Minigun

Revision as of 16:43, 27 November 2010 by A-Dust (talk | contribs)
The minigun in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

One of the most powerful weapons in the Grand Theft Auto series, the Minigun is based off various US minigun models, appearing in various forms in the following games:

Description

The Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas renditions are based on a man portable version of the M134 Minigun, while the Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories version is based off the M197 tri-barreled Gatling. It has an incredible rate of fire and can annihilate most vehicles in almost less than a second around a certain radius. In Vice City, the minigun was perfect for mowing down targets level with the player, however, it could not be aimed manually. Instead, it shoots upwards automatically to e.g. helicopters, similar to the Rhino. In GTA San Andreas, thanks to the new aiming system, the minigun could be pointed in any direction, making shooting higher targets much easier, but also dangerous if the helicopter would crash into the ground and explode dangerously close to the player. It is almost 100% accurate as there is no recoil, but it can't lock on to a target which isn't much of a problem due to the very high power of each individual round and the amount of ammo it carries. In Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, the player can both lock onto a target and shoot manually with the minigun.

Grand Theft Auto Advance and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars also features the minigun as an available weapon. In GTA Chinatown Wars, it is the most expensive weapon in the game, costing $10,000 from Ammu-Nation. Also, the minigun in GTA Chinatown Wars is powerful enough to split a person in half if shoot at a pedestian.

For Grand Theft Auto IV, the minigun was planned to be the second heavy weapon, the first one being the rocket launcher, but it was dropped in the end, due to unknown reasons. By using the remaining data in-game, it appears to carry a 750-bullet load and to be able to kill any person (armored or not) with one shot, making it the most powerful weapon in the game. Miniguns are also mounted on Annihilator and Buzzard helicopters. Both fire normal 7.62×51 millimeter cartridges, but the Annihilator fires about 1,000 rounds per minute, which is unrealistically slow, by about 5,000 rounds per minute. This is probably to prevent helicopter pilots from being able to literally shred players and vehicles. In The Lost and Damned, the helicopters' top speed is increased and the minigun ammunition is replaced by highly explosive cartridges that make mince meat out of pedestrians, cars, motorcycles, and even other helicopters and boats. On the Buzzard, which only appears on the Ballad of Gay Tony, there are 2 miniguns mounted, which do not overheat or need to reload and fire about 4-6,000 rounds per minute.

Gallery

In-Game Model

HUD Icons

Locations

GTA Vice City

GTA San Andreas

GTA Liberty City Stories

GTA Vice City Stories

Trivia

In GTA San Andreas, there is a file called minigun2. This file can be seen using IMGTool. It's possible that this file could be a model of the minigun when it spins. It's also possible that this could be a different weapon entirely, dropped for unknown reasons during development.