U-S-A-! GTA 5 Gets Special 4th of July Update

Ahead of the 4th of July holiday on Friday, Rockstar Games today released a USA-themed update for Grand Theft Auto Online, the multiplayer mode for Grand Theft Auto V.

The Independence Day Special update, available now on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, includes an "overabundance of patriotic flare." There's a new "Made in the U.S.A." t-shirt, as well as a mullet hairstyle and even masks featuring some of this "great nation's most fearsome and majestic creatures."

You'll also find new "star-spangled" vehicles include the Sovereign motorcycle and the massive Liberator monster truck. New guns available from Ammu-Nation include the Musket and the Firework Rocket Launcher. In addition, there's seven new properties available for purchase and fireworks to set off. You can also visit Pleasure Pier to ride the Ferris Whale and the Leviathan Roller Coaster.

Sounds like a pretty great holiday to me.

The content included with the Independence Day Special update will be available to redeem for a limited time only; Rockstar says this content will expire sometime in mid-July. Rockstar will also hold a special four-day Independence Day Weekend Event in GTA Online. Details about this will be announced tomorrow.

The GTA Online 4th of July update also includes various game tuning updates and various other adjustments, including the arrival of the On Call Matchmaking feature. This allows you to accept a Job invite while continuing to play in Freemode. This should reduce the time you spend doing nothing as you wait for the Job to start. You can see a full list of fixes and updates included with today's patch at the Rockstar Support page.

In other USA news, the United States men's national soccer team takes on Belgium in the knock-out stage of the 2014 World Cup today at 4 p.m. EDT.