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The 8 coolest additions to GTA Online so far
As GTA Online finally brings one of its greatest myths to life, we look at seven other reasons we can’t stay out of Rockstar’s playground.
When GTA Online launched back in 2013, we spent a good deal of time wondering what the point of it all was. The streets were empty besides undisciplined groups of gankers and griefers; the jobs were re-hashes of story content, and the customisation options were somewhat limited. But it was free. And free is what brings people back to games like GTA Online. Since launch we’ve seen updates that have added dozens upon dozens of new jobs, activities and distractions; so many that the online mode has almost totally eclipsed the single player portion. Thankfully for Rockstar, most of us no longer care; we’re having too much fun online.
The latest DLC, The Doomsday Heist, is a special one, too. So special, in fact, that it feels almost like a birthday celebration. Because finally, after years of speculation, rumour and hearsay that began when a clever hacker broke into the PC source code and saw the word “JETPACK”, Rockstar are delivering on GTA Online’s most-coveted status symbol-slash-getaway vehicle: the Jetpack is real. Iluminati confirmed, etc.
Jokes aside, the Jetpack is one of GTA Online’s greatest urban myths alongside whatever the heck happened on Mount Chilliad (which we investigated and, incidentally, this DLC also aims to answer), but The Doomsday Heist also contains the first new Heist activity to launch since March 2015. This is not the first time Rockstar have surprised us with their updates, so we’ve compiled a list of some of the best additions to GTA Online so far.
It’s a steal
© Rockstar
1. Heists
This is a no-brainer for sure, but one of the greatest things Rockstar ever did was add these multi-level group activities to the world. Five Heists launched with the current-gen version of GTA V in 2015, and they changed San Andreas’ online landscape forever. From the tutorial-like 2-man Fleeca Job to stealing drugs from biker gang The Lost, the Heists gave GTA crews something real to focus their chimps-on-espresso level energy on.
No longer was the world just a playground for thugs with rocket launchers. In many ways, the Heists brought San Andreas to life. Players were making serious paper, getaway drivers and pilots had a reason to practice their craft and learn not to just crash into everything that didn’t move out of the way, and, most importantly, they were wonderfully-designed and thoroughly engaging.
2. The Content Creator
The only thing better than robbing banks and executing gang attacks in a pre-made playground is doing it all in one you made yourself. Using areas within San Andreas, you can create your own arenas for deathmatches, team contests, races and various other bullet-and-gasoline-themed shindigs. From vehicle and weapon placement to obstacles and cover, you can build and move and shift the world to suit your maniacal whims. Almost.
Added to that, you can create custom match types within these maps, placing start points for random groups to enter your activity and have fun blasting each other to bits or chasing each other around a track. Or around the sky. It’s entirely up to you. The Content Creator is responsible for some excellent player-generated game modes and another solid reason people are still playing, and buying, GTA Online after four years.
Don’t cross the streams
© Rockstar
3. Tron Bikes
A staple of video game legends for decades, the light-cycles from 80s cult classic Tron made their way into GTA Online with 2016’s Biker update. Available in-game for a whopping $3million, you can get hold of them much easier by choosing Adversary Mode: Deadline from the “Rockstar Created” Jobs list. Just as in the movie, each bike leaves behind a trail of light that will destroy the other players if they attempt to cross it.
It sets up a different kind of deathmatch, where the onus is on tactical driving and actively avoiding your opponents. Possibly as much fun as a Rockets vs. Rockets mode, the Tron Bikes added a heap of fun to San Andreas.
4. Transform Races
Like something straight out of our dreams, Transform Races hit GTA Online in a weekly update in October this year and have been hugely popular with players ever since. Another highly-anticipated addition, Transform Races are an extreme form of stunt race that see your vehicle switching from bike to buggy to plane to helicopter to jet-ski, in whichever order the insane track configuration demands.
If, like us, you’re utterly useless at flying GTA V’s helicopters you may find them particularly frustrating until you get good, but if you can avoid repeatedly face-planting your chopper into a giant, floating ring of gaudily-painted steel, you’ll have a lot of fun.
5. Legitimate business interests
So you have to take the word “legitimate” with a pinch of salt, but the Business Update added a vault of new content, allowing you to, among other things, become CEO of your own glorious empire. While shoe polish and spilt latte clean off a little easier than blood and engine grease, owning your own corporation can be just as lethal in GTA Online. It’s also not easy.
Simply buying office space can cost in excess of a million dollars (and that’s the cheap option), and repairing the damage every time another player decides to fly a helicopter directly through your reception area just for giggles can be pricey. But going “legit” has its perks, and there are players who have made untold millions by staying (mostly) on the straight and narrow.
Ron Perlman not included
© Rockstar
6. Biker Gangs
Sons of Anarchy has a lot to answer for. It may be hyper-violent, very sweary, and feature Charlie Hunham’s dodgy American accent, but it also succeeded in glamourising the high-octane world of criminal biker gangs to the point that GTA Online added the Biker update, following on from the popularity of Grand Theft Auto IV’s The Lost and the Damned DLC.
Along with the aforementioned Tron light-cycles, the Biker Update also allowed you to form your own crew of deadly easy-riders and engage in bike-based missions, races and activities. Given the California-esque landscape of San Andreas it makes perfect sense, and the raft of new clothes and vehicles is enough to keep any motorcycle aficionado interested.
7. Stunts galore
For a game world with that displays such flagrant disregard for the upkeep of motor vehicles, the Cunning Stunts Update was an inevitable addition. From parachuting cars to giant bowling alleys, death loops hundreds of feet above the city and jumps so high that landing can utterly total your vehicle, Cunning Stunts has it all.
More so than the majority of GTA Online updates (aside the Transform Races, of course), this one is in service to pure fun. Throwing vehicles, weapons and clothes at the world is one thing, but an update dedicated solely to going nuts at high speeds and, essentially, crashing into stuff for the sheer hell of it is one of the best things to happen to Rockstar’s world, and a must-play for any purveyor of adrenalised vehicular mayhem.
To infinity and… well, let’s see how we do
© Rockstar
8. The Jetpack
Few items can claim to generate the buzz and controversy of GTA V’s jetpack. First hinted at in source code discovered in the 1.12 Update, the item has been the subject of mass online Easter egg hunts and wild-goose chases for years. It was originally believed to be connected to the still unsolved Mt Chilliad mystery and once rumoured to reside within the almost impenetrable IAA Headquarters. Alas, despite countless hours spent searching, Rockstar removed references to the device from the source code of future updates and the whole thing passed into the archives of urban myth. Until now.
In the latest update, The Doomsday Heist, the jetpack is finally made real. Named “the Thruster” and retailing for an eye-spinning $2.75million in-game dollars, the jetpack has the potential to re-shape the virtual landscape once again. Jetpack dogfights, high-speed, high-altitude races, breakneck escapes into the clouds – all are now possible with the ultimate invention in personal transportation.
Those with faith always knew it would come – and those with sense always knew it would be expensive when it did – but the fact that the update is free and you can earn enough to buy one without spending a penny of real world money (but with a ton of grinding, mind) puts the legendary jetpack within everyone’s reach (y’know, eventually), and offers yet another incentive to return to the mean streets of San Andreas for a few more months of career criminality and irreverent insanity.
