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Grand Theft Auto V is now the single most successful entertainment product of all time, and since we are exploring virtual worlds, I thought what better place than the most popular! Set in a fictionalised version of Southern California, San Andreas, it has roughly 49 square miles to explore. So I hopped in a car and headed towards the mountain range at the top of the map to see what I could find.

I tore off the highway on to a dirt road and kept following it until I got to some sort of compound where the road ends.

I kept on walking and was confronted by a huge wooden gate, and fence, that circles the entire perimeter. There was no way to get through, or climb through, or even ram a vehicle through. I was intrigued enough that if I couldn't somehow jump a low point in the fence, I'd grab a helicopter and swoop through. I've played the game through many times and know that this location was never utilised in the main story, but I do remember hearing chatter about a Sun-worshipping cult that lives somewhere up in the mountains...

I eventually managed to run up the side of the mountain and sort of fall over the fence, nevertheless, I was in. The compound had a bunch of stone and wood cabins, some water towers, what looks to be a town-hall type building, and various other dwellings. There is smoke coming from some of the homes, but no people around which gave the whole area a very creepy vibe. 

At the very edge of their community, the only part that is unfenced, is what seems to be an altar of some sort, and beyond that a sheer cliff-drop. 

This is the view of the compound from the stone altar, you can make out various graffiti and painted slogans referencing the sun among all the buildings. The mountains in the background give you a little bit of an idea of the scale. This game came out in 2013 and I've always managed to look straight past this community for whatever reason. 

I decided to see what, if anything, else there was to do or explore in this little area. I went through to some of the watchtowers surrounding the compound but found nothing. The only collectible, or pickup, that I found was oddly enough a baseball bat sitting on the stone altar. I eventually climbed one of the water towers and though I tried valiantly to keep climbing, or to see if I could interact with it in anyway, I ended up falling off and dying. 

I ended up at the nearest hospital which is in the town in the far distance in the above screenshot.

 The thought, and attention to detail, that has gone in to this world of San Andreas is, to me, second to none. The world feels real, and alive as if each NPC (non-playable character) is another player like myself just getting on with their lives and tasks. People wait at bus stops, some get on when a bus arrives - others wait for the next one, houses in affluent areas have gardeners, and in the poorer areas grass is overgrown. The thought gone in to this game is palpable and clearly paid off, in 2013, on release day, the game grossed over $1billion, and has since sold over 90 million copies, nearly twice as many as Michael Jackson's Thriller.