This was seven years after 9/11, but the threat of terrorism was still very much a part of the country's collective consciousness, which is reflected-and, naturally, made fun of-throughout GTA 4. A suspected terror attack also closes the bridge to Algonquin (the game's take on Manhattan) early in the game. Bush's then ongoing 'war on terror', including increased police presence in parts of Liberty City deemed to be potential targets. There are numerous reports on the radio referencing George W. Weazel News, GTA 4's answer to Fox News, gives you an idea of what kind of stories dominated the headlines in America in 2008. Now you'll find songs like Get Innocuous on ‘00s nostalgia playlists, and some of these groups don't even exist anymore. Also, at the time, music featured on the station-LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, Japanther, The Boggs, Les Savy Fav-were at the cutting edge of modern indie music. This is a very 2008 image of a hipster, and one that will likely be lost on anyone under the age of 25. Presenter Juliette Lewis talks about "asymmetrical haircuts" and "ironic t-shirts", and describes the residents of Broker (the game's version of Brooklyn) as looking like "they just came off a heroin binge" while also having hundred-dollar haircuts. This station was written as a wry commentary on, and to poke fun at, the emergence of the Brooklyn hipster. I've changed, but society has changed even more, which brings something to the game that wasn't there before. I was in my 20s when I first played it, and was essentially a totally different person than I am today. This is a game heaving with references to things that strongly resonated with people in the mid-to-late ‘00s, which dates it, but also dredges up nostalgia in an unexpected way.
I don't know if Rockstar ever thought about this game becoming a historical artifact when it made it, but Niko Bellic's misadventures in Liberty City brilliantly capture a very specific moment in time for America and the world. When it launched 13 years ago in 2008, it was a contemporary document of the times-now it's a window into the past. It's weird playing Grand Theft Auto 4 in 2021.
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