M16
The AR-15 is probably the most famous assault rifle ever built by Americans. The rifle has been present in every Grand Theft Auto 3 era game, and its usage is beneficiary in almost any situation, due to the fact that the rifle features well balanced accuracy, power and zoom capabilities. 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 3 the firearm is an exaggeration of an M-16, as it takes its appearance, however unlike the real-life M-16 it fires in the fully automatic mode, and at an extremely high rate of fire, boasting an 60 shot magazine. In Vice City, the overall realism is much improved and the weapon now looks and functions like the real life M4 Carbine. It 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.