Leonida’s map opens up relatively early, allowing players to head north and explore without having to follow the story.
R* has accommodated those who prefer discovering places to ticking off missions.
Jason, like Lucia, took “a long time” to cast
Once in control of Jason (Rob Nelson was playing) Jason has a stamina-boosting cup of coffee and a health-buffing protein shake
Aaron Garbut, Co-Studio Head, says that even after ‘literally years spent exploring increasingly dense versions of the game’ that he is still ‘encountering locations he had not seen previously’.
Rockstar had originally created a character reaction to an unpleasant smell for a particular piece of explorable content. Recently, the developers decided to turn it into a broader system, allowing other locations to provoke varying degrees of disgust.
In Edge’s play through, when Jason enters a house that has been fouled by a dog, he begins to grimace and recoil, despite no bespoke scene having been written for it.
There was a moment where two police left their vehicles unattended while making an arrest. Jason walks up to the boot, pulls a shotgun out and walks away.
The police communicate by radio and deploy a spike strip on the road, nearly invisible at high speed at night. Nelson doesn't notice it. The motorcycle's front tire bursts, and the couple is thrown over the handlebars. They struggle to their feet and limp away, when a K-9 unit joins the pursuit. The German Shepherd catches up to Jason almost instantly and pins him to the ground, while all the members of Nelson's office, witnesses to the scene, beg him not to shoot.
The brisk day-night cycle of the previous game has been extended substantially. Sunsets now linger and nights stretch out, providing a broader canvas for whatever you hope to accomplish under cover of darkness.
Cloud systems move independently in GTA 6, shaped by wind, humidity, fog, time of day and season - we can’t recall hearing that word used before.
Jason and Lucia are bound together by an emotional history as well as a professional one. Their closeness is measured by a four-point scale.
You can define the closeness and intimacy of Jason and Lucia’s relationship, perhaps even its legal status. (Nelson refused to confirm or deny if the pair can marry)
Your entire arsenal is stashed in the boot of the car. So accessing weapons is a relatively quick process. Call Scooter Brothers and they’ll deliver your car to you before riding away on a scooter.
On Jason and Lucia: “We start with them wanting to be together, and wanting to give this relationship of theirs another shot”, says Nelson.
A group of youths in a customised 4x4 with purple under glow pulled alongside while driving. They wind down the window, taunting and challenging him (Nelson) to a race. He initially ignores them. They persist until, in effect, he is bullied into accepting. The 4x4 races off and its passenger climbs halfway out of the window and perches on the door frame screaming insults back into the wind.
Phil Hooker, Head of Development, confirms the game has a ‘fully functioning bus and train system” and says he now spends much of his time waiting for buses: checking they arrive when expected, then riding them across Leonida.
Rockstar works in roughly six-to-eight-week milestones, concentrating on discrete areas for stabilising a build and playing it intensively
GTA VI’s story and themes might be moving on from the usual ‘rags to riches’ tale.
“The question is no longer simply how much you can take from the world, but what kind of life you are trying to build inside of it”, Edge notes.
On reaching the end of GTA 6’s development: “I feel like we’ve built a pyramid on Everest.”, says Garbut.
“It’s ready” Nelson says. “It ceases to become ours, and it becomes everybody’s.”
