“Grant Theft Auto” has been a series that has yielded a ton of times you just go, “What?
“Wow! Did that just happen?”
And I think we’re gonna talk about a few of those.
It’s Falcon,and today on Gameranx,seven mind-blowing moments in “Grant Theft Auto” games.
Starting off at number seven,
it’s the fly to Liberty City
in “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.”
Sometimes all it takes
is four little words
to blow people’s minds.
This moment comes from the
mission Saint Mark’s Bistro.
In it, Salvatore Leone asked
Carl to take out his rival,
Marco Forelli.
Looking back to playing
the game back in the day,
I’m not sure what I expected,
but I know that I didn’t
expect what actually happened.
You literally drive to the
airport, get on a plane,
and that’s when your
next objective pops up,
“Fly to Liberty City.”
♪ They held each other tight ♪
♪ As they drove on through the night ♪
It is a crazy message to
get in an open world game
because you never go to
another place in these things.
You got a map, and that’s it.
That’s how an open-world
game works, right?
But now the game gets you into
a jet and gets you flying.
So you just start flying and flying
and flying until you are off the map.
And then the game transitions
to an entirely new environment.
It’s outside Saint Mark’s Bistro
from “Grand Theft Auto III,”
but it’s all covered in snow.
From here, you get into a
shootout inside the restaurant
and eventually take out Forelli.
And when it’s all over,
you’re back in the plane
and you manually fly back to Las Venturas.
Open-world games just didn’t
do stuff like this back then.
In fact, not a lot of them do it now.
“Assassin’s Creed Valhalla”
kind of comes to mind,
but it’s not even kind of the same thing
because while it transports
you to different environments,
it doesn’t transport you
to a different environment
in the game’s world that
you’ve already been to
and have a certain nostalgia for.
And wow, it was mind-blowing.
At number six is Michelle
is a government agent,
from “Grant Theft Auto IV.”
The first girlfriend you
get in “GTA IV” is Michelle,
who comes off pretty normal.
She comes on a little
strong when you first meet
but I’ve had that happen.
Seriously, I think most people have had
somebody come on a little
strong in their lives.
For most people, it’s not something
you really think about too much.
Like, yeah, some of her
behavior’s a little suspicious
but I wasn’t really paying attention.
So if you’re like me,
her revelation during
the mission The Snowstorm
hit you like a slap in the face.
She’s actually watching you for Bernard,
the government agent that works
for the United Liberty Paper office.
That’s why she seems so
curious about what you’re doing
and who you’re talking to.
It wasn’t just nosy girlfriend behavior,
it was that she was a
spy who was spying on you
and keeping track of what you were doing.
For whatever reason, it’s
never made explicitly clear
but that’s kind of what makes
the whole thing so surprising.
Once she reveals she’s
been sent to watch you,
she’s pretty much never seen again,
leaving players to kinda wonder
what the hell just happened.
My thinking is mission
accomplished, she disappeared,
but there’s other implications
that could be taken from it.
Like, for instance, she
could feel guilty. Who knows?
It does feel like a bit of a thread
they could have tied up later,
but to be fair, a lot does
happen in “Grand Theft Auto IV,”
so I don’t blame them for
just kind of being like,
“Yeah, it’s a government
agent who tricks you.
“That’s that.”
It’s fine. It works.
– Uh, whoop-de-doo. (laughs)
– And number five is Lance’s betrayal
from “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.”
“GTA” games’ always full
of betrayals, of course,
but some are a little
more shocking than others.
This one’s definitely surprising.
Lance seems like your best
pal for most of the game
but in the last mission,
called, Keep Your Friends Close,
he betrays Tommy outta nowhere
and you’re forced to kill him.
Going back through the game,
Rockstar does plant the seeds
warning you about Lance’s
possible betrayal,
but it’s easy to forget how
bitter he slowly becomes
over the course of the game
after his introduction at the start.
The prequel, “Vice City Stories,”
also elaborates his character
a lot more to show you
that while he seems like a
smooth criminal in “Vice City,”
he’s actually kind of a screw-up.
One of the better examples
of Lance’s potential betrayal
is in the mission Bar Brawl,
where he tells Tommy there’s a place
that refuses to pay them protection money
and Tommy yells at him for
not doing anything about it.
It’s subtle, but the cut scene shows
how Lance is getting
lazier and more entitled,
after having Tommy take out Diaz.
It also shows that Tommy
reacts with frustration,
and people don’t love that,
especially if they’re
starting to feel entitled,
somebody chides them for something.
They’re like, “Who are you?
“Who are you to tell me that?”
For a lot of players,
the moment kind of seems
like it comes out nowhere,
but it’s one of a few hints
that Lance betrays you,
it’s just hard to notice
the first time through.
– No. I sold you out, Tommy.
– At number four is the jet pack
from “Grant Theft Auto: San Andreas.”
Back when we were all
first playing “San Andreas”
I don’t think that anybody expected
that we’d be infiltrating
on an analog for Area 51.
The game starts as a
relatively grounded crime drama
and ramps up slowly over
the course of its runtime,
and it’s the desert missions
where this game just
goes off the deep end.
Honestly, the mission called Black Project
probably wouldn’t be enough
to list all by itself,
if not for the mind-blowing conclusion.
The point of the mission is
that you’re sneaking in Area 51
to steal a secret government project.
You just don’t know what it is,
you just know The Truth wants it.
So I, like a lot of people,
assumed it was gonna be some random object
or like a weapon or, you
know, like a material,
just something you had to
walk out of and get away with.
Was not expecting a full-blown jet pack.
Was not expecting to
escape through a silo.
Playing the game the first time,
the whole thing is just insane.
(alarm wails)
(guns blasting)
– Intruder is stealing the jet pack!
All military personnel
outside and fire at will!
– Because at this point you
really think you’ve seen it all.
I mean, the game is
absolutely stuffed with cars,
boats, planes, and everything in between,
and you’re kind of thinking,
“Well, you know, ‘Saints Row’ carved out
“a certain amount of territory for itself,
“and they’re not gonna take
beyond their normal stuff.
“Oh, but jet pack!”
You get a jet pack, on top
of everything, and it’s nuts.
If you already know to expect the jet pack
the impact of it is maybe a little less,
but for those of us who played the game
when it first came out, it was
just a crazy, amazing moment
in a game that was literally filled
with crazy amazing moments.
And number three is Museum Piece
from “Grand Theft Auto IV,”
one of those missions that’s
more mind-blowing in hindsight,
because while it’s good in “GTA IV,”
its significance doesn’t come
into focus until much later.
It’s an important mission
in the story of “GTA IV”
because this is the one where Niko
and Johnny attempt to sell some diamonds,
but the whole thing goes sideways
after a third character blows the deal
At the time, seems like just another thing
that happens in the game.
The only clue that
there’s something unique
is that you get the
Impossible Trinity achievement
for beating it.
For a lot of players, the
achievement’s their first clue
that the world of “GTA IV”
is actually a lot bigger than we think
At the time, Rockstar hadn’t announced
the stories from Liberty City stuff,
so it seemed like the third
guy who attacked the meet
was just a weird non sequitur
that wouldn’t pay off.
Rockstar was playing the long game though.
The guy who attacked the meeting was Luis,
the player character from
“The Ballad of Gay Tony,”
while Johnny was the main guy
you play as “The Lost and Damned” in.
Before you even knew who they were,
Rockstar had already
hidden both protagonists
from the DLC in the game.
And sure enough, when you play the DLC
you see the same events play out
from that character’s perspective.
It’s the kind of
multi-character storytelling
they’d go on to expand
in “Gand Theft Auto V,”
but what was so mind-blowing
was just how unexpected
and deeply integrated the DLC characters
were into the story of the game,
well before anybody had any
idea who these guys were,
especially Luis.
And number two is the diamonds
in the opening cut scene
in “Grand Theft Auto IV.”
One of the more mind-blowing elements
of “Grand Theft Auto IV”
is how the diamond plot weaves
through the entire story.
Niko doesn’t actually do
anything related to the diamonds
until the mission Taking in the Trash,
where Niko collects diamonds
hidden in the trash cans.
That’s where it technically
starts in “GTA IV.”
But there was actually a whole
story involving these things
going on in Liberty City stories DLC.
The diamonds were put in the trash cans
in the mission Diamonds in the
Rough in “Lost and Damned,”
and the diamonds were originally bought
during “The Ballad of Gay Tony.”
The diamond storyline basically ends up
being a big shaggy dog story.
Everyone who tries to
get them ends up dead.
And eventually, they’re found by a hobo
on the street at the very end of the game.
But there was one little
mind-blowing detail
I never actually noticed until recently.
During the opening cut scene
of the game, for a second,
you can see the cook on the
ship where the game starts
is hiding a diamond in a cake batter.
So it goes full circle
and was totally planned
out to be the central story
of “Grand Theft Auto
IV” from the beginning.
The diamonds appear at the chronologically
last mission in the game in “Gay Tony,”
and they appear at the very start
in the opening cut scene
of “Grand Theft Auto IV.”
It’s a crazy piece of attention to detail
that crosses over between
what is technically multiple games.
It’s a little detail,
it’s easy to overlook,
but it ties all the events of
the “GTA IV” stories together.
And finally, at number one,
Smoke and Ryder’s betrayal
from “San Andreas.”
There’s no bigger betrayal
in “Grand Theft Auto,”
the entire series, than this one.
Basically, the entire Green Sabre mission,
it’s pretty mind-blowing,
but it starts where it
seems like everything’s
working up pretty well for you.
The Grove Street families
are working together again.
Sweet is good with you,
he’s planning on taking
on the Ballas gang.
At this point, it kind of seems
like if this were a shorter
game with less content,
you would be nearing the
end of the narrative.
Stuff is going well. You’re taking over.
Thankfully, Rockstar wanted
to tell a more intricate story
because this was masterful storytelling
with just huge impact.
On your way to meeting under
the Mulholland Intersection,
the mission just changes completely.
You get this call from Caesar,
who reveals that Big Smoke and Ryder
have been meeting with Tenpenny in secret.
The mission name comes from
the Green Sabre that Pulaski drives,
the same car that was driven by the people
that killed Carl’s mom.
Sweet’s meeting is an ambush
and both brothers are taken into custody,
leaving Smoke and Ryder as
the new kings of Los Santos.
It’s a pretty shocking reveal,
especially with Big Smoke,
who seems like your buddy the entire time.
But unlike Vance,
I kind of think his
betrayal’s pretty well set up.
It’s pretty well established
that he’s not happy with his
lot life and he wants more.
And another tipoff is the fact
that he’s the only member of the main four
who doesn’t actually live on Grove Street.
Maybe the most mind-blowing
thing about Smoke’s betrayal
is its relation to his
famous fast food order.
– I’ll have two number
nines, a number nine large,
a number six with extra
dip, a number seven,
two number 45s, one with
cheese, and a large soda.
– There’s speculation the order
was intentionally drawn out
in order to give the Ballas
more time to ambush them.
It’s just a theory, but
it’s one of many moments
where if you go back to
the start of the game
after Smoke’s betrayal is revealed,
it kind of feels like
there’s foreshadowing here.
Obviously, now everybody knows
that Big Smoke betrays you.
But back when the game came
out, this was a huge surprise,
and really felt like, “Wow!
They’re going for it,”
in terms of the story here.
And that’s all for today.
Leave us a comment. Let
us know what you think.
If you liked this video click like.
If you’re not subscribed,
now’s a great time to do so.
We upload brand-new videos
every day of the week.
Best way to see them first
is, of course, of subscription,
so click a subscribe.
Don’t forget to enable notifications.
And as always, we thank you very much
for watching this video.
I’m Falcon. You can follow
me on Twitter @FalconTheHero.
And we’ll see you next time,
right here on Gameranx.
It’s Falcon,on Gameranx,seven mind-blowing moments in “Grant Theft Auto” games
“Grant Theft Auto” has been a series that has yielded a ton of times you just go, “What?
“Wow! Did that just happen?”
And I think we’re gonna talk about a few of those.
It’s Falcon,and today on Gameranx,seven mind-blowing moments in “Grant Theft Auto” games.
Starting off at number seven,
it’s the fly to Liberty City
in “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.”
Sometimes all it takes
is four little words
to blow people’s minds.
This moment comes from the
mission Saint Mark’s Bistro.
In it, Salvatore Leone asked
Carl to take out his rival,
Marco Forelli.
Looking back to playing
the game back in the day,
I’m not sure what I expected,
but I know that I didn’t
expect what actually happened.
You literally drive to the
airport, get on a plane,
and that’s when your
next objective pops up,
“Fly to Liberty City.”
♪ They held each other tight ♪
♪ As they drove on through the night ♪
It is a crazy message to
get in an open world game
because you never go to
another place in these things.
You got a map, and that’s it.
That’s how an open-world
game works, right?
But now the game gets you into
a jet and gets you flying.
So you just start flying and flying
and flying until you are off the map.
And then the game transitions
to an entirely new environment.
It’s outside Saint Mark’s Bistro
from “Grand Theft Auto III,”
but it’s all covered in snow.
From here, you get into a
shootout inside the restaurant
and eventually take out Forelli.
And when it’s all over,
you’re back in the plane
and you manually fly back to Las Venturas.
Open-world games just didn’t
do stuff like this back then.
In fact, not a lot of them do it now.
“Assassin’s Creed Valhalla”
kind of comes to mind,
but it’s not even kind of the same thing
because while it transports
you to different environments,
it doesn’t transport you
to a different environment
in the game’s world that
you’ve already been to
and have a certain nostalgia for.
And wow, it was mind-blowing.
At number six is Michelle
is a government agent,
from “Grant Theft Auto IV.”
The first girlfriend you
get in “GTA IV” is Michelle,
who comes off pretty normal.
She comes on a little
strong when you first meet
but I’ve had that happen.
Seriously, I think most people have had
somebody come on a little
strong in their lives.
For most people, it’s not something
you really think about too much.
Like, yeah, some of her
behavior’s a little suspicious
but I wasn’t really paying attention.
So if you’re like me,
her revelation during
the mission The Snowstorm
hit you like a slap in the face.
She’s actually watching you for Bernard,
the government agent that works
for the United Liberty Paper office.
That’s why she seems so
curious about what you’re doing
and who you’re talking to.
It wasn’t just nosy girlfriend behavior,
it was that she was a
spy who was spying on you
and keeping track of what you were doing.
For whatever reason, it’s
never made explicitly clear
but that’s kind of what makes
the whole thing so surprising.
Once she reveals she’s
been sent to watch you,
she’s pretty much never seen again,
leaving players to kinda wonder
what the hell just happened.
My thinking is mission
accomplished, she disappeared,
but there’s other implications
that could be taken from it.
Like, for instance, she
could feel guilty. Who knows?
It does feel like a bit of a thread
they could have tied up later,
but to be fair, a lot does
happen in “Grand Theft Auto IV,”
so I don’t blame them for
just kind of being like,
“Yeah, it’s a government
agent who tricks you.
“That’s that.”
It’s fine. It works.
– Uh, whoop-de-doo. (laughs)
– And number five is Lance’s betrayal
from “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.”
“GTA” games’ always full
of betrayals, of course,
but some are a little
more shocking than others.
This one’s definitely surprising.
Lance seems like your best
pal for most of the game
but in the last mission,
called, Keep Your Friends Close,
he betrays Tommy outta nowhere
and you’re forced to kill him.
Going back through the game,
Rockstar does plant the seeds
warning you about Lance’s
possible betrayal,
but it’s easy to forget how
bitter he slowly becomes
over the course of the game
after his introduction at the start.
The prequel, “Vice City Stories,”
also elaborates his character
a lot more to show you
that while he seems like a
smooth criminal in “Vice City,”
he’s actually kind of a screw-up.
One of the better examples
of Lance’s potential betrayal
is in the mission Bar Brawl,
where he tells Tommy there’s a place
that refuses to pay them protection money
and Tommy yells at him for
not doing anything about it.
It’s subtle, but the cut scene shows
how Lance is getting
lazier and more entitled,
after having Tommy take out Diaz.
It also shows that Tommy
reacts with frustration,
and people don’t love that,
especially if they’re
starting to feel entitled,
somebody chides them for something.
They’re like, “Who are you?
“Who are you to tell me that?”
For a lot of players,
the moment kind of seems
like it comes out nowhere,
but it’s one of a few hints
that Lance betrays you,
it’s just hard to notice
the first time through.
– No. I sold you out, Tommy.
– At number four is the jet pack
from “Grant Theft Auto: San Andreas.”
Back when we were all
first playing “San Andreas”
I don’t think that anybody expected
that we’d be infiltrating
on an analog for Area 51.
The game starts as a
relatively grounded crime drama
and ramps up slowly over
the course of its runtime,
and it’s the desert missions
where this game just
goes off the deep end.
Honestly, the mission called Black Project
probably wouldn’t be enough
to list all by itself,
if not for the mind-blowing conclusion.
The point of the mission is
that you’re sneaking in Area 51
to steal a secret government project.
You just don’t know what it is,
you just know The Truth wants it.
So I, like a lot of people,
assumed it was gonna be some random object
or like a weapon or, you
know, like a material,
just something you had to
walk out of and get away with.
Was not expecting a full-blown jet pack.
Was not expecting to
escape through a silo.
Playing the game the first time,
the whole thing is just insane.
(alarm wails)
(guns blasting)
– Intruder is stealing the jet pack!
All military personnel
outside and fire at will!
– Because at this point you
really think you’ve seen it all.
I mean, the game is
absolutely stuffed with cars,
boats, planes, and everything in between,
and you’re kind of thinking,
“Well, you know, ‘Saints Row’ carved out
“a certain amount of territory for itself,
“and they’re not gonna take
beyond their normal stuff.
“Oh, but jet pack!”
You get a jet pack, on top
of everything, and it’s nuts.
If you already know to expect the jet pack
the impact of it is maybe a little less,
but for those of us who played the game
when it first came out, it was
just a crazy, amazing moment
in a game that was literally filled
with crazy amazing moments.
And number three is Museum Piece
from “Grand Theft Auto IV,”
one of those missions that’s
more mind-blowing in hindsight,
because while it’s good in “GTA IV,”
its significance doesn’t come
into focus until much later.
It’s an important mission
in the story of “GTA IV”
because this is the one where Niko
and Johnny attempt to sell some diamonds,
but the whole thing goes sideways
after a third character blows the deal
At the time, seems like just another thing
that happens in the game.
The only clue that
there’s something unique
is that you get the
Impossible Trinity achievement
for beating it.
For a lot of players, the
achievement’s their first clue
that the world of “GTA IV”
is actually a lot bigger than we think
At the time, Rockstar hadn’t announced
the stories from Liberty City stuff,
so it seemed like the third
guy who attacked the meet
was just a weird non sequitur
that wouldn’t pay off.
Rockstar was playing the long game though.
The guy who attacked the meeting was Luis,
the player character from
“The Ballad of Gay Tony,”
while Johnny was the main guy
you play as “The Lost and Damned” in.
Before you even knew who they were,
Rockstar had already
hidden both protagonists
from the DLC in the game.
And sure enough, when you play the DLC
you see the same events play out
from that character’s perspective.
It’s the kind of
multi-character storytelling
they’d go on to expand
in “Gand Theft Auto V,”
but what was so mind-blowing
was just how unexpected
and deeply integrated the DLC characters
were into the story of the game,
well before anybody had any
idea who these guys were,
especially Luis.
And number two is the diamonds
in the opening cut scene
in “Grand Theft Auto IV.”
One of the more mind-blowing elements
of “Grand Theft Auto IV”
is how the diamond plot weaves
through the entire story.
Niko doesn’t actually do
anything related to the diamonds
until the mission Taking in the Trash,
where Niko collects diamonds
hidden in the trash cans.
That’s where it technically
starts in “GTA IV.”
But there was actually a whole
story involving these things
going on in Liberty City stories DLC.
The diamonds were put in the trash cans
in the mission Diamonds in the
Rough in “Lost and Damned,”
and the diamonds were originally bought
during “The Ballad of Gay Tony.”
The diamond storyline basically ends up
being a big shaggy dog story.
Everyone who tries to
get them ends up dead.
And eventually, they’re found by a hobo
on the street at the very end of the game.
But there was one little
mind-blowing detail
I never actually noticed until recently.
During the opening cut scene
of the game, for a second,
you can see the cook on the
ship where the game starts
is hiding a diamond in a cake batter.
So it goes full circle
and was totally planned
out to be the central story
of “Grand Theft Auto
IV” from the beginning.
The diamonds appear at the chronologically
last mission in the game in “Gay Tony,”
and they appear at the very start
in the opening cut scene
of “Grand Theft Auto IV.”
It’s a crazy piece of attention to detail
that crosses over between
what is technically multiple games.
It’s a little detail,
it’s easy to overlook,
but it ties all the events of
the “GTA IV” stories together.
And finally, at number one,
Smoke and Ryder’s betrayal
from “San Andreas.”
There’s no bigger betrayal
in “Grand Theft Auto,”
the entire series, than this one.
Basically, the entire Green Sabre mission,
it’s pretty mind-blowing,
but it starts where it
seems like everything’s
working up pretty well for you.
The Grove Street families
are working together again.
Sweet is good with you,
he’s planning on taking
on the Ballas gang.
At this point, it kind of seems
like if this were a shorter
game with less content,
you would be nearing the
end of the narrative.
Stuff is going well. You’re taking over.
Thankfully, Rockstar wanted
to tell a more intricate story
because this was masterful storytelling
with just huge impact.
On your way to meeting under
the Mulholland Intersection,
the mission just changes completely.
You get this call from Caesar,
who reveals that Big Smoke and Ryder
have been meeting with Tenpenny in secret.
The mission name comes from
the Green Sabre that Pulaski drives,
the same car that was driven by the people
that killed Carl’s mom.
Sweet’s meeting is an ambush
and both brothers are taken into custody,
leaving Smoke and Ryder as
the new kings of Los Santos.
It’s a pretty shocking reveal,
especially with Big Smoke,
who seems like your buddy the entire time.
But unlike Vance,
I kind of think his
betrayal’s pretty well set up.
It’s pretty well established
that he’s not happy with his
lot life and he wants more.
And another tipoff is the fact
that he’s the only member of the main four
who doesn’t actually live on Grove Street.
Maybe the most mind-blowing
thing about Smoke’s betrayal
is its relation to his
famous fast food order.
– I’ll have two number
nines, a number nine large,
a number six with extra
dip, a number seven,
two number 45s, one with
cheese, and a large soda.
– There’s speculation the order
was intentionally drawn out
in order to give the Ballas
more time to ambush them.
It’s just a theory, but
it’s one of many moments
where if you go back to
the start of the game
after Smoke’s betrayal is revealed,
it kind of feels like
there’s foreshadowing here.
Obviously, now everybody knows
that Big Smoke betrays you.
But back when the game came
out, this was a huge surprise,
and really felt like, “Wow!
They’re going for it,”
in terms of the story here.
And that’s all for today.
Leave us a comment. Let
us know what you think.
If you liked this video click like.
If you’re not subscribed,
now’s a great time to do so.
We upload brand-new videos
every day of the week.
Best way to see them first
is, of course, of subscription,
so click a subscribe.
Don’t forget to enable notifications.
And as always, we thank you very much
for watching this video.
I’m Falcon. You can follow
me on Twitter @FalconTheHero.
And we’ll see you next time,
right here on Gameranx.
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