How The Hell?!: 5 Incredible GTA Mods That Will Knock Your Socks Off

Despite an initial release nearly three years ago, PC gamers of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto franchise have found incredible malleability in the game's wide open, anything-goes cityscapes. Consider, for a minute, that with the ability to access the code of a pre-programmed interpretation of the real world, the only limit to what one can modify is the computer hardware itself. So from jaw-droppingly photorealistic graphics to fat people flying down staircases, The Creators Project counts down the five best GTA modifications (thus far). One warning, though: you may want to turn off your computer speakers. We can't vouch for the musical selections.

5.) Ragdoll Mode

Apparently something in the physics engine is responsible for realistic human physiologies and their relationships to gravity. This tiny little mod gets rid of all that. There's something really gratifying about watching a fat guy in a windbreaker catapult himself headfirst into a crowd of innocent Crips… On second thought, I think I just hate Wayne Knight.

4.) PC Underwater

Simply put, this mod by lipskamafia reimagines a Liberty City straight out of Kevin Costner's wet dreams (pun totally intended). The water editor has been modified to flood the city with hundreds of feet of ocean, and while some of the physics (primarily the fact that the player is able to walk underwater) get a little sheisty, the graphics on the surface look incredible, especially when it comes to submerged visuals of the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.

3.) HippieCommunist's ModPack

From public sex to violent civilians, this mod causes GTA to behave a lot more like the real world, and the end result is sobering, to say the least. You can pick up objects, shotgun beers, and break and enter like a real New Yorker. If the ability to store bodies in your car trunk, however, gets to be a bit too stimulating, ModPack includes a Zombie Survival mode worthy of a whole game in itself. Hail to the king, baby. Download link here.

2.) Carmageddon 2.0

Simply turning the friction control down to negative 9 has a lot more of an effect on the game than one might suspect, sending cars hurtling hundreds of miles per hour into unsuspecting crowds, buildings, and even the sky. The ensuing game plays like a nightmare, with the player trying to escape in one piece as the entire world around him falls into just that—pieces. When a cpu-bystander screams out, "Wooh! This must be some kind of omen!" Something about a few clicks causing total destruction gets a little bit too real.

1.) iCEnhancer

Designer and programmer icelaglace's iCEnhancer modification might be the single most awe-inspiring revamp we've seen added to a videogame. From photorealistic cityscapes (complete with real-world advertisements) to actual damage and handling on actual vehicles (complete with logos), iCEnhancer plays GTA IV like an entirely new videogame, with a realism the likes of which has yet to be seen in even the most graphics-minded engines. iCEnhancer adds solar flares, motion blurs, surface textures, shading, and weather effects to the point where the game's real focus, i.e. running down the street busting caps in hookers and cops, seems more like an afterthought than anything. According to users, iCEnhancer requires some mean processing capabilities and an even meaner videocard, but the fact that one person can change a game so drastically is incredible. Somebody needs to hire this guy, fast. Creator icelaglace is currently tooling around with iCEnhancer 1.3, and progress can be monitored on his blog, or on the iCEnhancer Facebook Page.

Got any more GTA Mods that’ll rock some Creators Project socks? Throw ’em up in the comments below!