The Liberty City of GTA 3 isn't very large, especially when you compare it to all of Rockstar's other cities. This helps make GTA 3's world feel more tangible and real, which is especially difficult from a modern perspective when you consider how small Liberty City is in comparison to today's open-world games. While most of GTA 3's Italian-ness flirts with caricature, it's Rockstar's dedication to making sure the Italian archetypes are speaking the right version of Italian that pushes it beyond obtuseness. Even from my 20-year-late vantage point, it's clear that Rockstar wanted to imbue Liberty City and its constituents with a heavy dose of red-white-and-green. GTA 3's Sicilian sayings (which include "non sono mica cazzi tuoi!" or "it's none of your fucking business" and "minchia, torna qui!" which is roughly "fuck, get back here!") inject it with a realism that feels almost ahead of its time. My family is no exception to this: according to his ancestry report, my dad is 81% Southern Italian. According to a 2009 report from the Migrantes Foundation, 54.8% of Italian immigrants were from the south, and Sicily (the southern island that looks like it's being kicked by the boot that is Italy) was the region with the most immigrants.
The diasporas took place after the unification of Italy and during the rise of fascism in the country, where poverty and a lack of land hit southern Italians the hardest. This is a lovely little attention to detail that I have to tip my fedora to Rockstar for - during both major Italian diasporas, the majority of Italian immigrants were from southern Italy. A random passerby says something about "real good red sauce" and suddenly I'm transported to the A&S Pork Store in Massapequa, waiting in line with my dad for a half-pound of "mutzadell" and a sausage ring.Īs the game progresses, I hear snippets of Italian-Americanisms and some choice curses thrown out in Italian - specifically Sicilian dialect.
#Mafia 2 characters drivers
As I'm in the middle of a particularly frustrating mission trying to ram an armored car until its drivers abandon it, I step out of my stolen box truck and duck down an alley to try and drop my wanted level. Nothing says New York more than its people, and GTA 3's Liberty City has them in spades.