Leaving Liberty City

Moving is hard. In my life I have moved well over 9 times. It always sucked..at first. Getting used to a new house, town, school, etc. You lose friends and gain new enemies. Getting lost becomes common and memorizing numbers like addresses becomes your daily routine. But after awhile it gets better, and I quickly realized that I was also feeling a small bit of excitement.

After spending five years in Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City, I will be leaving shortly. I'll be traveling to the sunny West Coast city of Los Santos. For some its a pretty insignificant move. Many have probably not even played GTA IV in a few years. But for others, like myself, it will be like moving in real life, all over again. I'll get lost for awhile. I'll meet some new people..and lose contact with old friends.

I never really stopped played Grand Theft Auto IV. Just last week I was online playing with some friends and random people. We talked about GTAV as we rammed cars into each other and fought off hundreds of police officers. Then a hacker joined and spawned a 100 APC's and a UFO type vehicle and froze my console up. But still, it was another fun hour of GTA IV...but it might end up being one of my last. I'm moving on and having to say goodbye to Liberty City.

Saying goodbye to that crazy Swingset. The amount of cars and bikes (and other vehicles) that were chucked off that crazy glitching swing probably numbers in the millions. Was it intentional? Was it a simple physics glitch? I don't know. I don't really care, it was so much fun and ate up dozens of hours of my life.

Saying goodbye to the Heart of Liberty City. The first time someone showed me the giant heart Easter Egg I was convinced they were full of shit. Then I hopped off a yellow Maverick and landed on the Statue's upper base. After walking through a non-solid wall and climbing up a ladder I reached the heart. It was...interesting to say the least. After that I showed dozens of friends and strangers the heart, it was so much fun hearing their reaction to it. And watching them shoot it hoping for something to happen.

Saying goodbye to Liberty City's Airport. If you ever played ANY of Grand Theft Auto IV online you no doubt have spent some time at the Airport. Its where you'll spawn most of the time, where many helicopters are located at and where races, shootouts and more take place. Love it or hate it, the Airport is a BIG part of Liberty City's online experience and I'll miss jumping to the barge and crashing into its cardboard boxes that rested, strangely, on top.

But what I'll miss most is the crazy fun and awesome moments I had offline in single player and online in multiplayer. People have criticized Grand Theft Auto 4 because it was too serious.It wasn't wacky. The driving was crap. The story was filled with filler missions. Some of those are fair, others are pretty much spot on. (Taxis are such a godsend in the Single player.Thank you Quick travel.) But few games have given me as many hours of pure crazy fun and joy as GTA 4 has. So, I say goodbye Niko, Luis and Johnny. Goodbye Liberty City. And hello. Hello to Los Santos, Michael, Trevor and Franklin. Here's to 5 years in the West Coast paradise.

Anyone else have any great memories or stories from GTA IV? Share them here. Thanks for reading.