If you’re a dedicated GTA Online player then here are a couple of Christmas presents especially for you: Rockstar has announced both verified user-created missions and some holiday gifts for you to make the most of.
First of all, the gaming publisher has given its official stamp of approval to ten of the million-plus jobs designed by the GTA online community. The Rockstar Verified badge that these missions now have means that they can be played on either PS3 or Xbox 360, irrespective of which platform was used to create them.
The missions include a variety of off-road challenges, stunt jumps, rooftop races, deathmatch battles and prison brawls set in the San Andreas universe. If your own job didn’t make the cut this time, don’t panic — Rockstar has promised that it will be verifying more missions again in the future.
Secondly, the holiday-themed updates: you may have already noticed some snowfall in Los Santos during your Christmas gaming sessions, but there’s more to explore. You can pick up limited edition Santa hats, elf jackets, snowman masks and reindeer antlers at the clothing shops until January 5, while weapons such as grenades, tear gas and sticky bombs are half-price for the same period.
The in-game camera tool Snapmatic has also been given a festive upgrade, which is here to stay: there are a ton of new filters, borders and expressions to play around with, as well as a depth-of-field effect and a meme creator. If you ever get bored of causing mayhem, you can always pause for a well-framed selfie.
GTA Online has already earned a spot in our Best Games of 2013 round-up, and it should only get better as Rockstar pushes out updates.