7. Liberty Citys Stories
From the island structured landscape, the vertical nature of the architecture, even the denizens alone, its abundantly clear that in Liberty City were dealing with a fictionalized New York. Of course, its much more than that. Liberty City is its own place; it may be modelled on New York (as was Gotham City remember) but Rockstar have filled it with people, places and stories that make it almost as unique and interesting to explore as the Big Apple itself. And its amazing to behold. Its often bleak, bleached out in paleness at times making the impoverished areas feel stark, devoid of hope (beautiful in their own hostile way) but theres nothing quite the feeling of driving across the Broker Bridge at dusk and watching a sun-kissed yellow Manhattan rising up to meet you in the distance. As a game world its staggeringly big and home to every type of psychopath, sociopath and just about every other type of pathological wrongun you could ever hope to meet in the real world; each of them with their own personality, their own way and their own story. And there are so many, I bet youve forgotten a few already. Playing through the story mode again and meeting them all for a second time is surely as welcome a distraction as any other.