While most Grand Theft Auto IV mods do little more than add a stupid character to the game or mess with the visuals, this mod - called Desert Storm - does something way more drastic.

It covers the city in sand. Like, it buries the entire city in the stuff. In a very Spec Ops/Dubai kind of way.

You'd be forgiven for thinking it's just a cosmetic effect, but no. Stick with the video above long enough and you'll see people driving all over the stuff.

If you want to try Desert Storm out, you can grab it below.

Desert Storm [GTA4 Mods]

Promise, last one. We've had our fun. From R2-D2 (to his Skyrim-themed friend) to the Portal 2 multiplayer robots, we can only take so much of seeing cartoon or comic-relief characters going on a mass-murder rampage in Liberty City. For Sonic the Hedgehog—even if he looks like a little more like a blue Shadow the Hedgehog—we'll make an exception.

Because really, if someone asked if you wanted to see Sonic force-push a dozen Prius taxis three blocks, and then whip out a submachine gun and spray everyone with lead, you'd probably say yes. From Taltigolt, the guy who brought you all the rest.

This montage of Portal 2's ATLAS and P-body raising hell in Liberty City comes to you from the same guy who commissioned the insane death-dealing R2-D2 mod for Grand Theft Auto IV. It is outstanding. Just sit back and enjoy.

It's no secret that it's fun to get in trouble in Rockstar's open world Grand Theft Auto series.

Even this machinima director couldn't resist the urge to get his hands dirty in the midst of filming. Which is fortunate for us, because now we get to see massive explosions and cars flying through the air.

Grand Theft AWESOME [YouTube via Reddit]

Because, well, that's what you do in Grand Theft Auto IV. You wreck cars.

YouTuber InsaneGaz has one heck of an enjoyable channel, featuring hundreds of videos in which he takes modded cars and crashes the living hell out of them. He even hits the Optimus Prime mod!

Some highlights are above, but you can go check out all of the videos at his channel.

(Thanks, Samantha!)

I love Gav and Geoff from Rooster Teeth's Achievement Hunter. They always find the most pointless, yet hilarious things to do in games.

In today's edition of pointless, yet hilarious things to do in games, the duo launches their character into the air in Grand Theft Auto IV. GTA is known for some wacky glitches that launch people and even cars into the air, but this discovery might be the funniest one to come from the open-world franchise yet.

Plus, it involves jumping onto a helicopter. Provided you jump in the right direction, the blades of the helicopter will shoot you out, likely spinning you around in the process. Gav and Geoff suggest equipping a gun to shoot wildly in the air while doing so, because why not?

Here's one of the best Grand Theft Auto IV mods I've ever seen: a look at what happens when Transformers hero Optimus Prime invades Liberty City.

Optimus fits right in. You could almost call it... Grand Theft Autobots.

GTA IV - Optimus Prime (Transformers Mod) HD [YouTube — thanks, Shashwat!]

I don't know what's creepier, the face leering at everyone with the knife, or the wonky stick-figure body casually strolling around the streets.

[thanks Jonathan!]

Grand Theft Auto IV's iCEnhancer series of mods and tweaks takes a Rockstar PC game that looked pretty good already and turns it into - relative to the scale and size of GTAIV - the prettiest video game on the planet.

At least, if realism is your thing.

And if your PC can handle it.

The mod's creator, Hayssam Keilany, writes "Reflections are bugged because of the ROCKSTAR VIDEO EDITOR. It doesn't look like that in-game, don't worry & sorry about that."

Version 2.0 of the mod is now out and free to download at the link below.

iCEnhancer 2.0 [icelaglace]

Since we ran a feature on Duncan Harris, the groovy "video game photographer" behind the website DeadEndThrills, I've been sharing some of his work each week here.

This week Harris brought in some great shots from a modded version of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV. Let's take a look!

(Small note: This week, the full 1080p images were a touch to big for us to host. So, most of these are only at 720p. If you'd like to download the full HD images, head on over to Dead End Thrills.)

First up, up top we have:

Another World

I love this shot of the GetaLife building, certainly one of the most iconic buildings in Liberty City's Skyline. The textures on the sky here are amazing. Bonus points for a classic game shout-out in the title!

Tools and tricks: iCEnhancer 1.25 ENB Series mod, antialiasing (injected SMAA), 2160p rendering, game resource check overrides, Simple Trainer 6.4, Cam-Control mod, time and weather control, no-HUD, custom FOV.

"Glow In The Dark"

Great night shot of Star Junction. I'd love to mod the crap out of the PC version of the game just to see if I could get the lights to look like this.

Tools and tricks: iCEnhancer 1.25 ENB Series mod, antialiasing (injected SMAA), 2160p rendering, game resource check overrides, Simple Trainer 6.4, Cam-Control mod, time and weather control, no-HUD, custom FOV.

"The Surface of Things"

Another shot of downtown, this one during the day. Dear lord, this game certainly never looked like this when I played it.

Tools and tricks: iCEnhancer 1.25 ENB Series mod, antialiasing (injected SMAA), 2160p rendering, game resource check overrides, Simple Trainer 6.4, Cam-Control mod, time and weather control, no-HUD, custom FOV.

"The Crossing Guard"

Nice shot of Algonquin (I believe?) in the rain. Again, with the insane amount of detail that was packed into this game. It's an incredible feat of game-making, even four years later.

Tools and tricks: iCEnhancer 1.25 ENB Series mod, antialiasing (injected SMAA), 2160p rendering, game resource check overrides, Simple Trainer 6.4, Cam-Control mod, time and weather control, no-HUD, custom FOV.

"Invisible Ink"

The thing I dig most in this one is the graffiti in the background. Again with the details. I remember when I first played GTA IV marveling at the Grafitti, and wondering how Rockstar managed to put together so much good stuff.

Tools and tricks: iCEnhancer 1.25 ENB Series mod, antialiasing (injected SMAA), 2160p rendering, game resource check overrides, Simple Trainer 6.4, Cam-Control mod, time and weather control, no-HUD, custom FOV.

"Hill Street Hues

Fantastic shot of the Dukes branch of the Liberty City PD; this one actually looks just a biiit like Bully, which makes me wish all over again that we could get a sequel to that super amazing game. Anyway, this picture is cool.

Tools and tricks: iCEnhancer 1.25 ENB Series mod, antialiasing (injected SMAA), 2160p rendering, game resource check overrides, Simple Trainer 6.4, Cam-Control mod, time and weather control, no-HUD, custom FOV.