Former GTA lead explains “probably the worst bug we missed” in San Andreas and why “anything that isn’t visible to players tends to have swearing in it”
Former Rockstar technical director Obbe Vermeij recently took to Twitter to reveal
several Grand Theft Auto hidden details.
“Games have bugs and GTA is no exception,” he says in one post, which recommends players download the massive fan-compiled, open-source Silent Patch before playing GTA 3, Vice City, or San Andreas on PC. For his part, Vermeij tells one GTA player he wishes he was able to fix the San Andreas bug “with the front-end map that makes random things change when the player goes outside the map” prior to the 2004 action-adventure game’s launch.
This bug “is probably the worst bug we missed,” he says. But he’s also glad to admit that “erm… quite a few” other bugs corrected by the Silent Patch may have been his fault.
The rest of his informal Q&A reveals more GTA secrets and regrets. Is it fair for the 2021 Definitive Edition of the GTA trilogy to have completely replaced the early 2000’s originals in storefronts? “I haven’t actually tried them,” Vermeij admits. “I hear most of the bugs are fixed now. Yes, they were rushed.”
Can really anyone patch a game, the way modder Silent has with the Silent Patch? Yes, “patching is allowed,” Vermeij explains. “There is nothing a publisher can do about it.”
And why are so many GTA model names so crass and unseemly? Like the #cuntgun rifle weapon ID and #slamvan vehicle variation? “Anything that isn’t visible to players tends to have swearing in it,” Vermeij says. “Just something devs do to keep sane.” I can’t believe we got the #cuntgun before GTA 6.