The apartment housing Playboy X's penthouse. The main entrance into the penthouse is located on the left side of the building.
Playboy X's Penthouse or the Northwood Safehouse is one of Niko Bellic's possible safehouses in Grand Theft Auto IV. It is located in Northwood on the south-east corner of the Xenotime St-Galveston Ave intersection.
Getting the safehouse
The safehouse was originally purchased by Playboy X in 1993 when his mentor Dwayne Forge was arrested of a drug crack-down. Playboy X lived there until 2008 in the events of Grand Theft Auto IV where if the player decides to kill Playboy in The Holland Play, Dwayne will give Niko the penthouse as a gift.
If the player decides to kill Dwayne, the safehouse remains Playboy X's, but the player can still gain access by landing a helicopter on the roof - the patio doors are permanently open, although none of the features inside can be used. The player can also access the penthouse by parking an SUV or other high-roofed vehicle at the bottom of the fire stairs and climbing up them. The safehouse can also be entered these ways in The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony. The player can also own up to 2 cars/vehicles in the parking space, as Playboy's gold Patriot is still there.
Around the same time of acquiring this safehouse, Roman buys another one in Algonquin. Together, the Algonquin safehouses are vastly superior to the South Bohan Safehouse and the safehouse that follows in terms of their condition and facilities. It is unknown if Niko shared this safehouse with Roman, as they had shared all their other previous safehouses.
Amenities
It has a Panoramic wide screen television, jacuzzi, pool table, punching bag and an outfit based on the clothing style of Claude from Grand Theft Auto III; the penthouse itself has no internet, but you can use the guard's computer downstairs, in the lobby - interestingly, the monitor bears the Tw@ desktop when not in use. Niko can't play pool by himself, but can play against friends and dates. This pool table does incur quite a few unwanted glitches. Animations of characters setting up shots are often in incorrect directions and the balls often fall off the table when hit very hard towards corners. When the player picks up a friend or date, it won't be listed on the map, but the player can still walk through the door and take the elevator, regardless. The penthouse also includes photographs of a child Playboy X and Dwayne, evidence of the penthouse's previous owner and his associate.
From the bedroom there is an open double-door which leads out onto a wood and stone-floored patio. There are deck chairs and a sunshade, a hot tub and a gas barbecue outside with an explosive gas canister. The player can exit the patio by going down the fire stairs at one side, or can jump across to the adjacent building and take the internal stairs straight to street level. A fall from the patio will kill Niko.
Gallery
 And overhead view of the entire penthouse, which features a patio fully equipped with a barbecue grill, table set and jacuzzi.  The living space of the safehouse, its pool table a unique feature among the five safehouses.  The bedroom of the safehouse. |
Trivia
- Like three other safehouses (except for the Middle Park East Safehouse), there still is gang presence of the North Holland Hustlers.
- On the coffee table, there is a magazine entitled "BJ". If examined closely the front of the magazine has a member of the North Holland Hustlers.
- On the table, there is also a book titled "Baseball's greatest legends", which can also be found in Luis' Apartment.
- There is a glitch with the pool table: if you shoot it a few times with a shotgun on the playing surface, it will make the "craters" larger.
- Playboy X's Penthouse is similar to Claude's third safehouse in GTA III, along with Claude's clothing available inside the penthouse if Playboy X is killed during The Holland Play. This has sparked (unproven) rumours that Playboy X killed Claude.
- With a helicopter, you can bring you friends/dates to play pool here at any time, but it is extremely difficult to get them off of the roof.
- The penthouse can still be accessed (but none of the features can be used) in GTA IV's episodes. Just either get a helicopter and land on the roof or go to the adjacent building's roof, use a car cheat and jump to the penthouse roof. It's necessary to use a car cheat in the latter option because if not used most likely the player will fall and die.