Festive Surprise

This article refers to the 2014 release. For the 2015 update of the same name, see Festive Surprise 2015.

Type	DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT
The Festive Surprise
Game(s)	Grand Theft Auto V Grand Theft Auto Online
Date announced	December 18th, 2014 (UTC)
Release date(s)	December 18th, 2014 (UTC)
Time-limited content period	December 18th, 2014 - January 5th, 2015 (UTC)
Release timeline
Preceded by	The Last Team Standing Update
Succeeded by	Heists Update

The Festive Surprise is a content update for Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online, released on December 18th, 2014 updating to version 1.19 on PS3 and Xbox 360 and Online to version 1.21 (Story Mode to 1.05) on PS4 and Xbox One.

Description

The update features 4 vehicles including the Vapid Slamvan, a clean variant of the Rat-Loader called the Rat-Truck, a racing Massacro and a racing Jester. Over 90 new festive clothing options and 5 new themed masks are available. These are free, but available for a limited time while vehicles and weapons (except Snowballs and the Firework Launcher) remain permanently available for purchase. 30 new tattoos are available at all Tattoo Parlors. Themed clothing and masks from last year's Christmas special are also available again, along with snow.

Special Crate Drops

Special crate drops will also be dropping unlimited copies of the past events each day. Each day a new unique item and after that 24 hour they will be unobtainable. This includes, beer hats and many limited edition T-Shirts. The GTA: Online servers run on a GMT timezone so it is important to know when the servers update to the next special item.

New Crate Items:

• The Base 5 T-Shirt can be found in crates as the clothing brand makes a return from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
• The Crocs Bar T-Shirt is a shirt that commemorates the Crocs Bar from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
• The Vivisection T-Shirt that displays the game board logo that could be found advertised in various places in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.
• The Emotion 98.3 T-Shirt was added to GTA Online, although glitches had unlocked it for some players previously, it is now officially available.
• The J-Lager beer hat was added as it was unobtainable during the Independence Day Update, but found by a select few that managed to glitch it.

Special Crate Drop Content by Date:

• December 18 - Statue of Happiness T-Shirt
• December 19 - Pißwasser Beer Hat & USA Boopers Hat
• December 20 - Base 5 T-Shirt
• December 21 - Bobo T-Shirt
• December 22 - Bitch'n' Dog Food T-Shirt
• December 23 - Crocs Bar T-Shirt
• December 24 - Vivisection T-Shirt
• December 25 - Supa Wet Beer Hat
• December 26 - Please Stop Me Mask
• December 27 - K-Rose T-Shirt
• December 28 - Flash FM T-Shirt
• December 29 - Emotion 98.3 T-Shirt
• December 30 - Fever 105 T-Shirt
• December 31 - Patriot & J-Lager Beer Hats
• January 01 - Victory Fist T-Shirt
• January 02 - K-DST T-Shirt
• January 03 - Benedict Beer Hat
• January 04 - Bounce FM T-Shirt
• January 05 - Homies Sharp T-Shirt

Rockstar's Extended Special Crate Drops:

(Due to the PSN and Xbox LIVE being hacked by the Lizard Squad, many players were left unable to obtain special crate drops. Rockstar extended crate drops for the days in which connection issues were numerous.)

• January 09 - Vivisection T-Shirt
• January 10 - Supa Wet & Blarney's Beer Hat
• January 11 - "Please Stop Me" Mask

Update Contents

Weapons

Image	Name	Description
	Homing Launcher	A Rocket launcher based on the SA-7 Grail and the FIM-92 Stinger.
	Proximity Mines	Thrown weapon that explodes when a person/vehicle approaches.
	Snowballs	Special weapon available only during the season holiday. No longer available as of January 1, 2015.
	Firework Launcher	Initially released with the Independence Day Special. Temporarily available again. Free on December 25, 2014 and January 1, 2015.

Vehicles

Image	Name	Description
	Vapid Slamvan	Pick-up version of the Slamvan in TLAD.
	Bravado Rat-Truck	Clean variant of the Rat-Loader.
	Dewbauchee Massacro (Racecar)	Racecar variant of the Massacro.
	Dinka Jester (Racecar)	Racecar variant of the Jester.

Character Customization

Main article: Festive Surprise/Character Customization

One-hundred-and-sixty clothing options have been made available (81 male clothing, and 79 female clothing). Items consist of hats, masks, pajamas, shirts, pants, shoes, and scarves.

Christmas Gifts

The patch notes indicated that logging in on Christmas Day will reward the player with an unspecified gift, while logging in on Christmas eve, New Years eve and New Years day will gift Firework Launchers and free ammo.

“

Players who log in on either the 24th December, 31st December, or the 1st January will be gifted a Firework Launcher with five rounds. The launcher will be permanently added to the player’s inventory. Players who already own the launcher will receive 5 rounds when logging in on each of the above days. The Christmas Day Gift will be available only to players who log in to play GTA Online on 25th Please note that this is only available from the Christmas Day Gift and cannot be purchased.

”

— Rockstar patch notes

The Christmas Gift comprised of:

• Exclusive Stocking Mask.
• Body Armor
• 3 x Proximity Mines
• 3 x Molotovs
• Firework Launcher + 5 rockets
• Carbine Rifle + 200 rounds

Additional Features

• Players can now purchase a 3rd property.
• Firework Launcher was available from 24th December until the 5th January.
• Deadzone and Acceleration sliders have been added to control settings.
• Five new parachute bags were added.
• A Christmas tree is added to all apartments and Legion Square.
• Snowballs added whilst Snowy weather is active. These can be gathered and stored by pressing D-pad Left when a player is unarmed. Nine Snowballs can be stored at a time and will disappear when swapping sessions or starting Jobs.
• Issues with trees and foliage not moving with the wind on PS4 and Xbox One renditions are fixed.
• The issue where adding Turbo upgrades to a vehicle made it slower is now fixed, along with many other bugs.

Galleries

Features

The new Homing Rocket Launcher.

A snowball fight.

The new racing Dinka Jester competing with the racing Dewbauchee Massacro.

The Christmas Tree in Legion Square

The Christmas Tree in all apartments

Clothing gallery

Stocking mask gift.

The new clothing.

The Base 5 T-shirt

The Crocs Bar T-shirt

The Vivisection T-shirt.

The Emotion 98.3 T-Shirt

Video

Trivia

• The two newly added vehicles, the Vapid Slamvan and the Bravado Rat-Truck, which are vehicles from the 1930's-1950's, are a reference to Christmas specials It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story, which take place in that era.
• It is the first update to add a thrown weapon into the game.
• There was an unfortunate bug introduced in this patch where sometimes when the player held the button down to activate the Interaction Menu, instead of getting the interaction menu, the game would lag severely until the player died or left the session. This made usual tasks such as ordering a personal vehicle, switching to passive mode and starting an impromptu race, difficult and even impossible. This bug was not fixed in the subsequent 1.20/1.06/1.22 patch released a week later.

Patch Notes

Title Update 1.19 (PS3/Xbox 360), 1.05 (PS4/Xbox One)

New Features / Updates

• Players are now able to own a third property, allowing potential ownership of up to 30 cars and 9 bicycles.
• Deadzone and Acceleration sliders have been added to control Settings.
• First Person Mode Auto Level Camera on/off setting has been added to Settings.

New Content

• Three new settings added:
  • First Person Aim / Look Deadzone – This reduces right stick deadzone. A lower deadzone allows for the game to register player input sooner and in turn make aiming more responsive for players that require greater precision; the higher the setting, the faster the player is able to look around.
  • First Person Aim / Look Acceleration – This controls how quickly speed is increased until the player reaches maximum turn speed; the lower the setting, the longer it takes for the player’s turn speed to reach maximum.
  • First Person Auto Level Camera on/off setting – This gives the player complete control over where they’re looking at all times. With the option on, if a player is looking down and moving forward then the camera will pan up so that the player can see in front of them. With the option off, then the player would remain looking at the ground when moving forward.
• Four new vehicles have been added to Southern San Andreas Super Autos: Bravado Rat-Truck, Vapid Slamvan, Dinka Jester (Racecar Livery) and Dewbauchee Massacro (Racecar Livery).
• To obtain these vehicles in Story Mode:
  • PS3 / Xbox 360: These vehicles can be obtained from the Special Vehicle List when in a player-owned garage.
  • PS4 / Xbox One: These vehicles can be purchased online from San Andreas Super Autos.
• Two new weapons have been added to Ammu-Nation in GTA Online (Not supported in the Shooting Range): Homing Launcher (‘Fire and Forget’) and Proximity Mine.
• To obtain these weapons in Story Mode:
  • PS3 / Xbox 360: Weapons are deposited direct to the character’s weapon wheel with a full clip of ammo.
  • PS4 / Xbox One: Weapons will unlock and be available for purchase from Ammu-Nation after passing certain missions in Story Mode.
• 30 new tattoos have been added to all Tattoo Parlours in GTA Online.
• Five new Kit items have been added in GTA Online: Black Combat Chute Bag, Charcoal Combat Chute Bag, Forest Combat Chute Bag, Gray Combat Chute Bag and Tan Combat Chute Bag.

Gifts

• Players who log in on either the 24th December, 31st December, or the 1st January will be gifted a Firework Launcher with five rounds. The launcher will be permanently added to the player’s inventory. Players who already own the launcher will receive 5 rounds when logging in on each of the above days.
• The Christmas Day Gift will be available only to players who log in to play GTA Online on 25th Please note that this is only available from the Christmas Day Gift and cannot be purchased.

Second Chance Event Items

• Players who missed out on getting T-Shirts and Beer Hats in Events this year will be given a second chance to try and get them, as well as a few new items with a new special crate dropping each day over the holiday period.

Festive Period (Time-limited content)

• Christmas Tree added to Legion Square.
• Christmas Trees added to all Apartments.
• Please note that the weather option will be removed from Job lobbies during Snowy Weather.
• Snowballs added whilst Snowy weather is active. These can be gathered and stored by pressing D-pad Left when a player is unarmed. Nine Snowballs can be stored at a time and will melt and disappear when swapping sessions or starting Jobs.
• The Firework Launcher has been added back to Ammu-Nation for the festive season. This item will be available to purchase from the 24th December until the 5th Fireworks will now be more festive than previous fireworks.
• 90+ new Festive Surprise themed items of clothing have been added for male and female characters to all clothes stores. All of last year’s Holiday Gifts clothing will also be available during the Festive Surprise. All time-limited clothing added for the Festive Surprise period is free to purchase.
• Five new Festive Surprise themed masks have been added to Vespucci Movie Masks for male and female characters: Elf (3 variants), Gingerbread Man and Penguin.

Generic / Miscellaneous fixes – Story Mode – PS4 / Xbox One

• Fixed an issue where trees were not responding to wind and weather
• Fixed an issue where one of the Peyote plants is resetting after being picked up.
• Fixed an issue where Lester’s first assassination mission does not affect the Stock Market correctly.
• Fixed an issue where Michael’s drinking animation could be seen occurring incorrectly if he answered his phone mid-drink.

Generic / Miscellaneous fixes – GTA Online – PS4 / Xbox One

• Fixed multiple issues to allow improved matchmaking and connectivity speeds.
• Fixed an issue where players who left their character wearing masks when migrating were unable to remove them when attempting to update their character’s features.
• Fixed an issue where players were able to make their vehicle appear to hover after exiting a Mod Shop.
• Fixed an issue where character faces would flicker on the D-pad down player list.
• Fixed a number of map holes / escapes.
• Fixed an issue where players were seeing large amounts of ‘Timed Out’ errors after migrating their accounts.
• Fixed an issue where some Collector’s Edition items were not transferring properly / available for free after migration.
• Fixed an issue where BMX physics had changed, creating issues with Races and stunting.
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to lose player control for a period of time when selecting to host a Race from the pause menu while On Call.
• Fixed an issue where player character faces could age rapidly after several hours of playing.
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to become stuck on ‘Launching Session’ when starting a LTS match.
• Fixed an issue where players could hang when transitioning to a game corona.
• Fixed an issue where the Flight Suit mask could obscure the player character’s face in the Character Creator after transferring to PS4 / Xbox One from PS3 / Xbox 360.
• Fixed an issue where Leaderboards could flicker when being viewed.
• Fixed issue where players could hang when a lobby Host attempted to launch ‘Meth’d Up’.
• Fixed an issue where adding Turbo upgrades to a vehicle could make it slower.
• Fixed an issue where player characters could be seen putting on Top Hats instead of a Helmet when on a Motorbike.
• Fixed an issue where some hairstyles could become unavailable after transferring a character.
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to use the ‘Online Event’ button during the initial boot screen.
• Fixed a small issue where a player’s character could pop slightly after completing a Parachuting Race.

See Also

• Festive Surprise 2015 - 2015 release.
• Holiday Gifts - 2013 release.