One of the most exciting things about the lead-up to the next Grand Theft Auto game, is guessing where it's going to take place. Or more accurately, where it's going to get its inspiration from, since the last 3 GTA games all took place in "fictional" places.

New York was a safe bet for the first one, being the largest and most storied city in America. Miami would not have been my first choice for the second, but it proved to be worthy. San Andreas broke out in a new direction by incorporating 3 cities (LA, Las Vegas, and San Francisco -- is that right?) Anyway, you get it... The "best of" the West.

So where the hell is the next one taking place? I got some ideas.

Since all the cities thus far have copied American cities the natural question would be, "is there anywhere else in America to go?" No, not really. I thought of Chicago, or Texas (briefly!) but this is GTA... it has to be bigger than the last one... we need to think Bigger!

First off, it's gotta take place on earth (yeah... sorry, Mars fans.) They can't use the entire world, although it does sound appealing for the sheer volume of the map, but because there would be no theme, no identity to it, it wouldn't work.

Eliminate North America and South America, since there's nowhere to go big here. Africa can go. Asia, especially Japan and/or China might be cool... but no, take those away too. Austrailia is kind of interesting, but GTA fans wouldn't eat this up like Rockstar wants.

That only leaves one region on the map: Europe. There's rumor that the next game might take place in London, or the U.K. in general. I like this... but would the U.K. offer anymore than San Andreas did? I think not... but this is still a possibility... as a matter of fact I would say this is #2 on my list of most probably locations, so keep your fingers crossed my English mates.

Ok, my number one pick. This definitely satisfies the idea of "upping the ante."

Europe.

There's no lack of variety here. This would take what San Andreas did, with more areas involved. There's Spain, Germany, Italy, England, France, Greece, Switzerland, Ireland and more. I think Russia is European as well, but it could be Asian. Let's not forget Amsterdam. I can only imagine what you could get into there.

I know there's a lot of other places in Europe, but I'm not sure how much they'll show through if the game becomes reality.

Grand Theft Auto: Euro (something.) I have a good feeling the word Euro would be used here.

Anyway, that's my thought. I hope the game's good if anything else.

E3 is coming up real soon, so you may hear something there, but Liberty City Stories for PS2 is coming out soon, and there's some speculation that the next GTA won't hit until 2007.

I can dream, can't I?