The update to GTA Online that has spawned about a month's worth of DLC has finally been released in earnest — as the update you're all downloading right now attests. The Stunt Race Creator is now available, allowing players to build their own death-defying courses with all of the new props seen in the official maps released with Cunning Stunts and its two mini-updates.
However, as we've all suspected, the update brings with it some additional content as well. Even the new Creator contains some previously unannounced features and a massive wealth of props not seen in Cunning Stunts, and GTA Online has also received a new Adversary Mode too.
The update to the Content Creator was announced back as the beginning of Summer alongside the pretty divisive Further Adventures in Finance and Felony. This announcement followed a period of few and small updates leaving the community hungry for more content.
The concept was first introduced as a straight overhaul of GTA Online's Content Creator, which remained pretty much the same ever since it was launched. The idea was to expand it with general props and tools, which in turn was spawned by the need to fix a bug.
Seeing as many of the features of GTA Online are pretty much left untouched unless direct intervention is necessary, Rockstar probably thought "well if we're cracking it open anyway, might as well throw in some more props and features".
The particular issue that made altering the Creator necessary was that after a given patch, for some odd reason stacking props or placing them close together caused a bug wherein the player character could fall through the floor and below the map. This forced Rockstar to disable prop stacking.
However, prop stacking proved to be a pretty important feature, seeing as it was essential for the creation of "parkour" maps and its removal resulted in several designs being impossible to create. The options became pretty limited. The community was a tad ruffled by this and have been asking for the feature's return ever since.
Well, now it's here. The Stunt Race Creator which is now available has brought it back with some more features to boot. A few of these were discovered in advance through data mining, including a sound-effect prop and the ability to edit and remove props which were part of the default GTA 5 world map.
A total of 250 new props have been added and the features and tools of the Content Creator to make the user experience more streamlined and convenient. The prop-stacking feature has returned as promised and (hopefully) no longer causes that bug where players fall through the texture of the map into the Blue Hell below.
With the Creator having been updated in this manner, you can expect hundreds upon hundreds of new custom races to pop up in the game alongside the 27 official Stunt Races that were introduced via the three updates running in the theme of Cunning Stunts.
Obviously, with 250 entirely new props and a whole new UI to wrap your heads around, even veteran Content Creator users might find it hard to master the feature. As such, Rockstar has put together a few useful guides for you to use, such as an extensive quick-start guide in PDF form and a series of more in-depth guides being posted to the Social Club.
Rockstar is also teasing the inevitable Rockstar Verified Stunt Race Contest, wherein aspiring master map makers can enter their best creations. The winners will probably be rewarded with some physical merchandise much like in the Rockstar Editor contests. Some custom GTA Online jobs have been featured on the Newswire, though those were not related to contests.
The update also brought with it an all new Adversary Mode. In spite of the GTA community having a general aversion to these Modes, Rockstar seems to love making them. There are a few which are well liked by the community like Sumo and Slasher, but many Modes aren't too well liked.
However, the recent Power Play Mode ended up achieving wide-spread renown, somewhat restoring the prestige of Adversary Modes. Rockstar is trying to replicate that success with yet another new Mode, this time running in the theme of CEOs with an objective that could easily be a VIP challenge.
Entourage features one team of Bodyguards defending a VIP against an opposing team of Assassins. The Bodyguards must ensure the VIP reaches the destination alive, while the Assassins need to kill said VIP, naturally. This is pretty by-the-book as far as Adversary Modes go, which used to be GTA Online's way of experimenting with gameplay mechanics that were more "far out".
Entourage comes with an added level of difficulty, as only VIP knows where the Extraction Point is. The VIP also knows the locations of all Assassins, making communication essential on the Bodyguard team, otherwise the protectors won't even know where they need to go. That said, it's not like the VIP is defenseless, as they will be both heavily armed and armored.
The release of the new update also brings with it a new event week, focusing on the new content. Until the 11th of August, playing the new Adversary Mode Entourage will net you double RP and GTA $. To string up more rounds of the game, just select the Event Playlist featuring all of the Entourage maps.
A few — and by that we mean a total of 2 — discounts are also accompanying the event, since they always do. Both are offering a 25% price cut on various Cunning Stunts customization options. Both clothing items and tattoos introduced in the latest DLC will be cheaper by the stated rate.
In case this, alongside the 27 Stunt Races and 21 cars added in the past three updates aren't enough to keep you occupied, don't fret, as Rockstar will be bringing a long-requested DLC to the game. While this hasn't been confirmed, some pretty reputable people have posted what seems to be evidence of none other than a Biker DLC being on the way.
If the info turns out to be true, GTA Online will be getting a massive amount of Biker themed content, including a number of new missions running in the same vein as the CEO and VIP missions, suggesting that being the member of a Biker gang will be similar to CEO status. It will have its own set of rules, restrictions and advantages for those who wish to take part in the new mission types.
A new customizable garage is also coming to GTA Online as it seems, alongside an increase to the limit of how many properties you may own at any given time. This will come as a breath of fresh air for the car-collectors out there, who ran out of garage space like 5 updates ago. Some other content, like customization items, vehicles and even what looks like it may be a VIP challenge.
Have you already tried out the features and new props of GTA Online's updated Content Creator? Will you be creating a race for the upcoming competition?
