GTA Online: Heists will never work while lobbies remain a ghost town

Thirty-player deathmatches in GTA Online are a myth. Rockstar needs to fix lobbies, matchmaking and online stability before it releases Heists, says Matt Martin.

Grand Theft Auto: Online on the PS4 and Xbox One has the same problem it did on PS3 and Xbox 360. Matchmaking is a crapshoot and the lobbies are a ghost town.

This new version of the game supposedly supports up to 30 players in select Deathmatch, Last Team Standing and Race modes, but that figure may as well be 300,000 players because it's just as unobtainable. In reality it's a struggle to grab upwards of 8 players for any online game.

This is the problem GTA players have faced for over a year. While the graphics have improved and the game enjoys a second lease of life, a significant portion of online play is still lobby waiting, quit-and-restart, and the feeling you're spending more time looking at a spinning loading bar that running around Los Santos. Add in the year-old habit of kicking players out of games at random and the disastrously long load times and you have a great game riddled with daily frustration.

Run the jewels

Rockstar has promised that the next real update for GTA 5 will be the addition of Heists for all formats. Heists is the fabled mode that will have players take on specialist roles to rob banks, steal high-end jewellery, or otherwise engage in co-op criminal activity with multiple objectives. If you look at Missions already in the online game such as Extradition you'll get an idea of jobs that update and flip goals as you play. Extrapolate that out for an idea of what Heists can be.

If we assume that Heists will require a small band of criminals - say, four Crew members taking on roles such as driver, sniper, pilot and muscle - and at least the same number of players acting as the opposing force (if not more), then we're still going to be facing the same everyday problem. Lobbies are never fully populated in GTA Online. The only time they get close to 16 players is during double RP weekends in a game notoriously tight for handing out upgrades. A lobby does not even show the maximum number of invites as being sent out. It's a 30-player match and not even 16 players are invited? As Host, that's soul-crushing.

GTA Online is not lacking players. The game is one of the biggest sellers of the last generation and is likely to continue to perform well this gen. There's plenty of people playing online, they just all seem to be playing in tiny little pockets of comfort, no doubt put off by a year of endless waiting to play with more than a handful of others.

If Heists require teamwork and planning in the same way Destiny's Strikes do, to expect a smooth, working experience in the current state of GTA Online is a pipe dream. We organised an online session last night that had seven players in it. Could we get player number eight - the minimum required to start a 30-player map? Not on your nelly. Five minutes of waiting for just one player to drop in after invites have been sent to Crew, Friends, randoms, strangers, dogs, tramps and anyone else within a 20 mile radius and we still had no luck.

Play any other online console game in the past year and you'll see there's never a drawn-out struggle to populate lobbies. Destiny, Call of Duty, Titanfall and more all fill lobbies within seconds and well under a minute. It's clearly a priority. In GTA Online we sit watching a half-full list and it feels like a ghost town in comparison.

Get fresh crew

Maybe it's the fact that players need to accept a job invite in order to play unless they're on call for a Random Job. Random Jobs are the quickest, easiest way to play GTA Online with other people. The downside is you're just as likely to end up in a dreadful Creator match as you are a bonafide classic like Salty Snatch.

Rockstar needs a better solution to herd players into lobbies and get them playing together. Crews are a great idea in theory and it's fairly easy to organise four of five of your friends online, but any bigger numbers and you're faced with the same problems as before: the tiresome wait for lobbies to fill, the dashed hopes as players quit out of boredom.

Heists have been promised for 12 months and delayed often. We all want to get involved in the Big Job, snatching huge payouts and RP as a reward for taking massive risks. But as we've seen so many times with many other online games this year, the promise falls flat when the service is not up to scratch.

Rockstar needs to fix matchmaking and lobbies in GTA Online before it releases more content. We've been struggling through the same threadbare support for the past year. A lot of us have bought the game twice now, and we're staring at the exact same problems we had on day one, 2013 If Rockstar does not fix the weak online infrastructure Heists are going to be over before they've even begun.

There’s a fun little secret stashed away in latest GTA 5 release

Here's something fun: a little secret thing added to the current-gen versions of GTA 5. Do not read past this sentence or look at the video if you wish to remain unspoiled.


According to the video posted to YouTube by taltigolt, players can eat Peyote in the desert, start hallucinating, and think they have turned into a chicken.

Because of this, the player "actually" turns into the fowl for a short period.

Watch below.

GTA 5 is out on PS4 and Xbox One today.

Here’s a map showing 17 of the peyote locations in GTA 5

Consuming peyotes is all the rage in GTA 5 at the moment. To satisfy this need, some have mapped the locations where you pursue such intoxicating adventures.

Eating peyotes in the new release of GTA 5 has been proved to have some inebriating effects. For instance, you can turn into a chicken, a seagull, and plenty of other animals and birds.

There are 27 locations of these plants.

Thanks to the smart folks over at GTA King, we now have a map of 17 of those 27. Still, that’s a pretty good portion.

Follow this link for a detailed look on how to get to each of them.

GTA 5 is something else at night

Rockstar's attention to detail in the GTA games has always been a major point of praise. The new-gen version of GTA 5 elevates that even further with its upgraded graphics and increased NPC count.
The short below by The XXI captures the life in GTA by night. All those NPCs going about their lives, all of which you've probably missed in your pursuit of a new gun or a fast car.

The city looks best at night, but what adds even more weight to all the scenery is how NPCs act like how you'd expect regular pedestrians to act.

GTA Online: Rockstar will still support Xbox 360 and PS3 with new DLC

Rockstar has said it will continue to support the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of GTA Online with new content after Heists.
Answering questions from players on the official site, the company said it had no plans to drop support for older systems although it admitted there will come a point when it just will not be technically possible.

Some players have expressed concern that now the game is on PS4, Xbox One and PC soon, support for the older versions released in 2013 would dry up. But time is not up for the Xbox 360 and PS3 yet - more content will come after the release of Heists in early 2015.

"Players on PS3 and Xbox 360 can look forward to Online Heists and other updates that are in the works coming soon," said Rockstar.

"We are incredibly thankful to our original generation of GTAV and GTA Online players on those systems and wish to continue providing content to them for as long as we can.

"Of course, at some point in the future, there may be a point where we reach the limits for the previous generation of consoles as there may be some updates that are only technically possible on the new hardware - but we do hope to continue delivering as many updates as we can for all four consoles for as long as possible. "

The next update for all four versions of Grand Theft Auto Online will be a "Christmas gift" to keep players busy over the festive period.

GTA Online guide: best missions for RP and cash

Want to earn maximum RP and cash while having fun in GTA Online? Here's a growing walkthrough and guide to the best Missions in GTA 5.

Best GTA Online Missions for RP and cash
This is a living document that we'll update over the coming weeks and months with more Missions. Bookmark this page and come back for more shortly ...

The basics

Before we get started let's go over some of the basics. Always play Missions in co-op with other team members. Headsets will make it a lot easier than playing with silent strangers, and you'll bag more RP and cash rewards for playing with others. Most of these jobs require at least two people anyway.

You get more RP for playing with Friends, and even more if you're playing with other Crew members. Some Missions can be done solo at a push, but you will not get the most out of them in terms of rewards, Rank and fun.

All of the following have been played with Crew members who are also Friends and we've cranked the difficulty up to Hard for max payout. There's no exact science to the amount of RP and cash you receive for completing a Mission so the RP and $ we've noted below will vary (and we've rounded them down to the nearest $ 10). The amount of cash and RP awarded also depends on the time spent completing the job - the longer you spend on a job the higher the reward.

Remember that the first time you complete a mission you'll get double the RP for it. But only the first time.

We're also going to assume you're taking these on with standard, decent weapons. You should always start a mission wearing armour and packing plenty of ammo and a few explosives.

A Boat in the Bay

Unlocks at: Rank 50

RP reward: 2,900

Cash payout $ 15,700

Players: 1-4

A Boat in the Bay sends you to the very top of the map to grab a boat full of coke for Trevor, which you then need to take to a jetty in the Alamo Sea.

The first set of enemies are on the beach. As you approach use the high ground near the picnic area to pick them off using sniper rifles. Once those are down, head onto the beach and you'll come across a bunch of enemies near some rocks. If you have explosives or grenade launchers, target their vehicle for multiple kills.

Now advance forward and use the rocks and burnt out wreckage as cover to take out the bigger group at the very top of the beach. Again, hit their vehicles to take down more than one at a time or use scoped rifles to pop them from afar. There's a lot of enemies here using crates for cover so take your time. Be careful not the blow up the boat on the shoreline.

Once the area is secure, you need one person to pilot the speed boat and at least one more to sit in the other seat and shoot. If you have a Buzzard attack chopper this part becomes a whole lot easier, as the pilot can escort the boat to the jetty.

Out on the sea you'll be attacked by one speed boat and one helicopter. The boat is not a massive problem, but the helicopter has a sniper in it. Anyone on the boat should target the sniper (do not worry about taking out the chopper, just the guy with the gun) and the armed guy in the boat.

Following the yellow marker you'll see you have to pilot the boat up the river into the Alamo Sea, which means going headlong up three sets of rapids. At the same time you'll be attacked by enemies on the sides of the canyon and the overhead bridges. This is where someone with a Buzzard makes the Mission a whole lot easier.

Without a chopper, have the pilot of the boat focus purely on getting up the rapids and keeping the boat in the water - it can be easy to bounce it out onto the rocks where it will get stuck or worse, explode. You'll probably lose any players who are standing in the boat as they get tossed overboard but do not go back for them. Remember you only need one person to finish the mission to reap the rewards. Once you get to the Alamo Sea it's all done - pilot it to the jetty and you're golden.

Sinking Feeling

Unlocks at: Rank 55

RP reward: 2,200

Cash payout $ 21,000

Players: 1-4

You need to snatch two SUVs filled with explosives and drop them off at Lester's warehouse but this job is not as easy as it first appears.

The majority of this job is underground so forget using anything other than cars and bikes. It's also in a confined space so you'll need to use cover and ease off on the explosives - you do not want to blow up your targets.

Head through the tunnel (it's quite a way) until you get to the corrugated iron ramp, then leave your vehicles. Down the corridor take out a couple of guards, then advance a little more for a shootout in a Metro station. There are enemies around the escalator and building equipment so use good short-range weapons like the Combat Shotgun. Be careful of the Metro train that comes through often. Over the other side of the tracks you'll see the two SUVs.

Once you've dealt with everyone here get in the SUVs, where you'll drive them down two tight circular tunnels. Before reaching the end of the second tunnel get out and creep close to another construction area. This is the only spot in which someone should break out the grenade launcher and blow up the two vehicles up ahead, and the enemies surrounding them. There's not a lot of space here so do not drive into the area in the SUVs. If you use explosives, wait for the flames to die out before taking the SUVs through and out the tunnel onto the freeway.

It's now a short drive to Lester's but you will be attacked by another 3 or 4 vehicles. You can either try and outrun them or stop as soon as you see their red circles appear on the minimap, take cover, and shoot it out with them. Drop the SUVs at the warehouse to complete the mission.

GTA 5: Rockstar aware of turbo tuning bug that slows down vehicles

People found a bug in GTA 5 on the PS4 and X-box One that is causing vehicles with turbo tuning to go slower than unmodified.

A number of players have reported the problem, which only seems to affect GTA 5 on PS4 and Xbox One.

Some cars and bikes fitted with turbo tuning at Los Santos Customs end up accelerating slower than those without.

Rockstar has said it's aware of the bug, and is looking into resolving the problem.

"We have received reports about issues with Turbo Tuning upgrades in GTA Online and are currently looking into a fix.

If you prefer to remove turbo from your vehicle until this issue is fixed, you can do so at any Los Santos Customs in-game or on the iFruit app, "said Rockstar Support.