Often when fans think of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, they think of the freedom offered by the games’ open worlds, the stories and intricate characters that populate the world, and of course, the map where both of the previous things take place. The maps of the Grand Theft Auto have often impressed fans with their increasing size, and attention to detail on the real-life locations that they parody.
The recent release of the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy has combined San Andreas, Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto 3 all into one package, inspiring one player to imagine what the maps of some of the previous GTA titles would look like were they to be combined. The concept, which was posted to Reddit, shows both the maps of San Andreas and GTA 4 laid horizontally, with Vice City’s map also being available as a playable space. This concept was initially derived from a mod that combined the maps from San Andreas, Vice City, and GTA 4 into one, and allowed players to travel between the maps via plane. However, this mod has since been taken down by Take-Two due to copyright infringement.
This didn’t stop players from praising the idea of combining GTA maps, though. Fans seemed to enjoy the idea of being able to travel from Los Santos to Liberty City, which would allow a change of scenery whenever the player wanted. Some even wished the feature would have been implemented in the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy, however others were quick to respond that the effort and time taken to make cross-map gameplay work would have likely pushed the release date of the game back by years.
With Grand Theft Auto 6 likely to be years from even an announcement, some fans believe that bringing old games together could be a way of keeping GTA 5 fresh. There was even a rumor floating around last year that the game would be adding Liberty City and the protagonist of GTA 4, Niko Bellic.
However, Rockstar seems entirely content with adding free DLC for GTA Online users. Through the multiplayer aspect of GTA 5, gamers have seen the areas of Los Santos and San Andreas expand. The Diamond Casino heist added a new location within the city, and in November 2020 players saw what would become Cayo Perico, a brand new island map to explore and eventually complete a heist on.
Although, the expansions of the map seems to have died down within GTA 5 news recently, and focus seems to have shifted onto story content. A new DLC was announced which will tell the story of Franklin years after GTA 5’s main story completes, and will even feature an appearance from Dr. Dre.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is available now for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
