Comparison Shots

Found this over at Yahoo Games
In order to create a city at once so visually detailed and full of life, it was necessary to undertake research on a scale never previously seen before. Along with multiple research trips by the art team from Rockstar North, and the expertise of the members from years of living in New York, Rockstar utilized a full-time research team to photograph and video every aspect of the city. Not only building fronts, fire hydrants, roads and sidewalks, but also lighting changes across day and night, vehicle and pedestrian patterns throughout the day, the racial and social make-up of different neighborhoods and boroughs, the sounds of specific foghorns in the harbor, all combined to make a completely integrated world that continuously seems alive and natural in a way that was not possible in previous games. Local experts were interviewed and consulted on every detail to make sure Liberty City feels real to the player.

All of this was necessary, not to merely recreate a view of New York but to capture its spirit and energy in a three-dimensional world that people can explore as the character they play in the game, Niko Bellic, an immigrant, as he navigates the land of opportunity for the first time. From the top of a penthouse to the inside of a Russian supper club, players will be immersed in the world of Liberty City in a way that they would never have thought possible.