M16
The Armalite/Colt AR-15 series of weapons is a lightweight, air-cooled, magazine fed, autoloading, centerfire rifle, and is probably the most famous assault rifle family ever built by the United States, first appearing in 1958 and continuing to serve 50 years later. The AR-15 is a further development of the AR-10, a 7.62mm rifle developed by Eugene Stoner. The rifle was later adopted by Colt into various successful designs for both the military and civilian markets. The various variants have been present in every Grand Theft Auto III era game, and their usage is beneficiary in almost any situation, due to the fact that the rifles features well balanced accuracy, power and ammo capacity. Since the rifle fires the relatively powerful 5.56mm NATO round, it has a noticeable recoil force, however not nearly as much as the bigger AK-47. Throughout the games the models of these firearms differ slightly, along with zoom capability, fire-rate, and power. In Grand Theft Auto III the firearm is an exaggeration of an M16A2, as it takes its appearance, however unlike the real-life M16A2 it fires in the fully automatic mode, and at an extremely high rate of fire, boasting a 60 shot magazine. In GTA Vice City, the overall realism is much improved and the weapon now looks and functions like the real life M4 Carbine, even though the M4 didn't exist in 1986, but entered service in 1995. It is meant to resemble the Colt Model 653 Carbine, a weapon that is based off the CAR-15, a carbine version of the M16. The M4 remains the same throughout Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Liberty City Stories. Once again in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories the gun changed to a M-16 A1 to represent the actual time era of when the game occurred: 1984.
Variants found in the games:
GTA Vice City Stories (1984): M16A1 (the M4 for some reason appears ingame also, wielded by Lance Vance in some missions. This is not correct. See below).
GTA Vice City (1986): Colt Model 653 M16A1, but called M4 ingame (A developer mistake, since the M4 was not introduced until 1995. The M4 was presumably supposed to be a Colt Model 653 M16A1 Carbine, a CAR-15 derivative, but the developers did not realize this.)
GTA San Andreas (1992): Colt Model 653 M16A1 or CAR-15, but called M4A1 ingame (same as above mistake. This version for some reason has an unrealistic reload animation that causes CJ to charge the weapon with his left hand, while the real M4 is charged with a rear mounted handle. The ingame M4 also has a 50-round magazine, something which is not possible in real life, although AR-15 series weapons can mount C-Mag attachments with 100 bullets. Such a thing is not depicted ingame however. )
GTA Liberty City Stories (1998): M4A1 (this version is accurate, both in timeline and overall aesthetics. Reload animation is unrealistic, however. It also sports a 50-round magazine, which again is inaccurate, a possible attempt by Rockstar for the player to have more ammo and reload less often.)
GTA III (2001): M16A2 (this version is highly inaccurate, with a 50-round magazine and an insanely high rate of fire.)
GTA IV (2008): M4A1 (without carrying handle)
Location
GTA Vice City Stories
- Behind the building next to northernmost empire building in Vice Point, Vice City.
GTA San Andreas
- At the Los Santos International Airport, next to the runway there's three black and yellow striped "ramps". Between those who's placed at the end of the runway.