Report by Bethan Perry
THE Grand Theft Auto video game franchise is not often associated with romance, but one Cardiff woman has incorporated the game into her Valentine’s Day plans.
Ffion Jukes, 25, from Riverside was struggling to think of gift ideas for her boyfriend Jacob Ford, when she came up with the idea of a surprise scavenger-hunt based on Grand Theft Auto V.
“He’s absolutely obsessed with Grand Theft Auto, he spends most of his time playing it,” she said. “We’re not really a soppy Valentine’s Day sort of couple so when the idea crossed my mind in work, I knew it was perfect.”
In the game, players can collect parts of letter scraps to solve a mystery as well as parts of UFOs. Miss Jukes has bought a Lego spaceship and is planning on breaking it up into pieces and hiding them around Riverside in little boxes, for her valentine to find.
“I’m going to write clues and instructions on how to assemble the spaceship on letter scraps. I’ll add these to the pieces of Lego and if all goes well he’ll manage to put it all together. “He’s a total nerd for UFOs, aliens and space so when I found out there was a spaceship in the game it all came together.”
Miss Jukes got help from a friend to design a map of Cardiff set out in the style of the map players receive when they buy Grand Theft Auto V. “It’s really cool, I’m really happy with the way the map turned out. I don’t play GTA, I’m more of a Metal Gear Solid kind of girl, so I had to enlist help of someone I work with to make sense of the symbols and key.
Despite claims the couple are not the soppy type, she is not sure the couple can avoid being romantic entirely. “I will probably write something soppy on one of the letters. Nothing too lovey-dovey but certainly something a bit cheesy.”
“We’re both really nerdy and as soon as he started talking about zombie movies and video games, I knew we would hit it off.”
He knows nothing about Miss Jukes’ plans and she’s hoping she will be able to keep it that way…
“I’ve been so excited planning this, it’s been really hard not to blurt it out. I can’t wait to see his face on Saturday. I’m just going to leave the map on the bed and leave him to it.
“If all goes to plan I’m going to come home to a happy boyfriend who has a new spaceship and I will gain a million Brownie points.”
