Game Informer's GTA 6 issue lands today, and the two systems it covers are the ones Rockstar has barely shown
Fourteen pages, twelve new screenshots and lead designer interviews on weather and wildlife. Here is what Rockstar has actually shown of both so far, so you can tell new from repeated.
Game Informer's issue 382 goes live digitally today, with Grand Theft Auto 6 on the cover. It is a 14 page feature with 12 new screenshots and interviews with several lead designers at Rockstar, written by Marcus Stewart. Print copies follow in the weeks after.
Rockstar's own framing of what is in it names three things: advanced weather systems built to simulate Florida's less sunny weather, a large amount of wildlife across Leonida on land, in the air and in the sea, and how the studio researched Miami and Florida.
That is a genuinely unusual choice of subject, and it is worth understanding why before the write-ups start.
These are the two systems Rockstar has shown least
Almost everything Rockstar has published so far has been about people and places. Eight characters with biographies, six regions, a vehicle list, a wanted system, a criminal profile.
Weather and wildlife have appeared only as scenery. There is no official description of either system, no named mechanic, and nothing on Rockstar's site that explains how either works.
What has actually been shown
So that you can tell a new detail from a repeated one when the coverage arrives, here is what exists publicly today.
| What Rockstar has shown | |
|---|---|
| Weather | rain and heavy skies over Vice City in both trailers, wet roads and reflections, and a storm sequence in the Extended Look |
| Wildlife | alligators on an airboat deck in Grassrivers, birds over the Keys, and marine life in the diving and fishing footage |
| Described by Rockstar | neither, as a system. Both have only ever appeared as background |
The phrase in Rockstar's own teaser worth holding on to is less sunny. Vice City has been sold for three years on neon and sunshine, and the studio is now leading a preview with storms. Florida is the wettest state in the continental United States by rainfall, and the marketing has shown almost none of it.
Why weather is not a cosmetic note
In a Rockstar game, weather is a systems question rather than a lighting one. Red Dead Redemption 2 changed how far you could see, how horses behaved on wet ground and how mud accumulated on a coat. Grand Theft Auto 5 changed handling on wet roads and did very little else with it.
Vice City is a driving city built on a coastline, so rain is the cheapest way to make the same streets play differently twice. If the weather system is the thing Rockstar chose to lead a preview with, six weeks out, that is a hint about how much of the game it touches.
It also sets up something the marketing has avoided. Florida is among the wettest states in the United States, and its hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November. The game arrives on 19 November, inside that window, in a state defined by storms, having been sold for three years almost entirely on sunshine.
What to be careful about
Two things, once the issue is out.
First, a magazine feature is a preview, not a specification. Nobody outside Rockstar has played this game, and a lead designer describing a weather system is describing intent.
Second, expect the screenshots to be re-cropped and re-posted within hours with claims attached to them that the article did not make. That has happened with every previous drop, and it is the reason several of this month's leak discoveries turned out to be things Rockstar had published itself.
We will cover what the issue actually says once it is read rather than once it is summarised.
Sources
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