In one of the opening missions of GTA Online's latest update, heist aficionado and lovable oaf Lester talks about how he was a good kid before he played Street Crimes Gang Wars, the in-universe version of Grand Theft Auto. As the bassline hums in the background, he starts to ramble about the gun-toting opportunists trying to lift your cargo, a set of arcade cabinets necessary to kickstart a run-down arcade business, a front for the game's latest (and greatest) heist. "They must be gamers," he says.

A walking parody of all things but especially itself, minutes later GTA Online treats me to a radio advert for Shark Cards, the game's infamous microtransaction system that has made it the most profitable entertainment product of all time. Shutting my car door after a successful delivery, I get my usual daily text from Agent 14 about purchasing a million-dollar Mobile Operations Center to help with the efficiency of my Gunrunning business, one of many plates that need spinning if I'm to stay afloat in this demanding second life. I don't even want the unnecessary vehicle but my brain, falling prey to the marketing machine, wonders whether completing this latest big score will afford me the currency necessary to get him to stop nagging me.

A packed-out patch for a six-year-old live service, The Diamond Casino Heist is designed to turn heads, all the way down to the balance tweaks that players have been begging for. The greatest issue addressed concerns the most hated (and loved) vehicle introduced in Online's history, the Oppressor Mk 2.

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Grand Theft Auto Online will be getting its "biggest, most audacious, most complex criminal operation ever" next Thursday, 12th December, in the form of The Diamond Casino Heist.

GTA Online's controversial Diamond Casino & Resort finally opened its doors this July, after six whole years looming silently, and emptily, on the horizon. Since then, players have been able to gamble away their earnings in the glitziest of surroundings, but as of next week, they'll be given the chance to breach the casino's vault and exact revenge on its owners.

"Something's up at The Diamond Casino & Resort," teases Rockstar, "Patrons have reported seeing unusual security patrols on the casino floor. Penthouse owners are receiving cryptic text messages from the Cheng Family Holdings. Insiders have spotted unfamiliar blueprints on Agatha Baker's desk, and visitors to their website are certain the intrusions there can only mean one thing: there's a crew getting ready to take the whole thing down."

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I suppose it's only a few polygons, but still, modders have acted with remarkable speed to put Elon Musk's latest meme vehicle in almost every conceivable game. While many of these Cybertruck mods are not yet publicly downloadable, several YouTube videos have appeared displaying demo models and early attempts - some of which, er, look better than others.

One of the more basic models for GTA 5 has been demoed by YouTube channel Elite Rejects, with neither of the video's hosts feeling particularly impressed by the truck. It really does look like a texture pop-in problem - but then, so does the real life Cybertruck.

The best one I've seen for GTA so far is by YouTube channel Fred Walkthrough, which already has working lights and genuinely looks like something straight out of Cyberpunk 2077. It's still a work in progress, and the creator says they're not yet ready to publicly release the build, but it's already looking nearly complete - it even has a cupholder with coffee.

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To mark the end of the 2010s, we're celebrating 30 games that defined the last 10 years. You can find all the articles as they're published in the Games of the Decade archive, and read about the thinking behind it in an editor's blog.

Whilst now it feels like a foregone conclusion, back in 2013, GTA Online was an exciting gambit for Rockstar. The team had to design a world that players would want to leave the comforts of their legendary single-player narratives for. GTA 4's online mode was a success, but it still amounted to a lonely city with an airport warzone and some rudimentary deathmatches.

At first, GTA Online seemed too ambitious. Wouldn't too many RPG-wielding pre-teens spoil the proverbial pot? At launch, the sceptics were vindicated. In the game's first few weeks, the experience was a disaster. I remember the vapid missions, rampant griefing and random loss of character data that kicked off Rockstar's GTA Online reparations program, where players are still being gifted lump sums of apology money in exchange for putting up with bugs.

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Grand Theft Auto Online remains one of the biggest games in the world - and it's getting even more popular.

The online portion of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 5, which launched six years ago in October 2013, saw consumer spending up 23 per cent to a new record, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick said this week.

This boost was caused primarily by the July release of the Diamond Casino & Resort update, Zelnick explained. The update sparked record player engagement across daily, weekly and monthly active users in July, and then again in August.

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Joining the likes of Blizzard and Ubisoft, Rockstar has created its own games launcher allowing players to access its PC games from one place, regardless of what digital store you bought them from.

The Rockstar Game Launcher is available to download right now, and also lets fans buy games directly from the developer via its shop.

For a limited time, as an incentive to install the launcher, you can claim a free copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas when you download it, which will be permanently added to your Social Club account's library.

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In Grand Theft Auto 5's final scene, protagonists Michael, Franklin and Trevor have odious billionaire Devin Weston trussed up like a turkey in the boot of a swanky car. It's time for some payback - Weston, a marauding tycoon of the Gordon Gekko school, has double-crossed Michael and attempted to hire Franklin to kill him. But first, a little speech from Michael on the subject of the "great evils that bedevil American capitalism". One of these evils, he says, is offshoring - the act of moving part of your business overseas to lower costs by, for example, paying less tax in the country where you're based.

Offshoring is legal in many countries, but is widely regarded as a dirty trick, denying the society that supports you an appropriate share of your earnings - and in a moment of blunt poetic justice, Michael, Franklin and Trevor proceed to "offshore" Weston by rolling the car over a cliff into the Pacific Ocean. It's typical of Rockstar's brand of social satire, clownish and macabre and, in this case, spiced with hypocrisy. Six years after the game's release, the company's UK businesses stand accused by TaxWatch of moving billions of dollars in profits overseas in order to avoid paying corporation tax, all the while claiming back 47.3 million via a tax relief scheme for creators of "culturally British" art, and doling out large bonuses to UK-based executives. It's difficult to assess that accusation without knowledge of how development of GTA5 was distributed across Rockstar's various studios, but well, I'm not sure Michael would be very forgiving.

Videogame "satires" of giant corporations have never rung that true for me, largely because some of the most prominent examples are developed by giant corporations. GTA aside, the field is led by Portal 2, a historical and architectural cross-section of a dysfunctional science company created by Valve, the owner of the world's largest PC game distribution platform. I don't think it's impossible to critique the upper echelons of the private sector while working for one of the Powers That Be - if I did, I wouldn't be writing this for a website owned by a million-dollar events business. But it's harder to laugh along to jokes about, say, brutal working practices or womanising CEOs when they come from those at the summit of an industry that worships crunch and has a lingering sexism problem.

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For Grand Theft Auto Online diehards, there is nothing more infamous than the Vinewood Casino. A rumoured playable location since players first got their hands on the game in 2013, I remember parking my busted Sultan on Mirror Park Boulevard and seeing the 'Opening Soon' banner for the first time - a beacon of hope back then for an ambitious multiplayer game that hadn't quite found its feet.

Since its inclusion, gumshoed players (myself included) have obsessed over this eerily quiet corner of Los Santos, searching for clues behind the scenes and lobbying Rockstar to put together a grand opening. Alas, much like that decaying lot you see each time you return to your hometown - nothing changed.

That was true until 6th June this year, when something extraordinary happened. During a routine weekly update, the once-legendary banner vanished, a selection of props changed location, and every corner of GTA fandom on the internet erupted in tandem.

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Following Rockstar's announcement last month, GTA Online's casino finally opens for business on 23rd July.

The Diamond Casino & Resort will have its grand opening on Tuesday next week, allowing players to gamble against the house using chips in classic casino games such as Three Card Poker, Blackjack and Roulette. There'll also be Slot Machines with various prizes, and an Inside Track lounge to "watch and cheer along with friends as the drama of virtual horse racing unfolds".

In a post on Rockstar's website, the developer mentions the "massive construction project on the corner of Vinewood Park Drive and Mirror Park Boulevard" players have seen being built in game is "nearing completion".

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GTA Online's casino finally opens its doors later this summer, Rockstar has announced.

The Diamond Casino & Resort, situated in the heart of Vinewood, is described as "a brand-new luxury destination and the largest mass entertainment complex of its kind in Southern San Andreas".

According to Rockstar's blurb: "With something for everyone, The Diamond Casino & Resort will feature lavish amenities, exclusive shopping, first-class entertainment and state-of-the-art gaming facilities.

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