquin Assassin said:

After that it would be Las Venturas, Los Santos and San Fierro as my least favourite. San Fierro is so boring and has no character compared to any city in the series. Always disliked it.

 

So San Andreas overall?

[Dr Busta]

LC, SF and VC are the best Three 

Edited March 17, 2021 by DR:BUSTA

[Ondr4H]

Well I like to say a whole San Andreas state as it is.

 

 

Three major cities, with completely different and unique feel. Thats impressive, really.

 

For 2004 and even in 2021 this state shine over San Andreas from GTA V .

[Lioshenka]

Liberty.

 

Regular readers will find that I repeat myself, but for the benefit of newcomers I find that this is acceptable.

 

---

Liberty city seems like a perfect place to be. Sure, it's supposed to be crime-ridden and dark, but if you keep your head down and just get on with your life you'll be just okay. It's that feeling of being in a densely populated area and yet being isolated from everyone, as if you are in your own little bubble. I don't get this in any of the other games, and this is what I love about GTA 3.

 

I can wake up in my little hideout which has everything a man needs - an armoured door, a cooker, a matress, a garage. I can then take a stroll through the city at night, listening to the sound of waves crashing into concrete or the distant train approaching the station. A man will run past you with music blaring from his headphones. There is a party happening somewhere, though you can't tell exactly where, and the cinemas have just opened and are attracting all kinds of customers in the area.

 

Or if it's sunrise then I can literally put the Rise FM on, grab a Stinger and make that jump over the reservoir as the sun lits up the still water surface.

 

Throw into it a good deal of 2000 nostalgia, a well planned city layout where no part of the city dominates the others, and together they provide for a diverse and interesting gaming experience, and I think this is the best city in the series. Some others come close, but Liberty is the perfection where I would spend the rest of my days if given the choice.

 

---

In the second place - San Fierro, the city of psychodelic wonders. It's like a perfect city that is just too perfect. Clinically clean streets; sunny, yet cool weather; a nice selection of landmarks to visit and places to shop, and a complete lack of ran down areas. Even the aeroport doesn't feel like a waste of space. I wouldn't say it's a pleasant city, but there isn't anything for which to hate it. It's just a perfect blunt city.

 

I love it for being very close to the countryside though, it's a massive plus in my book.

 

---

Third place - Los Santos. Like San Fierro, it is a wonderfully designed city, but it's just not to my taste. I like it for an occasional drive - a nice selection of different types of areas: ghettos, financial district, industrial district, Vinewood, docks, Verdant Bluffs, but I don't particularly love it. The developers definitely put a lot of thought into it though compared with the other two cities in the game. Heat rising from the pavement, lovingly designed ghettos with their atmosphere, gentle breeze on the beach... Great if you are rôleplaying - more so on a PS2; PC kind of sucks to be honest when it comes to atmosphere.

 

---

Forth place - Las Venturas. It feels a bit rushed and disjointed. Some roads are a bit like maze (remember these tiny short 90° streets by the casino and the aeroport? They just feel weird). The housing estates are quite nice, but the transition from the estates to the city proper feels a bit unnatural. It's like something is missing in between. Also Las Venturas provides only for a selected number of activities, whereas San Fierro and Los Santos offer a much wider variety. Las Venturas is either for gambling or racing, for anything else you have to be very creative or imaginative.

 

---

And the last place goes to VC. It's not a bad map per se, but compared to the others it doesn't really stand a competition. The usual things that are always mentioned:

- Massive empty beach

- Massive empty aeroport

- Canals not put to a better use

 

I understand that it was developed in a rush after III in like a year, but still, if R* spent another year polishing it off, it would have turned out much better IMO. Having said that, I played it at the time and enjoyed it tremendously, so there.

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by Lioshenka

[ChengizVlad09]

Damn. Such a tough question. I honestly find them all to be so appealing and inviting. Beautiful in design. They are all pretty compact, yet they all feel quite larger than they really are and it's such a fine trick. You can see so much in so little time. It's not just a trick, but elegance and genius design. They all have those unique time cycles with stylized colors attached to them and I would never know what I like more; dark and gritty Liberty or sunny Vice with magic neon lights and reddish sun haze. Purple skies of Las Venturas at night, or mellow dusk colors of San Fierro. Maybe it's that orange glow and evaporation effects in Los Santos, which everyone seems to dislike for some unknown reason. That beautiful, trasparent, orangish sun glow.. Or that mesmerizing turquoise tones LS have during some days, on PlayStation 2, that nobody ever mentions. I absolutely adore how their 'not so prominent' residents are actually damn hostile. It puts things in to right perspective, making the right contrast between the cities and their people. Despite having low draw distance, (I always set PS2 DD, because of the blur and fog, find them to be amazing effects), I would 'creep' in on to some of these cities, somewhere on the periphery - especially in SA - and find the spot where their outlines and skyscrapers are perfectly rendered fully. I would turn my radio on, with favorite talk shows and songs and simply watch it all. Weather changing, colors melting.

It's magical. They are all what can be called, the hometown. Your very own. Every single one.

Edited March 15, 2021 by ChengizVlad09

[TheSantader25]

Las Venturas has the best design for me. Probably it's because it's the last city R* created in the 3D era and by that point they were experienced enough to design it in a more user friendly way. It's the most convenient one to get around in. It's arguably the most beautiful one too.

Edited March 15, 2021 by TheSantader25

[Algonquin Assassin]

11 hours ago, OH76 said:

So San Andreas overall?

 

No. I've always maintained Las Venturas is my favourite city in San Andreas and I consider it to be in my top 5 favourite cities in the series. I like it because Las Vegas is pretty uncommon in video games so it gets instant props for being unique. Los Santos is pretty decent too (infact I prefer it in some ways over GTA V's Los Santos), but San Fierro just flat out sucks. I don't know. Maybe it's because I just don't care for San Francisco as a setting. It's not even as aesthetically nice as Las Venturas or Los Santos.

 

it's a mixed bag to say the least atleast to me.

Edited March 16, 2021 by Algonquin Assassin

[Jezus Holy Christ]

My favorites are San Fierro and Vice City.

 

San Fierro, even with the wacky job they did, looked really nice and had a very unique weather and overall atmosphere that I liked. I didn't like Los Santos much, so I always wanted to leave it and looked for a getaway in my first playthrough, and that made discovering San Fierro an even more beautiful experience. It's very rich in architecture, just like the real-life city it imitates and I love the complex street design. Playing in San Fierro servers on SAMP also contributes to this for me. I think those servers, during SAMP's prime years, proved that a lot more could be done with the city and that Rockstar had underused it, reducing it to a transitional stage between two relatively dry, bland, tastelessly designed cities.

Also, the drive from other cities especially LV to San Fierro is a really satisfying one: Watching the surroundings change from endless sand to a green and blue and fresh environment is great. Rain and fog is a bonus.

If it was up to me I'd give LV up for a more fleshed out SF.

 

Vice City has a strong enough case so I don't think there's much I need to explain. Colors, colors, colors... It's a precious city. Again, the sky, the atmosphere, the weather, all are great. The map design and the street structure is so good both for its time and even now after almost 20 years, that I can easily forget and forgive how small the map really is. It's a fun city to explore and I just have so many memories in it.

 

Those two were cities I didn't wanna leave. I literally could just drive around them for hours, listening to the game's radios, doing side missions and other stuff, and enjoy it more than all of the main campaign moments that took place in LV.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Jezus Holy Christ