Grand Theft Auto V, the follow-up to Rockstar Games’ smash 2008 hit Grand theft Auto IV, is set to explode across home consoles this September.

In a recent surprise announcement, Rockstar also revealed Grand Theft Auto Online – a separate multiplayer game launching alongside GTA V, to complement V’s addictive over-the-top violence by allowing up to 16 players to engage in customizable mayhem and a huge number of other fun activities spanning over 700 unique missions.

Joining the Fun

Ready to engage in some creative racing, shooting, skydiving and looting?

Players will be able to do so through a simple seamless transition from campaign mode to multiplayer, with instant matchmaking taking place to connect gamers with familiar faces, their crew members or strangers at equivalent skill levels.

Limited to 16 players to allow for customized characters and vehicles, more missions will open up as players advance and climb ranks, and everything that happens in the online world will be recorded and can be accessed via the Rockstar Social Club – where the developer will pay attention to trends to improve the experience.

Missions are accepted through phone calls, visiting specific locations or browsing a detailed list of available odd jobs. Players can work together or fight to the death in a variety of events, such as sharing team lives during cooperative bank robberies or playing “Capture the Flag” with grenade launchers – and so much more.

Team Spirit

The real appeal of GTA Online is the ability to do virtually everything in multiplayer that can be done in single-player mode but louder, bigger and with unpredictable human ingenuity driving the insane action.

Team skydiving (with both guns blazing), wild bank heists, player-created races or sporting events like golf and tennis tournaments – even strafing police cars with a jet-fighter strike force to boost the team’s Wanted level to maximum stars is possible.

Players will be able to make and upload their own missions, initially limited to races but planned to expand to include potential scenarios like player-designed safecracking gigs and more – much more, if the ideas hinted at by Rockstar North President Leslie Benzies eventually lead to unique fan-made missions shared with fellow players.

Online Story Elements

GTA Online will feature persistent characters to add a sense of continuity to the multiplayer world. Rockstar has employed over three dozen writers to ensure the game remains a vibrant, thriving community that updates and innovates constantly and consistently. The game is a step toward Rockstar’s vision of an active online Grand Theft Auto universe and now boasts around 700 unique missions for players to engage in together, with more planned to roll out on a regular basis.

As part of the meta-story, players will be able to use televisions within the game to watch friends tear across town, dodge cops and base jump off motorcycles from a mountaintop. While it remains to be seen just how different a shade of the same color many of these missions turn out to be, the creative dedication to pleasing its loyal fans that Rockstar has already shown argues that it will offer a mammoth amount of content for years to come.

Don’t miss the launch of GTA V on September 17th and GTA Online on the 1st of October (they are sold together), pre-order right now so that you can get both games to your home at the release date.