The holiday season is all about snow and seeing old friends, and GTA Online is bizarrely one of the games to best capture this holiday magic. Seeing Los Santos covered in snow and being able to throw snowballs at other players ignites a sense of childlike whimsy that’s otherwise completely removed from the GTA series. Meeting up with friends in this virtual winter wonderland for a yearly snowball fight is a great festive tradition that few other games can match.
Video games having seasonal events is nothing new, but how Los Santos is almost completely transformed is a much wider scope than giving NPCs Christmas jumpers or plopping Christmas trees around the map. With GTA Online’s newfound snow and free gifts comes a change to the physics. The colder weather brings in slippery ice physics which are frustrating under normal circumstances, but under the temporary nature of holiday event, are more funny than annoying. Snowballs become projectiles that any player can throw, and in true GTA fashion, they can be deadly weapons in and of themselves.
GTA Online's Christmas Mode Gives It A New Life
The Christmas edition is a breath of fresh air with its capability to provide festive cheer to players all around the world. Even elements of the post-Christmas sales chaos can be found in GTA Online during the festive events, as many cars and items of clothing receive discounts. Online races also become more interesting because players have to factor in the weather’s effect on the handling of their vehicles, shaking up the meta just temporarily. This new coat of paint is especially beneficial in an age where players may want to let GTA Online go already.
For a whole host of regions, GTA Online ends up being a surprisingly good holiday game. Other Christmas-specific editions of games like Christmas NiGHTS Into Dreams have similar concepts of turning an existing world into something more festive. This approach ends up feeling so much more special than the perpetually snowy worlds of most Christmas games. The temporary nature of these festive worlds makes them reflect how magical the holiday season is in real life, and the timed element allows them to turn into holiday traditions for gamers.
GTA 6 is heavily rumored to feature a return to Vice City, and although GTA’s America differs from its real counterpart, Vice City is famously based on Miami, a city that is not known for its heavy snowfall during the holiday season. Hopefully, this isn’t a reason for Rockstar to leave behind GTA Online’s fantastically festive mode in the next game. If nothing else, hopefully the current version will continue to be maintained for years to come.