History UnintentionalPeriodPiece / GrandTheftAutoIV

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 up to eleven as the game features or satirizes trends that were already going out of style in 2008.

* 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 that actually works being a parody of the [=BlackBerry=], and the iPhone equivalent being something that doesn't work at all.[[note]]This does truly reflect the landscape of the market however - it took a few years from the iPhone's release for both it and the "slab of screen" style of phone to become truly dominant, with candybars remaining ubiquitous up to the 2010s and BlackBerry maintaining a sizeable consumer user base up until around 2013.[[/note]] 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.

* Eunux.net pokes fun at various things about [[UsefulNotes/{{Unix}} Linux]] and its userbase, including its lack of game support. Starting in TheNewTens, there is a huge push by Creator/ValveCorporation to fix this, and now thousands of PC games work on Linux operating systems, including the entire ''Grand Theft Auto'' series.

** ValuesResonance: Conservative politicians have made pushing back against LGBT rights a major part of their policy platform again after Trump left office and are again sounding like their circa-2008 in-game counterparts.

* 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.

* Eunux.net pokes fun at various things about [[UsefulNotes/{{Unix}} Linux]] and its userbase, including its lack of game support. Starting in TheNewTens, there is a huge push by Creator/ValveCorporation to fix this, and now thousands of PC games work on Linux operating systems, including ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' itself.

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 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''.

* 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=].[[note]]This does truly reflect the landscape of the market however - it took a few years from the iPhone's release for both it and the "slab of screen" style of phone to become truly dominant, with candybars remaining ubiquitous up to the 2010s and BlackBerry maintaining a sizeable consumer user base up until around 2013.[[/note]] 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.

* 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]]''.

* The game's soundtrack features {{Reggaeton}} (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.
** Speaking of radio stations, The Vibe 98.8 (the UsefulNotes/RAndB radio station) features "Bump N' Grind" by Music/RKelly in its soundtrack, something that would be [[HarsherInHindsight flat-out inconceivable]] a decade later following the numerous sexual misconduct/abuse accusations against him, especially after the Creator/{{Lifetime}} documentary ''Surviving R. Kelly'' was released.

* 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.

* 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 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. A obvious parody of the now-deceased Creator/RushLimbaugh is one of the right's most prominent voices. 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 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]].