SET IN VICE CITY

Since its inception, the GTA franchise has been circling between three locations as its setting- the New York City inspired inspired Liberty City, the state of San Andreas, and Vice City, which is based on the city of Miami. GTA 5 saw the series returning to a very specific part of San Andrea, that being the city of Los Santos, but with GTA 6, we’re hoping that rather than going back to Liberty City, Rockstar will take us back to Vice City again. The setting in an of itself was an amazing one, even when we first visited it more than a decade ago, and we can’t wait to see what it would look like if it was recreated today in the same manner that Liberty City and Los Santos were for GTA 4 and 5 respectively.

Grand Theft Auto 6 isn’t gonna come out anytime soon- we all know it. Rockstar are quite focussed right now on Red Dead Redemption 2, so it’s fair to say that it’s going to be a few years yet before we see the next big GTA game. According to industry analyst Michael Pachter, that release is going to be quite a long way away- maybe even as late as 2022.

We recently sat down for an exclusive interview with Pachter, and he said that, best case scenario, GTA 6 will be out in 2021, though it might even launch after 2022, realistically speaking. When we asked him what his thoughts were on why it hasn’t been announced yet, he said, quite simply- “Probably because it’s not coming out any time soon. So that’s that.”

“I’ll take over/under in 2022,” he said, speaking of the game’s probable release date. “I say it comes out after 2022. Remember, Red Dead Redemption 2 comes out eight years after the first one- so the idea that GTA 6 comes out before 2021 seems ridiculous. And Rockstar, the only announcements they’ve ever made more than a year before launch was because the launch itself was delayed. So best case, GTA 6 gets announced in 2020 for a 2021 release.”

That seems like a fair assumption. The development cycles for Grand Theft Auto games have always been quite long, and with Rockstar now dividing attention between two major franchises, it’s only bound to get longer. 2021 seems like an optimistic estimate.

GTA6 will inevitably happen- presumably not any time soon, because all hands at Rockstar are currently on deck with the development of Red Dead Redemption 2, but a new GTA is inevitably coming- after all, GTA5 is one of the highest selling, most successful video games of all time. You have to think a sequel is en route sooner rather than later.

The on thing that I hope the new game allows for more than the last few titles have is more leisure activities- this is an area that San Andreas especially shone in. You had an entire set of secondary statistics for your character that didn’t really amount to much in primary gameplay, but were tied to a whole host of secondary activities, such as going to the gym, or getting haircuts.

And what was the point of those activities? Nothing, they didn’t actually add anything- but they helped flesh out the game’s world, and make it seem far more real and authentic. Now, GTA5 especially does really well in this regard, but it definitely lags behind San Andreas, which managed to be far more full featured and robust in these regards over a decade ago. Heck, take the drug dealing game from Chinatown Wars, flesh it out, and bring it back.

So, yes- we obviously want better shooting and driving, and a bigger map, and an epic story, and all of that, for GTA6. Obviously. Plus we want the satire and humor the series is known for, we want it to do everything these games do, and more of it. No arguments harbored on that front. But one area where I hope Rockstar adds more to the game is in the side activities. Add more texture to the world for the player willing to discover all of it.

For as long as anyone can remember, Grand Theft Auto games have had a laser sharp focus on one single location for their open world. The fictional locations of Vice City, San Andreas and Liberty City have all been brought to life time and again with successive releases, with each of the franchise’s games picking one single city or state and then focusing on it and it alone. However, with the massive growth and expansion that open world game design has seen in the last few years, maybe Grand Theft Auto should expand its horizons- in every sense of the phrase.

When Rockstar finally comes out with the inevitable Grand Theft Auto 6, what they should do is, rather than having one single location to focus on, maybe they should have multiple explorable cities. To be fair, they already did that to some extent with GTA 5. They covered the entire state of San Andreas, and given how large the map was, they were able to include all kinds of geographical variations and urban and sub-urban locations in the game.

But when GTA 6 rolls around, how excellent would it be if we got to visit, say, both Vice City and Liberty City in one single game? Games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Assassin’s Creed Origins have showed us in the recent past just how massive open world games can truly be, and if GTA follows suit, maybe this dream could turn into a reality.

Once again, it’s not as if Rockstar have never done something similar before. GTA 5 was, as I’ve already mentioned, a ridiculously large game, and though technically it was set only in San Andreas, it had a lot of variety in terms of its world design. Having GTA VI in the future that lets you visit multiple iconic locations isn’t such a far-fetched idea, and we’re hoping that’s exactly what Rockstar have in store for us.

This article is part of our series on Rockstar’s next big entry into the world of Grand Theft Auto. Through this series we take a look at the possible new features that Rockstar can add into the next GTA game, based on what they implemented in the previous entries and player feedback.

One of the reasons games such as Grand Theft Auto V have the kind of longevity they do is because fans are always finding something new, something fresh to do in the game. And while a lot of that is thanks to the deeply interactive and detailed game world that Rockstar have created, plenty of that boils down to user-made content as well. The PC version of GTA 5 is rich with user made mods of all varieties, and as is the case with so many games on the market, it’s this uber-active modding community that has helped GTA 5 one of the most played and relevant games in the industry, even four years on from its original launch back in 2013.

Which is why Rockstar needs to make sure that Grand Theft Auto 6, whenever it launches, fully supports the modding community on the Xbox One and PS4 as well, rather than just on PC- or whichever consoles it launches on, seeing as there’s every chance it launches on next-gen systems.

Games such as Skyrim have done the same on the PS4 and Xbox One as well, but sadly enough, Sony haven’t done a very good job of it, thanks to restrictions put in place by Japanese company. Rockstar will need to make sure that if they do end up including mod support for GTA 6 on consoles, they discuss it with Sony and do it properly, and without any restrictions, because these restrictions are kind of counter-productive.

Do you think there’s any possibility of this happening? Let us know in the comments section below.

This article is part of our series on Rockstar’s next big entry in the world of Grand Theft Auto. Through this series we take a look at the possible new features that Rockstar can add into the next GTA game, based on what they implemented in the previous entries and player feedback.

The Grand Theft Auto series has gone from strength to strength with arguably each and every one of its releases, and with GTA 5, it probably perfected the open world formula that it pioneered with GTA 3. And while a lot of the series’ most important elements have grown and improved beyond recognition over the years, there’s one aspect that remains disappointingly lacklustre. That is, of course, the hand-to-hand combat.

Gunplay itself is quite well structured in modern day GTA games, with solid cover mechanics and precise and slick shooting, but the melee side of things remains as overlooked and under-developed as ever. It feels clunky, unweildy, and more like an afterthought that anything else. Perhaps Rockstar should try to develop this aspect of the gameplay more with Grand Theft Auto 6, whenever it launches.

For instance, the game could have a melee combat system similar to what we saw in 2013′ Sleeping Dogs, which itself was somewhat based on the fisticuffs that characterize the Arkham series. Perhaps Grand Theft Auto 6 could even see players choosing between different styles of fighting for their players, and then developing and progressing with deeper and more rewarding mechanics in place.

In fact, even something like making full use of the environment during combat could make it so much more better. Using the popular physics engine of the GTA series to make the environment more reactive and interactive, and then using that to our benefit during hand-to-hand fights, would add so much depth and an extra dimension to the game’s combat.

It doesn’t have to be a full0-fledged brawler or beat-em-up, of course, since the focus of GTA is very squarely on entirely different mechanics. However, it would be great to see the series shifting away from its current lightweight and rudimentary melee combat mechanics, and instead opt for a system that has more depth to it.

This article is part of our series on Rockstar’s next big entry into the world of Grand Theft Auto. Through this series we take a look at the possible new features that Rockstar can add into the next GTA game, based on what they implemented in the previous entries and player feedback.

Typically, you find groups of people that actively argue against the existence of games like Grand Theft Auto and it’s depictions of fictional crime. But in a strange twist on the norm, a group of real-estate agents have done the opposite and posit that Grand Theft Auto VI should take place in Portland, the largest state in Oregon.

Movoto came to conclusion that Portland would be a suitable fit for GTA 6 after comparing the many features of the landscape that appear in Los Santos, including the gun stores, and police stations which is a surprising statistic.

The number stack up to show that Los Santos owns 11 Gun stores whereas Portland has 9, Los Santos has 12 police stations and Portland has 6. They also threw in a coffee shop comparison for good measure, Los Santos sports 10 of them whilst Portland has a total of 637.

Saying, “Portland would be perfect” for the GTA VI, Movoto’s Clark Teft said “It has the personality, the intrigue, and frankly it might be more fun to visit Portland digitally and not risk running into all those college friends who are trying to make the rest of the world move there.”

[Source]