Even GTA Online can't escape high gas prices and record-breaking heat

pcgamer.com:

Escapism in video games is getting tougher and tougher to come by, and that now includes violent crime sandbox GTA Online. In The Criminal Enterprises update, coming July 26, «Gas prices have spiked to their highest levels in decades, retail supply chains are in turmoil, and to top it off a ferocious heatwave is gripping the state.»

This realistic nightmare doesn't affect GTA Online characters the way it does us poor dopes in the real world—digital gangsters are all fabulously wealthy, they never have to gas up their cars, and the only time they suffer from heatstroke is when someone throws a molotov cocktail in their face. But the climate crisis and sky-high gas prices are at the center of new missions and expansions to your gangland empires in The Criminal Enterprises update.

«The profits from soaring gas prices all seem to be flowing one way into the pockets of the most notorious oil-rich dynasty in the Los Santos area,» says Rockstar. «The IAA smells a criminal conspiracy—Agent ULP will be in touch with the new Operation Paper Trail, commissioning 1–4 players as sworn-in agents to investigate the local petrochemical magnates, the Duggans, to see if they’re the invisible hand behind spiraling oil prices.»

Huh. Maybe that is a little escapism, actually, since it looks like at least someone in GTA Online's version of the government cares enough that people are getting brutally gouged by gas companies to do something about it. Of course, hiring a bunch of psychotic crooks to investigate (blow everything up) might not be the most ethical route to take, but it's better than nothing.

And no matter what kind of criminal you are—white-collar crook, motorcycle goon, weapons dealer, or shady club owner—the economic and climate