Gridskipper

The next installment in the popular Grand Theft Auto video game series comes out on April 29th, 2008. This fourth edition of the controversial crime game deals with a Russian mobster running amok in Liberty City, a fictional stand-in for New York. Photos of a Liberty City map were leaked on Kotaku this morning and to help whet your appetite for spreading murder and mayhem through this virtual cityscape, I've mapped some GTA IV locations onto their New York inspirations.

With the recent advent of Google's My Maps, users netwide have created all kinds of customized Google Maps mashups without entering a line of code. Though there's indeed been a flood of maps, most are of minor utility or for amusement only. A good way to check up on the latest noteworthy uses of My Maps is via sites like Google Maps Mania (general news and notable examples) or Ongopongo (a bulk directory of Google Maps mashups). In this first generation, we found several user-created My Maps worth a look. Some are useful, some informative, some illustrative, and some just worth a slight chuckle. If you have examples of good My Maps — crafted by others or by your own hand — let us know. After the jump, we got burgers, salsa, Grand Theft Auto, and exploding tanker trucks. More »