B* 22 days until GTAVI 🌴

40 new GTA 6 details from Edge Magazine’s hands-off preview at Rockstar North (no old information repeated): 1. They watched Rob Nelson play the game completely unscripted for 1.5 hours 2. Nelson says Jason’s actor took a long time to cast, as they were looking for the perfect fit for the role 3. The map size is nearly as large as GTA 4, GTA 5, and RDR2’s playable map areas combined 4. Every random location is as densely detailed and interesting as the others 5. Aaron Garbut hasn’t seen all locations despite spending years exploring the game, due to how dense the world is 6. You can enter random houses and find photographs sit on walls, possessions accumulate on tables, living rooms and kitchens acquire the disorder of the individuals who use them 7. Rockstar is introducing a new mechanic allowing Jason and Lucia to react to unpleasant smells with different facial expressions and varying degrees of disgust 8. During the playthrough, Nelson let Jason stare at an NPC who was walking his dog 9. The NPC decided that Jason’s stare constitutes a test so he unclips the leash from the dog’s collar and the dog starts chasing him. A flock of pigeons bursts into the air. Finally, the dog loses interest and trots back to its owner 10. Like in previous titles, police vehicles will have a shotgun that you can pull out and carry. You can find it in the trunk and take it while they’re busy confronting an NPC 11. Clouds shape will change depending on the season, wind, humidity, fog, and time of day 12. The wind and storms will have a physical effect on trees, waves, the way boats move, and who a helicopter flies and it may even sustain light damage from a storm 13. NPCs react and seek shelter as weather deteriorates similar to GTA 4 14. The day-night cycle has been substantially extended after the team tested GTA 5’s timings, where “everything felt too fast” for a game with this level of fidelity 15. One of the studio heads, Phil Hooker says he spends much of his time waiting for buses and memorizing routes, checking that they arrive when expected, then riding them across Leonida and watching the world pass by. “I’m obsessed with making sure they always turn up," he says 16. The Criminal Profile system, which tracks Jason and Lucia’s behavior can go from professional to irredeemable, which is beyond fixable depending on your actions and it will influence how the story unfolds 17. Jason and Lucia are bound together by an emotional history as well as a professional one, and their relationship status is measured on a 4-point scale 18. Nelson refused to confirm or deny whether the couple can marry 19. The story is deeper than just trying to amass wealth, cars, homes and status by any means necessary, Nelson says: “What if these characters want something else?” 20. The game starts with them wanting to be together, and wanting to give this relationship of theirs “another shot” 21. Police can lay stinger strip across the road, and it’s almost invisible when driving at speed at night, causing the tyre to blow and throwing you off a motorcycle 22. K-9 police dogs, including Alsatian are in the game and they can pin you to tue ground in pursuits 23. NPCs can randomly challenge you to a street race by winding down the window, taunting you until you accept or ignore them 24. NPCs can climb out of the vehicle window and perch on the door frame, screaming insults back into the wind 25. The game is designed to absorb interests and habits of millions of players and play the way they want: “You can have your life in the game,” says Garbut 26. Some dev teams who might’ve made an entire game in the past are now assigned to individual parts of Leonida 27. Most senior devs have been working together for decades so they don’t need a studio head to direct them 28. They individually have a strong idea of what they want to evolve 29. The development process consists of 6-to-8-week milestones on a specific area of the game before stabilizing a build and playing it intensively 30. A smaller group considers the game as a whole compared to that area, and they produce thousands of notes that get revised, discarded or sent back 31. The process is described as constant iteration and regrouping 32. They don’t follow fixed early design documents that were previously written because they get dated quickly, stating that the game “tells you what it needs.” 33. Satire is the hardest thing to keep fresh so they let the humor grow out of the places they have built: “It develops somewhat naturally once we’ve decided where we’re roughly going to take you, and what elements of society or culture we want to satirise or have fun with.” Nelson says 34. The fuel mechanic won’t be as bad as some people think, as vehicles can drive for a long distance before running low on fuel and refilling will be quick (10-second animation) 35. There are teams working solely on brands and billboards in the game and another group writes radio advertising 36. Rockstar’s President Sam Houser remains involved in every aspect of the game’s creative development to shape its direction 37. Sam even plays the game with Nelson to identify issues and send feedback that covers everything from lighting, animation and audio to narrative, tone and game mechanics 38. A relentless cycle of scrutiny and revision helps maintain a consistent creative vision across the enormous project so that it feels coherent 39. Aaron Garbut says he feels better about this game than any project he has worked on before, stating that they haven’t compromised on the scale, the detail, the interactivity, the story, or the open world: “I feel like we’ve built a pyramid on Everest,” he says 40. Finally, Nelson says the game is now ready: “It ceases to become ours, and it becomes everybody’s,” then he sets down the controller saying “there’s a letting go.” (via GamesRadar)

Here are all 12 new GTA 6 screenshots Rockstar sent to Edge Magazine.

Rockstar Games has reportedly included a unique watermark in every GTA 6 review copy sent to journalists, with the reviewer’s name constantly flashing on screen. In case anything leaks, they can easily trace the source and blacklist the person or media outlet responsible indefinitely. (via @ManaByte)