With my back pressed against the slatted wooden facade of the Gentry Hotel in West Vinewood, I cycle through my inventory for a quick health boost. Munching a bag of Ps & Qs in GTA Online can be a time-consuming endeavor, forcing an eating animation that leaves you momentarily vulnerable to attack. So whenever I'm staring down a gang of gun-toting bad guys, I take cover – not just to avoid the inevitable flurry of bullets aimed at my chest, but to take advantage of the fact that eating candy while in cover mode negates the offending animation. I'm not sure when I realized this trick during my 2115+ hours in Los Santos over the last several years, but it's become second nature to me in that time.
Now deep in the throes of 'Usual Suspects' – the second mission of the crime sim's latest Drug Wars: The Last Dose update – I move into the open, shoot one enemy dead, take out another, and make a beeline for the gang's leader whose life I must preserve to interrogate. With my gun raised, I have my sights trained on his head.
