After much hype, speculation, and one final leak, Rockstar finally released the long-awaited GTA 6 trailer. The short preview confirmed a lot, including the appearance of the game’s likely protagonist (or protagonists) and its setting. As many had long suspected, one of the main characters is Latina, and the game itself takes place in modern-day Vice City — the GTA universe’s take on Miami and South Florida.
The portrayal of the state itself is what you’d expect, though even Rockstar may have met its match in trying to create an even more unhinged version of the landmass that produced the infamous “Florida Man.” There are gators, gangsters, and hillbillies aplenty — along with beaches, swamps, and gratuitous violence.
But beyond the obvious, a few of the trailer’s details may have been overlooked. Ahead of the “2025” GTA 6 release date, these sections could give us glimpses of the game’s map, details of its gameplay, and some nods to the past. Here are five things we noticed about the GTA VI trailer.
The Dodo plane is back
Early on in the trailer, a small aircraft is seen in the sky. The plane in question appears to be a Dodo, something that’s been around in some form since the games went 3D back around the turn of the millennium.
The Dodo in GTA 6 appears to be the version that actually has wings, which is a relief, as the clipped-wing version that appeared in GTA III and Vice City was quite difficult to fly. The plane, complete with wings, last appeared in GTA V, and it’s nice to see what is a solid link to our previous trip to Vice City present in the game.
Heavy car customization is highly likely
As the game’s name suggests, vehicles play a large part in Grand Theft Auto. Throughout the game, you’ll more than likely steal them, crash them, shoot from them, race them, mow down pedestrians in them, and escape the subsequent police attention in the motor of your choice.
Customization is also pretty prevalent in recent GTA games. Particularly GTA: Online, where it doubles as somewhat of a money sink for online players. In the trailer, we see numerous vehicular gatherings, suggesting street races are still a thing. Several obviously custom vehicles, including a number of tricked-out low riders, are also present. This suggests you can have your vehicle modified to your specifications, whether it is sensible or not.
The trailer also features a pickup truck with what appears to be a sparkling green vinyl wrap and a “Vice Vinyl” bumper sticker. Though there’s a chance that this is just a truck in the game, it’s pretty likely that there will be a location where you can get a vehicle wrapped. This also has precedent, sort of.
Pay ‘n’ Spray paint shops have been a mainstay in the series since its first incarnation. Vinyl wrapping is in the same ballpark, and it should allow for more elaborate — and even truly custom — designs.
The map goes beyond the city
Everything about the trailer suggests the map is pretty huge. There’s the city itself, which looks very large, and everything seems to sprawl out well beyond that. In addition to an Everglades-like region, Grand Theft Auto 6 contains a muddy trailer park-type area, suburbs, and somewhere that hosts a penitentiary.
Three counties have been mentioned in total: Vice Dale, Leonard County, and Kelly County. Two of those counties appear on road signs, while the third is present on a police seal. The presence of multiple counties, along with the other evidence we’ve seen, suggests that the map is quite large. It may even be larger than Red Dead Redemption 2, which consisted of several “states.” If history is anything to go by, GTA maps get bigger with each game. So the map in VI should be larger than GTA V’s already huge play space.
Social media may play a big part
Most of the clips sprinkled throughout the trailer appear to be playing on some kind of social media platform. It’s currently unknown if the TikTok-like streaming platform will add some kind of gameplay element, if it can only be used for entertainment, or if it’s just a device that the trailer is using to seem more interesting. There’s a fair chance it could be any of those three options.
TV is another medium that is interspersed throughout the trailer — suggesting Weazel News may make a comeback along with Spanish language station Mega Noticias. This also suggests users will still be able to sit down and watch TV in the game. This has been a popular time-waster since GTA IV, and as a platform, has been home to some of the recent game’s funniest hidden gems.
First-person mode might return
Several scenes in the trailer play out from a first-person viewpoint, which means first-person mode could return. The Grand Theft Auto series is traditionally a third-person game (if you don’t count the initial top-down games back in the ’90s), and the option to play in first-person was only added in recent years.
It also came to GTA V as an update, so it will be interesting to see if the player can look through their character’s eyes right from the start this time. You may still prefer to keep it traditional, but extra options are rarely bad.
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