4. Scotland, F*ck Yeah!
Typically of a Rockstar game, the developers have added in a number of references celebrating their home land of Scotland. There are any number of Scottish references, from the mention of the "Seaton Sands Monster Truck Festival" referencing seaside town Port Seton, to the ice-cream parlour called The Sundae Post (based on the Dundee newspaper) and the more subtle references like the Scottish flags on the flights of a set of darts embedded in the wall of Trevor's beachside safehouse. Probably the funniest, aside from the very clearly satirical criticism of the Edinburgh tram system (Los Santos' system extension is set to over-run by years and be billions over-budget) is the use of the term BAWSAQ to replace the real-world equivalent of the NASDAQ ("bawsaq" being the Scottish for scrotum.) Sadly for Rockstar, the real residents of Hawick - whose town lends its name to a region of the map - haven't seen the funny side of the tongue-in-cheek reference, and apparently completely over-reacted to the association of their quaint little town with the violent in-game neighbourhood plagued by gun battles and prostitution. As local councillor David Paterson
so eloquently put it:
"I've never even seen a gun in my life."