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'GTA: San Andreas' gets Xbox One backwards compatibility
If your Xbox copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is stashed away on a shelf somewhere, you might want to pull it out as you'll have some use for it again next week. Starting next Thursday, Rockstar Games is adding backwards compatibility for the game on Xbox One, as well as Midnight Club: Los Angeles and the slightly off-brand Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis.
Humble is selling Rockstar Games on the cheap to save the rainforest
Want a way to pick up a bulk of Rockstar Games' back catalog and help a good cause? Then head over to Humble where donating $1 or more will get you Grand Theft Auto III, GTA: Vice City and the grisly stealth game Manhunt. Bumping up your pledge to $8.13 adds Bully: Scholarship Edition, GTA IV, GTA: San Andreas, L.A. Noire and Max Payne 3 to your haul.
Frank Ocean has his own 'GTA V' radio station
Tired of the same tunes on GTA V? Frank Ocean is here to help. The insanely talented musician, who already has his own Beats 1 show, is now getting a Los Santos radio station to boot, courtesy of the Doomsday Heist update.
Next 'GTA Online' heist resets the doomsday clock
We never got the additional story mode heists for Grand Theft Auto V, but Rockstar Games seems to be making up for that with the next add-on for perennial moneymaker GTA Online. From the looks of it, "The Doomsday Heist" is going to be pretty involved. Based on the trailer below, you'll steal a surface-to-air missile truck, explore Mount Chilliad, interact with a snarky AI named Clifford, don a jetpack, take to the sky in a flying car and then use the same car to intercept a submarine. Yeah, there's a lot going on.
'GTA Online' transforming vehicle races start today
There are plenty of new racing games to choose from this fall (Forza 7, GT Sport, Project Cars 2 and Need for Speed: Payback), but none of them will let you change vehicles mid-race. Nor are they anywhere near as crazy as what Rockstar Games has been doing with GTA Online. Today marks the debut of Transform Races, which as the name suggests, has you swapping from plane to jet ski, to stunt car to bicycles all in the course of a single circuit, and in real-time. Simply drive through a waypoint in a stunt race and your vehicle will change instantaneously and appropriately for the section ahead.
Return to 'Smuggler's Run' in the next 'GTA: Online' expansion
For the next expansion to GTA: Online, Rockstar Games is looking to its past. "Smuggler's Run" will task you to move inventory for the perpetually paranoid Nervous Ron by land and air. "Smuggler's Run opens up the air corridors above Los Santos and Blaine Country, providing new business opportunities while introducing a range of planes, choppers and even ultralights as highly viable options for transporting criminal cargo across the state -- simultaneously opening up some creative new methods of dispatching any rival gangs along the way," a post on the Rockstar Newswire says.
Four years on, 'GTA Online' is still a money-spinner
Almost four years down the line, GTA V is still drawing big crowds. And players are dropping a lot of dollar on the game's ballistic online mode. That cash is filling up the safes at Take-Two Interactive. The distributor announced on Wednesday that the latest instalment in the GTA franchise was key to it banking $418.2 million in net revenue over the past three months -- a 34 percent spike compared to last year.
GTA modding tool quietly reappears after legal threats
The popular Grand Theft Auto V modding tool OpenIV now looks to be back in action, just weeks after its creators found themselves in a whole heap of legal trouble. Last month GTA publisher Take Two Interactive sent the creators of the modding software a cease and desist letter, claiming that the tool allowed users to bypass the game's security features and violated the publisher's rights. Unsurprisingly, this forced OpenIV to remove the mod's download link from its site on June 14th, resulting in a huge community backlash. Now, that link is back up and fans can once again download the modding tool directly from OpenIV's website.
'GTA Online' update brings new multiplayer mode and patriotic swag
Rockstar's new update for Grand Theft Auto Online is (mostly) all about Independence Day, a holiday Americans will be celebrating through the weekend and, some, until Tuesday. The goods, which are now live, include an adversary mode dubbed "Dawn Raid," where two teams of up to six people can parachute into a combat zone and battle it out to find hidden packages. And, since this is a 4th of July-themed update after all, you'll also get a bunch of patriotic Stars and Stripes swag, including weapons and apparel for your avatar.
Popular GTA modder tool receives a Cease and Desist from Take Two
After nearly ten years in operation, popular Grand Theft Auto modder software OpenIV has been taken offline by its developers after they reportedly received a cease and desist letter from Take Two Interactive.
Head back to Liberty City in 'GTA IV' on Xbox One
Grand Theft Auto V recently shipped 75 million copies, but if you wanted to play what came before it on Xbox One you were out of luck. Until now. Starting today, Grand Theft Auto IV and its $50 million expansion packs will be playable on Microsoft's latest console. The base game and "The Ballad of Gay Tony" will run you $20 each, while the biker-focused expansion "The Lost and Damned" is $10.
Rockstar liquidates cheaters' 'GTA Online' bank accounts
Not long after it launched in October 2013, Grand Theft Auto Online cheaters began artificially creating gobs of in-game money. The plague of illicitly-gained cash proliferated while Rockstar continued releasing its expansions -- until today. Players who had cheated, modded, hacked or even gotten money through glitches woke up to a message from Rockstar this morning telling them yes, they'd been found out, and the studio had eliminated their ill-gotten dough. For some players, this wiped out their in-game cash reserves to an ignominious $0.
'GTA Online' update turns the game into 'Trackmania'
Bummed that Criterion's Burnout followup got canned? Rockstar Games has your back with Cunning Stunts, a free expansion to Grand Theft Auto Online that adds a new dimension to racing in the open world game.
Build a criminal empire in new 'GTA V Online' expansion
For a game released in the fall of 2013, Grand Theft Auto V has enjoyed a long life. Most credit this to the regularly updated multiplayer, which has kept the game so popular that it was one of the top-selling games in January for the third consecutive year. Next week on June 7th, the game will see its latest content expansion, giving online players the keys to build their own crooked business kingdom on the streets of Los Santos.
'Grand Theft Auto 5' outsold almost every game in January
Rockstar Games is reaping the rewards of keeping GTA Online fresh with things like heist missions and holiday-themed events for these past few years. Grand Theft Auto 5 was the number two selling game last month amid slowing console hardware sales, a bizarre fact considering it debuted almost two-and-a-half years ago. September 2013, to be exact. Of course, that evergreen gateway to GTA Online's multiplayer has also benefitted from a staggered release starting on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, later coming to PC and then PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Regardless, how crazy this is wasn't lost on the NPD Group's David Riley:
Rockstar North boss Leslie Benzies resigns after 17 years
Rockstar North President Leslie Benzies has bid farewell to the studio after 17 years and a handful of highly influential games under his belt. As the head of Rockstar North, Benzies was the lead developer of the Grand Theft Auto series from Grand Theft Auto 3 on, and he produced Red Dead Redemption, Manhunt 2, LA Noire and Max Payne 3. Benzies was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2014, alongside Rockstar founders Dan Houser and Sam Houser.
You should watch GTA drama 'The Gamechangers' on BBC Two tonight
Later this evening, the BBC will be airing a one-off TV special about the development of Grand Theft Auto and the criticism that surrounded its portrayal of violence. It's called The Gamechangers and stars Daniel Radcliffe as Rockstar president Sam Houser and Bill Paxton (Apollo 13, Titanic and Nightcrawler) as Jack Thompson, a former attorney that campaigned against the series. The docudrama's first trailer showed promise and, if nothing else, we're keen to see exactly what caused Rockstar to take legal action against the BBC. You can catch it all tonight (September 15th) from 9pm over on BBC Two.
'GTA Online' Freemode update adds wild events next week
Grand Theft Auto Online's next update adds a series of new gameplay challenges called Freemode Events, and it's due out on September 15th across PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. Freemode Events are randomly triggered modes integrated into the Online world -- while in Freemode, an event can begin at any time and players can customize which events they want see. New Events include Hunt the Beast, where one player turns into a werewolf and the remaining team hunts him or her down, and King of the Castle, where players fight to control and defend a designated structure. Another mode, Penned In, appears to be a derby battle with all cars trapped in a fairly small area.
Watch the trailer for the BBC's GTA drama 'The Gamechangers'
Today we got our first glimpse of the BBC's upcoming Grand Theft Auto docudrama, which examines the game's development and public scrutiny in 2002. The Gamechangers, starring Daniel Radcliffe as Rockstar president Sam Houser, covers the franchise's growth in the PlayStation 2 era and the criticism that followed regarding its portrayal of violence. Bill Paxton is playing Jack Thompson, a former attorney that famously campaigned against the series, and based on this new trailer it's clear their thorny relationship is the centerpiece of the show. In May, Rockstar said it would be filing a lawsuit against the BBC over trademark infringement -- the developer said it's had "no involvement" with the project and seemingly disapproves of it altogether. The broadcaster appears unfazed by the legal action though, as it's scheduled to air on September 15th, at 9pm on BBC Two in the UK. If you live elsewhere, however, there's no word just yet on an international release.
ICYMI: A super selfie, 'GTA' wildlife doc and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-437566{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-437566, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-437566{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-437566").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Australia's tourism board is winning the selfie game by offering a selfie that merges tourist's own selfies with the same scene, expanded, taken with a second camera. Land Rover is demoing a trailer concept system that allows drivers to see what's behind a trailer with a video feed. And Grand Theft Auto V fans cobbled together an amusing wildlife documentary from the game that is worth a watch.
