Rockstar have finally let us in on some more details for GTA Online, including the all important question: "when will we be able to play!?"
 
A small patch will be rolling out on Xbox Live and PSN servers starting early morning in the US, that's from about 7 AM EST, so from 12 PM in the UK, early afternoon in the rest of Europe. Once this has been downloaded you should be able to access it. Remember you can jump into online by selecting the 4th (bottom quadrant) in your character selection wheel. Many people have been asking when GTA Online takes place, some were incorrectly told it follows on from GTA V, it doesn't, it is set before GTA V. Rockstar have now confirmed the events take place a few months before GTA V's story starts.
 
There's a lot more information Rockstar have provided, which is quoted below.
 

Home and Garage Security

• There’s plenty of havoc and treachery you can cause out in the open world of course, but in order to prevent some really annoying “griefing”, we’ve designed house party invitations specifically to be a friendly social affair where players can visit each other’s pads without fear of having them ruined or losing their hard-earned vehicles in the process. If someone invites you into their property, then it is considered a friendly visit and you will not be able to shoot up their place or steal their cars from their garage. By the way, in any given lobby, if you and another player own the same piece of property, you will each be able to enter your own personal instance of that property at any given time. You will also be able to enter each other’s instance of that property if you exchange and accept an invite. This way, multiple instances of ownership of the same property within a lobby can co-exist.

GTA$ and Fair Play

• To allay some concerns we’ve heard on this subject, we can assure you that the game is designed such that the option of purchasable GTA$ should not disrupt the playing field – and there are a few mechanics in place to help ensure that. All players still have to rank up with Reputation Points (RP) in order to get access to purchase high-end items.  No one can begin GTA Online and simply spend a lot of money out of the gate to get a leg up. You will have to earn your stripes and play to unlock access to the aspirational clothes, guns and other items. Please also remember that in GTA Online, hustling to afford the finer things by earning GTA$ doing robberies, stick-ups, winning races and other profitable activities is a fun gameplay experience rather than ever being a ‘grind’. As we mentioned on Wednesday, we will constantly tweak all areas of the game to make it play fairer and iron out any balancing problems (while fixing all the other problems we encounter!), but we really need your help in figuring out what those issues are. So please work with us on that!

An Ever-Growing Collection of Jobs

• Grand Theft Auto Online is a long-term GTA experience that you can expect to be built-upon, to grow and to evolve in many ways in the coming weeks, months and beyond. As part of that, there will be a massive amount of Jobs available to play over time as we will be regularly adding new ones for you to enjoy. Additionally, you will soon be helping to add content to the game world yourselves, by creating custom Race and Deathmatch Jobs through the Content Creator tool which we plan to release this fall. Grand Theft Auto Online is a collaborative project between Rockstar and all GTA players worldwide, so expect that we’ll effectively be working on it together from day one. As a very small example, the Crew Hierarchies feature that was introduced a few weeks back on Social Club was a direct result of popular fan feedback from last year – and we’ll be looking at the GTA Online community’s feedback, input and ideas constantly to help inform how the game itself will grow and evolve. As mentioned last week, we’ll be looking closely at your feedback emails sent to [email protected] and in the GTA Online Suggestion Box board at the forthcoming Social Club Forums. We’re very much looking forward to welcoming you as active participants in the world of GTA Online starting tomorrow.

The Character Creation System

• The hereditary-based character creation system of Grand Theft Auto Online allows for a multitude of options to create your avatar that will then inhabit the online world of Los Santos & Blaine County.  Choose your gender then decide on your mother and father.  From there, you can choose to give one parent genetic dominance or leave them more evenly matched. The choice is yours. Next, you adjust a set of lifestyle variables which help determine your character’s appearance and starting stats. Decide how much sleep he/she gets, how much partying they indulge in, how much honest work versus illegal activity, and more. Essentially, you can adjust the genetics to wind up with a fresh faced lad or lass or a grizzled, haggard degenerate or anywhere in between! You’ll also be able to preview your end result in real time all throughout to ensure you’re satisfied before putting your character on a direct flight to LS. Of course, once you’re out and about in the open world, you can further customize your character with haircuts, clothing and accessories to suit your tastes.

 
Finally, there's some exclusive content available for those of you who are Social Club members, which should be everyone by now. Read on for details on what you can get access to.
 

• In Grand Theft Auto Online, Social Club members get access to weaponry and vehicular unlocks, a whole new suite of Crew features to represent and coordinate with your squad, and special tools to get the most out of Rockstar Jobs and user-created Jobs when the Content Creator tool launches this fall. Check out the updated www.rockstargames.com/V/socialclub for an overview of GTA Online Social Club features including new Crew customization possibilities like Crew colors and Emblem vehicle decals, Crew messaging options, and Open or Closed Crew Sessions. Plus unlocks like the Sawed-Off Shotgun, the Annis Elegy RH8 and the John Marston Parent option to do the Marston family proud in the modern day West. Also stay tuned for info later in October about the very first GTA Online Social Club Events which will have special Event Playlists curated by Rockstar, reserved in-game license plate awards for top players, and more. So, if you haven’t joined, we recommend doing so!

It's that time of year again. The time just before Rockstar release one of their games, when they like to invite some very lucky webmasters out to New York City to play the game before it officially launches!

Obviously I did not turn down my invitation, and like the previous times I decided to write a few words about my experience, so if you're interested you can read those here.

Much of what we were able to play had already been talked about in recent previews, and of course you've all played GTA V now, so you're all familiar with the gameplay etc. As such, I've only commented on things I thought of off the top of my head, I'm not sure what else you guys might like to know. So feel free to use the forums to ask me any questions you have about GTA Online, and I'll do my best to answer them. I won't be posting any spoilers though so don't worry about that.

If you're one of the millions of people who likes to use cheats in GTA games, perhaps just for fun, or perhaps to get ahead, then you've probably been impatiently waiting for cheats for GTA V to be discovered. A number of cheats were discovered on day one and we've been keeping our list up to date whenever new ones were found since then.

The wait is now over for all cheats to be revealed. Thanks to some enterprising fellows using a variety of methods from trying old cheats from San Andreas, to using scripts on the game, we now have the final few cheats that were missing. You can see all of them, for both PS3 and Xbox 360, on our GTA V cheats page.

If you're one of the millions of users of our GTA Cheats app for iOS and Android, you'll be pleased to know both these are up to date with the complete cheats listing for GTA V, please ensure you are using at least version 1.4 for iOS, or 1.4.2 for Android in order to see them. I'd also like to take this opportunity to give a huge thank you to everyone supporting us by using these apps. The iOS version in particular has been doing phenomenally well in the App Store rankings, and in the Top Free Charts has been consistently beating out the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Google, Skype, eBay, and more... something which I never believed could happen. It's safe to say that GTA V is truly a global sensation, helping all GTA-related websites and apps to become flooded with new users, and it's practically impossible to find anyone who hasn't heard of the game, even if they're not a gamer!

Rockstar posted up a big article yesterday giving many more details about GTA Online. If you're sceptical about the game, or are just not sure about certain aspects of it, you should definitely read it. Below are excerpts of the main points Rockstar want to get across. First of all, some general details about it:
 

• Grand Theft Auto Online is going to be something brand new for us: a fully realized and living world for multiple players that will continue to grow and take shape over time.
   
• The ultimate shape of GTA Online will be determined as much by you, the player, as by the work we put in. What you like and don’t like, what you play and what you want will determine how the game develops and what it turns into.
   
• Everything we do will be informed by feedback from you all – from the types of missions that roll out to all kinds of future content.
   
• We are planning for a constant stream of new content, tweaks and updates in the weeks and months ahead.
   
• The first couple of weeks we expect to be heavily focused on tuning the experience as it goes from internal testing to the reality of being played by tons of people in the real world so that all the usual teething problems for an online game are overcome. We hope it will all run incredibly smoothly, but please bear with us if it doesn't, and help us fix any and all problems!
   
• After that, we will begin releasing content updates and giving you the opportunity to make your own content.

Next up, Rockstar need everyone's feedback straight from day one, it's needed because they need to know what people think is good and what people think is bad about the game, allowing them to focus their efforts on giving the best experience to everyone.
 

This is vital for the ongoing success of the game. The first few months of Grand Theft Auto Online will be critical as everyone enters this dynamic new world for the first time. Plenty of issues are bound to occur. Remember this interesting character?

One thing we are already aware of, and are trying to alleviate as fast as we can, is the unanticipated additional pressure on the servers due to a significantly higher number of players than we were anticipating at this point – we are working around the clock to buy and add more servers, but this increased scale is only going to make the first few days even more temperamental than such things usually are. This is part of the problem some of you have been experiencing with the iFruit App and some Social Club services – we apologize in advance for this and thank you for your patience in this area.

More than ever, we need your help to report your experiences, findings, likes, loves, dislikes and hates – and we will be looking at your feedback constantly to tune the game into its optimal shape and help guide how Grand Theft Auto Online will grow and evolve past this initial period. We will be checking out how people are playing and what they are not playing or not enjoying, while also monitoring feedback via two other new Rockstar channels:

• [email protected]: This email address will be active from launch day as a place to send your input and feedback direct to us relating to the game.
   
• GTA Online Forums at Social Club: At some point this fall after the initial release of GTA Online, we are planning to launch Social Club Forums where players can chat with one another about their online experiences as well as access a GTA Online Suggestion board to post about any suggested features, tweaks and changes you want to see.

 

And details on what to expect from day one of the launch of GTA Online:
 

From launch, up to 16 players can enter the world together to partake in everything from:

• Open-World Crime and Chaos: Go on your own or round up your friends to explore the open world together – catch a movie, go mountain biking, hit the shooting range and much more. Want to test the law? Knock over a convenience store, take down a gang or rob an armored truck for easy cash and Reputation.
   
• Jobs: Los Santos and Blaine County are ripe with opportunity for the ambitious and criminal minded. Take on Missions and an array of other Jobs as a lone wolf, team up with your Crew or join fellow mercenaries and degenerates to pull off a wide range of robberies and illicit activities together.
   
• Races: Everything from classic street competition and off-road tracks to boat racing on the open ocean, or take to the skies in aerial events. Jump into the madness of a GTA Race, or try out a brand new race type, Rally, where driver and co-pilot work together to navigate treacherous courses at high speeds.
   
• Sports: Join your friends / any random stranger for a game of tennis, a round of golf or go base jumping and more, all for cash and Reputation.
   
• Customization: Create your character using the Character Creator – then earn some cash and spend it getting dressed for success. You can also collect and customize cars for your garage and personalize your full weapons cache.
   
• Reputation and Cash Flow: Reputation is earned from all your online exploits in everything you do in GTA Online – and will help you rank up, providing access to new features, weapons and criminal contacts. Spend cash you’ve gained on cars, clothes, guns, properties and much more. You can either quickly accumulate cash through profitable activities like knocking over armored cars, winning street races, doing stick-ups or a host of other cash-making endeavors – or if you’re the completely instant gratification type, you can choose to buy denominations of GTA$. You will have the option to purchase GTA$ through the in-game Store. The game and its economy have been designed and balanced for the vast majority of players who will not buy extra cash. There is no in-game paywall and nothing that should disrupt the balance of the game. You don’t have to spend real money to attain the cars, guns, clothes, flash and style of a high-roller in Los Santos, but can if you wish to get them a little quicker. The economy is balanced differently from the single player economy, and cash earned in one cannot be taken over to the other. Most players will earn cash much faster Online than in Story Mode.
   
• Growing Pains: There will be the typical growing pains for an online game, including but not limited to crashes, glitches, crazy bugs, gameplay modes and mechanics that need re-balancing and other surprises! Even in GTAV Story Mode, some of you may have seen a few odd and even amusing little glitches out there last week. This sort of thing is inevitable in a massive open-world game and there’ll surely be lots more unexpected oddities like this in the Online world next week – rest assured we’ll be monitoring and actively doing all we can to smooth such things out as they happen, but we need your help to find them, as well as your feedback to help fine tune all of the game's systems so everything is perfectly balanced.

 

Finally, a few details on some content updates that are already planned:

Here is a quick overview of a few initial things we’re working on for the first few weeks of Grand Theft Auto Online, alongside an aggressive period of tuning and finessing the game. We will give you dates for all of this content as soon as we have them – bear in mind that the order of things may well change, and we will probably add some extra stuff as well!

• The Content Creator: The Content Creator will launch with tools to tailor and publish your own Deathmatches & Races.
   
• The Beach Bum Pack: Featuring 4 new amazing beach fun vehicles, over 300 new items of incredible down tempo leisure wear and 2 new but not remotely relaxing weapons.
   
• Capture the Flag: GTA Online’s take on the classic CTF mode including the ability to make your own using The Content Creator.
   
• Heists: This update will introduce full-on cooperative Heist missions that will require careful planning, teamwork and sharp execution – along with the Heist Planning Board for your apartment.

Just to be clear, all of these updates will be free. We’ll have more info on this and much more additional content as our plans develop through the launch period, and as we get feedback from you. Please stay tuned for further info and updates. And remember – we need your help to make this experience all it can be.

 

After news of GTAV's first day sales breaking $ 800 million, we all predicted that GTA V would be the quickest videogame in history to hit $ 1 billion in sales milestone. And it's gone and done just that in only three days!
 

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep. 20, 2013-- Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO) today announced that Grand Theft Auto V, the critically acclaimed latest release from the iconic interactive entertainment series, has achieved worldwide retail sales of more than billion during its first three days on sale, according to Company estimates. We believe this marks the fastest that any entertainment property, including video games* and feature films**, has reached this significant milestone.

"Grand Theft Auto is a cultural phenomenon and Rockstar Games continues to redefine what can be achieved in interactive entertainment," said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two. "We are incredibly proud of the extraordinary critical and commercial response to Grand Theft Auto V."

Source: Take Two PR

Wow. That is probably the most impressive title I've ever written for a news article. You read it right, Take Two has confirmed today that Grand Theft Auto V made over $ 800 million during the first day of sales worldwide (excluding Japan and Brazil). This is a new record for first day sales, beating out the previous record holder Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which made $ 500 million on its first day. This puts GTAV squarely on track to reach $ 1 billion in record time. It took Black Ops 2 15 days to reach this figure, while Modern Warfare 3 took 16 days. And in the film industry, the record holder is Avatar, and that took 17 days to reach a billion.
 
I expect most of you have now played some GTA V, and I think we can all agree it is one of the greatest games of all time, if not the greatest. Massive congratulations to everyone at Rockstar for pulling off something this amazing.
 
Below is the relevant excerpt from the press release.
 

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep. 18, 2013-- Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO) today announced that Grand Theft Auto V delivered the highest first day retail sales of any title in the history of the Company and the Grand Theft Auto series. Launched on September 17 for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the title has already received widespread critical acclaim and achieved first day sell-through of more than $ 800 million worldwide, excluding the upcoming launch in Japan and Brazil, according to Company estimates.

“All of us at Take-Two are thrilled with the initial response to Grand Theft Auto V. Once again, the team at Rockstar Games have outdone themselves, setting the entertainment industry's new standard for creativity, innovation and excellence," said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two. “Beginning at midnight on Monday, consumers around the world gathered in anticipation to be among the first to experience the evolution of this remarkable series. In North America alone, more than 8,300 stores opened their doors at midnight to welcome fans whose loyalty and enthusiasm were rewarded with what The New York Times called ‘the most immersive spectacle in interactive entertainment’. We are incredibly proud of Rockstar Games’ creative achievement and could not be more pleased with the success of this launch.”

Following on from part one of their interview with Dan Houser last week, The Guardian have just posted up part two. This part has Dan go into detail about what went in to the making of GTA V, how it's improved from GTA IV, what inspired it, and what GTA inspires in other media. Dan says there's no concrete plans for future GTA games, they just make the best game they can at the time, they'll stop making GTA when it stops being interesting. With GTA V on track to be come the highest rated game of all time, it's pretty clear that we all feel GTA is still VERY interesting.
 
The interview ends with Dan being asked if we could see another GTA game set in the U.K. It's a question that he gives a great answer to.
 

Did you ever think about exploring the UK further in the GTA games? Lots of people remember the GTA London titles quite fondly...
I think for us, my gut feeling is, GTA London was cool for the time, but games were more limited then. These days I think we would love to set a game in the UK, set in London, whatever, but I don't know if it would be a GTA game. I think there are plenty of great stories we could tell a about the UK, great environments to showcase, great gameplay mechanics that could have a UK bent to them – I just don't think it would be a GTA necessarily.

I'm not sure we'd be able to get that in a game set in Britain, but would love to, a some point, do a different game set in Britain. There are plenty of opportunities for fun there for the right property – I just don't know what that is, there are so many games we'd like to make that we just don't have the bandwidth to make at the moment, but we always think, well the future is long and varied, and that's what the future's for. Speaking for myself, and normally I'd be as militant about saying we as much as possible, because it certainly isn't me at all, thank god, it's the clever people, they let me tag along, but my own personal feeling is that GTA is America. With this game, I think, we're very happy with the location. It let us do something iconic.

So there you have it. Rockstar would indeed like to set another game in the U.K., but if they did, it most likely won't be GTA. I have to agree with Dan's thoughts on this, America is the perfect setting for a GTA game, it just feels right. Since GTA London, others have tried; The Getaway was a nice effort, albeit played from the correct side of the law, but it wasn't great. I know Rockstar could and would do a better job, but I'm not sure it would be better than any of their previous games. So, here's hoping for a new future Rockstar franchise set in the U.K!

Take Two have just announced by way of a press release that Grand Theft Auto V is now available worldwide, a fact some of you may be aware of already.
 

Rockstar Games is very proud to announce that Grand Theft Auto V is now available worldwide for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and also available for digital download from the PlayStation®Network.
“Grand Theft Auto V was a massive undertaking for us, I'm so proud of what the team created,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “We cannot wait for people to finally play it.”

I'm sure most of you are indeed now busy enjoying the game, just continue to do so. We'll be providing news, media and other content in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that. Our forums are always a good way to discuss the game, please remember to use spoiler tags where appropriate though. Remember you can also keep up with us on Facebook and Twitter if you prefer that.

 
GTAV's manual was far too big to fit in the game case, so Rockstar broke from tradition and have released an dedicated app for it. The app contains over 100 pages, explaining the game controls and features, a tour of local neighbourhoods and activities you can do across Los Santos and Blaine County, as well as a special interactive version of the game map that can be zoomed and explored.
 

As this is the biggest Grand Theft Auto game to date, we literally couldn't fit everything into an old fashioned style printed booklet anymore so instead we have taken the tradition of the classic GTA game manual into the digital era properly and have created for you a massive over-100-page free digital app for smartphones, tablets as well as desktops called Grand Theft Auto V: The Manual. The official manual app has everything from essential and practical Game Controls, Features and Credits info to a tour through the activities and local shops and brands in the game – and best yet, a special digital version of the game map to zoom in and explore with an interactive legend to browse neighborhoods and points of interest all over the entire world of Los Santos and Blaine County.

  
GTAV: The Manual can be downloaded for free for PC or iOS. Mac, Android and Windows Phone apps are coming soon.

The embargo has been lifted and pretty much every gaming website on the internet has their review out now. No surprises but it's pretty much 10/10 across the board, with a few deciding to be more critical and knock a few marks off for various reasons. Below is a huge but probably incomplete list of reviews and their scores.

AusGAMERS - 9.8/10

CVG - 10/10

Destructoid - 9/10

DigitalSpy - 5/5

EDGE - 10/10

EuroGamer - 9/10

Eurogamer España - 10/10
EuroGamer Italia - 10/10

Examiner - 5/5
IGN - 10/10

InsideGaming - 10/10

JeuxVideo - 18/20
Joystiq - 4.5/5

Kotaku - YES, Play it

GameBlog.FR - 5/5

GameInformer - 9.75/10

Gamekult - 9/10

GameReactor - 10/10

GamesRadar - 5/5

GameSpot - 9/10

GamesTM - 10/10

Gameswelt - 9.5/10

GameTrailers - 9.8/10
Giant Bomb - 5/5

METRO - 10/10

MTV - 9/10

Multiplayer.it - 9.7/10

Now Gamer - 9.5/10
Official PlayStation Magazine - 10/10
OXM - 10/10

Polygon - 9.5/10

Power Unlimited - 100/100

Rev3Games - 5/5

Strategy Informer - 10/10

T3 - 5/5

The Escapist - 3.5/5

The Guardian - 5/5
The Telegraph - 5/5
The Sixth Axis - 10/10

Thunderbolt - 10/10

TIME Magazine - 5/5

US Gamer - 4.5/5

VideoGame.it - 5/5

VideoGamer - 10/10
Xbox360Achievements - 100/100
 

Rockstar have released a GTAV companion app for iOS devices (Android coming soon) by the way of iFruit. Simply put, iFruit allows you to log in to Social Club and keep up to date with the latest news, including content from Lifeinvader. There's even stuff to do to customise your experience in GTAV with Los Santos Customs, and you can even train Chop from the app!

Los Santos Customs
The Los Santos Customs app offers players the freedom to create their ultimate vehicle in Grand Theft Auto V from anywhere. At the bar, on the beach, on the toilet. This is the future, we’re almost sure of it. 

You can even create and reserve custom license plates for both Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online – order your personalized plates before they’re gone! 

Also choose from paint jobs, window tints, smoke colors, wheels, hoods and spoilers. Upgrade your engine, brakes, exhaust, suspension, and accessorize with new lights, horns, tires and body armor. Place your order on-the-go and find it waiting for you in the garage the next time you play Grand Theft Auto V, or send your order in while playing and get a call from your local mechanic to swing by. 

Everybody’s had some work done in Los Santos, so don’t let your ride be the exception to the rule. 


Chop the Dog
Depth of content, high production values, defecation. It’s the app that has it all. Because who doesn’t love tending to a virtual pet? Chop is Franklin’s canine sidekick in Grand Theft Auto V. Look after him well in the “Chop the Dog” app and you will reap the benefits when playing as Franklin in Grand Theft Auto V. Pet him, feed and water him, play fetch and tug-of-war, teach him tricks. Too much or too little of an activity, however, will cause Chop to become unhappy, and nobody likes an unhappy Rottweiler. Take Chop on walks to give him a chance to work off last night’s steak and Piswasser and to mark his turf in the hood - defending his ladies, fending off gang members and even protecting the beach babes of Los Santos from unsightly tan lines by removing their bikinis. 

Looking after Chop successfully is reflected in his behavior in Grand Theft Auto V in a number of ways:

•He will be more helpful and responsive to Franklin 

•He will perform tricks such as sitting, begging and giving paw if properly trained through the app 

•He will sniff out the nearest hidden items when the player takes him for a walk

•Earn enough credits through walks and proper caretaking and exchange them for new collars for Chop

iFruit is available for free, for iOS devices running 4.3 or later. Download now from the App Store.

Some lucky people have managed to get their hands on a copy of GTAV earlier than the rest of us, but the vast majority are still awaiting the game's official release on Tuesday. Some of the slightly more impatient among us will be going to midnight launches, there's thousands happening all over the world. Rockstar recently posted a great store finder for people in the US and UK, but it is by no means exhaustive, and obviously of no help to those outside these two countries. Below are some additional stores in a few other large countries, if you know of any others happening in your country, do let us know in the comments or tweet at us.
 
 USA

Microsoft Store - Starting at 10PM on Monday night, Microsoft retail stores are holding launch parties where fans can compete for fun and bragging rights. Customers will enjoy food, swag, and raffle prizes. They can then pick up their copy of GTAV at midnight. Find your nearest store on MicrosoftStore.com/events.

Walmart and Best Buy will be giving away some free stuff to people who pre-ordered. Walmart will be giving away a GTAV logo keyring while Best Buy will be giving away character posters (while supplies last).

GameStop will also be opening most of their stores for midnight launches at 9PM, you can use Rockstar's store finder below or see their website for more details.
 
See the store finder at the bottom of this post for Walmart, Best Buy and almost all other US store locations.
 
 UK

GAME - Stores across the UK (including Northern Ireland) will be holding midnight launches, most will open at around 11:45 PM and should remain open until at least 1 AM. A full list is available on their website (and also in the store finder below).
 
HMV - HMV rather unhelpfully never revealed which of their stores would be holding midnight launches, they did however say that "most of [their] flasgship" stores would be opening at midnight, so if you live in a big-ish city then yours should be open, might be worth checking during the day to make sure though.
 
Blockbuster - I was not aware they still existed, but apparently they do, and it seems all their stores will be holding midnight launches. Full list on their website (and also in the store finder below).
 
Tesco and Asda - Many of these supermarkets are 24-hour stores already so these are unsurprising, use Rockstar's store finder below to see if yours will be opening at midnight.
 
 Ireland
 
Xtravision - A full list of midnight and early morning launches are available on their website.
 
GameStop - Unfortunately they don't have a full list of stores, but they have confirmed many will be opening at midnight. Check with your local store to make sure.
 
Tesco - Many Tesco supermarkets will be opening at midnight if they aren't already 24-hour stores, there's no list online so you'll need to check with your local store to make sure.
 
 Canada
 
EB Games - A full list of midnight and early morning launches are available on their website.
 
 Australia
 
EB Games - As long as you don't live in Western Australia you're probably in luck, many stores will be opening as early as 10 PM Monday night, those that aren't (actually all of them) will be opening nice and early at 8 AM on Tuesday. See the full list of stores on their website. Also, If you're in Sydney they are holding a massive party at World Square, with many top DJs performing. The first 400 customers will get free burritos! See this press release for full details.
 
JB Hi-Fi - As well as being the cheapest place to buy the game ( AUD), you're also in luck as long as you don't live in Western Australia, many stores will be opening late Monday night after 10 PM or so. See the full list on their website.
 
 New Zealand
 
EB Games - All stores opening at midnight, but some smaller stores will have their launch at a nearby larger store. Check with your local one to make sure.
 
JB HiFi - See here. If you pre-ordered you should get a free poster when you go to pick it up, they're also cheap at NZD. Stores in Albany, Botany, St. Lukes, Queen Street, Westgate and Wellington will be open at midnight.
 
 
Rockstar's UK and US midnight launch finder
 

Rockstar have just released what is presumably the final update to the official GTAV website tonight, and it's a pretty big update with lots of new stuff. First of all, the visitor's travelogue is now complete, with the final four sections now added.
 
Travelogue
 

Lovely Accommodations
Sponsored by the Blaine County Board of Tourism – watch their new commercial ‘My Blaine County’ – and browse a range of living options to suit your lifestyle from single-family homes in the heart of Los Santos, to rural mobile trailers in Blaine to a dream mini-mansion in Rockford Hills.
 
Sightseeing & Celebrity
Faded starlets, troubled celebutantes and aggressive, costumed street performers - you never know who you're going to bump into on Vinewood Boulevard. Come see the sights and sounds for yourself, or jump aboard the Vinewood Star Tours bus to have a struggling actor narrate as you take a guided tour of the landmarks and homes of the rich and famous while sitting on an un-airconditioned bus.
 
24-Hour Conveniences Stores 
You'll find the roads of Los Santos and Blaine County packed with accommodating convenience and liquor stores, open around the clock for your last minute needs. Stop into your local 24/7, LTD service station or Rob's liquor store - the tills are always filled with cash to serve you.
 
Opportunity for the Upwardly Mobile
This is a land of great opportunity. Cash is king in these parts - and ambitious and hard-working business people can make some big bucks if they know the right people and the right enterprise to get hooked up with...

 
 
Social Club

 
Social Club members will unlock some exclusive features in Grand Theft Auto V – these include the unlockable Assault Sub Machine Gun, the blazing Annis Elegy RH8 sports car and unique haircuts for Franklin, Michael and Trevor to sport around town.

Social Club members will also be able to access the deep suite of Career stats and player checklist features to monitor everything from heist performances to BAWSAQ investment portfolios and compare progress and accomplishments against Friends through special leaderboards.

Social Club members will also be able to share in-game photos (taken using the mobile phone) online via Snapmatic, Rockstar's parody of Instagram, and receive discounts on a variety of in-game purchases through Lifeinvader.com, the Facebook parody Rockstar launched just the other day.
 
New Screenshots & Artwork
 

Polygon recently got the chance to interview Rockstar's VP of Creative Dan Houser, who talked in detail about making a game with three protagonists and switching between them. It's well worth reading the whole article, but he's a couple of excerpts we thought were interesting:
 

"Any moment you could go and see what they're up to and it relates to what point you're up to in the real story. You just get a real feeling for them as existing outside of you controlling them, so that just kind of added this great ambient storytelling quality and fun to it.
 
"You jump across and Trevor's doing something crazy. Michael's stuck in some kind of existential hell hole of his own making, and Franklin is getting into his trouble."

"You'll miss lots if you don't pop over to [a character] from time to time," Houser said. "You'll miss lots of the stuff they are potentially getting up to, but you won't miss key plot points. It will be little details about what their lives are like, based on what you've done in the plot. You'll miss those obviously if you move the plot past where those are no longer relevant, and just the sheer number of things you can see them get up to, you'll miss them if you don't keep going to have a look for them."

"Everybody thinks they're the star of their own movie at some level, don't they, in existence? So to each character, they are very much the star of their experience. We really wanted to focus on each of them having their own sense of progression, their own adventure, but where they're also so interwoven that it doesn't break apart in the same way as say, the episodes from GTA 4 plus the two mission packs breaks apart into three very clear stories with small points of crossover.
 
"In this, they're much more tightly interwoven to the point where they almost become the same thing, but, to any one of them, at any one moment, they should always feel like they're not someone else's supporting character; it's their life, it's their adventure."

 
To top that off, a new very high resolution artwork has come to light featuring Chop.
 

Back in 2011, we reported on some domains Rockstar had registered that we thought might be for GTA V. More recently, you may have noticed lifeinvader.com appearing on the official GTAV website, confirming our suspicions that it may be used for a teaser site. Today, Rockstar have launched an actual website for Lifeinvader, an obvious parody of Facebook.

Clicking the logo or visiting the homepage will take you to a random profile on the site. You can login to the site using your Social Club details and "stalk" people there and comment, exactly as you do on Facebook. Many of the profiles contain screenshots, so spend some time browsing around and see what you can find.

Interesting to see that you can stalk businesses for deals, we're hoping this actually applies in-game as it's an excellent point of integration. 

Game Informer recently got a hands-on with GTA Online, and have given a thoroughly detailed preview of it in their latest issue. We've summarised some of the new details below, and you can also read a brief overview of the 12-page spread on IGN.

• GTA Online is something Rockstar have been planning since GTA III. Now that the concept is real, they eventually plan to expand it to include previous and future worlds - "We wanted a world where people could spend years without getting bored of playing the same content over and over."
• When creating your character, you will choose the parents and grandparents, and lifestyle, this will determine your characters looks and starting statistics, which can be upgraded later.
• The world will be populated with your friends, your crew, and similarly ranked players from your geographical region. Alternatively, each player can be hand picked.
• You can play in "passive mode" where players can't kill you, but you become hostile when you fire your weapon.
• Pretty much all activities from the single player campaign will be available online, including heists, missions, robberies, assaulting gang hideouts, hijacking armored vehicles, races, as well as sports such as tennis, golf and base jumping
• There are over 500 missions available, some of which can be completed alone, others will require you to team up.
• All of the missions take place shortly before the start of the single-player game, meaning some familiar faces will make an appearance.
• If you make friends with the right people you'll also be granted bonuses (for example, biker gangs may offer mission support or a hacker can hide you on the radar in multiplayer matches).
• The point of the game is to gain as much money as possible, and use it to buy assets such as cars and houses
• Houses will have space for storing cars; cheap ones will have two garage spaces while expensive penthouses will hold up to ten.
• You'll want to visit ATMs often as rival players can kill you and take any cash you have on you at the time.
• If you do get robbed, you can put a bounty on the perpetrator's head and attempt to get some revenge.
• You can accept race invites from your phone to warp to the location, instead of waiting in a lobby.
• A lobby window will open up for some missions, allowing the crew leader to customize the time of day, weather, degree of difficulty, and the number of lives the crew has to complete the mission.
• Each player will select their role for the mission and receive specific instructions for that role. You will respawn if you die but it will count against your crew's lives.
• You can invite friends and crew members over to have a drink, call strippers, enjoy the view, and watch the Rockstar parody TV shows together. If one of your crew members is in a high speed chase, they will appear on Weazel News on the TV.
• Rockstar plans to continue creating new content for GTA Online and support it as a separate product from GTA V.
• Rockstar have employed a dedicated team to help with stress testing the game in the first few weeks.
• Player created race and deathmatch modes will be available at launch, with more complex mission creators coming later.
• You'll need to play for about an hour before you access a certain rank enabling you to create your own content for the game.
• Creation mode lets you choose the type of race (Normal, GTA, or Rally), weather, radio station, police interference, and ambient drivers.
• Deathmatch creation mode lets you choose the type, timer, and kill count, spawn points, weapon types, and extra props and vehicles.
• Rockstar will be playing and ranking the user-created content on the Social Club, allowing players to easily see the best content.

Just a week to go until we finally get our hands on GTAV. Serial great-GTA-artwork-producer Patrick Brown has celebrated by drawing this brilliant picture simply entitled "Launch Piece":
 

Grand Theft Auto V is only 6 days away! I wanted to do something for the launch of the game and this is what I've come up with. I really wanted to do something that uses all three protagonists in one scene, so here we have a bit of a gang shootout that takes part in a robbery, you can see the armored truck in the distance.
I really can't wait for GTA V, it's so close but the days are going so slow, it's going to be amazing. You can expect many more GTA V artworks to come, I am planning on doing a GTA V Online piece of fan art too.

Greatest Game Series of the Decade
GTA fans: GameSpot are holding a Greatest Games Series of the Decade competition, and Grand Theft Auto is currently losing out to Elder Scrolls. Head on over to GameSpot and vote for GTA!

Time now for a competition for our readers from the U.K. musicMagpie, the company that lets you sell back your unwanted CDs, DVDs, games and other tech, are giving you the chance to win a Limited Edition Azurite Blue PlayStation 3 console plus a copy of the GTAV Collector's Edition!
 

Want to be in with a chance of winning that? All you have to do is answer one easy question: name the three main characters in GTAV. That's it. Super simple stuff.
 
1st prize: Limited Edition Azurite Blue PlayStation 3 console + GTA V Collector's Edition (includes: Collectable Steelbook with Exclusive Artwork, GTA V New Era Snapback Cap, Blueprint Map, GTA V Security Deposit Bag with Logo Key + Digital Content)
2nd prize: Copy of GTA V Special Edition (PS3)  (includes: Collectable Steelbook with Exclusive Artwork, Blueprint Map + Digital Content)
3rd prize: Copy of GTA V Standard Edition (PS3)
 
To enter, head on over to musicMagpie's GTA V competition page for full details and instructions (you'll need a Facebook account), and remember you must be over 18 and live in the U.K. You have until 17th September to get your entry in. Full terms and conditions are here.

Rockstar have very kindly sent us over this new GTAV screenshot exclusively for The GTA Place. It's Trevor having a fight with a car window! Cheers R*!
 

Hey Chris,
 
We hope you're ready as there's just a little more than one week to go until the launch of GTAV. As a token of our appreciation for all the great work you do with your site, here is an exclusive screenshot for The GTA Place.
 
Cheers,
Webmaster@R*

Our friends at the following fansites also received exclusive screenshots:

• GTAV.net
• GTAWH
• GTAGaming
• GTAForum.nl
• GTA-Series
• GTATurk
• GTAInside
• iGTA5
• GTANF
• GTAPro
• GTA-Xtreme.de
• GTA-Scene.de
• GTAVision
• TheGTABase
• RockstarBase
• RockstarWorld
• RockstarNetwork
• RockstarWatch
• RockstarNexus
• RockstarResource
• Rockstar98

While we haven't been posting much of Rockstar's street marketing on here, you no doubt will have seen a lot yourself, perhaps even in your hometown, the majority of the art is stuff we've already seen. Today we have some brand new character art which has gone up in Auckland, New Zealand. GTAForums member 10 Percent Guano took some great photos of the new ones.
 

Now that these artworks featuring Amanda, Simeon, Tao, Tracey and Wade are now out in the open, we can expect high res digital versions to be released by Rockstar fairly soon. Remember there is now just over 7 days until we get to play GTAV!

According to an article in the Scotsman today, so called "industry experts" are predicting that GTAV should bring in over £1 billion ($ 1.56bn) for Rockstar, by selling 25 million copies in its first year. The game has a development and marketing budget totalling £170 million, an absolutely massive amount for a videogame, so it doesn't take a mathematician to work out that this will mean a huge profit for Rockstar.

There isn't really any new information in the article, it does however state that the game world is 49 square miles (78km²) which, if true, shows just how massive it really is. The majority of the article talks about the game from Scottish perspectives, given the game's roots in the small country. It touches on the sheer amount of detail that goes into making the game. Read the full thing over at The Scotsman.

The Guardian's Matt Hill has today posted his rather lengthy interview with Dan Houser (Hill claims the transcript ran to over 10,000 words). The interview covers a number of topics, from Houser's meticulous nature in studying cities used in GTA games, to his self-admitted unstructured and disorganised being. The main theme of the interview, though, is the comparison between videogames and movies, and how the former is constantly getting more and more relevant these days. Hill points out how Grand Theft Auto IV made $ 310m on its release day alone back in 2008, that was a world record at the time in any kind of media.
 

"Like all fiction, games are transportive, yet what makes them unique is that you follow your own eyes through the world," says Houser. "Games are, at one level, a progression on from a film – you jump off a cliff rather than a stuntman jumping off a cliff – but open-world games are actually more than that. It's the being rather than the doing. You're going to see different things than another player, and when you walk up a hill yourself and see the sun setting on the ocean, that's a lot different to me taking a camera up there and making you see it."

 
Houser also talks about how Grand Theft Auto couldn't really work as a movie, or even a TV show, as they'd lose too much in terms of storytelling - GTAV is 100 hours long, so when you think about it like this, it's easy to understand why it would be impossible to condense it into a 2 hour film. A videogame is the perfect medium for certain types of storytelling and immersion, and Grand Theft Auto fits squarely into that.
 

"There's still plenty of kudos in doing a film, but you shouldn't ever do anything in your life for kudos," advises Houser. "It's much easier to imagine GTA as a TV series, as the form is closer, but I still think we'd be losing too much to ever actually do it. We've got this big open-world experience that's 100 hours long, and that gives players control over what they do, what they see, and how they see it. A world where you can do everything from rob a bank to take a yoga lesson to watch TV, all in your own time. How do you condense that into a two-hour or 12-hour experience where you take away the main things: player agency and freedom?"

He pauses for breath. "We love games and we think we've got something to say in games, and that games have plenty to say. So shouldn't we just continue doing that?" It would be a crime not to.

Plenty more quotes like that can be read in the full interview over at The Guardian.

Rockstar have updated the official GTAV website today with more sections to read about in the Los Santos travelogue: Security, Fitness & Entertainment. There's also 8 brand new screenshots and a new artwork which you can see at the end of this post.
 

Security & Peace of Mind
The Los Santos Police Department is famous for tackling crime in the most aggressive and unhinged way possible, while private security firms like Gruppe 6 and Merryweather Security have a financial interest in saving your assets. Sponsored by Ammu-Nation – Protecting Your Rights.
 
Fitness & Relaxation
Vanity is at an all-time high and we're an athlete and fitness buff's paradise. Fancy a bit of tennis? We've got world class courts and stiff competition. Into cycling? Grab a bike for a lovely ride along the Los Santos beachfront or a punishing path through the mountains and hillsides of Blaine County. Or take part in a challenging triathlon of swimming, running and biking designed to pit egomaniacs against each other in a test of who exercises professionally the best. Sponsored by EGO CHASER Energy Bars - an energy bar that's all about you. Watch the commercial!

Exciting Music & Entertainment 
For those stuck in traffic, tune in to the Los Santos radio dial for a wide range of music styles to choose from - check out radio station previews of Radio Los Santos and Channel X plus Rebel Radio, East Los FM, West Coast Classics, Fly Lo FM and Vinewood Boulevard Radio. Stay tuned for more radio station previews to come.
In the Home Entertainment section, you can watch a special preview of CNT's Fall TV Line Up, with clips from The Underbelly of Paradise, Impotent Rage and Moorehead Rides Again as well as a sneak preview of Kung Fu Rainbow Lazer Force, the upper-middle class super hero team coming to Weazel TV’s family values entertainment programming this fall.

New Screenshots

New Artwork

IGN's article today looks at two more single player missions. It goes without saying that this preview does include slight spoilers, so avoid this if you don't want to know about them. We can't really summarise the thing because it's basically all about the two missions and not much else, but does talk about how Rockstar are interweaving the story which comes together through the three main characters very differing viewpoints. If you're interested, head on over to IGN to check it out.

Rockstar have just launched a new GTAV teaser site related to the Epsilon Program, or rather, against it. Cultstoppers aims to stop the cult that is the Epsilon Program, and find some missing people it suspects were abducted.

At least some of the "missing" characters pictured above appear to be Twitter users, as suggested in a tweet by Rockstar. They are presumably winners of the contest Rockstar held back in April.

Day 3 of IGN's week long preview, and an article on how Rockstar have built a next-gen world using current-gen technology. In today's article, IGN talks to Rockstar North's associate technical director and combat designer Phil Hooker for the finer details of how Rockstar have created something that feels as if it's a next-generation game, for the current generation of consoles. Producer and lead mission designer Imran Sarwar also provides input.

The article discusses how Rockstar have often looked at features they developed for their other franchises, with Manhunt, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne and Midnight Club specifically mentioned, put them into GTA, tweaked and reworked them into something that greatly improves the overall gameplay.

“We would hope that what gamers will notice overall is everything is much tighter, more consistent, more fluid and more intuitive,” he says. “Pretty much every mechanic has been heavily reworked to try and make the player need to think less about the mechanics, and more about what they are doing, so that they become more immersed in the world and the situations they are in as they play.

IGN concludes by stating that the end result is something that "feels more 'next-generation' than most the titles coming out on PS4 and Xbox One later this year", and that they don't believe any of Xbox One or PS4 launch titles "match the gameplay scope displayed here in GTA V".

Plenty more interesting quotes to be read in the full article over at IGN.

The second day of IGN's week-long coverage of GTAV brings us a great hands-on preview of what to expect in GTA Online. IGN's Ryan McCaffrey is the first person outside of Rockstar Games to play the "shockingly ambitious" standalone multiplayer mode, and he has described 10 "crazy, awesome" things he saw and did in it.
 
Have a read of the hands-on preview yourself, Ryan says GTA Online "is everything you’ve always dreamed an online GTA should be. It even has elements of persistence, though it’s definitely not an MMO." The preview also included 11 screenshots.
 

The first hands-on previews of GTAV are coming out today, with various European gaming sites getting to play the game first. Below is a short summary of some interesting points that were mentioned in some of the reviews. Most other details concern some of the early missions, so with the interest of not wanting to spoil anything for anyone, we've left those out. If you don't mind reading about the early missions, then check out the links at the end of the post and read the whole articles.
 
Summary

• Missions are extremely fun and varied
• Characters will sometimes engage with pedestrians in totally unique ways to immerse players deeper into the world, for example, IGN saw Lamar randomly accost a drunken pedestrian
• While on the ground, you feel like a tiny part of the game, while seeing Los Santos from the air you get to see just how vast and expansive the city is.
• No graphics stuttering, and the infamous popup scenery that has plagued the GTA series since GTA III was only seen a handful of times - it has drastically improved since GTA IV.
• The idea of character switching is a fantastic weapon, but if you use it right in-game you'll see how it can be extremely effective.
• The diversity of the city, its surroundings, the characters and the whole world is really amazing.
• There is a "colossal range of vehicles"
• Police are a lot more intelligent and can spot you from a distance
• The weapon selection wheel will store all your weapons, even when out of ammo, and you will never lose them.

Quotes from IGN:

The distinction between GTA V and GTA IV’s vehicle handling is immediately clear; carving my way through the throngs of 18-wheelers the low-slung supercar feels more sure-footed and grippy than similar models in GTA IV. It’s more responsive, but without erring towards feeling too superficial or light.

The motorcycles have benefitted from the handling improvements too; they still feel quite manoeuvrable but, at the same time, they now come with more believable sense of mass.

I'm struck at just how much brighter GTA V is than GTA IV. The harsh, San Andreas sunshine lends vehicles a dazzling gleam, casts sharp shadows, and gives the whole environment a brilliant, suitably over-exposed summertime feel. Aesthetically, Los Santos stands in stark contrast to the somewhat washed-out bleakness of Liberty City.

 
Screenshots

 
 
Hands-on Previews

• IGN UK
• JeuxActu (French)
• GamesAktuell (German)

 
That sweet looking real-life Bravado Banshee Rockstar teased us about last week has now been revealed as the prize for a competition being run by GameStop in the U.S. (and Puerto Rico and Guam), which unfortunately excludes everyone residing outside those 3 countries. As you can probably tell, the Banshee is a modified Dodge Viper which is based on the GTA V Banshee which is based on the real-life Dodge Viper... life imitating art imitating life, or something like that.
 
According to GameStop the car is worth $ 180,000, and the winner will also get a cheque (not a joke, Americans still use cheques) for $ 70,000. Due to ridiculous workings of American law, the "lucky" winner will have to pay a huge amount of taxes on the car, as well as insurance and such, the cheque will help cover these costs. But hey, you'll have a Banshee, so it's not like you'll be complaining much! If you do manage to win I sure hope you have somewhere safe to keep it.
 
Curious what looks like on the streets? Some bloke called Jalen Cullen snapped these pics of the car:
 

So that's probably the best competition prize Rockstar have ever offered up. Here's hoping to more of these competitions in the future, and not just in the U.S.!