That purported city clue from the “Episodes from Liberty City” manual may be a red herring after all if recent comments by one of Rockstar’s head honchos are to be believed. Though the existence of “Grand Theft Auto 5″ as game in the early stages of development should surprise no one, followers of the series will be interested to know that Rockstar is still in the process of picking a city and characters for the next installment.

“We’ll think of a city first, then the characters,” Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser told Times Online.

That brief comment may not say much about what “GTA 5″ will look like, but it doesn’t sound like something Houser would say if the hypothetical city represented in the “Episodes from Liberty City” manual was a lock. In fact, he hints that all bets are off for Rockstar’s plans. It also doesn’t sound like they’ve started on the script yet, which the article says will come out to about 1,000 pages when Houser is done co-writing it.

I know Russ wants “GTA: Moon,” but I’m personally pulling for “GTA 5″ to be set in Beijing or Shanghai, if for no other reason than doors it would open for potential mafia-run gold farming side missions. Think about that for a second and imagine the possibilities.

Where would you like to see “GTA 5″ set? Should Rockstar pick a new city or return to one from a previous game? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.