lol, it was. i pre-ordered it and took vacation at work so i could play the shit out of it right when it launched.

after every early mission i would check the gym until i finally unlocked it and then minmaxed my guy into a total beefcake territory. max strength, zero body fat. like a pro-wrestler on HGH.

it made cut scenes hilarious.

i was pretty disappointed when they took that feature out of GTAV. and how they reset your clothes in GTAV periodically, and more or less keep your appearance within some guardrails. i like tweaking my appearance in those games. in San Andreas at one point i was running around barefoot in cargo shorts, no shirt, and had a light blonde mohawk. like some background character from a Mad Max flick.

i have a real fondness for games that let me lean into the custom character cut scene phenomenon: