Rockstar Games has made a lavish and sumptuous real estate update for Grand Theft Auto Online which players are allowed to acquire breathtaking and extravagant houses in the richest neighborhoods. Properties ‘A Safehouse in the Hills’ are not only luxurious but they also come with the latest inventions, however, the new launch has been covered with complaints from players about the big bugs, server issues and people’s frustration with not having new story content while the game still focusing on GTA Online.
So, at the end Rockstar has performed the magic. They have made the ‘Prix Luxury Real Estate’ update after, more or less, a decade of players yearning for deluxe mansions in GTA Online. And the mansions, by the way? They are just superb. The three spots are the most elite in Los Santos, all possessing the stylishness and technology they promised. You can now be a virtual millionaire without looking out of your penthouse! But this is a huge but—the launch has been… terribly unorganized. Gamers are airing their grievances on various platforms with problems ranging from minor irritations to major malfunctions. The infamous classic release of GTA Online has happened again: some great new things have been released along with a bit of chaos.
Let’s analyze it from one angle at a time. First, the positive side. The mansion owners can flaunt it. They will have the luxury of living in a big house with a stylish garage accommodating their supercars and running criminal activities in an opulent home office next door in return for a huge amount of cash. Some players, e.g., a player named Koy, are very fond of the change and praise the new property as ‘absolutely stunning’ only wishing for a more recognizable map icon. Wouldn’t that be awesome? You log in, buy your dream house, and live like a king. For a moment, it seems the dream has come true.
But then you try to park a car in the garage.
And that is where the dream faces a huge, immersion-breaking pothole. Some gamers have reported that these luxury estates’ garage facilities are somehow worse than those for any other property in the game. The user ‘Just a Gamer’ vented his irritation and called it a ‘5 step process’ and the ‘worst presentation garage in the whole game.’ Besides that, the user posted a video that shows the awkward interface, and honestly, it does not look good. If you are paying the highest price ever for the most expensive property in GTA, then you will be expecting a trouble-free experience. You should be able to roll your expensive car into a stylish garage bay instead of fighting with a menu. It is a sad, fundamental mistake.
But wait, it might be getting better—or worse, depending on how you see it. Several players have filed silent sound bug reports. One such player, Stonne Baldock, especially warned others to avoid the Vinewood sign mansion because of ‘strange sounds coming from underneath.’ A different player guessed that rabbits could be the reason for the noise as, in his opinion, they breed under the map, die, and the loop of strange sound is created. Hence, your multi-million dollar home is accompanied by a horror soundtrack for free. Eerie.
Nevertheless, bugs are not the only problems—visual or atmospheric—they also affect the gameplay negatively. Players claim that the new update has clashed with the old content—again. User FoggMatthieu noted the Casino Heist glitch; with the ‘Big Con’ method, all the players taking part are kicked out of the heist as soon as they leave the mantrap. ‘Every time the game updates one of the methods gets broken,’ they say. Their case seems to be repeating itself with the same result—new content is released and old content comes to an end. PC players are trapped in their own peculiar nightmare where LiorTestg reports that the switch keybind between the first and third cameras has just… vanished from the settings menu. Isn’t it peculiar?
And the servers, oh, the servers! ‘Cant even connect to rockstar game services on PC to play the game. Crazy Work’ was the comment from user Corey. Another one just pleaded, ‘fix your servers pls.’ This is the launch day special, which has turned into a routine at this point; it is the outcome of the very same thing each time: you want to see your new virtual mansion, but you cannot even get to the neighborhood.
Amid all these technical mess, there is a bigger, more persistent grievance from the community that has come up once again. Every time GTA Online is upgraded, that part of the player base gets louder asking for single-player DLC for the main Grand Theft Auto V story. ‘Would rather buy sp story mode DLCs pls R devs!?’ wrote Jarrod, claiming at least a third of the fanbase would enjoy that content. The ruling happens to be in direct opposition, especially for those on console.
