In December 2013, Rockstar appeared confident Grand Theft Auto 5 would receive single player DLC in the new year. Now, almost four years on, the developer has all but confirmed GTA 5's future updates will be exclusive to GTA Online. 

In conversation with Game Informer, Rockstar's director of design Imran Sarwar suggests the scale of the base game, the next-gen console and PC launches of 2014 and 2015, and work on the forthcoming Red Dead Redemption 2 has, in essence, made subsequent single player story modes unfeasible for Grand Theft Auto 5. 

"As a company we love single player more than anything, and believe in it absolutely—for storytelling and a sense of immersion in a world, multiplayer games don’t rival single player games," says Sarwar. "With GTA 5, the single player game was absolutely massive and very, very complete. It was three games in one. The next-gen versions took a year of everyone’s time to get right, then the online component had a lot of potential, but to come close to realizing that potential also sucked up a lot of resources. And then there are other games—in particular Red Dead Redemption 2. 

"The combination of these three factors means for this game, we did not feel single player expansions were either possible or necessary, but we may well do them for future projects. At Rockstar, we will always have bandwidth issues because we are perfectionists and to make huge complex games takes a lot of time and resources. Not everything is always possible, but we still love single player open-world games more than anything."

For the sake of reference, Rockstar's December 2013 Newswire post claims the developer then had "big plans for substantial additions in 2014" where it would continue "Michael, Franklin and Trevor's action, mayhem and unexpected adventures in Southern San Andreas." Elsewhere in GI's interview, however, Sarwar highlights mid-2014 as a turning point for GTA Online—whereafter supporting its ever-increasing playerbase with a host of updates clearly became priority. 

Later, Sarwar admits that GTA Online's updates may become less frequent when Red Dead Redemption 2 arrives. "One of the enjoyable things about working on a project like this is that you can iterate quickly," he says, "and change and evolve plans fairly quickly too, so we don’t have to be as clear in our plans as with other projects."

Game Informer's interview with Sarwar can be read in full in this direction.

GTA Online’s wacky races now include 15 new 'Transform Races' that manage to have a bit of something for everyone, from speeding through the skies in a jet to bouncing down a mountain on a bike, all in the same race. See, these races change your vehicle at set points, so one moment you might be jumping off a ramp in a supercar, but then you’re suddenly in a helicopter. 

The 15 races feature different vehicles and elaborate tracks, all of which you can check out here. If you click on the links in their names, you’ll be able to bookmark them, making it easier to access them in-game. 

Personally, Split Personality is my thing. “You’ve only got a few seconds of hurtling down Mount Chiliad on a BMX to make that age-old decision. Left or right? With the pack or on your own? Jet-powered super car or flying motorbike? Featuring BMXes, the FMJ, Rocket Voltic, Besra, Oppressor and Parachutes.”

There’s also a Smuggler’s Run sale going on, with 25% discounts on aircraft, while Lamar’s missions will net you more cash and RP to put towards big purchases. 

In the slightly directionless world of GTA Online, where needy NPCs ring you with requests every five minutes and the map is strewn with task icons that mostly seem like busywork, the best thing you can do is own a piece of Los Santos that feels like yours. Aside from buying apartments or cars, there are now many ways to do this—the most appealing (and cheapest) of which is running your own biker gang. I spent just over $500,000 earlier this year to get a decent hangout in the middle of Los Santos, money I had from doing heists with the PCG team. I christen this new gang ‘Biker Grove’. Ha. I’m a cool guy. I’m also the only one here. 

Here’s my dilemma: I don’t want to just invite anyone into my biker gang, and the PC Gamer boys are all offline. So I’m a one-man biker gang—which isn’t really a gang at all. I have a two-storey clubhouse, and a foul-mouthed lady behind the bar who comes free with all the biker hideouts. I also have a bong, and a dart board. But these things aren’t fun by yourself. The point of a biker gang is you’re supposed to ride in formation with buddies. When it’s just yourself and a big empty clubhouse, you sort of feel like a dad having a midlife crisis.

In my head, I picture the scenario exactly like this. The kids have moved out, and your partner’s joined a silent religious sect because they’ve had enough of your near-constant bullshit (yes, I've been watching HBO's The Leftovers). So you sell the house then buy a run-down garage, park your bike there, and hire someone to work there who won’t even play darts with you. I paid half a million hard-earned GTA dollars to experience this virtually. I could just live this in real life in 20 years’ time. 

The good news is I can still take on jobs that earn okay money. I go and steal a prison bus from a gas station, and drive the convicts across town away from the cops. It’s deliberately reminiscent of a brilliant singleplayer mission in GTA: The Lost and Damned, where protagonist Johnny Klebitz does the same thing. It’s a pretty exciting mission, which ends with you dropping off the cons at a couple of helicopters.

The biker update to GTA Online in general felt like a homage to that expansion—although the lack of narrative direction to owning a biker bar makes it feel a bit uneventful (which is also how I feel about the game's other recent expansions). With friends, though, the co-op missions and driving in formation are fun. It’s not meant to be played solo, really. Having other friends join, then assigning them roles that give them extra abilities in combat, like calling in AI gang members for support, is the real reason you do it. You’re not meant to be a lone ranger, simply because it’s embarrassing. 

I get drunk and have a game of darts rather than run another mission. Next time PCG's Phil Savage comes online, I’ll force him to join my club. Since I'm his line manager, I can probably make him do that.