It took modders less than a day to add CJ from GTA: San Andreas to Armored Core 6

GTA San Andreas protagonist CJ as a mech in Armored Core 6
(Image credit: FromSoftware / Dropoff)

It's not quite at the level of "can Doom run on this potato", but putting GTA: San Andreas protagonist CJ in games is its own kind of meme. You can play Dark Souls as CJ, you can watch CJ and Big Smoke duel it out in Sekiro, and modders even managed to put CJ in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

FromSoftware's Armored Core 6: The Fires of Rubicon has only been out since yesterday, and in that time modders Dropoff and TKGP had just one thing in mind: mecha-CJ. The mod unfortunately doesn't yet appear on NexusMods or other sites, which may be just as well. This thing is deeply, deeply cursed (video below). I thought seeing CJ as a cat in Stray was bad but as a mech it's somehow even worse, with our young hero's proportions stretched-out and twisted into a weapon that can surpass Metal Gear.

Co-creator Dropoff appears to be something of a CJ specialist, having been involved in the above Sekiro CJ mod, and also seems to enjoy putting Shrek in things. Everyone needs a hobby, and I suppose I'm the one writing about it so eh. I also discovered while searching for this that you can now play as CJ in Street Fighter 6, which would at least be a more wholesome thing to broadcast to the world than a Chun Li nude mod.

As for Armored Core 6 itself, Bandai Namco is bullish about its prospects and probably with good reason. PCG's resident mech expert Wes Fenlon awarded the game a glowing 87%, saying that "it may have taken FromSoftware a decade to return to its love of mechs, but it was worth the wait: Armored Core 6 is a "we're back on our bullshit" slam dunk. 

Rich Stanton

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."