gta vi – Trekking with Dennis

Grand Theft Auto VI: The Delay and the Trailer

I was partway through writing this article about the recently-announced delay to Grand Theft Auto VI when Rockstar unexpectedly released the game’s second teaser trailer – so bear with me while I re-write a few sentences and shuffle things around!

The delay to Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be disappointing to a lot of people – but it’s also unquestionably the right call. Developer Rockstar Games is well-known in the industry for its abusive “crunch” practices in the run-up to big launches, so anything that potentially mitigates that and makes the working environment better for people is a hugely positive thing. Given Rockstar and Take-Two’s insane financial resources, and the continued revenue stream from Grand Theft Auto V’s online mode, there’s absolutely no justification for pushing to meet a self-imposed, arbitrary release window. If the game needs more time and more work, then delaying it is the right move.

*Grand Theft Auto VI* has been delayed to May 2026.

From a gameplay perspective, a delay is the right call, too. Since internet connectivity became commonplace on home consoles in the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 days, more and more corporations have taken what I call the “release now, fix later” approach to game design – releasing a broken, unfinished game with the promise of patches and updates later to smooth things out. This rarely works as intended, and there are so many examples of games which should’ve been good that ended up being soiled by a poor launch. Even success stories, like Cyberpunk 2077, are still tainted for a lot of players, and will always have a little asterisk next to them explaining that, while the final version of the game may have been great, the launch version was piss-poor.

I don’t have any “insider information” from Take-Two or Rockstar, so I don’t know what might’ve been going on behind the scenes to prompt this delay. There wasn’t even an official release date for Grand Theft Auto VI, just a vague “2025” from the original announcement. As I said at the time, a delay felt like a reasonable prospect, so I’m not particularly surprised by the news. A second delay from spring to autumn 2026 also feels plausible – so watch this space, I guess!

Part of the game’s open world as seen in the recent trailer.

I’ve said it before and I’ll undoubtedly say it again: game delays are a good thing and should be celebrated, not criticised. I get it: it’s never fun when you hear that a game you’re excited about is going to be delayed, but if it means the finished product will be better (and, y’know, actually finished) then it’s going to be worth it. A game as large as Grand Theft Auto VI purports to be will take time for QA testers to work through, and I’m content to give Rockstar and Take-Two additional time to polish the experience and launch a better, more stable, less glitchy game. Even if that means waiting a year or two!

Thankfully, the reaction to delays from most players and fans these days is mature and acknowledges that simple reality. I think all of us have been burned at least once by a buggy, glitch-riddled, clearly unfinished game – and nobody wants to go through that again! There will be some upset players, of course, but I think most folks are mature enough to understand that this news, while it may be disappointing, will ultimately mean the launch version of Grand Theft Auto VI will be more polished and just an all-around better experience.

Hopefully *Grand Theft Auto VI’*s delay will result in a better finished product.

I do have a couple of things to add about the game, though, particularly now that we’ve seen the second teaser trailer.

Firstly, I’m a little disappointed that we still haven’t actually seen any bona fide gameplay in any of the marketing material that Rockstar and Take-Two have released so far. Both teaser trailers may be comprised of “in-engine footage,” but they show cut-scenes, carefully-curated clips, and content that may have been rendered especially for the game’s marketing. What we haven’t seen is any actual gameplay, and while you might say that’s fair enough if the game is more than a year away from launch, Grand Theft Auto VI was, until a few days ago, on the schedule for this year. I would’ve expected to see some glimpse of its gameplay by now, especially with Rockstar preparing that second trailer.

Any idiot can put together cut-scenes, clips, and pre-rendered artwork and make a compelling trailer. Trust me, I used to work in games marketing, so I know what it takes to showcase even the worst and most uninspired titles! Some absolutely atrocious games look decent in their own marketing material, and it’s a bit of a red flag for a game to have potentially been a few months or even just a few weeks away from launch with no gameplay on show.

Any game can look exciting with a carefully edited trailer comprised of pre-rendered cut-scenes and CGI.

This leads into my next point. I… I don’t feel blown away by anything we’ve seen from Grand Theft Auto VI so far. With the caveat that we still haven’t seen any official gameplay, the pre-rendered footage and cut-scenes that have been shown off just haven’t really stood out to me as being particularly special. There are some fantastic-looking games at the moment, particularly in the third-person action/adventure space, and for a game that Take-Two may genuinely try to sell for $100… I haven’t really seen anything in the Grand Theft Auto VI footage that could come close to justifying that.

That doesn’t mean I think the game “looks bad” or will be unenjoyable. But rather that I’d say it doesn’t look like anything special compared to the current crop of AAA titles on the market. Elden Ring, the remastered version of The Last of Us Part II, Alan Wake II, and even Rockstar’s own Red Dead Redemption II – which is now six-and-a-half years old – don’t feel particularly far behind what I’ve seen of Grand Theft Auto VI. Considering the upcoming game’s price point and all the hype around it, I would’ve expected to see a bit more by now to really sell me on why this’ll be a “once-in-a-generation experience;” the kind of thing I can’t afford to miss out on.

Nothing on show has really blown me away so far.

Grand Theft Auto VI looks like it’s going to be an outlaw story; a “modern-day Bonnie and Clyde,” with protagonists Jason and Lucia starting from a low point but taking Vice City by storm. I like that idea in theory, though a narrative can be hard to judge at this distance! But what I really want to see from Grand Theft Auto VI is its world. The characters and the story are incredibly important, of course, but that’s something I’ll discover for myself as I play the game. At this point in the marketing, we need to get a feel for the scale and depth of the world, and start to see what new gameplay features might be included.

Red Dead Redemption II is Rockstar’s magnum opus, and one of the finest games I’ve ever played. But after more than six years – seven going on eight by the time Grand Theft Auto VI actually launches – and an entire console generation, we should be seeing improvements. Grand Theft Auto V was originally released in 2013 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and players who skipped Red Dead Redemption II will be expecting much more significant improvements and changes. So far, from a couple of pre-rendered trailers, I’m just not feeling much of that.

Jason and Lucia – the game’s protagonists.

I don’t doubt that Grand Theft Auto VI will be a good game – but with the level of hype that’s been swirling around the project for over a decade at this point, will it be a great one? Can it possibly live up to these sky high expectations – and its rumoured $2 billion budget? If the game is on par with other open world titles from the last few years, will that be good enough for players who’ve been waiting for it for such a long time? These are the questions that Rockstar and Take-Two will have to answer – and the marketing campaign so far, while it’s admittedly at an early stage, hasn’t exactly dazzled me.

For those inclined to seek out such things, there are leaked videos and images of Grand Theft Auto VI – some dating back several years. I don’t want to judge the game based on leaks; having worked in the games industry in the past, I know the final build of a game can differ substantially from early versions! But the leaks are undeniably part of the conversation – and again… nothing’s really blowing me away. I see what looks to be a solid third-person action/adventure game, similar in tone and style to Grand Theft Auto V thanks to the familiar tropical setting, and… that’s it. Pre-judging a game based on leaks is silly, but what I’ve seen so far reminds me why I thought it would’ve been better for Grand Theft Auto VI to have been set in a different environment and possibly even in an earlier time period, too.

Should *Grand Theft Auto VI* have been set in a different city without a beach and palm trees?

You might remember me talking about this years ago. Before we had any official news about Grand Theft Auto VI, I said that I feared a modern-day story set in another tropical city by the beach might just be too samey and too familiar, and wouldn’t do much to give players invested in Grand Theft Auto V a reason to switch. Time will tell, of course, but I wonder if part of the reason why I don’t feel so enthused by the recent trailer (and the leaked footage) is because of how samey and familiar parts of it feel.

So that’s it for now. Grand Theft Auto VI has been delayed – and while that isn’t exactly fun, it’s good news in my book. I’d rather play a better, more polished version of the game a year later than a broken, buggy, unfinished version a year early. As to the story, setting, and gameplay, though… I’m not sure. I’m confident the game will be fun, and that could be good enough, I suppose. But for a game which could end up being the most expensive ever, raising the price of AAA games across the board, and after such a long wait in between titles? Rockstar and Take-Two still have work to do to convince me Grand Theft Auto VI will be worth the price of admission.

Oh, and there’s still not gonna be a simultaneous PC release, which is pretty shitty behaviour from Rockstar and Take-Two.

Grand Theft Auto VI is currently in development and is currently targeting a May 2026 release date. Grand Theft Auto VI is the copyright of Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Grand Theft Auto VI Should Be Free

Thu 23.01.25Dennis

I recently read an article about the price of the highly-anticipated upcoming video game Grand Theft Auto VI. According to the journalist, a number of analysts and businesspeople in the games industry are “hoping” that Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar will price Grand Theft Auto VI higher than the current $70/£70 that has become standard since 2020. The reason for this is simple: it will open the door for other publishers to follow suit, increasing the prices of games across the board.

To me, that sounds absolutely repulsive. The corporations that make up the games industry have literally never made more profit than they’re making right now. Even expensive failures like Concord last year hardly registered as a blip on the charts; these corporations are making money hand over fist in a way they could’ve only dreamed of a few short years ago.

A still frame from the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer showing Lucia holding a wad of cash. — The games industry has never been richer and more profitable.

So today I’d like to propose a counter-argument: Grand Theft Auto VI should be free-to-play for everyone.

First of all, let’s clear up this myth surrounding the so-called standard price of video games. In most cases – and especially for AAA games released through corporate publishers – £70 only gets your foot in the door. The true price of fully feature-complete games has been well above £70 for years, and it’s only getting worse. So-called “premium editions” or “deluxe editions” aren’t giving players something extra, they’re cutting out content that was developed alongside the game, fully-integrated into it, and selling it back to us for a premium fee. Some of these special editions can be well over £100 – so that’s the true price tag of most AAA video games in 2025.

We’ve seen a recent trend in which AAA publishers are adding “early” access into deluxe editions of games, too. Charging players extra to play the game on its real release date instead of up to a week later is pretty shitty when you think about it, and just another way that corporations like Take-Two – and others in the AAA space – exploit their players.

Screenshot of the different editions for NBA 2K25. — Take-Two’s own NBA 2K series comes with “standard” and “all-star” editions, the latter having more content.

Grand Theft Auto VI will have a single-player campaign, and although Take-Two has cheaped out on development, cutting off PC players for some incomprehensible reason, I gotta confess that I’m genuinely looking forward to playing it. The Grand Theft Auto series has usually been good fun, and I’ve been playing since the first title was released in the late ’90s. Remember playing the first Grand Theft Auto with its top-down view? Those were the days, eh?

But let’s be honest: Grand Theft Auto VI is, first and foremost, a multiplayer title. That’s how Rockstar and Take-Two see it, and after the rampant success of Grand Theft Auto V’s online mode, they’re not wrong about that.

Screenshot of the Rockstar Store showing Grand Theft Auto V "Shark Cards" for sale at different price points. — In-game sales, like these Shark Cards for *Grand Theft Auto V*, are where Take-Two and Rockstar will make the most money.

Grand Theft Auto V isn’t just any online multiplayer game, though. It’s a game that has been monetised to death, incorporating basically every scummy pay-to-win trend going – and pioneering new ones that other corporations in the games industry have latched onto like parasites. Most games that charge players real money for an in-game currency, skins, cosmetic items, and particularly that charge for gameplay-enhancing vehicles, weapons, and items have something in common: they’re free.

So to reiterate: Grand Theft Auto VI should be free-to-play, and Take-Two should be content with making all of the money in the world from sales of in-game currency and pay-to-win items. Charging even £1 for the game up-front – let alone £90 or £100 as some corporate leaders are soiling themselves in anticipation over – just feels obscene for a game that’s going to be monetised to hell and back.

A still frame from the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer showing a flock of flamingoes. — A flock of flamingoes from the *Grand Theft Auto VI* trailer.

By including all of these pay-to-win mechanics, Take-Two and Rockstar want to have it all. They want to charge players money up-front, then keep charging them for in-game items, currency, and more. But that isn’t a fair approach – most publishers pick one or the other, and with Grand Theft Auto VI clearly having an online focus, it’s only right that it’s made available for free to everyone who wants to play it.

Do I think that’s a realistic outcome? Well… why not? Corporations are gonna try to grab as much cash as possible, of course, and there will be some desperately disappointed analysts, executives, and investors if Grand Theft Auto VI goes free-to-play from day one. But it would also be a statement; Rockstar and Take-Two could argue that they’re taking a stand and win some free positive PR in the process. Given that the overwhelming bulk of the money Grand Theft Auto V had made (and Grand Theft Auto VI intends to make) comes from in-game transactions anyway, it wouldn’t actually be a huge loss to Take-Two. Grand Theft Auto VI will still be hugely profitable.

A still frame from the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer showing Lucia wearing an orange prison uniform. — *Grand Theft Auto VI* should be free.

So that’s my proposal! Forget these desperate attempts to start the base price of the game at £80 or £90 and just go free-to-play. It’s the right thing to do for an online multiplayer game that’s sure to be crammed with pay-to-win mechanics, an in-game currency, and more cosmetic items and skins than you can count. It would also be a wonderful middle finger to corporate leaders, investors, and analysts who are already making more money than they’ve ever made before and are just being greedy. Plus, from Take-Two’s point of view, it would be a marketing and PR masterstroke if handled well.

So go on, Take-Two and Rockstar! It’s the right thing to do, it’s bound to score you plenty of free publicity and positive press, and it would be hilarious to boot. The Grand Theft Auto series has long satirised corporate America, get-rich-quick schemes, and greed… so why not pull the ultimate power move by making the newest entry in the series totally free for everyone to play? I think it’s a fantastic idea!

Will Grand Theft Auto VI really be free-to-play? Maybe we should start a rumour that it will be and see how panicked the games industry and its corporate overlords get!

Grand Theft Auto VI is still in development and is planned to be released on Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 5 consoles in late 2025. Grand Theft Auto VI is the copyright of Rockstar Games and/or Take-Two Interactive Software. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Multiple sources have reported on the “hope” in the games industry for a price hike from Take-Two and Rockstar when Grand Theft Auto VI launches. I’ve linked a handful below.

Ten Games To Play While You Wait For GTA 6

Sat 16.12.23Sat 16.12.23Dennis

Spoiler Warning: Minor spoilers may be present for some of the games on this list.

The recent trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 has got a lot of gamers salivating! We really ought to try and avoid boarding the hype train, but with Grand Theft Auto 6 being the long-overdue sequel to the most successful and profitable video game of all-time, a bit of excitement is understandable! However, the game won’t launch until sometime in 2025 – and probably even later for PC players like me, unfortunately – so until then we’re all facing a dilemma: what should we play?

I’ve picked out ten games that I think could be fun substitutes for Grand Theft Auto 6. I’ve tried to avoid the most obvious pick: Grand Theft Auto V! But I’ve selected games in the same open-world space, with comparable driving and third-person action gameplay, or with a focus on crime and criminality. There are bound to be hundreds of “what to play before GTA 6” lists floating around… so you may have seen some of these ideas already. But maybe – just maybe – there’ll be something a bit different in the mix this time!

A screenshot from the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer showing the fictional Vice City from above after sunset. — Vice City after dark.

As always, this list is the entirely subjective opinion of one person only! If you hate all of my ideas, think they’re too obvious, or you’ve seen a far better selection of games elsewhere – that’s okay! There’s no need to take anything too personally or get into an argument.

I’ve already shared my thoughts on the recent trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6, and you can find that article by clicking or tapping here.

With all of that out of the way, let’s get started!

Game #1:
Saints Row 2 (2008)

Promotional screenshot of Saints Row 2 featuring a character firing a handgun. — Running and gunning!

For me, Saints Row 2 is where the series managed to strike the right balance between being a pure “GTA-clone” and the utter silliness and wackiness that would come to define its later entries. There was an attempt to reboot the Saints Row series earlier this year, but unfortunately it wasn’t well-received so I can’t recommend it. But if you don’t mind stepping back to the Xbox 360 era, Saints Row 2 could scratch that open-world crime itch!

Saints Row 2 is comparable to Grand Theft Auto 4 in terms of graphics and gameplay – but with a less-realistic physics engine that seemed (to me, anyway) to make driving a bit more arcadey and fun. It also has a bit more of a grounded story when contrasted with later Saints Row games – there’s no visiting Hell or battling aliens from outer space in this one. There’s an open-world city to cruise around, cars to jack, missions to get stuck into, and basically all of the Grand Theft Auto trappings with a less-illustrious name attached. It was great fun in 2008 – and although I haven’t played it in a while, it’s still a game I heartily recommend!

Game #2:
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition (2012; 2014)

Promotional screenshot of Sleeping Dogs showing protagonist Wei Shen holding a shotgun. — Wei Shen in Hong Kong.

Sleeping Dogs takes the Grand Theft Auto formula but puts two very distinctive spins on it. Firstly, the player character is a cop, not a criminal – albeit an undercover cop who seems to have no qualms about breaking a few laws! And secondly, the game is set in Hong Kong, not the United States. Both of these elements help it stand out from other open-world crime games!

You’ll occasionally hear Sleeping Dogs discussed in conversations about underrated games – and rightly so! It’s a fantastic title that was criminally under-appreciated when it was released. The game’s underwhelming sales at launch led to the cancellation of a potential sequel – but Sleeping Dogs is still a fantastic standalone experience. If you play on PC, the game is frequently available at a steep discount during Steam sales, and with the winter sale coming up soon, you might be able to pick it up for less than the price of a coffee. Surely it’s worth a shot for a few pounds or dollars!

Game #3:
Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game (2024)

A promotional screenshot of Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game showing first-person driving. — Driving up-river!

You won’t have to wait too long for this sequel to Mudrunner and Snowrunner; it’s due for release in March. I’ve had a surprisingly fun time with Saber Interactive’s off-road vehicle simulation games, so if the driving side of Grand Theft Auto is what you liked the most, I’d happily recommend all three. If you’re sick of racing games and are looking for a different kind of vehicular challenge, Mudrunner, Snowrunner, and the upcoming Expeditions could be just what the doctor ordered!

Snowrunner has several large open maps and plenty of vehicles to choose from – and the off-road part of the driving simulation is really the focus of the game. I expect Expeditions will do something similar – but according to the developers, it’ll also be adding new features like a recon drone, metal detector, and of course, new vehicles!

Game #4:
Red Dead Redemption II (2018)

Promo screenshot of Red Dead Redemption II featuring protagonist Arthur Morgan and a horse. — Howdy, partner!

Alright, I suppose we couldn’t put together a list like this without talking about Rockstar’s most recent title! Red Dead Redemption II is, in my humble opinion, Rockstar’s magnum opus – and one of the most incredible video games ever made. If you haven’t played it… what are you waiting for? I’ve only played it once, and I’m seriously considering going around for a second playthrough sometime soon.

Red Dead Redemption II takes Rockstar’s open-world formula to the 19th Century, with an incredible map based on parts of the American midwest, the Rocky Mountains, the Deep South, and more. The single-player campaign features one of the best stories ever told in a video game, with incredible characters and an intense, deeply emotional narrative. I can understand being put off by the time period if you’re craving a game set in the modern day… but give it a shot, especially if you can find it at a discount. I really don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

Game #5:
Crime Boss: Rockay City (2023)

Promotional screenshot of Crime Boss: Rockay City featuring Chuck Norris' character. — Outer space exists because it’s afraid to be on the same planet as Chuck Norris.

I’d argue that Crime Boss: Rockay City was unfairly criticised upon release by folks who’d either over-hyped it or had set the wrong expectations. If you go into it expecting a first-person Grand Theft Auto experience with all of the bells and whistles of a Rockstar game… sure, I guess it’s fair to say it comes up short. But if you look at the game for what it is – a fairly straightforward and linear FPS that’s more comparable, in some respects, to the Payday series – there are more than enough charming features to make it worth playing.

Crime Boss: Rockay City has voice acting from the likes of Chuck Norris and Danny Trejo, and its ’90s setting is something a bit nostalgic. The game is also set in a fictional city based on Miami – just like a certain upcoming crime game that we’re all looking forward to! Crime Boss: Rockay City is reasonably priced, and didn’t try to overcharge. That being said, it could well be available at a discount when holiday sales get going this month – so keep an eye on it!

Game #6:
Cyberpunk 2077 + Phantom Liberty (2020; 2023)

A screenshot of Cyberpunk 2077, looking out over an apartment building. — The view from V’s apartment.

As I said recently, I never thought I’d be in a position where I could recommend Cyberpunk 2077 to anyone in good conscience! However, the addition of the game’s big 2.0 update and the Phantom Liberty DLC has been a game-changer – quite literally! Cyberpunk 2077 had been slowly but surely rebuilding its reputation after a disastrous launch three years ago, and by the time I got around to fully playing through it, the worst and most egregious of the bugs and glitches had been fixed. But the 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty have genuinely transformed the experience.

Many of the complaints that I had about Cyberpunk 2077′s gameplay – from the way clothing and armour worked to how police would randomly spawn in Night City – have been addressed and completely fixed, and the addition of a new story campaign has been fantastic, too. I can understand not wanting to play the game or to support a developer who behaved deceitfully – and we should never forget how CD Projekt Red acted in the run-up to the game’s release. But if you haven’t played Cyberpunk 2077 yet… you are honestly missing out on a great story and a fun experience.

Game #7:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)

Loading screen art from the game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City featuring protagonist Tommy Vercetti. — Protagonist Tommy Vercetti.

Is this one too obvious? With a return to Vice City on the cards in 2025, it could be fun to step back in time to see its first appearance! I really enjoyed Vice City at the time – it felt like a step up from Grand Theft Auto III with a bigger map, more vehicles, and a fully-voiced protagonist. I’d go so far as to say that Vice City’s homage to the likes of Scarface and Miami Vice has me genuinely questioning how well Grand Theft Auto 6 will work when it takes the iconic Miami-inspired city out of the ’80s and into the modern day.

If you grew up on Grand Theft Auto V and other games of that generation, stepping back to Vice City could feel like a downgrade – and I fully appreciate that. But the game has a fun story, and if you can overlook the admittedly outdated graphics and the technological limitations that come with a two-decade-old game, it’s absolutely worth playing. I had a blast with it in 2002 – and knowing that that was more than twenty years ago makes me feel absolutely fucking ancient!

Game #8:
Shenmue I & II (1999; 2001)

Cropped poster of Shenmue I & II. — A promo poster showing some of the games’ characters.

Before Grand Theft Auto III came along, the original Shenmue on the Dreamcast was an early open-world pioneer. In some ways, its world is more detailed than even Grand Theft Auto V’s, with a day-night cycle that actually matters to characters’ schedules, dynamic weather, mini-games, and more. I absolutely adored Shenmue back when I owned a Dreamcast – and I never miss an opportunity to recommend the game to players who might’ve missed it when it was new.

Shenmue tells a compelling story of revenge. Protagonist Ryo Hazuki must track down the man who murdered his father, and his quest takes him from his home town in Japan across the sea to Hong Kong and beyond. It’s a relatively slow-paced game with a lot of dialogue and investigating, but these sections are broken up by intense hand-to-hand combat battles that use a variety of martial arts moves, as well as quick-time events… which Shenmue can claim to have invented. For better or worse! Both games are available in one package, and this could be another one to add to your wishlist and keep an eye on.

Game #9:
Mafia: Definitive Edition (2002; 2020)

A promotional screenshot of Mafia: Definitive Edition featuring a character holding a gun walking past two cars. — Promo screenshot of *Mafia: Definitive Edition*.

When I first played Mafia on the original Xbox, I thought it was basically going to be “Grand Theft Auto in the ’30s” – but that hardly does it justice. The game – and its two sequels – have been remade from the ground up in recent years, putting to shame Rockstar’s appalling Grand Theft Auto III Trilogy “remaster” from a couple of years ago. Of the three, the original Mafia is probably the title I’d recommend most highly – but the entire trilogy can be picked up as one set.

All of the elements of a Grand Theft Auto game are present, but the ’30s setting and heavy focus on the titular mob makes for a completely different kind of story. Many of the gameplay elements will be familiar, but different and distinct enough to make this open-world crime title stand out from the crowd. I enjoyed the story of Tommy Angelo, a “made man” in the mob, and Mafia: Definitive Edition is an easy game to recommend to any fan of the GTA series.

Game #10:
Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023)

A screenshot of Baldur's Gate 3 showing a dice roll. — Ready to roll some dice?

I know, I know: this one’s a bit “out there,” as Baldur’s Gate 3 seems to have very little in common with the Grand Theft Auto series. It’s a completely different style of game – but as players, we’re willing and able to try out new experiences, right? If you’re at all interested in games with incredibly strong and compelling narratives, give Baldur’s Gate 3 a chance to show you why it’s my “game of the year.”

A turn-based role-playing game with a branching storyline, incredibly fun characters, and one of the best character creators I’ve ever seen, Baldur’s Gate 3 seemed to come out of nowhere this year and completely blew me away. I had an absolute blast playing it this summer and autumn, and even after sinking more than eighty-five hours into a single playthrough, there are characters I haven’t met, whole areas of the map that I missed and didn’t explore, and so much more to try! I really need to start that second playthrough sometime soon!

So that’s it!

A screenshot from the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer showing characters on a beach during the day time. — Characters on the beach as seen in the *Grand Theft Auto 6* trailer.

We’ve taken a look at ten games to play while you wait for Grand Theft Auto 6. I hope I managed to pick one or two that you might not have been expecting! I’m sure I’m not the only one putting together lists or compilations like this one; there’s a lot of buzz around the next Grand Theft Auto title, and people are definitely going to be looking around for comparable experiences in the meantime. If I helped even one person find one game to try, then I’ve done my job and contributed something positive to the discussion!

Because I play on PC – and because Rockstar, despite its insane financial resources, is cheaping out on Grand Theft Auto 6′s PC release – it might be 2026 or even 2027 before I’ll be able to get my hands on it. I might not live that long… but if I do, I hope you’ll swing by Trekking with Dennis for a review! If there’s significant news about the game between now and then, I’ll do my best to cover it and discuss it here on the website. And if you missed it, you can find everything I had to say about the December 2023 trailer by clicking or tapping here.

Have fun out there – and happy gaming!

Grand Theft Auto 6 is currently in development and will be released on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X in 2025. No PC release date has been set. All titles discussed above are the copyright of their respective studio, developer, and/or publisher. Some promotional screenshots courtesy of IGDB. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Grand Theft Auto 6 Trailer: Thoughts and Impressions

Tue 05.12.23Tue 05.12.23Dennis

Spoiler Warning: Minor spoilers may be present for the Grand Theft Auto series.

One of the first subjects I ever wrote about here on the website was Grand Theft Auto 6. That was all the way back in 2019 – and I said at the time that Grand Theft Auto V felt like it had been hanging around for a little too long! Suffice to say that official news about Grand Theft Auto 6 is long, long overdue – and before we go any further, I think we should acknowledge that.

Rockstar has milked Grand Theft Auto V dry, and the company’s obsession with keeping that game going across three entire console generations has clearly come at the expense of other projects. Red Dead Redemption II’s online mode didn’t get the support it should have, and the less said about the appalling Grand Theft Auto Trilogy remaster the better. Even Grand Theft Auto V’s single-player mode was sacrificed at the altar of Rockstar’s obsession with online multiplayer: the game never received the single-player DLC that had been planned back in 2013.

So we come, belatedly, to Grand Theft Auto 6. The game has one heck of a legacy to live up to – and only time will tell if it will be up to the task.

If you’ve followed the story online or on social media, chances are you’ll already be aware of the big leak that hit Grand Theft Auto 6 a year or so ago. Early footage of the game made its way online and has been doing the rounds for months, so in that sense I wasn’t stunned or blown away by any of the reveals in the trailer; I’d seen the outline of the game already. And I have to say up-front that there are a couple of pretty big disappointments.

The first is the game’s setting. Returning to Vice City is just not what I’d hoped to see; it’s too samey and too similar to Grand Theft Auto V’s Los Santos. Both are sunlit, tropical cities by the beach, both are set in the modern day, and while there will undoubtedly be improvements mechanically and visually from the previous entry in the series, I’m just not convinced at this stage that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be able to truly differentiate itself from its predecessor and stand out in the way it needs to.

For me, the game’s world, time period, and overall setting are hurdles that it will have to overcome – and they’re totally unnecessary ones. Grand Theft Auto V stood apart from its predecessor by hopping across the country, leaving a New York City stand-in behind. Red Dead Redemption II likewise made some big decisions in terms of setting, choosing a setting inspired by parts of the Rocky Mountains, Midwest, and Deep South instead of simply returning to the world of the first game. And both titles stood out because of those decisions.

A few months ago I saw a poll somewhere on social media. Unscientific, I know, but I think the results were interesting. The question posed was “where should Grand Theft Auto 6 be set?” and while Vice City put in a creditable showing, it ended up in a distant second place behind the preferred option: “somewhere new.” At least some players agree with me, then: it would’ve been preferable if Grand Theft Auto 6 could’ve been set in a new location, perhaps somewhere other than a sundrenched coastal city decked out in palm trees.

There’s also a case to be made, I’d argue, that teasing a game that won’t be ready for potentially two full years – barring any major delays – is too early. It’s not as bad as something like The Elder Scrolls VI, which was teased back in 2018 and may not be ready until 2028, but there’s still a lot of work to be done on Grand Theft Auto 6. The trailer, as you can see, wasn’t showing bona fide gameplay but rather a combination of “in-engine footage” and CGI.

Rockstar has been notorious in the games industry for its culture of “crunch” – the borderline-abusive practice of forcing staff to work ridiculously long hours in the run-up to a title’s launch. This happened with Red Dead Redemption II – and although Rockstar has pledged to do better, promising gamers a deadline of 2025 for Grand Theft Auto 6′s release could lead to the same old problems all over again. Although the end of 2025 may seem a long way off, developing a game as large and complex as Grand Theft Auto 6 will surely be a time-consuming and difficult process, and even with some work having already begun, two years – at the very most – isn’t actually all that long when it comes to modern game development. We’ll have to watch this space for leaks from within Rockstar to see how bad “crunch” and working conditions get.

A fabulously festive flock of flamingoes.

One major disappointment for me, as someone who plays on PC, is the apparent lack of a simultaneous PC release. Rockstar’s official press release only mentioned Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles, so reading between the lines that seems to leave out PC. Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption II both launched on PC more than a year after landing on home consoles, so Rockstar has done this before… but what are the executives spending all of the billions of dollars that they made from Grand Theft Auto V on if not making sure the new game will be available to everyone who wants to play it?

Cutting off PC players is a mistake – one that I hope can be rectified before launch. Delaying the game on console by a few months, if necessary, would be worth it to get that simultaneous release. Practically every other major release from AAA publishers can manage this, and with Rockstar’s insane financial resources, there’s no reason why they can’t, too. Trying to spin this as some kind of “point of principle” in favour of home consoles over PC is just… stupid. That argument made no sense to me when Rockstar has tried to pull it in the past and it makes no sense now. It’s the company cheaping out, hoping to get away with spending less money on development and testing – and nothing more.

So… more Grand Theft Auto. That’s basically the takeaway from this trailer for me. More of the same from a series that could’ve tried something a little different. Having a woman protagonist is great, and I hope that the writers will create an engrossing single-player story that will be fun to see unfold. I’m not a multiplayer gamer, so that’s the side of Grand Theft Auto 6 that I’m interested in.

As for the setting, I have to say I’m disappointed. I knew that this was coming based on the leaked gameplay, but I still half-wondered if Rockstar might’ve had time to change things up and go for something a bit different. I guess the company has decided to not rock the boat too much in light of the rampant success of Grand Theft Auto V… but to me, it feels that Rockstar is playing things a little too safe. I’d have liked to see a bit more boldness in choosing a genuinely different setting – perhaps a city based on Chicago or Washington DC, or setting the game in a time period like the ’70s or the ’90s. That would’ve helped Grand Theft Auto 6 develop its own identity. That’s already a tough task, as the game will be living in its predecessor’s shadow for a long time, but it’s one Rockstar seems to have made more difficult with some of these creative decisions.

Maybe I’m showing my age here, but part of what I felt worked best about Vice City was its ’80s setting. Leaning into the likes of Scarface and Miami Vice for inspiration really took that game to a different thematic place, feeling distinct from Grand Theft Auto III. Taking Vice City out of the ’80s and into the modern day is perhaps a bit of a challenge; there’s an open question as to how well Rockstar’s Miami stand-in will work in a contemporary setting. That’s a concern, too.

Based on what we saw in the trailer, I feel that it’s actually difficult to judge how the game might play. No real gameplay was shown, after all. But knowing that Rockstar is playing it safe with Grand Theft Auto 6, I think we can reasonably make the assumption that it won’t look, feel, or play much different from its predecessor. There will be guns to shoot, cars to jack, and an open world filled with crime to get stuck into.

This camera angle from the trailer is almost reminiscent of the original GTA games!

For me, Red Dead Redemption II is Rockstar’s magnum opus. If I dared to dream, I’d say that I’d hope Grand Theft Auto 6 could reach comparable heights… but I don’t want to put too much pressure on the developers. Some games are genuinely once-in-a-lifetime masterpieces, and asking for “another one like that” probably ain’t gonna happen – as much as we might want it to! So what I guess I’m trying to say is that I want to set appropriate expectations for Grand Theft Auto 6 and not over-hype the game to the moon and back. There will undoubtedly be a lot of excitement for the game as its launch gets closer… but keeping that in check as much as possible is absolutely worth trying. Don’t forget what happened with Cyberpunk 2077! Or Starfield.

To end on a positive note, the release of a new entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is something I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to. I played the first game back in the ’90s – along with its London-based spin-off – and had a blast with it at the time. Watching the series make the transition to 3D was also fun to see in the early 2000s. So I’ve been a fan of the series for a long time.

Everybody who’s excited for *Grand Theft Auto 6* raise your arms!

The trailer showed off some impressive-looking environments and character models; on par, at least, with those seen in Red Dead Redemption II. Nothing blew me away – but by the time the game has been fully-built and is in our hands, I daresay we can expect high graphical fidelity and a visually pretty title.

So that’s all for now, I guess. I’ll be waiting to see whether Rockstar can be bothered to launch the game on PC in 2025 – if not, it might be 2026 or beyond before I’m able to get my hands on it.

Assuming I live that long, I hope you’ll check back in for a review – and in the meanwhile, if we get more information, another trailer, or more juicy details about Grand Theft Auto 6, I’ll do my best to cover it here on the website.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is currently in development and will be released on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles in 2025. Grand Theft Auto 6 is the copyright of Rockstar Games and/or Take-Two Interactive Software. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.