Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest, if not the biggest gaming series around. For better or worse, for many people, Grand Theft Auto defines what gaming is. It is a series that has spawned controversy, imitators, and whole-sale rip-offs. It is a series that has worried politicians and parents for years with its depiction of every violent crime imaginable. Petty theft, robbery, and murder, no crime seems too big or small for developer Rockstar and its game Grand Theft Auto.
Throughout the series, gamers have traveled the rough streets of Liberty City, Grand Theft Auto’s version of New York City, Vice City (Miami), and the state of San Andreas (California). They have driven innumerable cars, flown planes and blimps, rode bicycles, lifted weights, and even explored the depths of the ocean. For all intents and purposes, the world of Grand Theft Auto is a living and breathing place where you can just as easily get your in-game character unde♒r the influence as you can hijack a military jet all with the world evolving and reacting to your every move.
It is also a series with a deep history and plenty of Easter eggs to find within its worlds. For this list, I tried to grab interesting tidbits about the series history including things like famous actors that have appeared in the series and controversies it has stirred as well as little-known or fun Easter eggs all serious GTA players should try and find for themselves.
Here are 31 Awesome T💫hings You Didn't Kn🌠ow About Grand Theft Auto.
31 𝔉 The Series Has Sold Over 220 Million Copies
I still remember when Grand Theft Auto III came out. The game was unlike anything we had ever seen before. A fully explorable world with seemingly unlimited possibilities. Want to steal a car and run a bunch o𝓀f pedestrians over? You can do that. Want to live your most dark criminal underworld fantasies out? You can do that too.
It was a huge success and it seemed like everyone had a copy. Even people who weren't necessarily gamers went out of their way to get their hands on the ga🤡me.
Little has changed since that time with the latest game in the series selling over copies on its own, bring the total number of Grand Theft Auto titles sold to well over 220 million copies. That's crazy. And that number is even from a few years ago (2015, to be exact). One thing is clear: the world can't get enough of Grand Theft Auto.
30 💞 The Playboy Mansion Is In GTA V
If there’s one thing you can count on from every Grand Theft Auto since III, is for Rockstar to include iconic landmarks from every city they virtually create. New York has so many iconic landmarks:ജ the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and the boroughs themselves.
And Los Angeles has…the Playboy Mansion!
Ok, that’s not entirely true. There are certainly more landmarks in LA (and within the world of GTA) than just the Playboy mansion, ꦗbut it does seem to be a defining landmark in LA culture.
So, of course, the Grand Theft Auto version of LA had to include its own version of the mansion. It is another Easter egg in a game already chock full of them to find. The mansion is located 🍎near the Los Santos golf course in Richman. Go and check it out next time you're in town. Hang out, take a selfie.
29 ♊ There are 160,00 Lines Of Dialogue In GTA V
In many ways, AAA game development has become like makin🅰g a blockbuster movie. Huge teams of people come together to create something massive, something larger than life. As consumers, it can be easy to forget just how many people and just how much work goes into the making of a movie or the development of a game. Whole teams of people 🎃are devoted to things players can take for granted.
Grand Theft Auto V is a great example of this. Everyone who has played Grand Theft Auto V knows how much dialogue is in the game. From the main quest with Mic𝓀hael, Trevor, and Franklin constantly talking to each other, to side quests, to random pedestrians just yelling at you on the street, the game is packed with dialogue.
Just how much dialogue exactly? 50,000? 100,0ღ00? 150,000?
Just how much dialogue exactly? 160,000 lines of it. For comparison, Mass Effect 3, ano🐬ther epic game in terms of story and scope, had abouﷺt
28 ಌ Big Foot Is In GTA V 💟
Big Foot. Sasquatch. You could probably even through Yetis and the Abominable Snowman on this list. Yes, that elusive creature (or creatures) that has been the subject of way too many movies, TV documentaries, and shows on the History Channel has finally been found, albeit in a fictionalized California in a video game. For all its seriousness, Grand Theft Auto V still provides plenty of moments of humor ꦺand just pure silliness for those willing to look for it. The Big Foot mission is a perfect example of Rockstars willingness to just have fun with the game.
This is one of the many 'secret' missions peppered throughout the world that the player can encounter. Franklin can accept this quest from a hunter in the Mount Chiliad region. When he finally tracks down and shoots the beast, there is a special surprise awaiting players that seems to fit perfectly into the world of Grand Theft Auto's outlaws and weirdos.
27 💟 Politicians Love To Hate GTA
One would be forgiven for thinking the politicians in our country have never gotten along, that they have never agreed on a single thing which is why seemingly nothing gets done. But that wasn't always the case, and Grand Theft Auto was one of those few things that seems to have had the ability to unite politicians🌞 from both sides of the aisle against it.
Famously, Clinton and Joe Lieberman co-sponsored a bill that would have severely limited the kinds of games that could be sold and to whom. Clinton famously said "We need to treat violent video games the way we treat tobacco, alcohol, and [adult video]." While this seems like a ridiculous notion now (even if it didn't then), we do have to remember this was at a time when the nation was ไreeling from Columbine and struggling to understand how two teenagers could do something so heinous.
26 🍷 Aliens Ar🐭e Real
Grand Theft Auto V is a game that opens up with a bang. You are dropped right into the middle of a bank robbery. You play as Michael in the sequence as you hold up employees, blow up the safe door, and attempt to escape with a ton of money. Of course, something goes wrong, and the cops show up, forcing you to shoot your way out, eventually trying to escap🌠e in a high-speed car chase. It’s an intense bit of gameplay and a great way to start the game.
However, if you ignore what you are supposed to be doing in the beginning escape sequence of GTA V, you may stumble upon a particularly disturbing creature frozen in the ice. It's just one of the many aliens that pepper the landscape of Grand Theft Auto V and seems to🦋 answer the definitively the question of whether we are alone or n💛ot.
25 Australia Banned GTA III ꧙ ❀
In America, it is rare for a game🐼 to get banned. What has happened in the past, is games deemed particularly offensive have been slapped with an ‘Adults Only’ rating which effectively has kept them off the shelves of major retailers such as Targe🏅t and Walmart. No developer wants that because it can significantly impact sales numbers.
But that doesn’t mean all countries are as lenient when it comes to what games can and can’t be released. Australia is one of the most ban-happy countries and has had an interesting history with banning video games. Some of the many games the include: F.E.A.R. 2, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and, weirdly enough, Mark Eco's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.
While it may not come as a surprise to many that GTA III is🎃 on the list, it is certainly one of the biggest games ever banned in the land down 🍌under.
24 Still Some Unsolved Mysteries In ꧅GTA V
Like all the best adventure games, Grand Theft Auto encourages players to explore. Developer Rockstar clearly wants to encourage players to wander around their worlds with all the easter eggs and secrets they have packed into out of the way places. This system that encouraged players to explore started out as just a general collection quest with the packages in GTA III to actual mysteries found in later games.
GTA V is such a big game it seems likely there are still s🐠ecrets buried within its 3-dimensional walls. The aforementioned Mount Chiliad is just one mystery that still begs to be answered and if Rockstar ever gets around to adding more single-player content to the game, I'm sure other secrets will appear.
Apparently, aliens and bigfoot exist within the world, who knows what else the developers have hidden in the game? In the meantime, always remember that in the world of Grand Theft Auto, crime pays.
23 ♒ Catastrop🧜he Changed Grand Theft Auto III
The events of September 11th, 2001 are forever burned into the memories of🦂 those alive at the time and they are events that still shape and impact our world today. It was an event that not only affected people in terribly personal ways, it also had a deep impact on popular culture. Movies were pushed back or canceled altogether. Games were forced to change their tones or push back release dates.
Grand Theft Auto III was no exception. Suddenly, Rockstar found itself in a difficult position. Do they keep their game the way it was or do they change things in light of the horrible events of September 11th, 2001? Ultimately, Rockstar decided the right thing to do was change their g🌜ame. Their version of New York City had to be changed. Dismemberments were tak🎃en out, LCPD cars were altered to make them looked less like real NYPD cars, and some
22 You Can Tour Vinew𓂃ood In GTA V
Grand Theft Auto V is, n🎃eedless to say, a massive game. Not only have the developers expanded the actual size of the map, allowing more room to explore and play around in than ever before, they have also added more things to do within it than ever before.
Los Santos is a thinly veiled recreation of Los Ange🔴les, California and, just like its real-life counterpart, it features its own version of Hollywood: Vinewood.
Just like the really Hollywood, the world of Vinewood in Grand Theft Auto V features a tour bus that will take around parts of the city and show you famous landmarks and homes of the stars. Unlike the rea𝓰l Hollywood tours, the Vinewood tour is well worth taking for the $40 it will cost. It features the typical cleaver and funny writing the series is known for and it adds just another layer of depth to an already bustling and interesting city.