The Rotterdam Tower is a skyscraper and landmark in Grand Theft Auto IV, Episodes from Liberty City and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars located in The Triangle, Algonquin, Liberty City.
Description[]
The building occupies a city block bounded to the north by Hematite Street, to the east by Denver-Exeter Avenue, to the south by Garnet Street, and to the west by Frankfort Avenue. It is 77 storeys high, making it the tallest building in the city before the Zirconium Building, the Bawsaq Building and the South Parkway Building in descending order. It is marked on the official Manual Liberty City Area Map as a Point of Interest.
The player can access an observation deck situated at the top of the tower and look through its multitudinous binoculars. Due to the considerable height of the building, a sniper rifle will have no use on the observation deck as pedestrians and vehicles will not spawn on the ground while the player is at that height. It is safe from the police, as only the player can access the observation deck. However, there are no other escape routes, so it is an inadvisable destination if it lies within the wanted search radius.
The closest underground railway station is Suffolk Station located on Garnet Street, to the southern elevation of the building. It is served by the K/C Algonquin Inner Line. The building is heavily guarded: uniformed security guards can be found in the entrance lobby, occasionally along with LCPD officers. Two officers with Carbine Rifles can be found at a static post outside the main entrance of the building.
Grand Theft Auto IV[]
While the interior is inaccessible (unlike in The Ballad of Gay Tony, vide infra) in Grand Theft Auto IV, the observation deck can be accessed via a floating blue arrow icon located on the eastern elevation, on Denver-Exeter Avenue. The building features Empire State textures above the entrances - perhaps an oversight on the part of the developers.
One Helitour pilot mentions that his friend attempted to BASE jump from the tower, but was stopped by security guards who "were tubby, but they sure could move!" These security guards seem to be absent from the observation deck, however.
The Ballad of Gay Tony[]
In The Ballad of Gay Tony, the Rotterdam Tower exhibits many differences as far as functionality and exterior design are concerned, perhaps most notably the implementation of an accessible lobby. The exterior door textures are replaced by accessible doors leading into a lavishly decorated lobby featuring ceramic textures, large pillars, several paintings and relief displays naming several Grand Theft Auto cities such as Vice City, Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas. The original observation deck teleporter located just outside the doors remains in place.
The observation deck is also vastly different. A staircase leads to the upper pylon, several satellite dishes were removed, and some details were added on the spire, including an interactive ladder, a new framework holding the ladder in place, and new signage. A large neon sign facing north displays "Rotterdam Tower: Top of the World", which is visible from Star Junction. A parachute is located on the top of the first ladder. Two ladders on the eastern and western elevations of the building were also removed, which in Grand Theft Auto IV allowed players to descend to the immediate setback below. Night lighting at the top of the building was also changed; as opposed to the original blue, white and red color scheme present at night, TBoGT replaces them with bright purple and red colors, albeit only visible at certain distances (see Bugs/Glitches). The Empire State sign on the entrance walls was removed. These modifications do not concern The Lost and Damned.
Finally, the building's textures were halved in resolution. The original GTA IV textures, all 512x512, are still present in the base version of both games, but TBoGT patch files override the original textures in TBoGT with 256x256 textures, thus reducing the visual quality of the building. The original LOD textures remain unchanged, including the minuscule "Empire State" texture[1][2] which appears to have been clashing (or z-fighting) with the higher quality textures in GTA IV. However, an updated "base floor" model[3] in TBoGT appears to have rectified z-fighting bugs by re-positioning the entrance wall textures[4] ever so slightly in comparison to LODs, which still clash with the model, but are otherwise no longer noticeable. None of the changes made in TBoGT are present in TLAD, however, retaining the original GTA IV design.
Influence[]
The Rotterdam Tower is based on the Empire State Building[5] located on 20 W 34th St, New York, United States. The real-life building is referenced in one of Brucie's heli tours, as he states "If I were that big chimp, I'd climb it too!"[6] as a reference to King Kong, specifically the scene where King Kong climbs the Empire State Building. The building is named after the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars[]
In Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, only the lower level exterior walls are visible due to the "top down" perspective. However, the entire building appears in the background when talking with the drug dealer in Happiness Island.
Prominent Appearances in Missions[]
The Ballad of Gay Tony[]
Collectibles[]
Grand Theft Auto IV[]
Flying Rats[]
- One Flying Rat at the top of the tower.
Gallery[]
Grand Theft Auto IV[]
The Ballad of Gay Tony[]
Interior[]
Exterior[]
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars[]
Oversights[]
The night lights at the top of the building in PC versions of GTA IV with version 1.0.6.0 or newer installed and both PC Episodes from Liberty City DLC versions of the game have broken emissive shaders. While in console versions and PC versions that are older than version 1.0.6.0 of GTA IV and Episodes from Liberty City, the blue, red and white lights on top the tower would show from afar.
References[]
- ↑ File Data:
ns_lod_esb_entrances.dds - ↑
ns_lod_esb_entrances.dds, note the "Empire State" signage, albeit very small. - ↑ File Data:
TBoGT\pc\data\maps\manhat\manhat09.img\esb_base_dc9.wdr - ↑ File Data:
Original GTA IVesb_base_dc9.wdr:Polygons: 6,146 Vertices: 9,158
Updated TBOGT
esb_base_dc9.wdr:Polygons: 6,356 Vertices: 9,094
- ↑ Empire State Building
- ↑ File Data:
- 0x60AA9AAB = ~z~Rotterdam Tower, a buddy of mine tried a base jump off that bad boy.
- 0x5112E7E2 = ~z~~x~It's fucking beautiful, man. I love that shit. If I was that big chimp I'd climb it too.
[]
See Also[]
- Bedford Point Tower - Similar designed building appearing in Grand Theft Auto III and Liberty City Stories.