Look, let's be honest, the launch of GTA 6 is finally right around the corner, and what an absolute slog of a wait it has been. From GTA 3 in 2001 to GTA 4 in 2008 and GTA 5 in 2013, the traditional numbered sequel gap used to top out at seven years max, with plenty of expansions keeping us watered in between. Meanwhile, GTA 6 took a staggering 13 years from its predecessor, and with Rockstar completely losing the plot to online monetization and skipping expansions entirely, it feels less like a decade and more like geological epochs. Fans are practically vibrating with a lethal cocktail of affection and sheer murderous intent should the game fail to stick the landing.

With hype hitting fever pitch and AI video tech evolving at breakneck speed, thirsty fans have finally taken matters into their own hands. Back in the day, we had to make do with low-budget live-action parodies like SNL Korea's GTA Gyeongseong or the Ulsan Whale Festival GTA. Now, anyone can spin up a somewhat convincing in-game video using AI. Since the official franchise stubbornly refuses to leave US soil, grief-stricken fans are having a field day dropping third-world countries into the engine with wildly unhinged results. Today, we have rounded up five of the most brilliantly cooked AI GTA videos.

Taking fifth place is Seoul, a capital dangerously familiar to Korean gamers. The creator slapped the San Andreas engine onto photorealistic graphics, making the sight of protagonist Carl Johnson (CJ) and Big Smoke strolling through downtown Seoul an absolute comedy goldmine. CJ boosts a car near a hanok village overlooking Namsan Tower, gets busted by the South Korean police, and the moment the character steps out of the precinct, he swipes a scooter, picks up Big Smoke, and zips straight to a barbecue restaurant. Here, the characters casually order two portions of samgyeopsal, a large marinated galbi, kimchi stew, sikhye, and out of nowhere, two bowls of jajangmyeon. Seriously, what kind of Korean BBQ place serves noodles?

Post-meal, the traditional K-makjang drama unfolds in full force. The character picks a fight with a random civilian, lays the person out, and ends up facing local thugs wielding baseball bats inside a karaoke room. A casual flash of a golden pistol sends the thugs fleeing with a string of colorful curses. Fair enough—anyone walking around Korea with a piece like that clearly lost their mind. Other local details include carjacking a white Sonata at midnight to tear toward Lotte World Tower, or getting knocked out cold by a master at a taekwondo dojang. The pièce de résistance is the hospital scene, where the doctor actually suggests plastic surgery to cover up a bruise. Sure, South Korea is a plastic surgery powerhouse, but no mental clinic on earth recommends going under the knife just for a black eye!

Crossing the sea, we land in Tokyo. Using GTA 5 as a base, the video recreates the sights of Japan—the top travel destination for Koreans—with bone-chilling accuracy. Driving on the left side of the road is a given, alongside the glowing Tokyo Tower at night, narrow alleys packed with izakayas and convenience stores, and chunky vertical signage. After grabbing a quick drink at a tachinomiya standing bar, the protagonist heads straight to a maid cafe to sample the deeper cuts of Japanese culture. Except, right in the middle of the hall, a maid suddenly grabs a pole and starts pole dancing! This is far from your standard moe moe kyun experience; it's a genuine culture shock where the US and Japan violently collide.

The next morning features the protagonist terrorizing a local FamilyMart employee before the character abruptly shapeshifts into the icon of pure madness, Trevor. Causing absolute havoc in a sleepy suburban countryside village with a view of Mount Fuji, the character rips across Lake Kawaguchi on a boat, enjoys a jet ski on the beach, and kicks back on a luxury traditional tatami mat to watch anime. It feels like a localized Japanese retelling of Michael and Trevor's original dynamic, though the madcap journey naturally wraps up with the character being arrested by a Japanese cop holding a shotgun. Turns out, even in the polite nation of omotenashi, Trevor's chaotic energy is a step too far.

With its bleak, oversized brutalist architecture, Eastern Orthodox aesthetics, and biting cold, the post-Soviet Russian setting is already quite familiar to gamers via maps like Erangel in PUBG. Naturally, someone had to shoot a GTA video there. The protagonist wakes up in a gloomy, sparsely furnished Soviet-style apartment, clutching a brick-sized vintage mobile phone. Sporting a suspiciously warped knock-off Adidas track top and an AK-47 strapped to the back, the character jogs right through a Red Square military parade with rolling tanks while nobody bats an eye. It's genuinely impossible to tell if the local law enforcement is just remarkably chill or if this is just an ordinary Tuesday in Russia.

Relocating the action to the St. Petersburg palace bridges, the protagonist boosts a car, raids a dockside military base, and blows up vehicles in a blaze of glory. The local gang members who join the fray are all kitted out in matching fake Adidas tracksuits—the ultimate Adidas Mafia. Passing through the ornate Moscow metro stations, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, and brutal Siberian roads, the video hits every single Russian meme in the book, culminating in an attack by a grizzly bear on a frozen lake. It would have been absolute perfection if a local babushka took down the bear with a single log. Of course, trying that stunt against a real Russian military base is a fast track to drinking polonium tea.

Known as the ultimate boss fight of backpacking, India boasts a raw cultural intensity and chaotic streetscape tailor-made for an open-world sandbox. The AI-generated Indian edition of GTA 6 captures the raw energy of the Varanasi Ganges riverfront. Right from the start, children hound the character for money while locals creepily sidle up to female tourists demanding selfies, all while the protagonist wades through unidentifiable street sludge. Things naturally escalate into a street brawl with a local, smashing up an innocent street vendor's stall in a textbook GTA welcoming ritual.

Fleeing from a club-wielding Indian cop, the protagonist hotwires a motorbike and tears through a labyrinthine alleyway. As fruit stalls go flying in the chaos, a local auntie smiling directly at the camera right in the middle of the mayhem is the absolute killing point. The grand finale features the protagonist driving the bike straight down the steps of the Varanasi ghats and plunging directly into the Ganges, crawling out coughing up a lung. A warning prompt flashes on screen reading, 'If you do not wash off the river water quickly, you will soon die,' perfectly reflecting the extreme pollution levels of the Ganges. It feels like every internet meme about India got crammed into one video, but having visited India multiple times, the most terrifying part is that this isn't even an exaggeration.

Taking the crown at number one is North Korea, holder of the most closed-off and bizarre societal structure on planet Earth. Completely off-limits to South Korean and American passport holders, and tightly chaperoned for any visiting foreigners, the region remains a perpetual target of morbid curiosity and mockery. Under the towering spire of the Tower of the Juche Idea and clanking tram lines, a protagonist dressed in an outfit strikingly similar to the old South Korean military's Taekwon V training gear carjacks a moving vehicle. Word is that foreign currency earnings are booming thanks to the Russia-Ukraine war, because there are surprisingly quite a few cars rolling down the main avenues of Pyongyang.

Once behind the wheel, the protagonist abruptly floors it onto the sidewalk toward the Pyongyang Station building. Smashing through a street fruit stall, weaving past pedestrians in the lower plaza, and launching off the stairs to catch air into the upper plaza, the car skids to a halt right in front of the station after bowling over citizens practicing synchronized dances with North Korean flags. Dispatching two rushing social security officers with bare fists in seconds, the protagonist climbs an adjacent ladder onto the roof of a tram and flashes a relaxed grin. Sure, there are continuity errors like the background suddenly shifting or the police cars looking oddly South Korean, but let's look past that. In actual North Korea, earning just one star wouldn't get you arrested—it would trigger an immediate anti-aircraft gun execution ending.