History Trivia / GrandTheftAutoIV

* BannedInChina: The Thai government called for the ban of the game after a Royal Thai Police officer caught an 18-year old student who killed a cab driver. He admitted that he wanted to rob him to get some money to play in the arcade, especially since the suspect said he wanted to see if it's easy to rob someone like in ''[=GTA IV=]''. As of 2013, the ''GTA'' series are not allowed to be sold in the country for commercial purposes.[[note]]This affected the subsequent releases such as ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoChinatownWars Chinatown Wars]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV GTA V]]'' as well as earlier releases, [[LoopholeAbuse except]] the UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} version of ''GTA V''.[[/note]]

* FakeAmerican: The Texan assassinations manager Wade "The Fixer" Johnson is voiced the Czech actor Karel Roden.

* TropeNamer: For VengeanceFeelsEmpty.

* FakeNationality: Niko Bellic is not played by an actual Serbian as his actor Michael Hollick is American. Neither is his cousin Roman, who is voiced by Jason Zumwalt.

* FakeNationality: Suffice to say, Niko Bellic is not played by an actual Serbian since his actor Michael Hollick is American. Neither is his cousin Roman who is voiced by Jason Zumwalt.

* FakeNationality: Suffice to say, Niko Bellic is not played by an actual Serbian since his actor Michael Hollick is American. Neither is his brother Roman who is voiced by Jason Zumwalt.

* WordOfDante: While Niko's nationality is generally given the ShrugOfGod treatment, his voice actor said he was played as a Serbian.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Given that satire about life in America during the UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush presidency is such a big part of the game, today it can feel like a product of a different era. In some cases this trope goes UpToEleven as the game features or satirizes trends that were already going out of style in 2008.
** The game's soundtrack features Reggaetron (which has its own dedicated station in the form of San Juan Sounds) and "ringtone rap", two flash-in-the-pan musical genres from the mid-2000s that had already more or less fizzled out by 2008.
** The game really takes aim at the [[ConspicuousConsumption "bling" culture]] in America, something that [[CondemnedByHistory died hard and quickly]] among the 2008 economic collapse, an event that was beginning to unfold when ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' was released. Much of the in-game media, alongside ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony The Ballad Of Gay Tony]]'' focuses on the booming nightclub scene and the lives of celebrities, featuring parodies of socialites like Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton, with the in-game television airing a program based on ''Cribs''.
** The game's spoofing of politics in America feels pretty dated today given how the presidency of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump vastly transformed them in TheNewTens. For example, conservative politicians in the game are hung-up about the gay rights movement over anything else, clearly dated to before the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015. Surprisingly, even though the game's setting is based on New York City, there is no {{Trumplica}} to be found (although a building heavily based on the Trump Tower called the Cleethorpes Tower is present and was indeed named after Trump within the game files). On the left side of the aisle, it's satire of liberal politics largely centers around UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton, who at the time was already being supplanted by UsefulNotes/BarackObama as the major power player on the left and was out of politics altogether a few years later. All of this exists among a backdrop of the UsefulNotes/WarOnTerror being the biggest political issue on everyone's mind, [[BrokenBridge with the bridges to Algonquin and Alderney initially being closed off due to perceived terrorist threats]].
** The Liberty City Police Department are depicted as over-saturating high-crime areas with several units and flying weaponized helicopters over the city, with the majority of the beat cops seen being overweight and weak. There's only brief mentions of PoliceBrutality, which would be mentioned far more commonly with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement just a few years later.
** All of the police cars and most of the taxis are genericized Ford Crown Victorias, as the Crown Victoria effectively had a monopoly on those markets in the 2000s. The Crown Victoria was discontinued in 2011, however, and now most Police and Taxi fleets have retired them from service. In many cases, police departments replaced them with [=SUVs=] like the Chevrolet Tahoe and Ford Explorer, while yellow cab companies replaced them with minivans or hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius. It should be also noted how in the game, the yellow cabs dominate the market with no competition from ridesharing services.
** Similarly, the vehicles don't account for the boom in crossover [=SUVs=], so the roads are full of large truck based [=SUVs=], minivans and full size sedans, vehicles that have really dwindled in numbers since ''GTA IV'''s release. Of particular note is that a large SUV based off the Hummer H2 is commonly found on the road, even though Hummers had already fallen out of fashion by then thanks to the 2000s energy crisis, leading General Motors to state they were considering withdrawing the Hummer brand from sale in June 2008, two months after the game was released. Conversely, the game features a hybrid car based off the Toyota Prius that really only exists as a JokeCharacter to poke fun at the people who drive them and isn't commonly seen on the road. As hybrid and even full electric vehicles have become mainstream and the Prius has become a common sight on middle America's roads, the game's dismissive attitude towards hybrid vehicles is certainly dated.
** Even though it came out a year after the iPhone's release, the game only depicts old, candybar-style cell phones with the highest end-phone in its universe being a parody of the [=BlackBerry=]. At one point Niko receives a color-screen cellphone from Playboy X, which features a camera and wallpaper settings but no internet access. The game also dismisses text messaging and picture texts as useless technology in commercials that parody Verizon Wireless' iconic 2000s "Can You Hear Me Now?" ads.
** The game's depiction of the internet is rooted primarily in the late 2000s. The main social media site is a parody of [=MySpace=], which was already well on the way of being supplanted by Facebook by mid-2008. Other sites include spoofs of [=eHarmony=], Classmates, Jamster, Website/YouTube (back when the site was in its infancy and being plagued by [=DMCA=] strikes), Skype, and ''Videogame/SecondLife''.
** If the player tries to visit the website littlelacysurprisepageant.com, they'll be greeted by a white page informing them that they've been caught by a police sting and an instant five star wanted level. This is playing off of the [[PaedoHunt moral panic]] over child sex predators on the internet whipped up by ''[[Series/{{Dateline}} To Catch a Predator]]''.

** One of the voice actors considered for Niko Bellic was Vladimir Mashkov, who was the actor for Sasha of ''Film/BehindEnemyLines'' fame, but ended up turning down the offer.

* FakeNationality: Suffice to say, Niko Bellic is not played by an actual Serbian since his actor Michael Hollick is American. Neither is his brother Roman who is voiced by Jason Zumwalt. At least one character, namely Dimitri Rascalov, is voiced by a Russian actor.

** The game really takes aim at the [[ConspicuousConsumption "bling" culture]] in America, something that [[CondemnedByHistory died hard and quickly]] among the 2008 economic collapse, an event that was beginning to unfold when ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' was released (Bear Stearns collapsed a month before ''GTA IV'' hit shelves). Much of the in-game media, alongside ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony The Ballad Of Gay Tony]]'' focuses on the booming nightclub scene and the lives of celebrities, featuring parodies of socialites like Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton, with the in-game television airing a program based on ''Cribs''.
** The game's spoofing of politics in America feels pretty dated today given how the presidency of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump vastly transformed them in TheNewTens. For example, conservative politicians in the game are hung-up about the gay rights movement, clearly dated to before the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015. Surprisingly, even though the game's setting is based on New York City, there is no {{Trumplica}} to be found (although a building heavily based on the Trump Tower called the Cleethorpes Tower is present and was indeed named after Trump within the game files). On the left side of the aisle, it's satire of liberal politics largely centers around UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton, who at the time was already being supplanted by UsefulNotes/BarackObama as the major power player on the left and was out of politics altogether a few years later. All of this exists among a backdrop of the UsefulNotes/WarOnTerror being the biggest political issue on everyone's mind, [[BrokenBridge with the bridges to Algonquin and Alderney initially being closed off due to perceived terrorist threats]].