When confronted with the age-old question of the most spectacularly insane thing they’ve ever done in a video game, many players will point to the Grand Theft Auto series as an example.

Whether you’re looking to trick out your favorite set of wheels with enough weaponry to blow holes in Mt. Chiliad or simply want to shake things up with a fish-blasting cannon, there’s a mod for whatever strikes your fancy.

With so many mind-blowing mod upgrades for the series over the years to choose from, there’s never a dull day in the world of GTA.

15. Parkour Mod

Adding a flavour of Assassin’s Creed to the GTA series, the Parkour mod bestows characters with incredible athletic prowess, allowing players to scale walls with a speed and efficiency that’d make Ezio Auditore flush red with envy.

Forget the carjackings, why spend the afternoon in a gridlock when you can just take to the rooftops? With a surprisingly extensive moveset of handstands, backflips, somersaults and cartwheels you’ll wile away the hours sprinting across buildings with the grace of an Olympic gold medalist.

Get your morning cardio in with a bit of the ol’ ultraviolence.

14. Bigfoot Mod

Rumors of Bigfoot’s existence in the world of San Andreas spread like wildfire during the early days of the title’s release, with fans sinking hours into the game venturing out into the desolate backwoods and forests of San Andreas in search of the elusive mythical beast.

Players exchanged tales of close encounters with the hirsute ape-man like school children gathered around a campfire and despite Rockstar’s claims to the contrary, a small group of fans still remain convinced of the monster’s existence.

With the creation of the Bigfoot mod, those fans can now achieve their lifelong ambition of mounting the proto-Wookie’s head above a roaring fireplace.

Displaying an unsurprising resistance to traditional weaponry, the creature charges at players with a ferocity befitting it’s reputation.

But if there’s one thing close encounters with man-hunting monsters proves is that if it bleeds you can kill it.

13. Shark-O-Matic

Crossing over from Saint’s Row: The Third, this mod will scratch the itch you probably never knew you had.

For those bored with the usual assortment of baseball bats, knives, assault rifles, rocket launchers and molotovs, try spicing up your repertoire with this nasty little piece of Jaws-firing weaponry.

Firing the shark gun at unsuspecting citizens will cause the ground beneath them to erupt in a geyser of concrete and man-eater, swallowing them whole.

You simply have not lived until you’ve faced down the might of the LCPD with sharknado-in-a-gun, leaving behind a trail of overturned squad cars and seawater.

12. Whale Mod

Taking ‘out of the blue’ to a entirely new (and very literal) level, the whale mod gives players the opportunity to scratch yet another item off the ol’ bucket list.

After all, who hasn’t occasionally lifted their eyes skyward wishing for a downpour of massive mammals while stuck in evening traffic to level the playing field?

Plucking a 40 ton humpback out of the pacific ocean and plopping it down across packed freeways, players can out-aqua Aquaman in the most hilariously over-the-top way possible.

Leaving behind a trail of mangled cars, tangled power-lines, exploded helicopters and pancaked civilians, the colossal whale carves a path of destruction through the streets of Los Santos all the while sporting a grin the size of a Lamborghini and the madness doesn’t stop with aquatic mammals either – with recent mods including the likes of gun-toting house pets.

11. Portal Gun

By tagging surfaces with an entry and corresponding exit point, players can wreak space-warping havoc with this nifty little scientific marvel.

You’ll waste away the hours cruising around the roads of San Andreas wondering what sort of mischief you can get up to with this bad boy, with strategic portal placement resulting in a gag-reel of freeway-spanning pileups, high speed collisions and citizens plunging to their deaths in hilariously inventive ways.

Just be sure not to drop yourself into an endless loop unless you don’t mind the amusing exercise in vertigo.

10. Gravity Gun

With all of the shootouts, high-speed car chases and random pigeon-killings you would assume you’ve seen everything Liberty City has to offer.

That is until you turn a corner and run smack-dab into an impromptu NASA exercise. With the miracles of zero-gravity manipulation at your disposal, the gravity gun allows you toss and throw citizens like some sort of demented parody of a circus performer.

With a pull of the trigger, cars and buses will be sent spiraling down crowded traffic lanes like a falling row of dominoes, proving that the only thing more dangerous than a rampaging maniac is one who can science with the best of them.

With similar mods available for GTA V you can transfer the madness to the sandy shores of Los Santos.

9. Superheroes

If you’ve ever wondered what it’d be like to thwip your way across the Liberty City skyline or Hulk-smash hordes of Liberty City’s finest, there’s a collection of mods for all of your role-playing needs.

With character-specific power sets and abilities, players can zip through the concrete jungle of Liberty City with web in hand or break Bohan with a rage-fueled gamma-smash.

The Iron Man armor’s a particular standout, authentically recreated with all the accompanying bells and whistles, including a redesigned interface.

If a better excuse exists for the notoriously irritating ‘bowling’ phone call than ‘just hulked out and my fingers are too big’ it most likely involves six feet of burial space.

8. Mayhem Mod

Essential transforming your vehicle into a WMD on wheels, the Mayhem Mod outfits vehicles with explosives, allowing your car to fire missiles into traffic with the additional benefit of alleviating road rage without the cost of therapeutic counseling.

Transforming the roadways of Los Santos into a tsunami of mangled cars, this mod is absolutely mental and the fun doesn’t end there, with an additional perk granting players the ability to push vehicles out of the way with a jedi-like force-push of sorts.

With the Mayhem mod, a quiet afternoon drive quickly descends into all-out war, with players firing off car-missiles in every direction: a description which is entirely literal by the way – as in, ‘an SUV that shoots out SUVs’.

7. Super Powers

For gamers looking add to ‘once super-kicked a tank through a satellite ‘ to your résumé, this is the mod for you.

Bestowing characters with strength to rival The Mighty Thor, you’ll never view traffic congestion the same way; envisioning bowling pins in place of automobiles, with every super-kick calculated for maximum effect, with additional abilities like super speed allowing players to zoom around the city.

The only thing scarier than a pissed-off Trevor is a pissed-off Trevor with the power to punt people into the stratosphere.

6. ICEnhancer

It’s one thing for a mod to throw in some graphical tweaks and flourishes, and quite another to practically rebuild the game from the ground up.

Taking a giant leap forward in graphical quality with insanely photo-realistic visuals, the iCEnhancer mod drastically improves the noticeably drab palette of Grand Theft Auto IV with a bevy of visual upgrades like enhanced reflections, smoother textures and more dynamic lighting.

Sure, the mod may be a merciless resource-vampire but it’s entirely worth the effort if you can manage it simply for the sheer thrill of experiencing the game through an entirely new lens.

5. The DeLorean

Fulfilling a life-long dream for many, this plutonium-powered beast of a car will have you spinning with déjà vu.

Don’t let the pretty lights fool you, this baby is fully-functional: featuring detailed interiors (complete with Flux Capacitor) with a customized interface and authentic sound effects; the DeLorean looks and sounds exactly like you’d expect.

And yes, it’s fully capable of time travel, so the next time you find yourself charging at a bumper-to-bumper barricade of police cruisers, gun it to 88 to leave pursuers eating your dust with a nasty case of temporal whiplash to boot.

Of all the ways to lose the dreaded six-star wanted level, not many can top ‘erasure from existence’.

4. Left 4 Liberty

With the assortment of crazed gunmen and vicious mobsters that populate the world of Grand Theft Auto, one can imagine that walking the streets of Liberty City calls for one eye over the shoulder and a very big gun.

Throw ravenous zombies into the mix and you’ve got an unholy combination that’ll make Daryl Dixon soil his pants in bowels-loosening fear.

With the Left 4 Liberty mod, hordes of the shuffling undead run amok in the streets of Liberty City giving players the opportunity to play out every little apocalyptic contingency they’ve ever planned while sitting in traffic (we’ve all got one).

Contamination rate is tracked via the ‘infection’ meter displayed on the HUD, with every hit causing the rate of contamination to rise while car fuel is tracked with a corresponding meter, meaning that players are encouraged to conserve gas or else risk a long trek through the streets and back alleys of Liberty City.

3. Liberty City Police Department: First Response

Retooling GTA IV as a law enforcement sim, the LCPD: First Response mod offers a look at life on the other side of the cops/robbers divide: sliding behind the wheel of a police cruiser, you’ll patrol the streets of Liberty City doing everything from slapping the cuffs on drunken disturbers of the peace to issuing citations.

Or if you find the pad-and-pen patrol a bit lacking in the ‘splosions-and-gunfire department, fire up the roof and chase down armed robbers in blistering high-speed pursuits. With the addition of a partner you can even play out all your buddy cop fantasies.

Backup is also available and can be called in at a moment’s notice to assist with a variety of situations; arriving units will secure the perimeter and comb the area for suspects, with helicopters providing aerial support and additional firepower.

With the full might of the LCPD at your fingertips, harassing harmless old ladies has never been more gratifying.

2. #WatchDogsIV

Stealing a page from Aiden Pearce’s playbook, the #WatchDogsIV mod transfers most of the core gameplay mechanics from the 2014 title, namely – the hacking.

Using your phone you can hack into traffic lights, surveillance cameras, payphones, ATMs and even trains.

The policing system from Watch Dogs has been brought over as well, with police scanning areas for the player’s location and when combined with the overhauled interface and new animations for everything from walking to fighting it essentially transforms GTA IV into an entirely new experience.

Imagine the possibilities – jumping to and from surveillance cameras and tinkering with traffic signals, resulting in massive pileups for miles around with the simple push of a button.

1. Tsunami Mod

We’ve seen urban legends, science-experiments-gone-psycho, whalenado and the ranks of the undead so it was only a matter of time until things got outright biblical.

Exercising godlike power, the tsunami mod slaps the faux City of Angels with a massive tidal wave, submerging the entirety of Los Santos and leaving players with the digital equivalent of a Roland Emmerich film.

Best break out the scuba gear and swimming trunks folks, because it’ll be a long time before you’re anything even closely approximating bone-dry.

Hop into a helicopter and fly to the tops of towers (the few that aren’t hundreds of feet underwater) for a stunning panorama of the shimmering oceans stretching in every direction for as far as the eye can see.

When you’re bored with that, take a dive from the nosebleed seats to the deep blue sea below.

Come on in, the water’s fine.

(source: whatculture)