GTA Online is a chaotic fever dream in 2022

polygon.com:

In Grand Theft AutoOnline, Rockstar has built an elaborate theme park around the fantasy of being an unchained rich criminal. Players can pull off daring heists in heavily guarded casinos and on private islands rich with cocaine and gold; they can buy expensive sports cars and race them on Hot Wheels-style tracks; they can also hang out with Dr. Dre. It’s a picture of avarice, wealth, and stability that feels downright surreal in 2022.

On a purely technical level, GTA Online still looks great, and with tools like the flying Oppressor motorbike and the nuclear-powered Koastka submarine, Rockstar is able to keep players focus on new content over the old. There’s just one noticeable exception: the feel of the world itself. Every Grand Theft Auto game is packed full of references, commentaries, and jokes that are appropriate to the period in which the campaign is set. But while Grand Theft Auto 5’s single-player story remains comfortably wedged in the 2010’s, GTA Online clumsily marches forward.

Some of this isn’t Rockstar’s fault, because 2022 is a hellscape that none of us could truly have predicted. But other parts are very much Rockstar’s fault, like the ambient atmosphere of the city itself.

The running joke of a proposition to legalize medical cocaine still hits just fine, even though it’s not particularly funny after seeing it for nearly a decade. Other things, like the vast majority of civilian barks and idle lines, were already awkward and uncomfortable at launch and have stubbornly remained in the game. Women on the street make casting couch jokes, and chatter excitedly about all the hashtag selfies they love to take. Fat pedestrians brag about how much they love lying to their doctors about what they eat, and