Published every Friday just before (or after) City of the Week, GTA 5 News Roundup will collect all of the past week's news stories into a single post, summarizing them for those of you who didn't have a chance to check in during the week and want a scoop with just the highlights.
The biggest piece of news this week was the release and subsequent announcement (yeah, in that order) of the Nagasaki Shotaro, GTA Online's newest and fastest bike. The Shotaro comes as the fourth post-launch expansion to the Bikers DLC, following the two-bike mini update, the Sanctus and the Rat Rod.
However, we started things off after last week's roundup with the scheduled City of the Week article, this time focusing on Sacramento. Though close to the area featured in San Andreas, Sacramento just doesn't have the knicks that the other cities do, making it an unideal choice for a GTA setting.
Soon after we put out our weekly Top Videos post, which this time featured some of the best creations yet. A look through history from 8-Bit Bastard was unlike anything made with GTA 5 before, and the professional fan-made Vice City remaster into was also on a whole other level.
We also wrote up a piece inspired by a question posed by one of the investors during the quarterly earnings call that recently reported the sales figures of GTA 5. Like many fans, the investor was questioning Rockstar's ability to keep up with both Online and RDR2. Strauss Zelnick, the company's CEO" title="">, quickly laid such worries to rest.
After that, we kicked off the work week with a lengthy post describing the keys to GTA 5's immense success. Following the most recent sales record breakthrough, the game's continued massive success was a hot topic. How could a game be gaining speed three years after release? In short, the brand recognition, intense marketing and staggered release schedule added up to this effect.
It was soon after that players noted the in-game release of the new Nagasaki Shotaro, or "Tron-Bike" as the community dubbed it, even though Rockstar's social media channels were mum about it. The bike could be unlocked by playing an all new Adversary Mode, which amounted to the lightcycle battles from Tron transplanted into GTA Online.
The official announcement soon followed, which also revealed a new exclusive shirt to be unlocked upon the purchase of the Shotaro for a limited time only, a new premium race, a plethora of discounts and a rather odd new promotion model offering plus 50% cash and double RP on certain game modes.
After the Shotaro buzz quieted down a tad, we took a vacation to the sunny Caribbeans for our second entry of Foreign City of the Week in the region. This time we looked at Havana, the capital of Cuba, which got most things right, but slipped up on the crime aspect, thus making it less than the best choice for the game.
We also happened upon a glitch — don't worry, it won't get you banned — that allows players to use the Deadline Helmet from the Tron inspired outfit with any other clothing combinations. Many players who liked the helmet wanted to be able to match it with their preferred outfits, however technically it only works in unison with the Deadline Jumpsuit. This glitch "fixes" that.
Stay tuned for City of the Week!
Which GTA 5 story from this week did you find the most interesting?
