Chris

Rockstar have finally announced that the free Beach Bum update coming to GTA Online will hit your consoles next week on Tuesday, 19th November. The update brings two new weapons, four new vehicles, loads of new jobs, and plenty more apparel, hairstyles and tattoos. You can read Rockstar's summary of all the new content below: Rockstar have also confirmed that new updates will be coming for Story Mode, as well as the previous announced GTA Online updates including the content creator, heists, and capture the flag mode. Finally, Rockstar released a couple of new wallpapers! See more on our GTAV artwork page.

Ever since the release of GTA III and the Insane Stunt Bonuses that could be achieved by completing certain jumps, people have been wanting to perform bigger and bigger stunts. The late Odie helped things along with his great little stunt park mod, while the inclusion of motorcycles in Vice City propelled the scene forward leaps and bounds. I even made a couple of videos myself before stunting really got popular (by today's standards they are both absolutely awful, but show just how far stunting has come since then). GTA V has been out for 6 weeks now, and this has been ample time for stunters to familiarise themselves with the map, find some cool spots, and get used to using and hopefully not abusing Franklin's special ability, or not even using it at all to really impress. A few early videos set the bar fairly low, and more recent videos are now coming out looking pretty impressive. Without further ado, here's a roundup of some of the first and best stunt videos that have been made so far. First up we have couple of great videos that were emailed into us from the Nomad Union crew: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG_oJoxKQTw EXTREME GTA V CREW STUNTS - [Nomad Union]IGNITOR EXTREME GTA V CREW STUNTS #2 - [Nomad Union]RAW Next up is a stunt montage from Ben Buja, whose name you may recognise from his many GTA IV stunt and blooper reels: Ben Buja's Stunt Montage This one is from Dejv, returning to the scene after a two year break: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A5REDUPSyQ Dejv comeback stunt montage And finally one from SyperDimon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZMdpv6hMtg GTA 5 Stunts (SD) (2) If you want more, here's some links to other nice videos that have been released: Pro Rider BMX Stunt Montage and Adrenaline Online BMX Stunts from HDee. GTA 5 Stunt Paradise 2 and Stunt Paradise 3 from Japanese stunter cleanerviper. Stunt montages one, two, and three from another Japanese stunter GTADAICHI1990. Stunt montage by Dada9x9. We'd like to post about community creations like these more often. So if you've created a stunt video, or anything else cool using GTA V be sure to let us know about it and if we like it we'll include it in our next post.

Rockstar have announced the first Snapmatic photo contest for GTAV, where you have a chance to win a Grand Theft Auto V prize pack that includes an iFruit phone case and phone decals plus an official GTAV tee and the sought-after Chop stash stuffed animal. You have until Monday to get your entries in, Rockstar say they are looking for originality and inspiration, so be creative. All you need to do is tag any photos you want to enter with the #EpicPhotobomb hashtag, which you can do on the Social Club website. For full details on how to enter see the Newswire post. Contest is void in certain countries and where prohibited. See www.rockstargames.com/socialclub/events for official rules and eligibility details.

Rockstar released some new official artworks earlier today. Technically they're not new, but until now we didn't have high resolution official desktop wallpapers of these. First up is Chop standing guard after tearing up some Balla scum, while owner Franklin deals with the FIB using his Heavy Sniper. See more on our GTAV Artwork page.

Take Two released its second quarter 2014 earnings report today, in it they revealed that they've sold-in (shipped to retailers) 29 million units of GTA V so far in the first 6 weeks. To put things in perspective, this is more copies than GTA IV sold-in in its entire lifetime. The press release went on to mention more records, including those we posted about last month: For most games, breaking the 1 million sales figure is a HUGE achievement, for Rockstar this would have been an unmitigated disaster. Today's announcement means that GTAV is now placed 7th on the list of best-selling games of all time. Impressive stuff.

It often spawns near the horse statue in Rockford Hills. Someone made a video:

Rockstar have finally released the free iFruit app for Android today. The delayed release comes 6 weeks after its iOS counterpart, and unsurprisingly because of this many fans are still angry and are venting their frustration with negative reviews. Many simply can't understand what has taken so long, saying the app is clearly a port of the iOS app (for whatever reason it does appear that Rockstar chose to ignore Android guidelines - we see the iOS tab bar in the screenshots too). A number also appear to be frustrated by the app crashing on start up, but these kind of reviews are common among Android apps, and may not be entirely Rockstar's fault. With many now having already finished the game, the iFruit app may offer little to no use now, with benefits such as training Chop somewhat pointless. Despite these criticisms, not everyone is unhappy. 5-star ratings are quickly coming in faster now and the rating is starting to look a little more healthy now. Remember you can also use the app to modify your cars in game, and get your personalised plate. You can also access the Social Club and stay up to date on LIfeInvader. iFruit is free on the Play Store and requires Android 3.0 or above, you'll also need around 250MB of free space on your device. GTA V Themes for PS3 and Xbox 360 GTA V themes and avatars are now available to spice up your Xbox 360 Dashboard or PlayStation 3's XMB.

In case you missed it, Rockstar have posted a quick update on the state of GTA Online, including the GTA$ Stimulus Package that was promised. Read below for details on upcoming features and additions.

Yeah I'm surprised people are even asking this, I can't imagine anyone wanting to kill off either character, effectively losing a third of the game. If you like causing mayhem, Trevor and his ability are awesome. If you like driving, Franklin and his ability are awesome. Why would you want to kill either of these off and never be able to use them again without starting a new game? C is the best option.

As everyone is aware, the launch of GTA Online did not go as smoothly as we all hoped, thankfully though, Rockstar have been working around the clock to get all the issues straightened out. After three patches, things seem to be looking much, much better now, but by no means flawless. Today, Rockstar have announced that they will be giving everyone who has played GTA Online this month a free GTA$ 500,000 bonus to their account, as an apology for not being able to handle the sheer popularity of the game. To maintain some sort of balance in the game with this huge injection of cash to everyone, Rockstar will be making two deposits of GTA$ 250,000 spread over a couple of weeks. There will also be a fourth patch released to facilitate the receipt of these additional funds, as well as to fix a few remaining connectivity issues. Full details on the Newswire.

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. 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.

Yeah met Olli there, he was on the same flight as me actually. Unfortunately that was not me he was talking about, he was sitting over the other side of the room with a different group of guys.

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.