At long last, Grand Theft Auto V's online heists have hit, offering digital criminals hours upon hours of fresh multiplayer mayhem - assuming that players can log in. Since the highly anticipated heists came to consoles earlier this week, Grand Theft Auto Online's servers have been hammered by players eager to try out the new content for themselves, leading to a myriad of connection issues.

Rockstar claims that the server problems have been fixed, but some players are still reporting problems logging in to Grand Theft Auto Online. However, for those gamers who are still locked out of Rockstar's official version of Los Santos, there's an alternative. An intrepid modder with the Steam handle grockefeller has recreated Grand Theft Auto V's sprawling map in painstaking detail using Colossal Order's new city-building sim, Cities: Skylines.

Cities: Skylines, which released early this month to rave reviews, picks up where Sim City's now-shuttered developer Maxis left off. The most recent iteration of Sim City frustrated players with a mandatory online connection and a host of bugs (particularly involving in-game traffic) that rendered the game unplayable. By contrast, Cities: Skylines offers a hassle-free and user-friendly experience. The map is bigger, the graphics are better, and the game fully supports the Steam Workshop modding platform.

Grockefeller's Grand Theft Auto V map captures the entire, sprawling Los Santos metro area, from busy Downtown to barren Sandy Shores to Mount Chiliad's wooded oasis. Anyone who's spent a significant amount of time in Grand Theft Auto V's virtual world will instantly recognize the winding roads and sprawling deserts. If it's not a pixel-perfect recreation, it's awfully close.

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Even better, the map is fully playable. Grockefeller invites users to "continue the vibrant metropolis of Rockstar Games," managing problems like "employement, ecology, waste disposal, and water gestion [sic]." Oddly, crime is not mentioned. True to Grand Theft Auto's criminal ethos, however, Grockefeller recommends that players interested in taking over Los Santos cheat to get ahead. The city is in heavy debt, and an unlimited money mod will make things significantly easier.

Mods have been a part of Grand Theft Auto's legacy for almost as long as the series has been around, and while Grand Theft Auto V's PC port has suffered from repeated delays, the tradition will undoubtedly continue when the title arrives on April 14. While it'll likely take modders a little while to get up to speed, once they do, be sure to keep an eye out. If the Grand Theft Auto V community shows even a fraction of the dedication exhibited by grockefeller, then gamers are in for something special.

Source: grockafeller