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Crew love! Some of you may or may not know that last month I was laid off from my job here in San Diego. The company I worked for up and closed its doors without any warning. This was a huge blow to me as I wasn’t sure what to do next. Worry and depression quickly set in. Thankfully I have great family and friends who support me and always have my back. With the belief that everything happens for a reason I looked at this as a new opportunity and have decided to enter the culinary world. I love to cook and find the preparation that goes along with it calming and relaxing. I just want to thank this amazing crew for helping through as well. During this phase where I was unsure what was to come next, Domestic Battery helped me temporarily forget my issues. Even if just for an hour or two at a time, getting together and laughing with crew mates was a great escape. I now am working part time as a food prep person at a morning eatery and am lined up for a kitchen gig at a high end steak house at night. I couldn’t be more excited about these opportunities! Thank you to my online Family! You truly have helped me through.

Firstly before getting into anything I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that I have come into contact or played with over the past 9-10 months. I have been suffering with a health condition known as cyclical vomitting disorder for a lttle over 6 years (unfortunately we are yet to discover the trigger/cause)... This has caused me to lose a large portion of my IRL life, however the biggest loss has by far and away been my career which was really starting to take off, with me beginning to get offers of festival stage management and booking roles... Over the past 3 years I had slipped to a low point in my mental health and at times had been considering suicide but over the past almost year you h=guys have made me feel like my old happy friendly self... This is just me getting the daemons out and am really not looking for attention or sympathy i just want to say thank you all.

As I've mentioned before, I have a serious alcohol problem. If I start drinking I can't stop and my benders will go on for days. I've even sat on a park bench with super strength lager a number of times. Drinking has successfully ruined every aspect of my life - relationships, finances, mental and physical health, jobs, criminal record. The list goes on. I started drinking regularly when I was 15 which didn't cause any problems. I tended to drink slightly more than my friends but it never got me into any trouble. I began working in a shop with a pub nearby. Every day after work I'd walk past the pub and see all the customers I'd served having a great time in there. Every day. I couldn't wait to turn 18 so I could join them. I thought they all got smashed every night so I did the same. Again for a couple of years this wasn't a problem - I had friends who would often join me in the pub, a girlfriend, a car and a flat. I could just about afford all of this. As I started to drink more I developed an addiction to alcohol. I remember the day I realised I had become addicted. My hands would shake until I had my first drink so I'd often drink as soon as I woke up. In hindsight the addiction had been controlling me long before this point but I didn't realise. Even when I did realise, I didn't care. My friends had abandoned me because of my constant drunkenness and my girlfriend was constantly nagging me about it. I got rid of the girl and didn't care. We had been together for four years but alcohol was far more important to me. As long as I had that I was fine. At this point drinking was no longer fun. I'd drink because I had to. I was physically and mentally addicted to it. I'd go without food so I could drink alcohol. I knew I needed to stop or I'd die but I'd always find an excuse to drink again. When I reached rock bottom I had to move back in with my parents. Whilst I was still drinking there they gradually reduced the amount I had access to so I avoided a formal detox. I was also seeing the 'Crisis Team' at my local hospital every day, an alcohol councillor and my doctor on a weekly basis. They helped me through it and I successfully stopped drinking for 18 months. My parents bailed me out of the debt I had accumulated. I decided to study a degree so took an Access to Higher Education Course at a college and was accepted into a university upon completion. I started working out and was really excited to start my degree and have a fresh start. I made it through freshers week without drinking and actually had no intention of ever drinking again. My birthday was the following week, I'd made lots of friends and we all went out for a meal to celebrate. Afterwards, we went to the pub where I was drinking lemonade. Then a girl brought me a Jaeger Bomb: "Happy Birthday Edd, I got you this. Oh shit! You don't drink. I'm so sorry, I forgot" in her drunken state she left the drink in front of me. I thought, why not? It's my birthday. I'll just drink tonight then stop again. Well, I drank that night and continued for the next two years of university. Again, got myself into £5,000 of debt, pissed everyone off and ruined my physical and mental health. I went through similar recovery and mental health services. Most of which were shit but I participated in an excellent course called Intuitive Recovery. This course has allowed me to say "I'm never going to drink again, and I'm not going to change my mind." A terrifying thought before the course! Anyway, today marks the day I've been sober for 1 year! This time around I have paid off the debt myself and cleared it in October this year. I also stopped taking anti-depressants in September and gave up smoking (using the Intuitive Recovery program) exactly 6 months ago. I still see my GP and a councillor regularly but have been discharged from the other services. The only negative thing that remains is that I've ruined my stomach from excess alcohol. I've been taking various medication for it which hasn't worked so I've been referred to the hospital for further tests. I'm also still somewhat socially retarded but I'm working on that! As you can appreciate, today is a really special day for me and I'm feeling really positive about things. If anyone wants to discuss addiction related stuff I'm open to do that, although I'm not into the 12 step programmes - admittedly they work for many people, they're just not my thing.

How bout a tiny little 4 year bump. I know I haven't been as involved with crew shit as I used to be, but I also know I would have given up on this game long ago if it weren't for you guys. So thanks for that. Not gonna go into a whole big speech or anything, so yeah, that's it. Domestic Battery = good.

I am a dad ! My little girl came into the world yesterday evening. She's perfect.

ART OF CRIME by Matusware and with a help of ThePeto (UPDATED! RR Edition!) Attention * Read Me First Please * Attention this "game guide" is just a example how to do things, there is maybe better ways to do things and some of the examples are common knowledge, i made this so some new players may have few tips and tricks to know how to survive and maybe learn something and i hope this will help those who struggle everyday in los santos, i will be discussing about missions and i will not go to deathmatches and so on, so this is missions only, guns, vehicles, missions and strategys are just examples how to do things, you may have better ways to do things like faster ways and so on, so im not gonna tell the fastest ways im just gonna give you some tips and tricks, this is not an starter quide but i will be giving hints to were to aim when you are ranking up, this is for those who just cant run in and shoot everything and those who want to do missions with differend kind of way than just steamrolling, BASIC ELEMENTS OF DISHARMONY CRIME AND YOU first you will have a pistol, car and a t-shirt, in missions that translates: You Are Dead, so first thing you want to do is hit the races until you get the body armor and enough money to get better gun than that pistol, like Special Carbine and small garage, after you gained these i recommend that you get yourself an free Annis Elegy RH8 (you get this by making social club account, somebody correct me if im wrong), Elegy A.k.A "Free Nissan" is average vehicle that will give you bit more edge than the cars you get in the start, also light body armor and a Special Carbine will help you with the first missions so this is what you need to live to see another day (and i dont need to remind you that this was just an example), also try to boost your stealth, stamina, shooting, driving and flying skills cause they will also help you to survive FOOD FOR THE TOUGH keep your inventory filled with food, in missions you will lose your health and eating food will return it back, best result is that you are inside a car or taking a cover while eating, this will skip the animation and just heal you faster, food is also essential thing when driving away from gun fight cause you will take alot of damage if you are chased by enemies, so keep the eCola near you TOOLS OF THE TRADE vehicles and weapons you will need on upcoming jobs (missions) or atleast these will help you out so i recommend you will aim to get these Weapons: Special Carbine (or something similar) Micro SMG Sniper Rifle aditional things: Sticky Bombs MG Grenade Launcher and ofc Light Armor (or Heavy Armor depending on your rank) Special Carbine is all purpose gun that will serve you in all places, micro SMG is very important cause its the ideal weapon when shooting from cars, sniper rifle is maybe the important tool you will ever unlock getting targets out from far away point will help you alot, sticky bombs cost alot but taking out target vehicles when you want em with one blow will compensate that price, MG is for heavyer enemies and cleaning up for bigger groups also this will be replaced by minigun in ranks to come, Grenade Launcher is fast and it delivers death only problem is that aiming on targets that are far away is a bit of an problem so learn your ways with this gun, Heavy Armor, it will not save you cause no matter if you bolt a bus on your chest guy with an hoodie will take more bullets than you *BUT* it will give you better fighting chance atleast, Note: always use weapons that have good range cause getting close means greater chance to get killed, for example shotgun is good at close range but sucks at long range, always kill enemies when they are bit away from you if you possible can Vehicles: what you need is something with Speed vs Acceleration vs Mass something that has all of these but not too much and also something with ground clearance, so basicly you need all purpose car with 4 doors atleast (if you have friend(s) and you need to escort an NPC) and with has some sort of control on offroads and on highways *and* that you can hadle in corners too, i recommend: Buffalo its not the fastest car or anything else but it is average car and its good to handle (matter of taste and your driving skill) in missions too much speed will kill you and in offroad super car may serve you poorly but as i said it is a matter of taste and matter of your driving skill, learn to control you favorite car in corners and dont keep your eye on the hood, keep your eyes on road while constantly checking minimap, also its recommend that you get a bulletproof tires and some armor in it, first one is important cause one hit on tires may result failure on mission or atleast decrease your chances Note: this is all what you need when you are alone , further topics will include two players and teamwork (or more, like i said just examples) but if you can do everything alone, go for it ^^ just keep in your mind that knowing your grounds will save your life and if you want to know something about it read the Intelligence Information Below Mission Tactics on this topic so lets continue MISSION TACTICS COMMUNICATION AND TEAM communication is very important when you play with team, cause text message will not cut it, if you want your group to work right you need some sort of an communication, crew with working voice chat is far more dangerous weapon that those who needs to guess what other guy is doing, essence of teamwork is that you all work as one machine, take the roles that you are familiar with like sniper assault and so on and talk your teammates with tactics and listen to theirs so you will always have an clear idea how to work, team that has good communication and teamwork will be very dangerous hit squad and will be worthy foe against rival crews Intelligence Information when you arrive on mission dont go too close on point where you need to be, look around you, what can you see?, is there multiple ways in and out?, can you take targets out by sniper?, what is your point of exit?, can you flank your target? these are few the things you will need to check before just attacking cause it will may solve your proplems quicker and/or save your life, there may always be some advance point where you can get upper hand from your foes also discuss information with your mates and form a attack plan, remember Never run into open areas, check if you have good cover before you move forward also keep in mind that you will need to getaway, so keep your car pointed where you need to go and keep it away from harm but still close enough for you, try mission with just fooling around so you can learn where enemies will come and go, and keep in your mind that Giving Up aint An Option and no matter what, only goal you have is to get the job done, no matter what the cost is, in the end it will payoff more than just quiting on your mates **Next ones will be examples in missions so you will get the tactical idea of how you may do things, feel free to use em and make your own tactics so you can succeed on los santos crime world** Note: missions i use as examples can be done in matter of 4minutes or 20seconds and killing 9 or less but please still keep in mind that these are just an examples and just a way to give some people a hints how to do missions in away that dosent include runing like headless chicken on gunfight, in the examples we are using the tactics that are result of information, good communication and good teamwork Sniper and Assault taking enemies from far before they see you will be sometimes easyer than just walk in and shoot in mission Coveted your job is to get a cargobob and steal a crate, headless runing to the yellow indicator may kill you faster than getting hit by an titan plane, so here how Me (Matusware) and ThePeto are doing it first we check enemies from far and snipe away the snipers first, then we go bit closer other will clear out the landing area while other one is keeping leftside enemies busy as an assault unit and taking em off, this results an free way to the chopper without getting shot in the open area, other will be the pilot while the other will be the backup, if we have shot everybody we will just get the crate and fly away, if there is enemies alive other will stay behind and keep em busy while other gets the crate and flyes away resulting other to be left behind, small sacrafice for the job getting done Smoke and Mirrors (formely known as Loud, Fast and Pinned but has Updated on 30.5.2014) Smoke and Mirrors or shadows and daggers, for example mission im using Rooftop Rumble, sometimes you need be a trickster to get what you want and heres an example this takes atleast two players (you can do this alone BUT remember this is only an example) and two cars, player 1 will go to the bridge behind the building and player 2 will start firing everybody inside from front of that building while covering behind his / her car, player 2 will asisst from the bridge and in anycase player one must be on that bridge there will be two cars coming to the buildings back door and when this happens player 1 will kill them while player 2 is still causing "chaos" on front, when papers arrive and target car starts its getaway player 1 jumps on the car and takes driver out while player 2 makes a getaway from the building, when one of you gets the papers its just smooth drive home Matusware`s Note: there is no tactical value on RR anymore but however it was part of my original Game Guide so i continued to write about it, i hope this helps somebody Decoy Dude sometimes a small sacrafice will make the difference, one of the best tactics is using decoys, keeping 5-O busy on your tail while other one makes the job done and after you are away no-one aint any wiser except that they are missing something and no criminals to take the blame, works also on gang members or rival crew members in Hack And Dash Mission this is good example of Decoy, missions starts and your job is to hack the door and get FIB Granger or FIB Buffalo this is how we use the Decoy Dude Tactics first both will mark a metro tunnel into their maps other one will again use the armored buffalo while other one goes to hack the door, mission says that you must protect team mate while he is hacking, we will ingnore this, front of the door is an bottleneck, if you fill that with cops then you are in serious poop, so what you can do is like this, and this is how decoy dude works, other one goes to hacking and other one goes to buffalo and starts driving a circle, everytime a cop car comes other guy bumps it a little so it gets interested about that annoying buffalo, this results cops to stack up in one pile while buffalo is driving around em, and in somepoint other guy get the FIB Buffalo, and i dont say that take the buffalo cause it is buffalo, no, take it begause its armored and has bulletproof tires, the FIB Granger is like cow on rollerskates, so when other one sees the FIB buffalo disapear from view it is time to drive into the metro tunnels, so other one has clean getaway while other one is the decoy with all the bacon on his butt, when both are in tunnels the stars will go away and you have stolen FIB car without any problems and with a clean getaway with decoy dude.. Hammer And Shield this is similar to decoy dude except you are bulletmagnet and your job is protect you mate with your own life while trying to keep yourself alive most used tactics we use is Hammer and Shield, when you need to steal a van/truck/vehicle (for example) it is better that one guy is coming behind the vehicle with another one, while other one is stealing the vehicle and in many in cases stealing a vehicle missions you will have enemies with cars or motorcycles, so what you want is that one gets the van (for example) and other one gets into the his personal vehicle that he uses in missions, now, while other one is driving away the other one is sticking behind as an bulletshield and if somebody comes with a car or bike, the one behind can ram the car just a bit or the bike, this results that you gain a bit more time to getaway Few Things That Is Good To Know Time and Weather if you can, use noon and clear on missions, you will have clear sight on things and cause the weather is clear your getaway will be bit easyer cause the roads are dry and if you are flying you will not experiance so much turbulence Nation of Ammo remember the keep eye on your ammo levels, it may result an failure when you arrive in mission with only 20 bullets and 30 people to kill, ammo and respect is everything Small Bucks Money is Money, so remember that you can sell some cars on los santos customs in every (about) 50min and races will give you some quick bucks to spend these are the lowest risk ways to do some small bucks other ones are ofc armored trucks and robbing general stores Tools You Need, Things You Buy in first ranks you need to keep things simple, dont blow your money on cars and weapons you need, just buy the things you *really* need and custom the car you *really* use, if try to buy every gun and try to mod 10 cars at ones you will not have money left when you seriously need it, so keep things in order of importance "In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women." -Scarface 1983 Keep Calm and Play Fair dont be a dick, be fair and respect your crew mates, cause end of the day in los santos, those guys are the only ones looking for your back, and in los santos you will need all the friends you can get no matter if they are a insane finn *points himself* or just a silent guy with attidute to match *points at ThePeto* No Plan is Perfect keep in mind that no matter how much you plan a mission, no matter what tactics you use, poop will always hit the sabre Turbos cooling fan, so try to keep a "plan B" on your mind Everybody Can Kill You in los santos every npc is deadly so use that cover damn it! Last Notes, Few Words i hope by reading this topic you, the new player on this crew, will have some inside of things to come and you will succeed on your carreer on los santos, all this is based on my and ThePeto`s Tactics that we use daily, we use few guns and we use Matte Black Buffalos (Black Buffalos is our trademark ;D) on missions, we communicate alot by using a skype while on missions so we can plan away what and how to do things, we arent usually in a great hurry when we do missions in about 5min mission is usually over (depending on mission), we gather information about missions and we have abit knowledge about the hiding places on the map and map in general and the advance points, we prefer to have upper hand when missions starts so we can do it quick and clean and if we can..silently.. if we must.. with a bang, so if i may say out loud, we are the crews Department of special affairs that specialises in missions with high success rate ;D Plus we rob armored trucks and stores like no tommorow...*cough* In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. Hunter S. Thompson This post has been promoted to an article

Bought a new shirt.

Today Mrs. Snacks and I are celebrating 20 years of marriage. It takes a very special person to put up with me for that long. I honestly don't know where I'd be without her.

Most know but some may not that Rose and my business (florist, flower shop) burned back in January and was a total loss, well we are about to reopen with our new building. Opening date is set to October 3rd and we have been quite busy getting the shop stocked with supplies and all the shit needed to get back at it. I will post pics of the inside soon but here is the outside plus a pick of the old shop on fire Old shop

I don't really like to talk about it, but I finally mustered enough courage and will yesterday to set an appointment with my doctor today, as things have gotten pretty bad lately. As expected, she prescribed some antidepressants. Hopefully they'll pull me out of this terrible "funk" I've been in for the past few months and bring back some energy needed to start enjoying things again and also help me finally land a job (I've missed several opportunities in the last month or two due to the state I'm in). So if I seemed uninterested or not involved and not participating much in crew activities, that is/was the reason, as I've been avoiding even friends&family and there was hardly anything I actually enjoyed and did not have the energy/willpower for even basic stuff. There was an occasional "good day", but not that many. If anyone remembers, I started a new career last summer (in a restaurant kitchen), which temporarly "fixed" a similar set of issues I was having last summer, but the stress of that particular job meant it was only temporarly and has actually made it worse in the long run. So yeah, that's what I did today and it may sound funny/weird to most, but I'm actually feeling a little proud of myself. (anyone that has dealt with depression will probably understand this small "victory").

i once stood on a lego barefoot

Met @Beez in real life! He’s in San Diego so we met up for some coffee.

Tomorrow we are going to Springfield (state capitol of Illinois) cuz my 10 year old daughter is competing in the state finals for archery. She is pretty good with her bow especially considering it has no sights on it. She is a bit odd when compared to other kids cuz she does better from the 15 meter line then the 10 meter. I think this gives her an edge as other kids her age suffer a bit at the 15. Anyways, if she finishes in the top 5 she will go nationals in Kentucky.

The newest additions to the Criminal Masterminds with the help of Rich, Erin and Uber. It took a few too many tries but we finally pulled it off. Once was robbed of the challenge award by Rockstar when Rich, Mousey, Uber, and I finished it the first time and there were a few deaths on a few other attempts.

CRIMINAL MASTERMINDS FRONT: Wraignbowgirl LEFT TO RIGHT: ErnYoung, Dodge, Rose (Hatch)

At the age of 38, she never gave up the dream. even living on different country speaking another language ( we are from Mozambique ). With all things a Married Woman with kid, house, work and husband ( thats me)

So this just happened tonight.

Drumroll please...

One of the reasons why I haven’t been around lately... I got married May 19th, to my beautiful wife.

Apologies for neglecting the Introductions forum last few weeks, so I wanna make up for it by welcoming anyone that has joined us during that time and congratulate everyone that has already made it through vetting by now. I'm too lazy to dig up all the welcoming threads and bumping them, so welcome @MidNationMeech, @v_prisonbre4k, @Nybaal, @SaulHudson47, @ShortSweetNSassy, @Inferno032698, @SBeezy093, @Con, @yo_rosta, @starmonkeykiller, @Crawford1872, @Captain_Bill87, @Mijelly, @olbrish and @Lappy03. We most likely wont be gaming together (I'm still stuck on PS3), but I hope you're enjoying your time in the crew and I hope to have a chance to meet you all in game in a few months when I'll hopefully join the PS4 side of crew (fingers crossed). If you get a chance, please pistol whip Hatch for me and ram Dodge off the track for me. Tell them Z says Hi!

ME TOO No GTA yet though And no need to fear fellow PS3ers! My PS3 will still get plenty of love

Well, I did it finally. $685 later and i own a PS4 with GTAV That includes the $70 online membership I hope my old headset works with this, i spent a fortune already!

I am sad that the future will be less mobbing with the PS3 set of XDBX but happy to be able to play with my old friends who moved to the PS4 and all of the crew that joined post PS4 that I've never even played with.

Torrid & I just got back from a weekend in Los Angeles/Santa Monica. We went to see the Griffith Observatory, Santa Monica Pier, and Venice Beach. It was really cool. It was amazing to see how much detail Rockstar put into the video game. Obviously there are some difference, but for the most part, it's almost spot on. Pics will be in spoiler tags for those of you not on a computer. These are not all of my pictures. I took about 287 pictures and quite a chunk of those are family pictures. I'm just sharing some of my favorites. Hollywood sign as seen from Griffith Park. Some pictures from the observatory: Santa Monica (Del Perro):

Bought this a couple weeks ago. Its a 1991 S10. The guy whom built it passed over a year ago, his daughter has since had it and it pretty much has sat since then. We've been negotiating on this thing for awhile. I know it has a 383 V8, Comp roller cam, Edelbrock Airgap intake, 2 Edelbrock Performer Carbs, 700R4 trans with trans brake, and Ford 9 inch rear. It's a work in progress.

I dunno if this is an accomplishment but Broughy1332 recently played a Cannon Ball race I’ve made, on stream:

Been thinking on this for a bit, dunno how many of you know (assuming most do), I left the crew a while back for reasons mostly due to me being ticked off at the world (XDBX included in that world, but lots of other things not PS4 related as well). Fact is I am still pretty well mad at most things around me, I don't see that changing any time quick, but Rose has been in to me to get over shit and move on, and I guess that starts here. So anyways, I sent my request to get back in the crew, guess I will need to revet.

We Aussies can seem like a strange lot to outsiders. It's because we generally are very blunt and call things as we see em, usually with some colourful adjectives to enhance the expression of the comment. We love our lingo and love it even more when migrants adopt our style of communication, showing us that they're really trying to be good Aussies. Here's a thread for ALL things Australian, feel free to add your own Aussieisms or just comment on the posts. I'll get it started with some of the new politically correct terminology they'd like us to start using in the workplace... ( fat fucking chance mate, I say )

25,000 PvP kills. Only had 41 when I joined the crew.

Well, I have decided to go back to school, already signed up to begin soon to get a degree in web development, it includes learning some stuff I already know (which isn't much), advanced HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, SQL, MySQL and Jquery. Also some shit I never heard of, Ruby on Rails 4, Python, and AngularJS. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time, I have "tinkered" with web coding, enough to learn some of the basics (and advanced site breaking) but I can't wrap my brain around most of it on my own, Rose finally kicked me in the ass enough to give it go.

I'm not ashamed, fuck anyone who thinks down on me for being a gamer. I take care of my family and life first and gaming is my social life cuz most IRL people suck.

I've been waiting for this one for awhile. Surprisingly, it took less time to get there than the previous milestones, but... I just reached 1,000 Race Wins. Well, 1001 to be exact, but the 1,000th win was six laps of Under the Wing with four other randoms + contact + slipstream + catchup. One guy purposely took me out in the first lap--I returned the favor, pulled ahead, and was in first for the remainder of the race. One of the randoms parked his car and tried to block me during the third or fourth lap, but I took an alternate route and pulled farther ahead. It's been a long ride, but when I first joined the crew, I think I only had about 60 something race wins. Also, I managed to lap an entire field of randoms in an air race earlier. Granted, they all died multiple times, but still...I may not be the worst pilot in all of GTA after all.

I asked Santa for a real fire breathing dragon and he said "Be realistic will you" So I said, ok can I please have a girlfriend. Santa said "What colour would your like you dragon?"

Bought a PS4 today

Just wanted to show you guys that we can enjoy ourselves on the PS3 aswell

One year at xDBx today! It's been like a whole new hobby unto itself, more than just playing a video game. It's the first time I've done online multiplayer and I couldn't have found a better group to play with.

I just tell her that she has two choices: 1: Having Sex with me 2: Me playing GTA "alone" For some reason I always end up playing GTA

Finally won a playlist...

In the spirit of pure unashamed ego boost, I just wanted to share that Pier Pressure II just cleared the 1 million plays mark. For me, this is a huge benchmark, there are many much older TDM's that havent been played as much. It is less likely to reach the multi-million plays level now that R*-verification isn't as big news as it was 9+ months ago. people now have way more choices when it comes to R*-verified content to choose from. It is much more likely to get multi-million plays when the players are choosing from 5 or so DM's vs today when there are 27 to choose from. So to even get into the millions nowadays is a big deal IMHO. Sonuva Beach already cleared the half-million mark too which is a real surprise because I never felt that TDM was as good as Pier Pressure II, yet it appears to be at least as popular so far. It would give me great self-satisfaction to see both clear the 1 million mark.

Hello everyone, my name is LimeGreenLegend and I am a certified G and a bonafide thug, and you can't teach that. I have also been here for a year and want to thank every single person I have played with for giving me the best gaming experience I have ever had. Long May that continue in this, and many other games to come. I love you all. Except Mr Bump. Bada boom, realist guy in the room. How you doin'? <3

I won a racing playlist for the first time. I would like to thank Rockstar for making this possible, thanks for the Panto and the connection issues. Thanks to all that participated, lagged and did not particiate all the way due to R*. Tiger, for hosting and getting kicked before the very last job, leaving the first place up for grabs.

This is not written by me, I was on the GTA V Reddit page and found this. I have not done the mastermind myself but I have used some of these methods I’ve done over 60 heists and have done Criminal Mastermind twice (2nd time was helping 3 friends who hadn’t done it) so I decided to make a quick heist guide to help people out. This isn’t a full guide that details every step of every set-up and heist, rather it’s a quick guide that explains some methods that makes things go quicker and/or easier. If you’re going for the Criminal Mastermind, you should be using the armored Kuruma as much as possible, along with the heavy combat outfit and bulletproof helmet. Save this as an outfit and make sure the heist leader chooses saved outfits instead of from selection. At any point that I say ‘car’, you should substitute it with ‘armored Kuruma’ if you’re going for this challenge. I’m going to skip the Fleeca Job because it’s about as straight forward of a job as there is and I don’t really have any tips to make it go faster or smoother. Heist #1: Prison Break Set-up #1: Plane This one’s pretty straight forward. When you get to the airfield, stay in a Kuruma and simply kill everyone. Once it’s clear, someone takes a plane to the airport and that’s it. Nothing really tricky about this one. Set-up #2: Bus Two Kuruma’s, two people in each. When you get to the bus, passenger in one of the cars gets out and takes out the police helicopter while the driver stays in and covers him. The other car goes for the bus, with the passenger getting out to grab it once the driver is dead and the majority of the cops in the area are dead. Use the hills to lose the cops. I’d advise one person in a Kuruma stick with the bus incase he’s taking heavy fire, but this rarely happens. Lose the cops and drop the bus off. Set-up #3: Station Police station team calls 911 (‘Emergency Services’) and gets a cop car to come to them. Kill the two cops, drive to the underground construction tunnel to lose the cops or do it any other way you prefer. Everything else for this team is pretty straight forward. The team going after the car can do this the safe way which is to simply kill everyone on the ship and make your way to the top crates to get the car. If you want a quicker but far less safe method, one person simply climbs up the crane that’s nearest to the left side (looking at it from the road) of the ship. Once at the top, jump down, pull your parachute quickly, and land on the top crates. This method allows you to skip killing most of the guys and it will put both of you in the car as soon as you get to the crate. This method makes things quicker but I would never do it if you’re going for the challenge. Once you take the car, avoid shooting any of the guys chasing you because having them and the cops chasing you makes things far more difficult. Keep the body armor or snack menu open to replenish armor/health instead of shooting. Only shoot if you get trapped/cornered. Deliver the car and that’s that. Set-up #4: Wet Work City hall team simply gets onto that building across the street and takes the two guys out at the same time. Return to the Kuruma and drive right up to the document. Let the passenger get out quickly and grab it. You can also choose to stay in the car and simply kill all the cops before getting out. Prison Break Heist Pilot: Don’t leave the airport until there’s about 4 minutes left on the timer. You’ll get there with plenty of time left and this simply takes a couple minutes of risk away. When the jet shows up to take you out, all you have to do is stay on its tail and it will do nothing. Try to time your landing with the prison team. If there’s too much heat at the airfield, simply take off and try it again. Demolitions: Not to much complicated here. You don’t have to actually take out the jet that comes for the pilot; as I said above, he simply tails him and the jet does nothing. Stay near the prison and take out the police helicopters as quickly as possible. You have the best visual of the airfield so let the prison team know when they should get out and make a run for the plane. Prison Team: Shoot the prison officers right away because they’re going to shoot you anyway at some point. Once you make it through, let the others know when you’re leaving and do your best to time your arrival with the plane’s landing. Do not get out until it’s at least somewhat clear… you’re better off circling the runway for a few minutes then trying to get out with 5 cop cars around. When you do finally get out, the officer should cover the prisoner and Rashkovsky while they get in- having your body armor menu open is a good idea. Once you guys are out of there, it’s pretty much straight forward from there. Just avoid the police helicopters that spawn and get to the jump point. The person in the Buzzard should allow everyone to land on the beach and clear out-- go into the rocks-- before landing on the beach. Heist #2: Humane Labs Raid Set-up #1: Key Codes There isn’t much to this one. The one method we use to make things a bit easier is to purposely fail the mission by shooting once everyone is in place. Reminder that failing the mission does not reset the Criminal Mastermind challenge- only dying does. On the restart, your personal vehicles will be across the street by the Ammunation after the first cut scene. After you kill everyone, you can get in the Kuruma(s) and make things safer. Set-up #2: Insurgents Do not enter the area and start killing everyone before everyone is there. Buzzards will come in as soon as everyone is dead and this is problematic for people arriving late and not in one of the Insurgents. There’s nothing really tricky about this one, just keep your body armor menu open since these things aren’t bulletproof like the Kuruma. Set-up #3: EMP This is probably one of the riskiest parts of the Criminal Mastermind challenge. There aren’t really any tricks to this but the one thing that I suggest doing is staying away from all jets as much as possible because running into a friendly or having a blown up jet hit you are the most likely ways you’re going to die on this one. Also, this is a mission where you want to remember that you can fail but not die. If you get hit and think you might explode, bail out of your jet or hydra and start over. If you’ve already taken everyone out, the 3 people in the regular jets can bail without failing the mission. Set-up #4: Valkyrie Everyone should be in one Kuruma for this one. Simply drive through the front area and ignore everyone shooting at you. Once you get to the valkyrie, kill everyone around and the incoming helicopter before getting in. The incoming Buzzard needs to be taken out quickly because it will fire rockets upon all of you.Once you take off, it’s pretty straight forward. If you’ve had trouble getting the choppers down without them taking you out in the past, try this: land on the roof of building you just went through to get to the chopper and simply take out the enemy choppers with snipers. It’ll take a lot longer but it’s about safe as you can get. Set-up #5: Deliver EMP There isn’t really any risk of dying on this one but I’ve seen people struggle with it because they can’t seem to work together. The quickest method in my opinion is the following: one person stays back with the Insurgent while the other 3 go forward. Once the Merryweather Insurgent leaves, 2 people go to the right and take out the two guys working on the truck, the two scientists by the monkeys, the one lone Merryweather guard in the middle, and the two scientists who come out of the middle area. The other person goes towards the back and takes out the people back there and the Merryweather guard by the van while someone else gets the last scientist. After you get the EMP inside, take that Humane Labs van and leave. Humane Labs Raid There really isn’t much to offer up with this one as it’s pretty straight forward. Just be careful when you pick up the two people on the beach. If I’m forgetting something and you have a question, feel free to ask. Heist #3: Series A Funding Set-up #1: Coke Helicopter team should take out as many guys as possible before landing. If you want to be extra safe, ditch the helicopter altogether. Once all the coke has been collected, the helicopter passenger should get out and take out any police helicopters that come until the boat team is in the chopper. Set-up #2: Trash Truck Back the truck into the alleyways when possible. Kill everyone before leaving because it just makes things easier.On the gas station pick-up, someone should get out before you hit the checkpoint and destroy all the pumps to avoid them exploding and killing you. Set-up #3: Bikers Stealth part is pretty straight forward. Be careful running over bikes because they can explode. There’s a shortcut that some don’t know about that can help on this one and later- go down onto the freeway when you can and don’t take any exits- simply keep going and pull onto the wrong side of the freeway when you get close to place where you’re delivering the trucks and you’ll see that you can drive right under that freeway on-ramp and down a small hill to the checkpoint. Set-up #4: Weed Once you’ve gotten the trucks and the pickup, ignore the route they give you and simply take the highway back to Ron. It will take a bit longer, but you’ll encounter almost no opposition. Set-up #5: Meth Stay in the Kuruma’s and simply kill everyone outside. The guys who stay inside can be ignored. I prefer to have the 3 of us that aren’t driving the tanker get into one Kuruma and kill the guys in trucks, but you can all get in separate cars if you desire. I can’t say that one way is better than the other. Series A Funding Heist Once everyone is on the freeway, the two trucks should stop underneath the bridge and allow the gunner to take out the choppers. Truck drivers should keep the body armor menu open and just focus on avoiding the enemies. Gunner truck should stay in front of both trucks since the truck drivers can not be shot from behind. Not much else to this one. Heist #4: Pacific Standard Set-up #1: Vans If you’ve died on this set-up, you should probably play a different game. No tricks here, just allow the navigators to drive themselves as it makes things much simpler. Allow someone without a wanted level to take the van that Lester tells you to grab. Set-up #2: Signal Drive past the place where Lester tells you to go to get the Seasharks. Continue driving until you get out of the tunnel that goes underneath the military base. Pull onto the beach on the left and continue driving north around the bend and you’ll see another group of Seasharks. You’ll also see the island you’re going to- it’s a shorter trip, and you can return to that spot to get your vehicles after you grab Avi. Makes things quicker and safer. Set-up #3: Hack Nothing really to make this easier but to make it quicker, 3 people go straight to the parking lot where the black van is and begin to kill everyone there. Other person goes to Lester’s place to get the white van. Set-up #4: Convoy Take out the helicopter with snipers before it gets there. After you take everyone in the convoy out, move the truck onto that dirt road that goes down to the river to get it out of the way. Two people go into the Insurgent and go ahead to kill all the Merryweather people. Two people stay by the truck and take out the two helicopters that come. Once everyone is taken out, someone simply takes the truck to the destination and there should be little to no Merryweather left. Set-up #5: Bikes When you take off on the bikes, do not go down the road directly to the right, aka the way it tells you to go. Go straight out of the lot and use the 2nd street, staying to the left and still avoiding the main road that they tell you to take because of roadblocks. You can also go straight through the park. I like to stick together in pairs in case someone goes down and needs cover. Pacific Standard Heist All crowd control has to do is pull out an RPG and the ‘Intimidation’ meter will stay full. Do not aim at any of the people in the bank. If the alarm is set off for some reason, NOOSE is coming and it's now up to you if you want to continue or just start over. Once again, quitting or failing does not reset the challenge. Once the hacker/demolitions guy get into the vault, only one person needs to take the money. This makes things much simpler. The person with the money will stay in the bank while the other 3 clear out all the cops outside. When you go down the alley, the guy with the money stays in between 2 people taking the lead and 1 person covering behind you guys. Everyone should jump over the white wall-- part of it is short enough to walk over-- and make sure they hit the checkpoint before turning around and going towards the next checkpoint. The road they want you to go down is full of cops and you don’t have to use it. When you get to the bikes, the person with the money takes off and goes to their garage to grab the armored Kuruma. Obviously, you need to plan out who this person is going to be before the heist. Whoever it is needs to have an apartment that's somewhat close to the bikes. Everyone else goes out to Martin Madrazzo’s house/farm and waits in one of the barns while the person getting the Kuruma drives out there to pick you up. If you’re unaware of where this is, simply take the route the game gives you and it’s on the right side- you’ll see two dirt roads that both go to the house. Once everyone is in the vehicle, follow the checkpoints until the very last one where the jump is. You do not want to hit this checkpoint and you do not want to jump. Instead, you take the road to the right instead of the left-- the left one goes to the jump-- and drive down to the boat. You’ll still have 5 stars but there will be very few cops on you. There are many ways to do this getaway but this is by far the safest method. Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/GrandTheftAutoV/comments/386d4p/heres_2500_words_on_how_to_do_criminal_mastermind/

Hi everyone First off, I'd like to thank each and everyone for welcoming me so well into the crew! I have had so much fun with everyone that I've played with, and i hope for much more to come, you make GTA Online worth playing! I feel lucky for being in a crew this dedicated, and i felt at home not long after i joined you guys! That being said, i would just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas from me to all of you. I'd also like to wish everyone that doesn't celebrate Christmas, by saying happy holidays. You guys rock! Best Regards Simon

I know it's not where I live but I thought it would be nice to share pics from my trip across America for those who have never been to America or those that live there and have never ventured far Niagara falls and again at night from the Canadian side View from the balcony in Telluride, Colorado Monument Valley Goosenecks State Park, Utah Beale Street and Sun Studios, Memphis Little A'Le'Inn on the Extraterrestrial highway in Nevada, such a weird place Cadillac Ranch, Texas Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado Yosemite National Park, California and the Golden Gate Bridge (San Fran) I have hundreds of pics so I'm gonna stop here I will take some of Edinburgh when I next go into town.