GTA 5's online mode finally gets Heists later this spring

Grand Theft Auto Online, the multiplayer mode for Grand Theft Auto V, will finally add "Heists" later this spring, Rockstar Games announced today. When the long-awaited feature arrives, players will be able to team up with their Crew members or other random players to pull off daring missions for big payouts.

It's unclear how Heists will work in GTA Online, but the way they worked in the GTAV main story was fairly straightforward. You assembled a crew, chose how to approach a Heist (options were often "strategic" or "guns-blazing"), and then you executed the mission. Your "cut" of the Heist earnings were divided between crew members, and presumably it will work the same way in GTA Online. Rockstar says "much more information" about Heists in GTA Online will be announced soon.

On the more immediate horizon, Rockstar Games also announced today that the Capture Creator for GTA Online will go live next week. This tool lets you create your own Capture Jobs and then upload them to the Social Club for the community at large to try out. Players get to tweak variables like where weapons are placed and what guns are used. And like the player-created Deathmatches and Races, Rockstar will select the best Capture Jobs and label them "Rockstar Verified."

Also coming to GTA Online this spring is the High Life Update, which adds new high-end apartment options to the game, as well as the Bullpup Rifle, new wardrobe items, the Dinka Thrust motorcycle, and three new cars to choose from. The High Life update also introduces multi-property ownership to GTA Online, allowing players to own multiple properties at the same time.

Looking forward into 2014, Rockstar said it is planning to release holiday-themed updates for GTA Online and GTA V. The company also plans to finally announce the main game's first story mode DLC.

Finally, Rockstar today provided patch notes for GTA Online's next major title update. These changes are listed below, courtesy of Rockstar's official description.

• "The addition of a 'Non-Contact' option for Races. This will allow you to play standard Races with collisions disabled between player vehicles. Other players will appear as semi-transparent and you'll still be able to collide with non-player traffic, structures and other scenery, but this mode--for those who want to play it--will eliminate the "rubbing is racing" mentality that some wish to avoid.
• Players will be able to call Lester and have him tell his cop buddies to turn a blind eye to any crime you may or may not be committing for a short period of time.
• As a reward for players who leave feedback on Jobs, there will be some bonus RP granted every time a player likes or dislikes content after playing it.
• GTA$ payouts will be increased when completing Parachute, Races, Deathmatches and LTS Jobs with less than 4 players.
• As part of our ongoing commitment to target cheaters and keep the game as fair as possible, we are closing RP exploits and will be adjusting the RP totals of players who we know for certain to have gained illegitimate RP by cheating. Your RP will only be adjusted if you participated in mods, hacks, DNS redirects, manipulation of cloud files, or other similarly nefarious behavior. If you grinded short legitimate missions or otherwise gained a small amount of RP without modding, your RP should not be affected by this correction.
• We'll be fixing the issue where players who had upgraded personal vehicles prior to Title Update 1.10 were only able to sell them for $10,000."