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Five things we learned
From our first hints at what the story could be about to a cast of officially confirmed characters, the trailer (and corresponding update to the Rockstar website) taught us an awful lot about GTA 6.
If you’re online just tuning in to my coverage and want a concentrated run-down of all the biggest news, my colleague Freelance Writer Demi Williams has put together a list of the five biggest things that we now know.
You can read the full list below.
The Rockstar website is back!
Great news everyone! After a shaky start, it looks like the Rockstar website is back online.
It’s got a wealth of screenshots to browse, so I’d recommend heading over there now.
The latest key art revealed
The trailer went live alongside two new pieces of key art for the game. Both show Jason and Lucia together and are follow that iconic Grand Theft Auto stylized aesthetic.
Of the two, the one with both characters at a dock is definitely my favorite. It’s bright, colorful, and really highlights the iconic summery vibe of the Vice City setting.
After briefly going back up, it looks like the Rockstar Website has buckled under the strain of eager fans booting it up to browse the latest details.
I’m currently seeing the following error message while trying to get it on screen:
"Access Denied You don't have permission to access "http://www.rockstargames.com/VI" on this server."Hopefully the website will come back online soon!
A fan favorite character returns?
Fans on social media are currently speculating that the trailer might give us our first glimpse at a fan-favorite returning character.
Phil Cassidy, a prominent character in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories might be coming back, as there is undeniably someone that looks an awful lot like him in the trailer.
We see a brief ad for a weapon store called Phil’s Ammu-Nation, where the character is shown wearing a tank top with the store’s logo on it.
Now this could, of course, be a completely unrelated Phil, but given how much Rockstar tends to bring back familiar faces in its games it seems safe to assume that it is a modern interpretation of Cassidy.
The final character detailed on the website is Brian Heder, a “classic drug runner from the golden age of smuggling” currently living with his third wife Lori.
The site reveals that Brian is letting Jason live rent-free in exchange for helping with his local shakedowns. This explains one of the scenes we see early in the trailer, where Brian arrives at Jason’s home to ask him to get him his checks – presumably cash from nearby businesses.
The website also introduces us to Raul Bautista. An experienced bank robber, he is searching for new talent for some fresh bank jobs.
Raul could very well be part of the “plan” mentioned in Lucia’s description. Will the story feature the pair robbing banks across Vice City for easy cash? It definitely seems likely, especially given the handful of shots showing what appears to be various robberies in the trailer.
And now a little more on Dre’Quan Priest.
A drug dealer turns music producer, Dre’Quan is moving up in Vice City. He’s just signed the Real Dimez, two young rappers that are massive on social media and could be his ticked to mainstream success.
The Real Dimez, Bae-Luxe and Roxy, are two long-time friends on the rise once again five years after their early hit single with a local rapper called DWNPLY.
We’ve also got Boobie Ike (yes that is really his name). He’s apparently a prominent figure in Vice City, owning real estate, a strip club, and a recording studio.
He is working in partnership with a “young aspiring music mogul” named Dre’Quan in a ventured called Only Raw Records. The duo are seemingly searching for the next big hit, which might prove an important plot thread in the full game.
Side characters detailed
The official website now also tells us about some of the side characters that we can expect to encounter in the game.
First up is Cal Hampton, a conspiracy theorist friend of Jason. From his description, it sounds like his laziness is going to be something of a contrast to Jason’s own ambition.
Love the song in the trailer?
One of the things I like most about the trailer is its music, the 1986 song Hot Together from the album of the same name by the Pointer Sisters.
It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out why this particular song was chosen – with the lyrics “we could be so hot together” presumably meant to reflect to the partnership between Jason and Lucia.
You don’t need to whip out Shazam if you want to hear the full song, as I’ve found it on YouTube above.
Do I see a PS5?
This trailer may have been captured on PS5, but that apparently hasn’t stopped Rockstar Games from poking some fun at Sony’s platform.
What appears to be a PS5 parody console is visible in one of the trailer’s interior shots. Don’t quote me on this, but I do actually quite like the look – maybe a bit more so than the real life PS5 Slim.
The game looks amazing on PS5
Here’s one little thing you might have missed.
The new GTA 6 trailer ends with confirmation that it was “captured on PS5.” Although the majority of the scenes shown look like in-game cutscenes, it seems safe to assume that they are rendered in engine given the presence of this text.
This is great news, as it suggests that the final game will have a similar level of graphical fidelity to this trailer. Given just how incredibly life-like the entire trailer looks, we might soon have one of the best looking games of all time on our hands.
As for Lucia, it seems like she’s going to be a bit of a loose cannon. “Lucia’s father taught her to fight as soon as she could walk,” the site reads. She apparently just got out of prison and doesn’t seem keen to return.
She’s dreaming of a good life for her mother who, interestingly, hails from Liberty City – another prominent location in the Grand Theft Auto series.
The website says that she is “committed to her plan – no matter what it takes.” What could this plan be? Presumably some kind of criminal enterprise. We’ll just have to wait and see…
Our two ‘heroes’ revealed
So, on to what we can glean from the Rockstar website. One of the first things on the page is an introduction to our two protagonists – Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos.
Jason is described as an ex army soldier working for a local drug cartel. Meeting Lucia, his lover, “could be the best or worst thing to ever happen to him.” It seems safe to assume that their relationship is going to be a central part of the game’s story.
The Rockstar website is down
Unsurprisingly, it seems that the Rockstar Games website is experiencing heavy traffic right now. It appears to be down, which is pretty frustrating as it was just updated with lots of juicy GTA 6 info.
Luckily, we managed to collect most of it before the website crashed – so hang tight for the details!
The video’s descriptions reveals details
The description of the new trailer provides some interesting insight, namely through a shot plot summary that gives you a rough idea of what to expect from the story this time around.
“Vice City, USA,” it reads. “Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.”
This, alongside dialogue in the trailer, finally confirms that the name of Lucia’s partner is indeed Jason, something that has been rumored for some time.
A new trailer is here!
This is not a drill – the latest trailer for GTA 6 has arrived. It gives us an extended look at the upcoming open world game with loads of stunning in-engine footage.
Join me as I provide you with a steady stream of the latest updates surrounding this trailer drop, plus throw in some of my own analysis to explain some of the most interesting things that it shows.
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