Having recently retired from its spot on Xbox Game Pass, it seems GTA 5 will next pop up on the Epic Games Store - and for free, as part of the platform's games giveaway programme.

Rumours about a GTA 5 freebie began circulating yesterday evening, but earlier today an advert was posted by the Epic account which said GTA 5 would be free to claim until 21st May. The original tweet has been deleted, indicating it was posted a little ahead of schedule, but you can view a copy of the video below thanks to Wario64.

Epic recently introduced a requirement for new users to enable two-factor authentication before being able to claim free games - for a trial period which, conveniently, also ends on 21st May. While Epic said this was to encourage players to protect their accounts, another reason could be to discourage nefarious individuals from creating accounts to claim free games, and then selling the accounts on at a later point (once those games are no longer claimable). Given GTA 5 is one of the most popular games in the world - and still costs 24.99 on the Rockstar Store - now seems like a good time to get that measure in place.

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If you're still spending a lot of time in Grand Theft Auto 5 Online - or you're a lapsed player looking for an excuse to jump back in, of course - I have good news. Rockstar is giving away half a million in-game currency to all players. For free.

The catch? There isn't one. All you have to do is log in and play sometime between now and the end of May. All players that do so will get a cool $500,000 delivered into their Maze account within seven days. Nice, eh?

Of course, the hard part comes next - deciding what to spend it on. Rockstar has some ideas to help with that, too; there's a heap of savings to be had, including 40 per cent off nightclubs, 40 per cent off the B-11 Strikeforce, 35 per cent off the Pegassi Oppressor, and a decent 60 per cent off the Declasse Hotring Sabre (thanks, Comic Book). There are also triple awards on business battles right now, too.

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Five of the Best is a weekly series about the small details we rush past when we're playing but which shape a game in our memory for years to come. Details like the way a character jumps or the title screen you load into, or the potions you use and maps you refer back to. We've talked about so many in our Five of the Best series so far. But there are always more.

Five of the Best works like this. Various Eurogamer writers will share their memories in the article and then you - probably outraged we didn't include the thing you're thinking of - can share the thing you're thinking of in the comments below. Your collective memory has never failed to amaze us - don't let that stop now!

Today's Five of the Best is...

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Rockstar and games industry trade association UKIE have responded to a report that the Grand Theft Auto developer claimed 37.6m in video game tax relief for the 2018/19 financial year, accounting for 37 per cent of all UK games industry tax relief claims.

According to think thank TaxWatch, the figure, which is believed to relate to development of a new Grand Theft Auto game, means that Rockstar North has now claimed a total of 80m in UK Video Games Tax Relief, equating to a quarter of all relief claimed since the government scheme launched in 2014 following extensive industry lobbying.

It also means, as per TaxWatch's report, that Rockstar has paid no Corporation Tax for the fourth year running in the UK, despite the developer's GTA5 having amassed more than an estimated $6bn USD in sales since releasing in 2014.

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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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