✩★✩ Off-Road All-Stars Festivities Week! ✩★✩

Wahey! Let the celebrations begin!

Yeah happy birrrrrthday allstars even bigger happy birthday on the 12th

The playlist started at 10, I posted about it on Social. We tried inviting you tons!

The Big Fifteen will be published tomorrow for you to find on Social and try anytime. It's not an event, just a challenge for people to try. We may host it at some stage tomorrow, however.

All other events will provisionally start at 10.

Not to leave the 360 out of this, I'll be hosting on Friday from 2300GMT if anyone would like to join me.
We'll be doing what we do best, off roading.
First, we'll start of on dirt bikes before switching to our favourite off-road vehicles.

I have some mini games lined up and some tough old climbs for when we jump off the dirt bikes and into an off-roader.

Leave me your GT below if you would like to join me. As it's our birthday celebrations the dress code will be PAAAARRRRRRTTTTTYYYYYYYYYY!! and of course we'll be meeting at the Richman Mansion (Playboy mansion) for a pool party before heading out.

Feedback:

First official crew meet I've been part of and it's blowing my mind how someone as new as I am can be with the "in crowd". No jokes left unexplained, no one disrespecting me (or others) and no one having more advantages than others for being an older member. It's that kind of mindset that sold me on All Stars being more than a crew. I've tried to join a few crews back in my Forza days after I left my main one and it was so hard to find something I liked. Hierarchy played those lusting for power and making newer members feel like crap. If your name wasn't known you had a much harder time to connect with people and loosen up to become appreciated - such a vicious cycle. It's a really stressful event to find a crew. I guess I'm cheating the system as I know the founding fathers of this crew (Phoenix, Steve, Yello - hopefully not missing anyone else important!) and I'm already Lieutenant on here but this meet was, for me, starting from scratch. I knew very few people in the meet but came out with some new friends. I sadly haven't had the chance to connect with most players but I've starting knowing MrPenguin and Simon to joke around a bit with them. I'm hoping to connect with you guys more as time goes on.

Around The Map has always been one of my favorite GTA meets and one that I rarely skip. This one was just a joy and with no one causing trouble it was easy to bask in the moments, which there were a few of...well, too many to put a number on, to be honest. So many that it made taking pics a nightmare! We've got the R* Editor now and I've been trying to figure out a way to snap pics and make little clips as painless as possible. I've been editing a video and taking pics for at least 3 hours now, probably 4 hours...so yeah, it's a big learning curve. It reminds me a lot about the meets I used to join on the 360 and how I would spend a whole night awake just making these types of posts. Not only do I have to take my own pics via freecam in the R* Editor but I also feel the urge to make a clip, upload it, edit it via a program, upload it again and then figure out how this forum works. If there's any issues with my post they'll be fixed as quick as possible or deemed too small to bother with.

Now here's where I typically put in feedback about the event but I'm just so burnt out by lack of sleep that I'm hoping others might pitch in and tell Steve what an amazing event this was. I know Steve looks like a drunk squirrel when he's leading us on those mountains but trust me; Steve puts way too much time/thought in these. His level of giving-too-many-fucks is on a Presidential scale and he's always looking to make each and every Around The Map as memorable as possible. Steve is a master at "being in the moment" and never scowls us for screwing around. To him it makes his task as host easier and makes those memories last longer. Hell, he'll push us to become more crazy and once we've had enough he'll say, "alright, let's move on". That's not something other hosts have in their set of skills so please tell Steve he's doing a fantastic job at making our gaming experience that much more enjoyable by letting us do spontaneous things like flying a plane or jumping from a Hydra onto a boat held by a Cargobob. The thing Steve does best, in my opinion, are recess'. His recess sessions throughout the meet are the best. It sounds like it's something pathetic to take pride in but when Steve tells us we're stopping for a 5 minute break it immediately becomes my favorite part of the meet. Everyone is always cool and Steve lets us do what we want - within reasons - until the recess is up. Steve is like a substitute teacher on a Friday. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if for Steve's next meet he tells us to go on Netflix and make us watch a movie all together.

Seeing I'm new I sort of made this feedback & pics focused on me more than I usually do for two reasons: for you guys to get to know me better since I'm new and also now having the ability to stand in front of the camera and not behind it. I've made many of these types of posts and most pictures were from my perspective meaning I rarely got to see myself. I always enjoyed pics from others as I could see myself in a corner with my phone out taking some shots. It's great to have a tool now and take pictures of myself and include myself with the group. Apologize for the heavy focus on my ugly mug.

Oh, if there's one thing I noticed about the editor is that there's a range that the freecam can go up to. Many times I found that I couldn't take cool pictures because that range is so limited. I either have to be at the front or back during meets - not the middle. If I'm in between I tend to leave cars out of pictures as the spacing can be extremely varied at times. When using snapmatic in the past I would typically be found at the very end of the line and I think we should enforce a little something...I noticed someone (I think I know who it was but don't want to call anyone out from fear of being wrong) playing the lone wolf at back and would never let me get behind him. I know he plays some sort of "watchful eye" role but I think, now that the editor is a thing, any photographers should be at the back for zoomed in pics with a freecam while movie makers/directors should be in the middle for sweeping shots of the back and then the front (or vice versa). Plus, I always saw the back as the spot for photographs and anyone who drives with a heavy foot - not a Shepard dog keeping the herd together. No disrespect and I'm probably being harsh due to working on this post all night but it made taking pictures so hard. It's the first major post I'm making with the editor so it's no biggie. We learn from the mistake and become better over time but let's at least consider some sort of formation; those that want a place at the very back should have that spot depending if they're planning to take pics. Anyway, that's my only criticism about the whole meet and it's not even something regarding the meet itself so that's a big success on Steve's part! Well done, mate. If there's an event GTA players should try at least once it's an Around The Map hosted by you.

Notable thanks goes out to Penguin for his Cargobob work and Canister for offering rides when need be.

Pictures:


Oh, and a little something. It's not amazing as I'm not the video guy (my video guy is sadly still on the 360 and not active) but...well, it was fun to make. It's best to view this on Youtube in HD. I realize the night clips are dark and that the helicopter sounds are loud...but, as said; I'm not the video guy.



*edit*
Wow, Phoenix's blog post is amazing. The shortest possible review condensed into a summary of what the event is, how it went down and a thought-provoking ending to finish it all off. The picture from the 360 paired with the X1 version of it is such a powerful motive to keep doing what we're doing. Wow. Seriously, no words. I've never been robbed of words from a meet review.

Sorry I missed this week's activities so far...hopefully I'll be in involved tonight