Five Things I Learned from a Weekend in Los Santos

Written by: Adam "ManKorn" Korenman, CC2K Video Games Editor

This past weekend, when I was just getting off from a job, someone stole my car. They broke the window, hotwired the ignition and drove away while I stood there and watched. My car wasn’t particularly nice compared to the rest of the selection available; it was just the closest. I did the only obvious thing in that situation, which was to steal a different car so I could pursue the thief and try to make him understand the issue. 

This led to a high-speed chase through busy city traffic, weaving in and around motorists and knocking over stop signs. My “borrowed” ride clipped a streetlight as we rounded a sharp bend, and the falling pole nearly crushed a few pedestrians as they watched the action unfold. Finally I managed to corner the thief at at a gas station, where I assumed he was preparing for a robbery. I calmly walked over to my car, kicked the door to get his attention, and then watched him pull out an uzi and mow me down. 

And that was how I started my weekend in Los Santos.

For those of you just emerging from your one-month vacation under a rock, Los Santos is the fictionalized version of Los Angeles from Grand Theft Auto V. The best-selling game recently launched their online service, and the world is slowly coming to understand just what that means. GTA has always been a sandbox of violence, and an incredibly entertaining one at that, so it will be interesting to see what sort of community develops in the coming weeks. If my experiences are any indicator, we should all be very worried. 

A virtual world where crime is rewarded? I can’t see this going wrong at all.

Don your masks, and let’s take a look at the Top 5 Lessons Learned from GTA Online.