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GTA Online adds races, cars, and more in the Los Santos Summer Special

Not huge, but welcome

With the "biggest update ever" for GTA Online still promised for later this year, Rockstar today released a smaller content update to tide crimers over. The 'Los Santos Summer Special' update, now live, adds news bits and pieces across existing modes and activities rather than something entirely new. That still includes new cars, new F1 race tracks, new PvP maps set inside the Diamond Casino, and more. Some handy quality-of-life changes too, like the Casino's Lucky Wheel saying when you can next spin again.

The Los Santos Summer Special is live now, thanks to a 1.4GB update. It isn't a flashy one. There's no big central feature you can point and get excited about. But it is more stuff, and more stuff is good while we wait, sure.

So! New Adversary maps are set in the Diamond Casino. Nine new Open Wheel races are in, along with new editor bits to make your own. A new Business Battle goes down on the aircraft carrier, with loads of crates to collect and the neat possibility of hacking the control tower to disable its air defences. Galaxy Super Yacht owners can launch new missions, which can be done solo but the pay's only about $20k so don't rush out to buy one. New clothes include some plain coloured variants of wardrobe staples, which is nice (I bought all the business shirts). New vehicles include two new F1 cars and a hot hot hot 90s VW Golf you can whack a speaker stack atop. I really want the VW Golf (here called a BF Club) but I already have a problem with collecting cruddy cars. And six vehicles can now be customised at Benny's, including the clunky Youga van.

Big additions aside, some nice little tweaks have come too. Enter the Casino and you'll see a timer showing when you can next spin the wheel. Some of the annoying and repetitive phonecalls from business-managing NPCs like LJT are now text messages instead. And goodness me, the five-minute cooldown for delivering an Oppressor Mk 2 now applies to the regular mechanic too. Griefers will still crap up servers with their hoverbikes, no doubt, but if you blow them up they won't be able to hop right back on.

The official patch notes are over here, and the unofficial notes compiled by players on Reddit add a few more bits. Yeah, it's not huge, but the update has some good changes, a few nice additions, and more variety. It's not the update I crave, but it's welcome for now.

Rockstar have said that the mysterious huge update due later this year will bring "an all-new take on Heists" in "an entirely new location". Some people hope that means an entirely new city, perhaps visiting Liberty City. Me, ah, I expect something more along the lines of a new building erected in Los Santos. I'd love to be wrong, though. I'm already saving my crimebucks.

Disclosure: I have some pals who work at Rockstar. Not really sure what they all do. Stuff.

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