History DevelopersForesight / GrandTheftAuto

* After Trevor murders [[spoiler:Johnny Klebitz]], [[spoiler:Ashley]] will fall to her knees and cry over his corpse; you're actually given the option to kill her too. If you do, Wade will bring it up as you leave to confront the Lost.

-->'''Lester''': You really need to get a better handle on your media

-->'''Josef''': Guns! Meat! American!

-->'''Joe"': See I knew you wasn't one of those lefty animal rights activists!

** One of the most famous features of the game, at least partly due to [[MurderSimulators how often it was mentioned]] by MoralGuardians, was the fact that, if you employed the services of a prostitute and then [[DisposableSexWorker killed]] [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential her, you could get your money back]].

-->'''Nigel Thornhill''': Now if we could just get a photo of you WITH the dead animal, Jock? Mrs. Thornhill would be so happy.

* During Trevor's hunting minigame, you take pictures of your kills with Trevor's phone. You're supposed to send them to Cletus, but you can actually send them to any of Trevor's contacts. This results with some amusing replies.

* Causing a car's alarm to activate and stealing it after the alarm has stopped, will let you off scott-free of cops.

* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' and ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' (but not the other games), radio host comments will change based upon the weather (in the case of ''San Andreas'') and time of day (in the case of ''GTA V''). Some [=DJs=] in ''San Andreas'' will also remark on current game events, such as [[spoiler:the riots that dominate Los Santos during the final stage of the game]] beyond the evolving news report segments.

* There's an event where the current protagonist sees a broken-down van and walks towards it, only to get tased from behind by a man, then they wake up on train tracks while a train is heading towards them. If you're playing as Trevor during this and activate his special ability before getting tased, he'll be unaffected and the assailant will freak out.

* There is a random event involving an abandoned vehicle near the Sandy Shores Airfield. Normally, if the vehicle is approached on foot, the protagonist will be shot with a stun gun and placed on the train tracks. Trevor can bypass this with his special ability, leading to some unique dialogue with the attacker.

* ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV GTA V]]'' has so many of these, IGN has created [[http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/09/30/100-little-things-in-gta-5-that-will-blow-your-mind a list]] that reaches 100 examples. The kicker? ''[[UpToEleven It's incomplete.]]''

* The protagonists have texts and calls if you sneak around their houses, try to set fire to their houses, try to blow up their houses, shoot rockets at their houses, shoot bullets at their houses, or steal their cars.

* Shooting bullets or firing rockets at any of the player characters' homes will get you an angry phone call from said character telling you to knock it off. Continuing to do so will get you a text message to the same effect.
* If you decide to steal a protagonist's car while as someone else, an angry call will come in telling you to stop stealing his car.

* In what is definitely a bad example of this trope, the game has some clever ways of [[{{Railroading}} preventing the player from going]] OffTheRails during certain missions.

* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' and ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' (but strangely not the other games), radio host comments will change based upon the weather (in the case of ''San Andreas'') and time of day (in the case of ''GTA V''). Some [=DJs=] in ''San Andreas'' will also remark on current game events, such as [[spoiler:the riots that dominate Los Santos during the final stage of the game]] beyond the evolving news report segments.

** One mission has you following a target of interest as he gets driven around by a taxi. Normally, you are supposed to keep your distance or you will scare the target off. However, if you kill the cab driver and take his place (or ram the taxi out of the way with one of your own, or even just pull your own taxi into an empty spot in front of the other taxi), the target will get into your taxi and ''you'' are the one that drives him to his destination! You still have to kill him afterwards and he will still get spooked if you drive too recklessly.
** Another mission involves being the getaway driver of a bank robbery. If you reach the safehouse of the heist crew without being inside of a car - obviously, not the most common thing a player does in Grand Theft ''Auto'' - then you'll be belittled by a surprisingly rude help prompt saying "''You need a getaway vehicle, Idiot!''". If you're driving a bogstandard two-seater car instead of a sedan or a van with four seats, another humorous help prompt will notify that "''They ain't sardines! Get some wheels with enough seats.''"

** If a pedestrian wearing roller skates traverses onto grass, they will trip over constantly until they gradually get back onto tarmac.

* "Stowaway" has you destroying a plane by planting C4 before jumping out with a parachute, and the plane can be destroyed by shooting it from the inside. Not only do you get a [[NonStandardGameOver funny mission failed cutscene]] for jumping out the plane without a parachute, but if you happen to have a parachute before you start the mission, you can just shoot the plane and jump out before the explosion kills you, skipping most of the mission.

* In the first mission, if you destroy the Ballas car, the cutscene with Sweet announcing their appearence will be omitted.

* When CJ goes to Jizzy B's club in "Ice Cold Killa", Jizzy B's Broadway will be outside. Whatever CJ does to the car will carry over to the subsequent chase. If CJ shoots out the tires, Jizzy B will have a harder time controlling the car. If CJ actually destroys the car, the chase will start with Jizzy B knocking a pizza delivery boy off of his scooter and stealing it.
* One of Mike Toreno's missions has CJ buying the abandoned airfield and taking flying lessons. The longer CJ waits between buying the airfield and taking the lessons, the more times Toreno will call him to remind him of his orders, getting progressively angrier each time.
* The mission where CJ rescues Maccer and Paul from the desert has them stop at a snake farm and run afoul of the proprietors. While the player's first instinct would likely be to kill them before proceeding, the game doesn't say to do this and CJ can just run back to the casino. If he does this, the snake farmers will chase them to the casino and then they'll have to kill them. (Yes, ''they''. Maccer and Paul will fight the farmers as well.)
* Levelling up CJ's driving skill changes his car-driving animations after enough levelling. At the start, Carl will have both hands on the steering wheel and turn around to look behind him when reversing. After buffing his driving skill, he'll only have one hand on the wheel, and when reversing will simply glance up at his rear view mirror.

* In the PSP version of [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories Liberty City Stories]], there is a new sign in the alley from ''GTA III'', with a goofy smiling face with outstretched arms, and the message "Hello again!" In the [=PS2=] port of LCS, the sign reads "You just can't get enough of this alley, can you?"
* The Liberty City Stories side mission Karmageddon has you causing havoc by ramming into traffic with the fire truck. The game accounts for lots of things you can do to the cars, even ramming them into the water when there are only a few areas where that is practical.

* Not to mention the meeting up with friends to play pool, go bowling, get drunk, even drive drunk which immediately prompts the cops to go after you and your character saying drunk driving might be a bad idea. When you haven't seen a friend in a while their dialogue will be different to if you see them often. In the expansions, you can play air hockey and go to the nightclub for drinking games.
* In the first Francis mission in VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV you are supposed to kill a man, take a flashdrive off his body, lose the police and deliver the flashdrive to Francis. However, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mILzQPLvlE&feature=plcp as seen here at 13:08]], if the target falls in the nearby water, [[SuperDrowningSkills he drowns]] and the mission succeeds immediately, with no need to deliver the evidence since, as far as the game's concerned, it's pretty well disposed of.

* Unlike the ''GTA III'' era when everything is open 24/7, there are a few cases where businesses are not open during certain hours of the day, most notably the fancy car dealership downtown. If there happen to be [=NPCs=] inside the dealership when it closes, they actually end up trapped inside.

* Calling [=ZiT=] while in a Mr Tasty that's playing one of its jingles will result in said jingle being identified. Identifying the GTA IV theme even restores your health meter to full.

-->[[spoiler: '''Patrica Madrazo''': carino you're so unpredictable xx]]

** There is an aversion to this trope, though, in that characters who get killed over the course of the story (i.e., [[spoiler: Devin & Tao Cheng in Ending C, Michael in Ending B]]) will still respond to the images from the grave.

* If you use a cheat code from GTA IV, you get... dial-up modem noise.

* In "The Paleto Score Setup", Michael is required to trip the bank's alarm by shooting it. If Michael doesn't have any guns in his inventory, you'll get a special objective to pick one up at the nearby ammu-nation. Additionally, you're unable to run out of money until you buy a gun you can use.
* At the beginning of the Subtle approach for "The Big Score", Trevor and Michael will talk about the crew for the heist (specifically, the first Gunman). Their dialogue will change depending on if it's the players first time using that Gunman, if they've used them on one or more heists before, or if they've been taken on all heists where crew members are available. Similarly, the Gunman's own dialogue will be different, depending on what specific heists they have been brought along on.

* The fact that you can run into another playable character on the game map off-mission should count. Doing so triggers a conversation similar to what happens when you call someone to hang out. You can also "kill" the character [[note]] directly shooting them won't work. You can however run them over or blow them up with explosives[[/note]], though they will only be considered "injured". If you die after doing this, you will both respawn in a hospital and will text each other on the incident. For instance, if Trevor "kills" another character, he will remark on [[WhyWontYouDie how said character is so hard to kill]]. However, the character who murdered the other character will be ''[[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment forced to pay their medical bill]]''.

* Pressing the fire button in a vehicle with no weapon equipped makes the character flip the bird at people.

* Suiciding in ''Online'' is usually free. The "easy way out" you take, varies from a cyanide pill, to putting a gun to your head. Doing it on mission will tell you that there's "No easy way out this time!".

* Hit the brakes hard in a newer car, and the wheels will lock-up briefly and repeatedly, as what happens on a real car with ABS. Except on older cars like the Rat-Loader, which do this much more slowly, as if the driver is performing [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadence_braking cadence braking.]]

* Gasoline poured on sand burns out considerably quicker then gasoline poured on asphalt.
* You can go to pubs and clubs and buy drinks as normal. Down several in quick succession (3, sometimes you'll be allowed one more) and the bartender will get concerned and cut you off.

* "Pest Control" requires the player to kill Ray Boccino who rides with a group of bodyguards. If you are good enough friends with Packie, you can rig his car with a bomb '''before even starting the mission''', as his car is near the mission starting point. The bomb won't despawn if you start a mission, allowing instant completion. The target even stops at gas station, making one wonder if R* made his route this tactic in mind.