I’m a week into playing GTA Online. My character mysteriously had a sex change during one of the Social Club outages. She still never has arms when I log in, and changes clothes every time I look away. Somehow I ended up in a dogfight with a fighter jet and, some time before that, a $US9000 bounty on my head. I’m still not sure of what’s happening, but I’m having fun figuring it out.
Playing the first week was more frustrating than fun, but fortunately things have been much more stable this second week. In an incredible turn of events, I was actually able to host a mission lobby and have people not only connect, but remain connected through multiple missions!
If that sounds overly harsh just remember that until this morning players have been greeted with a routine message on the load screen warning that hitting “retry” after failing to connect to a server might sacrifice their character completely. Thankfully, as of this morning, there’s a title update on Xbox 360 and PS3 that supposedly fixes this issue. So let’s talk about what kind of fun we’ve been having in GTA Online now that things seem to be working.
I’ve mostly been left to my own devices in Los Santos, playing with random virtual criminals as opposed to grouping up with people I know. So I spent a lot of time parading around other player’s worlds, wreaking havoc while stealing weed, evidence and RVs in my favourite type of mission. It’s basically Capture The Flag with a GTA twist. How it works is: two teams start at opposite points on the map, with an objective in between, and a whole bunch of muscle cars (Roadgame), motorcycles (Hippy Hunting) or other vehicles (Crooked Cop) at their disposal. In some of these missions, like Hippy Hunting and Crooked Cop, you’ll respawn right in your vehicle when killed, so if anyone drops the package, the area instantly becomes a deathtrap of discarded and exploding cars and dead bodies. It’s fantastic.
I’ve spent most of my GTA Online time this week participating in races, though, which seems to be where all the players are. The voting screen for each next activity always seems to be a race, though this could easily be that there are more races in general. Or maybe my theory that everyone’s voting for races is true. Either way, I can’t seem to get into vehicle deathmatches, like the one where you fly around with 8 other fighter jets. The one time I did was a fluke.
GTA Races are obviously the signature race event. Think Mario Kart but less cute and more, well, GTA. Think rockets, is what I mean to say.
I managed to squeeze in some time with Evan Narcisse at which point we ran into another great mission that’s sadly underrepresented — Welcoming Party, where one team has to escort a businessman across the map, and the other team has to hunt him down and kill him. We ended up sitting in a lobby waiting for invites for 5 minutes before trying to go it on our own. Turns out this mode is no fun 1-on-1. The couple of times I’ve managed to get into a full match, it’s been great, but those are few and far between.
So just like we do in GTA Online, let’s get back to the races. The races are great. There are four types: Race, GTA Race, Team GTA Race, and Rally, with lap and point-to-point variations on each. Races are races, and the host gets to choose all the settings including what category of cars you’ll be racing, from sedans to supers. GTA Races are obviously the signature race event. Think Mario Kart but less cute and more, well, GTA. Think rockets, is what I mean to say. The other power-up is a simple boost, but you can also use any weapons you’re carrying. Obviously this means that 5 seconds into the race, 90% of racers have their tires shot out and one guy is happily booking it safely down the road. I’m a fan of these races since I tend to be that guy. The team version throws a partner into the passenger seat to help shoot tires more efficiently.
The best example of how a GTA race can go is in the first clip of the video up top. You’re free to jump out at any time and start shooting people, so this sometimes means making sure nobody passes you when you crash, but it can also sometimes mean that the person in the lead decides to ambush everyone behind him instead of just winning the race.
Rally races. So strange. One player is driving, and can’t see the map or checkpoints, the other player is sitting in the passenger seat navigating. Sounds like fun, and it is, but it doesn’t really work when nobody has voice chat set up. Rockstar did plan for this, and the passenger can hit left or right on the D-pad to make an arrow come up on screen. I tried this with Evan, and he drove off a cliff. That was the wrong way.
I’m almost to level 15 which means next week I should be able to report back on some experiences with weapons larger than an Uzi, and I can choose some new colours for my car. I’m not sure what missions will unlock as I level up, but hopefully there’ll be some more creative and cooperative opportunities. So far, even with all the problems, I love driving around Los Santos online and seeing other players causing mayhem that I can just calmly observe. Until they kill me, and then I spend an hour getting revenge. Obviously.
We’ll have another log for you next week, hopefully with even less bugs and more murderous rampages.
Comments
21 responses to “GTA Online, Week 2: All People Want To Do Is Kill Each Other”
I avoid random player killing, except when bounties or contestable objectives pop up. But a lot of players come looking for trouble and I up becoming an unintentional troll. Like last night, I was taking my car to LS Customs and some player was shooting at me as I entered.
As I came out he had got up on the roof and started shooting at my car. I parked up, called Lester and removed my blip from the radar, snuck up a ladder and shot him.
He spawned not far away and tried to attack me again so I killed him another 3 times before getting bored and moving on, but he followed. He tried to run me over and I killed him again, placed a sticky bomb on his car and ran off again. When he tried to chase me again I set the bomb off and watched his car fly past in flames. He started raging over the mic and I told him to give up or things will get worse, he didn’t so I called in a merc team on him. He raged some more and kept coming after me so I went and got Buzzard attack heli and chased him about for 30 mins blowing him and what ever car he stole up.
premeptive kills are great in GTA online, pressing down on the D-pad twice and paying close attention to players near you is paramount. Often i find myself leading my would be killers down a long alley or dirt road only to place stick bomb neatly on a sharp corner. Great for laughs. Most people leave “custom vechiles” on for most races. After getting lots of sports car wins you can buy turbo which gives you 20% more acceleration. You can replicate this with motorbikes too. Those seem to be the most popular.
I hate people who do that. I just wanna take a sunday drive or go bike riding. THEN here comes mister Well people are assholes let me be one too and suddenly im run over or shot to death and I am like. WHAT why would they attack me. One time I had a guy shooting me for going down San Andreas Avenue so I ran him over took all his money accidently as I died. I guess it was all his money it was $51 Mill so I bet he was so angry when he respawned.
I avoided killing people also until one idiot would not stop killing me. He seemed to have some vengeance against me. So I was out for blood and started killing everyone that came in sight.
Best weapon is the sticky bombs. When someone is robbing a store I just plant a bomb and wait til they drive off to to detonate. Other fun things to do with sticky bombs is to plant some around Los Santos Customs and wait for people to fix their cars and explode. Some people rages are really funny.
Don’t worry I’ve sold the game so you have one less shithead online.
I can’t see how you are having so many problems, still! Once past the first couple of weeks of problems, I haven’t had a single problem. I’ve played probably 30-40 hours on multiplayer and have no trouble at all joining up with crew members or friends when we’re all online. most lobbies I join are 16/16, and when we start a job up it usually takes around 10 seconds to fill it up with randoms.
“Other fun things to do with sticky bombs is to plant some around Los Santos Customs and wait for people to fix their cars and explode. Some people rages are really funny.”
so I went and got Buzzard attack heli and chased him about for 30 mins blowing him and what ever car he stole up.
Not recommended that anyone does this, blowing up other player’s cars will pretty quickly label you a “bad sport” which will only let you play with other bad sports.
You only get a bad sport for blowing up their personal car, so if they’re stealing cars it wont count.
I only do this to people who come after me and give me the shits, once i’ve killed them and if they’re in their personal car – don’t blow it up. If you blow it up, all they have to do is pay $$$ to get it back, which is easy.
If it’s a low level person (i.e. they’ve only come after you with a SMG or so), shoot out ALL their tyres. That way, they have to use a lot of their ammo to blow up their car, or somehow spend a lot of time driving it to limp it back to a Mod Shop, if they want the car back.
That, to me, is a far bigger insult, as they have to waste their time if they want the car back…. Muhahahaha
People suck. Last night I thought I made a friend and we went for a drive in his car.. He suddenly stopped and got out so, so did I, started walking with him, then he killed me. Yeah thanks guy. People suck. I know you can pay for passive mode (I don’t think you should have to pay), but there should just be an option to play with nice people who want to be friends and hang out.
isn’t it only like $100 in game money?
Yeah, so what’s the point in having to pay? DO YOU THINK I’M CHEAP!? I’M NOT CHEAP!
People can still kill you via Vehicular Manslaughter/Murder if they want – i.e. if you stand there, they can just drive over you to death! Plus each death costs you $2000.
Well that’s just mean! Why can’t we all just get along?
sorry, but that is a hilarious story
didnt your mom ever tell you not to get in cars with strangers?
But… He had a cool car. I thought he was a nice guy! 🙁 lesson learnt.
I kill players because quite honestly freeroam feels rather empty and barren. I’m enjoying Online for the most part, but most of that has to do with the races.
I wish freeroam was 32 or 64 players. It’s a massive map for 16 players, especially when half of them are in their properties.
I have had a great time playing GTA Online. For about a week, the bugs have been almost non-existant for me. I’ll sum up my best experiences, which are absolutely awesome and some of which have restored my faith in humanity
a) I was going around robbing some stores, trying to get a lot of cash. How in hell was I going to get $30,000 to buy a garage? Next thing I know, another guy comes up to me (complete random) and says via sms “I drive, you rob. 50/50 share”. I was like – what? You CAN do that? After a few sms’s back and forward, learning how to share money after a store robbery, we were on our way and having a great time. Unfortunately about 5 stores in or so, I got killed in the passenger seat by the cops and he kept on going. I re-spawned across town near my vehicle. I see on the map that my partner in crime is approaching very, very, very fast. He’s on the mini-map, and I can’t see him. Next thing I know, a helicopter lands at the end of the street, he gets out, and does a little dance, then beckons for me to get in. ITS ON – Cops can’t get us after robbing stores when we’re in a copter! Faith in Humanity = Restored!
b) Somehow a bounty of about $5k was put on my head. Me being a smart guy, I grabbed myself a copter and put myself on top of a building near one of few entrances to the airport. I was off ground level, away from the mob, and could safely defend one of the entrances to the airport to prevent anyone else getting a copter. I’ve killed about 8 people by now who are trying to get me. Out of nowhere, someone’s gotten past me, and was coming at me with a plane. His wing managed to make him about $5k richer – genius – he deserved that.
c) … and another bounty on my head, and another random teamup. This time, my partner in crime goes via sms “How bout I kill you, and then share half they money” – my response – “Genius! hahahaha” – gotta love this game…
d) best of all yet, 2x people teamed up with a bounty on each of their heads around $7k. They’ve parked themselves on top of the highest building in Los Santos. I try make a run at them with the helicopter, but miss them and get the copter severley damaged in the process. I’m smoking, engine sputtering…. I fly out of distance, and get some height…. now, through a miracle of flying, I manage to descend on them like a bat out of hell. My aim – see if I blow up my helicopter near them, killing them (and me) in the process, gets me the bounty. Anyway, I come at them right on target – my copter descends on their parked one, blowing theirs up. I see in the notification, 2x people killed, and I’ve got the bounty – $14k – hell yeah… but, My Copter is still flying!!!! I did it – smashed them, got the bounty, and made it out alive. How’s that for GENIUS!
So far, I very much like this game. My favourite thing to do is to purposely get a bounty on my head, and then come up with an ingenious hiding place / method of protecting myself, and seeing if anyone has the smarts to work it out… It’s worth it for just that alone!
I mind my own business, but if someone wants to kill me then I will teach them their place in the food chain. Not only should people avoid attacking someone of much higher level, they should avoid attacking ME.
Also, lmao @ people who’ve been inviting me to Violent Duct for the last week days, small timers.
all people ever say is “Oh no she’s coming after us” and “she’s following us again shes crazy”. ill show em whos crazy.
My crew are awesome at teaching jerks a lesson, I was getting followed by these 3 jerks yesterday they kept trying to kill me for whatever reason they decided, I kindly asked them to piss off as I was trying to do something, they didn’t listen so i called my crew for backup, 3 of them came to my aid, 1 driving a tank and 2 in buzzard choppers, after about 15 minutes of them getting blown into another dimension repeatedly they started calling us hackers and ran away. We’ve done similar things a few times. The other guys in my crew are crazy we have a rank 137, 105, and the rest are mostly in the 80s (I’m only like 42 so I’m the baby in our crew). We’re ranked 300 ish on the global leaderboards and our crew is only about 25 people strong.
lol boy.. add me ill show u my crew, u guys wont be able to breath 🙂
I’m really frustrated at the random killings – each time I get killed it costs me $2000 in Hospital bills. $2000 isn’t quick and easy money, and it’s such a pain trying to save up for things. That being said, I finally managed to grab myself a 200k+ apartment!
The other lame thing is my own Crew members killing me for the bounty and not even sharing it!
a mate and I were killing anyone we could in a server. 2 mates then joined us. bounties were placed, monies collected and shared. hell, 1 guy even requested that we stop killing him and let him join us. my mate said it would cost him $50,000. lolol.
anyhow, it’s GTA Online. if anyone other than people on my friends are making money, then you are gonna get ganked, and robbed if you didnt bank your cash beforehand. and it’s even better when they complain about it afterwards too. i do not expect any leniency myself ingame.