5 CRAZY, AWESOME THINGS I SAW AND DID IN GRAND THEF AUTO ONLINE #GTAV

1 Rob a Liquor Store Together…and Then Betray Each Other

Masks will help during convenience store robberies. #GTAV 

You honk your horn outside of your buddy’s Vinewood apartment. He walks out and hops in your Aston Martin-ish car. He gets control of your radio. “Put it back on WCTR talk radio, dammit,” you say. “I want to listen to Lazlow.” You drive a couple miles, park, and get out. You each equip masks and glasses from the unique-to-GTA Online inventory menu, and walk into a convenience store. One of you points a gun at the clerk behind the counter. You can actually scream at him through your chat headset in order to intimidate him, making the cash grab go faster. You speed away with the police in pursuit, but eventually lose them in a parking garage under some downtown Los Santos skyscrapers. With the heat gone, it’s up to your friend – the one who actually got the cash from the clerk – to divvy up the cash as he sees fit. He could give you 10%, but then you could simply stop the car, get out, shoot him in the face, and take all the money for yourself. Or, you know, you could just split it 50-50 like gentlemen.

On a related note, you’re able to insure your cars in case other players steal them. You wouldn’t want to lose that heavily modified, custom Cheetah you spent thousands of in-game dollars and lots of time tricking out, would you?

2 Chill Out at Your House and Spark a Bowl

This is one way to "hang out" with your friends.

Yes, really. You can invite your buddies to your apartment – bought with persistent in-game cash – and they can hang out, sit on your couch, and take hits off of your bong. You can even get high, which will have screen-altering effects. Your pals are also able to look through your telescope – it won’t look into space, but will instead magnify what’s in the distance of the game world (trust me, I asked!) – or watch the in-game TV. For instance, a hilarious new episode of Republican Space Rangers. And if other folks in your crew are out causing trouble, you can turn on Weasel News on your apartment TV and actually follow their shenanigans live, as covered by the San Andreas news channel. Or watch them hover creepily near your apartment on your home’s closed-circuit security television monitors. Of course, if come home from a hard day of murdering and just want to relax with a shower to wash the dried blood off your body, you can do that too.

3 Race Your Friends…and Hope Your Other Friends Don’t Get in the Way

Races can be on-road or off.

At any point, you can link up with a friend or 12, drop a pin anywhere on the map, and once everyone agrees, a countdown timer will start. In my race, two Rockstar reps dueled – each in a high-performance sports car – trading paint and verbal jabs over the headset. It was a tight race until suddenly the four-lane road they were speeding down was blocked by police cars. As they flew through the narrow opening in the middle of the road, I saw that it was two other players causing this carnage, triggering a four-star wanted level and a shootout with the police! This was no doubt staged for my demo, but it’s clear that, especially in a 16-player game, random insane encounters like this can and absolutely will happen organically. It’s like Rockstar took most of Burnout Paradise and Need for Speed: Most Wanted and shoved them in here, albeit in a world 10 times as large.

4 Go to the Movies

OK so we didn't get any movie theater screenshots, but is this a nod to CJ's street from GTA: San Andreas?

Yes, there are movies to watch in Grand Theft Auto V, and in Online you can watch them with your friends. Maybe you’ll just laugh together, or perhaps you’ll go the Rifftrax route and crack jokes at what’s happening on the screen. Sadly, I wasn’t able to visit a theater during my hands-on time, nor would Rockstar provide any additional details, besides confirming that 16 of you can pack the theater. Looks like this will have to remain something of a surprise, not that that’s a bad thing…

5 Create Your Own Missions

"Hold me."

You saw this in the trailer, and though I didn’t get to see it, Rockstar is releasing the editing tools to allow players to craft their own GTA Online missions. What I did learn, however, was that the first tools to be made available -- which will be at launch on October 1 -- will be for the deathmatch and race editors. More will come later.