SETTINGS

The Grand Theft Auto series is set in a fictional version of the world, in a number of different time periods. The original Grand Theft Auto introduced three main locations: Liberty City, based upon New York City, Vice City, based upon Miami, and San Andreas, based upon the western cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas.
Subsequent games in the series have re-imagined and expanded upon the original locales. Grand Theft Auto III is set in a different rendition of Liberty City only loosely based on New York City.] A revised Vice City is depicted in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the location of San Andreas takes the form of an entire state, instead of a single city. The state of San Andreas is based on the states of California and Nevada, and consists of three major cities: Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). Surrounding towns and areas of desert, water, woodland and countryside lie between the three cities.
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, originally released on the PlayStation Portable handheld console, are set in the previous depictions of their respective eponymous cities.
Grand Theft Auto IV and its subsequent expansion packs The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony are set in a third revision of Liberty City, set in 2008. A version of New Jersey, known as Alderney, is depicted adjacent to the city. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is also set in this version of Liberty City, although the state of Alderney is not present.[citation needed]
Other places in the same fictional universe as the Grand Theft Auto series also exist. Carcer City and Cottonmouth are two different cities featured in the Manhunt series. There is also the town of Bullworth from another Rockstar Game's release, Bully.[citation needed]
Only the expansion packs for the original Grand Theft Auto, London 1969 and London 1961, set in London, have featured a location outside of the United States.