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After months of anticipation, the long-awaited Online Heists DLC for Grand Theft Auto V finally went live earlier today, rewarding the patience of fans with the co-operative criminality that has been promised since last year. Players are still getting to grips with the nuts and bolts of the new content in-game, but the comprehensive set of patch notes from Rockstar shows just how much new stuff has been patched in.

The biggest bit of content is, of course, the heists. These 4-player co-op missions are designed to test the individual strength of players as well as their capacity to work as a team. You'll need to be at least Rank 12 in GTA Online and have a high-end apartment to gain access to these missions, at which point you'll receive a call from Lester.

When you get that call, you become that heist leader. That means you can select which players to invite from your friends list or the heist lobby — and how much everyone gets paid. Players being invited into the heist don't need to be Rank 12, they just need to have completed Gerald's first Last Team Standing job and the tutorial missions preceding it.

Heists comprise of setup missions and the actual heist itself. Everyone but the heist leader earns money from setup missions; to make up for that, the leader earns 10% more RP for their work and can assign themselves a bigger proportion of the take once the heist is complete. The leader is also responsible for any setup costs that need to be paid ahead of time.

Cash and RP awards are given to players for a variety of different accomplishments pertaining to heists, including completing each heist finale for the first time, completing the heists in order and completing the heists in first person mode on the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 version of the game.

The update also adds plenty more content outside of the heists themselves. Completing each robbery will unlock a new Adversary mode, which pits players against one another in asymmetrical game types. There are 16 of these missions included, spread across three modes; Siege Mentality, Hasta La Vista and Come Out to Play.

As well as the new gear, clothing and vehicles that were leaked ahead of the update's release, a decent amount if miscellaneous content has also been added into GTA Online. Players who have reached Rank 15 will now be faced with Daily Objectives that can result in big rewards if you're dedicated to complete all three tasks every day for a week or a month.

There's also new free roam activities for players beyond Rank 15, with 'destroy vehicle', 'distract cops' and 'plane takedown' listed by Rockstar. 40 new awards have been added in — including the heist awards mentioned earlier — and nine new heist achievements or trophies can now be earned, depending on which system you're playing on.

The patch also includes some smaller tweaks to gameplay and UI. Weapon balance has been adjusted slightly, some online modes have been made more accessible and you can now buy armor and ammo directly from the mission leaderboard. You can also save up to 10 outfits for your character to wear, as well as being able to point so you can communicate to other players without a microphone.

All in all, it seems that Rockstar have really delivered — despite the long wait. The heists themselves seem to be going down well with players, and the vast array of other fixes and additions only serve to sweeten the deal. The question now is how long will players be satisfied with the heists before they start demanding that long-rumored story DLC?

Have you had chance to try out the online heists for yourself yet? Is the new content worth the wait? Let us know in the comments section below.

Source: Rockstar