GTA Online is coming - are you ready?

Next Tuesday, October 1, the online component for Rockstar Game’s most recent opus, Grand Theft Auto V, will become available to the masses. Aptly titled “GTA Online,” the mode promises to allow the same thrill of criminal enterprising online with friends in a massive persistent world, similar to the title’s single player narrative.

I’ve been enjoying GTA V since its release last Tuesday and it only keeps getting better and better. As you play, more and more activities, missions, side missions and random encounters become unlocked, keeping your experience fresh whether you’re just starting or have a number of heists under your belt. GTA V is visually stunning, presenting one of the best looking environments ever seen in an open world game as well as containing character models that put most cinematic action/adventure titles to shame. Powering those impressive visuals is an equally impressive engine that has refined the shooting and driving to an art, allows characters to move and react to situations in realistic ways and suffers from relatively little pop-in of textures despite the massive scale of the world and the far draw distance.

Before its launch last week, Rockstar announced that GTA Online would not be available until October. To my surprise, the announcement was met with little fanfare. I figured gamers would be up in arms about not being able to access a feature of a game that they had paid money for – but that outcry never came. It seemed that somehow, everyone came to the same conclusion that, “At least it will give us time to play the single player.” Because if not for these few, scant weeks, I may never return to the single player portion of GTA V because Online sounds like that much fun.

Despite not directly calling GTA Online an MMO, everything that Rockstar has said about the mode makes it sounds like a massively multiplayer online game. From the persistent world, to the ownership of property and the emphasis on not only completing missions but interacting with the world in the form of robberies, heists as well as offering competitive modes like deathmatches and races, GTA Online promises to be just as enthralling as the single player. You’ll even be able to buy a living space (an apartment for sure but maybe more) where you can invite friends over and throw parties. It’s basically a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book in video game form. Want to pull petty street crime like jacking cars and holding up liquor stores? You can do that. Want to organize a multi-stage heist with numerous friends? You can do that. Want to trick out a sports car (stolen or legitimately purchased) and race it against other real people on a course you designed? You can do that. Want to laze around in your apartment watching Republican Space Rangers and drinking beers with friends? You can do that too. All these options and so much more are yours to do in GTA Online, and they can be performed with up to 15 other people as well.

I read a rumor earlier that when you start GTA Online, you select past characters from the series to represent your family members and this determines the kind of character stats you start the game with. It’s an interesting idea, one that is probably to ensure that everyone doesn’t create the same kind of characters. If you’re playing GTA V now, you should already have a Rockstar Social Club account (you know, to store all those selfies you’ve no doubt taken) and with that account you can create a Crew for you and your friends to earn extra XP and cash during missions and heists.

There’s also been another rumor circulating that seems to have some validity. An eagle-eyed fan was trying to access the GTA Online portion of the game and came across place-holders in the game that suggest that GTA V will feature microtransactions, allowing you to spend real money for in-game money. While microtransactions of these sorts have been standard in many online games over the past few years, some gamers on the internet have lamented the fact that players will be able to spend real money to purchase items and vehicles that others will grind in-game to obtain. It’s unfortunate that the playing field is skewed by people who would rather spend money on unlockables than just, you know, playing the game and unlocking them but there are enough people out there willing to pay for in-game advancement and Rockstar would be stupid not to take advantage of them.

Earlier this week, Rockstar revealed a few of the first updates we can expect after GTA Online rolls out next week. These updates won’t happen right away but will be released gradually as time goes on. Rockstar also noted that these updates will be free, even the ones that include new clothing and vehicles.

-First, the promised Content Creator that will allow player to make their own deathmatches as well as their own races, will be available in the first few weeks of GTA Online. It’s a really interesting addition to GTA Online and we will have to wait and see what kind of other creation options are added over time.

-The Beach Bum pack promises four new beach vehicles and over three hundred new clothing items. These clothes are described as “down tempo leisure wear” and being part of the Beach Bum pack, I can only assume that these articles of clothing will be swimsuits, flip flops, sunglasses and the like. Oh and I nearly forgot, two new weapons will be included as part of the Beach Bum pack as well.

-Part of the competitive modes, Rockstar has promised a Capture the Flag mode that they are calling “GTA Online’s take on the classic CTF mode.” It will be interesting to see just what the “flag” will be that teams fight over and the size of the maps that will be playable in this mode. With enough players, I can see games of CTF in GTA Online being incredibly fun and challenging. Rockstar also promises that you will be able to create your own CTF games in the Content Creator.

-The final noted update was that Heists will not be available at the very beginning of GTA Online but a number of fully cooperative heist missions will be available in the next few weeks. The heists in the single player game are pretty intense so I can see the online heists where you need to rely on your friends to perform their duties under fire being even more heart-pounding.

With an undertaking as ambitious as GTA Online and taking into consideration the sheer number of people who have bought GTA V, its completely likely that there will be growing pains when GTA Online comes online next week. The Rockstar Social Club was experiencing problems most of last weekend and if that is any indication, GTA Online will suffer from more than a few hiccups at its outset.