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Looks like Grand Theft Auto 5 will be free on the Epic Games Store today

Nice!

Keep your eye on the Epic Games Store today: the next free game they're giving away is almost certainly Grand Theft Auto V. That's a real solid get for free. Epic have been playing it coy, teasing a mystery game instead of announcing the next one as they usually do, then they seemingly blew the surprise by tweeting the announcement early. Welp. The freebie should be with us in only a few hours.

GTA V should be free for keepsies from here, from 4pm (8am Pacific) today through to Thursday the 21st. How do we know when that page only says "MYSTERY GAME" right now? Because Epic tweeted it and couldn't delete the mistake before people captured it.

Released on PC in 2015, GTA V is still hugely impressive as a sandbox murder simulator. The story campaign is pretty fun but ah, I'm always so happy even just cycling around the city, spying on NPCs, and watching the world turn. The sunsets are beautiful. We've declared it one of the best action games and one of the best co-op games too. Yes, while the story mode is singeplayer-only, it has a whole MMO side in GTA Online.

I know many people are disappointed that Rockstar's post-launch efforts have all gone into GTA Online, with no singleplayer expansions made. I get that. I would still recommend you consider GTAO. Getting started on the grind to buy anything good is undeniably crap but there's a whole lot of good in there. The heists are so much fun with friends. Some of the weird races with transforming vehicles and loops are great fun (though the F1 racing is a bloodbath). It has loads of little cooperative missions. And I cannot stress enough that Los Santos is a joy to cycle around (big fan of the BMX for stunts, myself). Then sometimes the sandbox world gets real daft with things like the green vs. purple alien wars.

Oh, also: Rockstar are currently giving away $500,000 in-game cash to anyone who plays in the month of May. It's not a huge amount to get you started but it's good for some essentials.

Or there are all those unofficial modded roleplay servers.

Seasoned GTA Online players should know that the weekly bonuses are good this week. From today you can get double cash and RP from Bunker sales, and Bunkers and Bunker upgrades are discounted too. I've been waiting for a discount to upgrade mine so I'm chuffed my patience is paying off.

Though if do you just want to dick about in singleplayer, maybe look up some Grand Theft Auto 5 cheats.

Disclosure: I have some pals who work at Rockstar. I'm honestly not sure what they do there. C-computers? Things that make games happen. Maybe.

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