Rockstar is tying up some of 2016's loose ends with the much-anticipated announcement of the winners of the past year's final two Snapmatic competitions, however there is still a Rockstar Editor Contest which is aching for a winner. In the meantime however, let's be awed once again at how many skilled photographers play GTA Online.
Usually Rockstar organizes special Snapmatic competitions whenever a new DLC is released. For those of you new to the game, Snapmatic is the in-game name for a photo app found on the player character's smartphone menu, allowing you to take screenshots and apply filters, in a way that's similar to the real world's Instagram application.
These competitions have become normalized, and always go down according to a formula. The task is always to represent the new content in the submissions, and there are always five winners who take home a total of 1 million GTA$ each. Since two competitions have been lumped together this time, we'll be presenting 10 winning snaps.
Rockstar kicked off their own official announcement of the winners with the Import/Export entries, so we're going to start out with the Festive Surprise winners instead. These snaps range from the serene to the chaotic, depicting what the holidays are like in GTA 5, as well as what the holidays are like in GTA 5.
First up, we have the shot titled Enchanting Forest by Vegarius1. The photo, taken in the woodlands of Raton Canyon subscribes to the more spiritual and mystic interpretation of Christmas, with a serene and otherworldly image. The "godrays", the graphical effect of light shining through the canopy, definitely spices the picture up. Enchanting indeed.
Things take a rather sudden and dramatic turn with Basimatic's "サンアンドレアス・アベニュー", which mean San Andreas Avenue. The flaming supercar screams "GTA", while the fireworks-launcher-toting angry Santa sending a rocket off to light up another vehicle (presumably) complete the festive feel. Of course Christmas in GTA will involve explosions, shoulder-mounted missiles and overprices automobiles.








