Actual gangsters provided voice work for Grand Theft Auto V

GTA V writer and producer Lucien “Lazlow” Jones told WGN Radio that the team didn’t want “a goofy LA actor who went to a fancy school trying to be a hard gang member. There’s nothing worse than that, so just go find the terrifying people and say ‘can you come in here please?’”

All the ambient characters will be voiced by real gangsters, which means that whenever you encounter them in the game world, you can take a moment to appreciate the fact that you’re listening to the voices of people who playGrand Theft Auto: Real Life Super HD Edition on a daily basis.

“We recruited a guy who gets gang members, actual real gang members, like El Salvadoran gang dudes with amazing tattoos, one of which had literally gotten out of prison the day before.”

Furthermore, the commissioned gangsters were also given a degree of creative input. “Gang members would sometimes look at scripts and say, ‘I wouldn’t say that’,” said Jones, who would then allow them to adjust the lines to be more realistic.

Grand Theft Auto V is scheduled for release in South Africa on 16 September.

This article first appeared on NAGonline