Whether you’re cruising the streets of San Andreas in the search for prostitutes or causing carnage by bursting into a downtown bar armed to the teeth with an AK-47, the Grand Theft Auto series is renowned for its varied gameplay and multitude of diverse missions.
The GTA games have also become a haven for adventurers and hardcore completionists, who scour the streets for collectibles and hidden Easter Eggs. Indeed, the GTA franchise has some of the most fun to find and entertaining Easter Eggs that you’ll find in the world of videogames.
Here are five of our favourites:
Note: Walkthroughs for all of these Easter Eggs can be found by searching YouTube.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – Sky door
This was one of the trickier Easter Eggs to find in the GTA series, requiring players to head into the skies with a jet pack to seek out a portal to transport them into a secret house.
First up, you had to find the sky teleports, which required heading to the Cluckin’ Bell just outside Fort Carson. To find this Easter Egg you needed a jet pack and head to the corner of the fenced field just to the east of the Cluckin’ Bell. Standing in the corner nearest the eatery, you then needed to decrease your jet pack to 2x and head vertically up in the air for approximately 10 seconds until you spot the yellow arrows in the sky. You could then walk towards one of these teleports and get transported to the interior of a house.
The house was much like the ones players found in burglary missions, only there’s was much more stuff you could pick up, including T.Vs, a radio and a microwave.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas- Hot Coffee
There’s still debate on whether the infamous “Hot Coffee” mod is an Easter Egg planted by developers or not. The Easter Egg related initially to the PC version of San Andreas, but assets relating to it were discovered in the Xbox and PS3 versions, though required some hacking to unlock.
The Easter Egg was discovered with a modified version of San Andreas, dubbed the “Hot Coffee” mod. It was unlocked when you turned up at your girlfriend’s house and she invited you in “for coffee.” Without the mod, players would hear sex noises from within, but with the hack players could engage in a mini-game and control Carl while he was having sex with her. Though there was no nudity, “Hot Coffee” kicked up quite a storm among mainstream media with some politicians campaigning to change the age rating of San Andreas, which was subsequently amended from “Mature” to “Adults Only 18.”
Grand Theft Auto IV – The Heart of the Statue of Happiness
One of GTA’s most iconic landmarks is the Statue of Happiness, which is modelled on the Statue of Liberty and pays ode to the infamous "Hot Coffee" scandal. Anyone ever noticed the coffee cup held in her hands? This Easter Egg involved flying out to the statue and entering its core where players stumbled across a huge beating heart.
Located on Happiness Island in Liberty City, players could only reach the statue by either helicopter, boat or by swimming. However, you needed a helicopter to find the hidden entrance at the base of the statue. By hovering at the feet, or pedestal of the statue, you then had to jump out of the helicopter and land on the platform.
Walking around the statue players came across a sign reading: “No Hidden Content this way.” Enter the door and there was a ladder allowing players to access the inside of the statue. Head up the ladder and there was a huge chained-up beating heart.
Grand Theft Auto IV – Where names have alternative meanings
Rockstar loves to be controversial and the GTA games are full of sexual references and euphemisms. If the New York City developer thinks it can get away with something then it usually won’t think twice about upsetting a few people along the way.
One of our favourites was in GTA IV while partaking in missions for Gerald McReary. Checking out the cutscenes while McReary was locked up in prison, a chart behind him showed a list of names, including “Issac Hunt” “Seymour Fani” “Phil Mcreavis” and “Richard Head.” We’ll leave it up to you to decide what they really mean and whether you think it’s hilarious or just plain childish.
Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony – Xbox 360 RRoD
Being a PlayStation dedicated website, we just couldn’t let this Easter Egg not make it into our top five. This only appeared in the PS3 version of The Ballad of Gay Tony, probably because Microsoft would have been furious at the portrayal of a broken Xbox 360.
It actually didn’t take much to find this Easter Egg. Players simply had to head to their safehouse and zoom in at the left-hand bottom corner of the T.V. stand. We chuckled loudly when we saw an Xbox 360 flashing with the once notorious RRoD (Red Ring of Death) that was bricking Xbox consoles worldwide at one stage.
When GTA 5 arrives we can also expect a host of new Easter Eggs to discover, but just how far will Rockstar push its luck and how creative will it be with its hidden collectibles? We can’t wait to find out.
Click here to find out all the official details about Grand Theft Auto V (5).