I just realized something, they should have used those crazy graphics enhancer mods when doing this.

It would have looked so much more amazing.

@mosespippy said:

The video game industry phrase "living, breathing city" needs to die of asphyxiation.

It's a city you can really immerse yourself in while taking in the breathtaking sights. The gorgeous graphics and crisp soundeffects makes you feel like you're really there. It really improves the fun factor.

Old news, bad proofreading. Keep up the good work.

@Outerface said:

Eh, that's not really all that clever. Just a lot of grunt work with taking all the screenshots.

Googles map api is pretty easy to use and stuff.

I'm using it, and you're not wrong. But let us know what you've done with it. :)

thats so cool, and only GTAIV is worthy of this treatment

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

@dhuff said:

I don;t know what this is for.

Seriously, the amount of time, energy and effort that went into this....and for what? Fuck i hate people sometimes. Still, you have to admire the dedication of these guys.

people like you are the worst, when it comes to internet jerks

Some of you guys are really jaded or bitter people. Seriously.

@Yamoto said:

Old news is old also gta4 isnt a great game a sloppy story bad gameplay and a horrible multiplayer and ofc the bad framerate

We would take you seriously if you could form a coherent sentence.

That's just really cool. Man, GTA4 truly is legendary. I didn't spend much time looking at it, but it certainly is impressive. I don't think they should bother doing it for LA Noire, though.

To everyone who ever says "old news" on any article: It's not old to everyone.

I don't spend all my time on the internet or looking up GTA4 mods. I found this interesting and am glad it got posted. It doesn't matter if it was posted 2 years, today or a week from now. Patrick found something he thought should be shared, and he did it.

thats so cool, and only GTAIV is worthy of this treatment

@Vrikk said:

Some of you guys are really jaded or bitter people. Seriously.

I'm so sorry we prefer actual news. Please accept my deepest apologies.

Video Games

I saw this a while ago, I think it's pretty pointless, but good work on those guys actually doing it.

This was posted months ago on blogs like Joystiq and Kotaku, and I don't know if the guy who made it was interviewed back then, but if he wasn't it's because nobody cared that much; I could have guessed that this took some time and effort to make. Making this front-page news is just untenable.

@ZmillA said:

thats so cool, and only GTAIV is worthy of this treatment

That's a joke, right? High numerical scores from critics notwithstanding, GTA IV was one of the biggest letdowns of the 'aughts, really any other open-world game deserves it more.

That's really cool. 

Regardless of how useful or not this really is, I give these guys props for effort and dedication. I don't think I'd ever have the patience to undertake such a project.

that's a lot of "impr/pant" pushing

@gladspooky said:

@Vrikk said:

Some of you guys are really jaded or bitter people. Seriously.

I'm so sorry we prefer actual news. Please accept my deepest apologies.

You're welcome, and apology accepted. Just don't let it happen again :)

(But seriously, this is new to some of us.)

It's like some of you people still harbor the illusion that GB is actually a news site. Huh. Go figure.

I just realized that L.A. Noire looks better than GTA IV.

Hmmm, so instead of clicking the GTA4 button on my desktop to see liberty city in 3D, I can open my web browser and click through streets to see Liberty City in 2D. I understand the use of google maps for the real world, because I can't go to NYC in 60 seconds, but I don't understand doing it for a videogame that I can pop open and see for myself. Cool project though.

@gladspooky: Like what? What news, exactly, would you like them to report? It's fucking AUGUST, dude. THERE IS NO NEWS IN AUGUST. Nobody releases anything, there's no game announcements, nothing. None of the other sites have anything approaching news, not Kotaku, Joystiq, anything. I'm sorry you're so bitter and lonely, don't take it out on the GB guys.

@TEAMHOLT said:

This was posted months ago on blogs like Joystiq and Kotaku, and I don't know if the guy who made it was interviewed back then, but if he wasn't it's because nobody cared that much; I could have guessed that this took some time and effort to make. Making this front-page news is just untenable.

You are why we can't have nice things. If it pains you so much to read an article (I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you did read it) that you have read before, why in the fuck would you ever read more than one website? God forbid you read the same article about MW3 using Steamworks more than once. That would be the end of the world if that happened.

@The_Medic said:

@TEAMHOLT said:

This was posted months ago on blogs like Joystiq and Kotaku, and I don't know if the guy who made it was interviewed back then, but if he wasn't it's because nobody cared that much; I could have guessed that this took some time and effort to make. Making this front-page news is just untenable.

You are why we can't have nice things. If it pains you so much to read an article (I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you did read it) that you have read before, why in the fuck would you ever read more than one website? God forbid you read the same article about MW3 using Steamworks more than once. That would be the end of the world if that happened.

That is insane!

@MoleyUK said:

So I take it there will be (or is) an overlay for showing the pigeons and jumps?

Oh wow. I may actually get around to finding all of those if so.

I've seen someone create a google maps style mod for Minecraft as well. Kudos to smart people for making shit happen.

@Gaff said:

@Grissefar

@mosespippy said:

The video game industry phrase "living, breathing city" needs to die of asphyxiation.

It's a city you can really immerse yourself in while taking in the breathtaking sights. The gorgeous graphics and crisp soundeffects makes you feel like you're really there. It really improves the fun factor.

Personally, I thought the jaw dropping graphics were overshadowed by the janky physics engine, the less than stellar plot and cardboard characters. Overall, a mixed bag, but fans of the genre will enjoy their trip to Liberty City.

I want to strangle all of you.

Cripes, that's amazing.

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

@dhuff said:

I don;t know what this is for.

Seriously, the amount of time, energy and effort that went into this....and for what? Fuck i hate people sometimes. Still, you have to admire the dedication of these guys.

people like you are the worst, when it comes to internet jerks

@ZmillA said:

thats so cool, and only GTAIV is worthy of this treatment

That's a joke, right? High numerical scores from critics notwithstanding, GTA IV was one of the biggest letdowns of the 'aughts, really any other open-world game deserves it more.

WOW love those guys

The PC, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you, thank you.

@Deusoma said:

@ZmillA said:

thats so cool, and only GTAIV is worthy of this treatment

That's a joke, right? High numerical scores from critics notwithstanding, GTA IV was one of the biggest letdowns of the 'aughts, really any other open-world game deserves it more.

no other open-world game has a world that has enough variety and life to match what street view provides.

I've been playing through GTAIV again recently and I'd just like to say: GTAIV is an amazing game.

To all those people saying this is "completely pointless" by that logic all videogames, movies, music and books are pointless (money notwithstanding). You all play video games "wasting" your time with that activity, you have no right to look down on anybody because of their hobbies or interests.

I love stuff like this. 
 
The Morrowind map someone made got a lot of use out of me way back when, but this reminds me what's missing from my GTA game playthroughs lately. When I first played GTA III, I just had fun running around in a 3D city that seemed to run on its own. Now I'm so used to such things I don't even notice the architecture that much, but something like this will make me slow down and notice some of the details. 

I would love to see this done for every damn game out there. I like the idea of having every game word "archived" in a way that anyone can go in and look around any time in the future.

@Anwar: Yeah, you mean like the content they have to download from the camera, edit, audio level, then upload to Amazon so you can see it? The stuff they told you about in I Love Mondays? You mean THAT content?

Christ.

Haha. Damn cool, but meanwhile so damn pointless!

That's pretty impressive. Having worked quite a bit with the Maps API myself, i know they must've put an obscene amount of time into this project.

I'm not really interested in sitting here and justifying why this story ran, only to say that I had this sitting around mostly finished during our first day back in the office, so I cleaned it up and put it online. Sure, other sites plugged the map ages ago, but I'll always be fine running a story weeks late if it means I find out the story behind it. That won't change.

@SkullcrusherMountain:

Oh my Allah, I obviously meant PAX not Gamescom where the news came from after this stale phase of the year and I also meant videos and not news articles, you completely embarrassed me here.