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GTA Online's DIY mission tools arrive this week, story DLC and co-op heists due in 2014
Just when we thought we were out, Rockstar Games pulls us back in. GTA Online's latest free content pack brings user-created races and deathmatches into the fray, and the developer says it could be out as soon as tomorrow. Rockstar promises that players can craft two flavors of deathmatch (free-for-all and team-based) and three types of races including standard, GTA Race and a rally variant. Perhaps most tantalizingly, the company's blog post teases "screaming jet dogfights" when mentioning race types. We can only hope that means F-16s and not Franklin's canine companion, Chop. The firm says it will keep an eye on the community creations and promote the cream of the crop via a Rockstar Verified Jobs designation, as well. Rockstar also detailed some of its plans for the future of GTAO and Grand Theft Auto 5. GTAO is getting its own version of capture the flag later this month, and co-op heists are en route for next year; the Houser brothers promise that more info on the former will hit next week. As for GTA5, the outift says it has big plans for "substantial additions" to the single-player story. Now, why did we buy next-gen consoles again?
Grand Theft Auto Online players start getting virtual payouts for their troubles
Rockstar promised that it would compensate GTA Online players for their service problems during October, and it's (somewhat belatedly) making good on its word. As expected, the developer has started paying these early adopters $500,000 each in virtual currency to keep them organizing heists and racing cars. All the handouts should wrap up within the next two days, Rockstar estimates. There should also be fewer hiccups in the future -- the company is already rolling out a fix that prevents cloud sync outages from erasing progress. GTAO members aren't entirely out of the woods, but the bonus cash may give them a good reason to stay in Los Santos.
Lost your Grand Theft Auto Online character? Have some money instead!
For all the problems of online games, there's a certain assumption that your character is safe no matter what technical problems might hit the server. Sure, Grand Theft Auto Online has had some growing pains, but if your character vanishes for some reason you can still -- wait, no, apparently your character is lost forever and will never return to you. That's kind of the opposite of news you were hoping for. So in the hopes that you'll be distracted, Rockstar is throwing half a million dollars at you. Before you get too distracted, you should know that this is in-game money. Two payments of $250,000 in-game will be provided to players on two distinct dates, hopefully by the end of next week. While this won't exactly replace the time and effort lost via vanishing characters, it should at least take the edge off of Grand Theft Auto Online's unexpected problems.
Rockstar gifting Grand Theft Auto Online players $500K (in online cash) for ballin'
Rockstar Games sympathizes with your GTA Online woes, folks. The company's dropping two massive deposits of cash ($250K apiece) into player accounts in the coming weeks, and the first could be coming "by the end of next week." After those pesky issues with game progress and content disappearing are solved (again, hopefully "by the end of next week"), the deposits are scheduled to begin. Not every single person who owns Grand Theft Auto V will get the cash, but anyone who logged in and played GTA Online "during the month of October 2013" is qualified. After scooping the next title update (1.04), Rockstar will tell people via its newswire website when the deposits are going in -- and just like that, magically, said deposits will appear in-game for qualifying players. After that, you may commence with the ballin'. Or maybe just buy yourself a Burger Shot franchise and settle down, get a nice condo in the outskirts of Los Santos. The choice is yours!
Rockstar: GTA Online title update coming 'as soon as tomorrow' (Update: released for PS3 and Xbox 360)
Rockstar's "around the clock" work addressing the issues surrounding GTA Online could pay off soon. The developer promised that a title update is in the works and may be available "as soon as tomorrow," in an update to yesterday's trouble-shooting post. So if you can hold out just a bit longer, joining up with your buddies for a little group mayhem instead of a staring contest with a loading symbol could be a single sleep away. Or, you know, you could just work on your 100 percent completion of Grand Theft Auto 5 where no connection is needed. It's up to you! Update: Rockstar has updated its news post to say that it's just posted an update that should salve the issues of frustrated PS3 owners. Xbox devotees will need to sit tight, but the company has said that a fix will be coming "later today." Update 2: Rockstar has tweeted that the update is out for Xbox 360 as well.
Rockstar responds to GTA Online issues, is working 'around the clock' to fix things (update)
Unfortunately, as many predicted, the rollout of Grand Theft Auto Online on Tuesday did not go smoothly for many gamers. On launch day many were unable to connect, or connected but couldn't complete the tutorial, or got into the game and ended up losing created characters. Rockstar Games has posted a list of issues players have reported and says the team is working "around the clock" (presumably the members of the team that aren't busy counting that billion dollar haul) on fixes. A problem limited the number of concurrent PSN users has been squashed, and they're working on unblocking users that can't get through the tutorial. For the time being, the team has also disabled the ability to buy ingame cash with real money. If you're one of the players affected, keep an eye on the support page for all the latest updates, or contact Rockstar Support via Twitter or on its website, while general suggestions for the online experience should go to GTAOnline@rockstargames.com. We've had more success logging on in the last few hours, let us know if your online crews are connecting with any success. If they're not, check out Joystiq's early impressions of the multiplayer for a taste of what GTA Online has to offer, when it's working. Update: Patches are out for both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game.
Grand Theft Auto Online update arrives, brings multiplayer to Los Santos
If you're already looking for a more worthy Grand Theft Auto 5 adversary than a computer can generate, here's the dirt: you can now play it online. Whether your battleground of choice is PlayStation Network or Xbox Live, only a "small title update" should be required to get online. Of course, that is assuming the game's servers can handle the load. With over 16.5 million copies already in circulation Day 1 connectivity could land somewhere near the Sim City end of the scale, and Rockstar's Social Club backend has already experienced some strain loading up pictures and stats from the single player edition. Assuming everything goes to plan however, players should be creating their avatars, forming online crime syndicates and visiting each other's houses. The Content Creator tool that will let players design their own heists is one of the features scheduled to launch later this fall, for more details on what is available right away, check out this blog post. Access appears to be open on both PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, although we're already seeing reports of connection issues and "Rockstar cloud servers are not available right now" on both sides. Update: Rockstar says it's aware of day one connection issues that its "trying to stabilize ASAP." Joystiq points out some have reported save file issues with their single player game after trying to hop online, so you may want to make a backup save, or just wait for the issues to subside before diving in. Check out the official list of known multiplayer issues here.
Rockstar reveals new GTA Online details prior to next week's roll out
Ahead of next week's GTA Online launch, developer Rockstar Games took to its blog to outline what to expect come October 1st. The post goes to great lengths to establish that the entire experience is free -- unless you want to buy in-game currency with real money -- and incredibly you-centric. Feedback you provide by emailing or posting on the official forums will help shape the game. Where you spend your time and what you end up doing (Sports! Heists! Chaos!) in San Andreas will affect the direction the developers take with future content and how they tune the overall experience. However, while the entry answers a few questions it also creates some new ones. Specifically, we're curious about the company's use of "roll out" to describe GTA:O's release. An incremental approach is probably best considering the game's current server strains, but we're sure that's not what its some 16.5 million players will want to hear.
