London

London, England, is the real-life capital of England and was the city used in both the mission packs available for the original Grand Theft Auto game (GTA 1969 and GTA 1961). To date, London is the only real-life city to be used in a GTA game, as all others have been fictional cities based on real American cities. Real cities have been mentioned in the game series though, like Dundee, Scotland (seen in GTA Vice City on a billboard at the airport), Kent, England (Kent Paul's birthplace) and Paris, France and Hanover, Germany (both mentioned in the GTA IV era). There are also many other real-life cities mentioned in every GTA game, composing the GTA World.

The temporal setting has been exploited through a number of cultural and historical references, including the appearance of a James Bond-like character and the use of more or less authentic slang. In addition, the cars drive on the left side of the road, as is the case in Britain, and authentic London place names were used.