Just as importantly, it’s being designed with gameplay in mind, so distances between key areas of the city will be smaller than they are in real New York. Rockstar wants to create the feeling of the Big Apple without the everyday frustrations. There won’t be any technical delays either as, after one initial load; there will be no more loading pauses even when entering and exiting buildings. Also, to keep things in proportion, there won’t be any plane travel. That might have been appropriate for the state-sized San Andreas, but isn’t really practical for simply journeying between neighborhoods.
This “New York feeling” extends way beyond the architecture and road network. New York is the archetypal urban landscape, developed over years of immigration to become a bustling international city with every creed, culture and color. Liberty City’s citizens must have real personality and real purpose - they have to live. So as you pass by you’ll see people smoking, sitting, reading, chatting and working, just like any major town.
