Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has revealed quite a few details about Grand Theft Auto 6 and its development in a series of videos. In his most recent one, he also offered some observations he made during his hands-off demo of the upcoming title. While watching the game, Schreier spoke to art director Aaron Garbut, who confirmed that the roads in Grand Theft Auto 6 will be “significantly narrower” than they were in Grand Theft Auto 5.
This is likely to be a big change for fans of GTA 5, since the title’s depiction of Los Santos, San Andreas – an adaptation of the real-world city of Los Angeles and an abridged version of the state of California – had wide roads that gave players plenty of freedom to drive around at high speeds. Incidentally, the real-life version of Los Angeles is also well known for its massive traffic jams – something that was entirely missing from GTA 5’s Los Santos.
In Grand Theft Auto 6, however, players will have to deal with narrower streets that are also denser with traffic, providing an entirely new avenue of challenge for when players are forced to, for example, drive away from cops at high speeds. This was apparently a conscious decision by Rockstar Games right from when it first started coming up with the concepts for it. On the flip side, narrower roads also meant that the team had to work harder to populate the state of Leonida with more buildings and other objects.
Schreier also spoke about the weapon system in GTA 6. Recalling a conversation with co-studio head Rob Nelson, Schreier spoke about the team’s desire to make the weapon system in the game closer to what it was in Red Dead Redemption 2. While GTA 5 allowed players to essentially carry an entire military arsenal on their characters, Red Dead Redemption 2 went for a more thoughtful approach, with players being forced to pick two handguns and two long guns. Any weapons that had to be swapped in or out needed to be done at your horse’s saddlebags.
This seemingly also led to internal discussions about whether it was time for Rockstar to move away from the tried-and-tested weapon wheel, which has been present in several shooters, giving players a quick way to switch between their massive arsenals. The team internally tested a variety of different concepts for weapon selections, including trays and webs. However, the team ultimately just ended up coming back to the weapon wheel.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 19th. While there has been no official announcement of a PC version, rumors have indicated that the studio has moved its timeline for the port to release it sooner after the console versions. In the meantime, the title also recently got a brand-new trailer showcasing a few story beats and the various situations in which protagonists Jason and Lucia can find themselves. Check out our thorough analysis of the trailer to make sure you don’t miss out on any details.
