HARDLY ANY TWO VEHICLES ARE ALIKE

While developers have made numerous attempts to diversify the vehicle palette, it's still common for the same or similar models to populate the streets and parking lots if you drive a certain car in the GTA worlds.

However, it seems that Rockstar has finally managed to overcome this in the GTA VI trailer. Upon re-examining the trailer as a whole rather than scene by scene, it's noticeable that there are hardly any identical vehicle models on the roads, except in the Venetian Islands scene on water. Although many scenes might be staged, the distant car models in simple cutaway shots indicate that GTA VI will feature a highly diverse range of vehicles while driving.

Furthermore, even police cars show variety. While both GTA IV and GTA V had multiple police car models, only one was generated during each chase. Here, we can see multiple models or paint jobs in each scene.

HAIR PHYSICS AND EVERYTHING IN MOTION

Of all the advancements, hair physics is something that cannot go unnoticed. It seems like Rockstar decided after the release of The Witcher 3 in 2015 that they would create even better hair physics for the next GTA, and they've been working on it ever since. Practically every strand moves independently, showing meticulous attention to detail from Rockstar Games. However, it's worth noting that hair physics isn't the only thing in motion.

Driving experience in GTA games has been unmatched by any GTA clone or other open-world game focused on driving. Part of this is due to motion, the law of inertia, and other physical forces that developers have skillfully operated with for a long time. These physics of cars have been present since GTA1, fully realized in GTA3, and raised to the master level in GTA IV. The latter even calculated the movement of larger objects to make Liberty City as realistic as possible. GTA V was the first to pay attention to smaller details, including the wind affecting lighter fabrics and objects, not just newspapers.

Hair movement can be admired in many scenes, from Lucia's prison scene to the twerking girl with permed hairstyle in the video, to the bikini-babe at the pool. However, if you look beyond the moving breasts in the latter one, you'll notice that it's not just the breasts and hair strands moving when she turns around, but also her two necklaces, earrings, and even the strap of her bikini top, especially the ties.

VEHICLES VS. PEDESTRIANS AI

The third technological leap we can observe in the trailer, when examined collectively, is the advancement of artificial intelligence, particularly in relation to the interaction between drivers and pedestrians. GTA IV brought the biggest leap in AI to the Grand Theft Auto series so far, making GTA V sometimes appear more restrained in comparison. However, Vice City seems to delve back into reality in this regard, and one of the most surprising developments can be seen most prominently in the Ocean Drive scene.

Previously, pedestrians mostly walked on designated sidewalks or paths. GTA3 introduced real crosswalks, where people could safely cross to the other side when the traffic light changed without incidents. NPCs only wandered onto roads in GTA3 when we stole their cars or disrupted their daily routines, but mostly they just walked or ran away, sometimes leading to gross accidents.

By GTA V, we had reached the point where NPC drivers reacted to pedestrians or animals on the road with honking and slowing down - yet GTA VI seems to take it even further.

There are no crosswalks on Ocean Drive, but there are yellow warning signs alerting drivers to pedestrians stepping out. This is a real phenomenon. Pedestrians randomly cross the road from the ocean side to the hotels, and what's striking is that they do this when there is enough distance between vehicles from both directions. Moreover, they seem to perceive this to such an extent that when they start crossing, cars are still traveling in the further lane, but they reach a greater distance just as there is more space between two cars.

+1: MOTORCYCLING GETS SOME LOVE

...and while dissecting the Ocean Drive scene, let's add another interesting detail that catches the eye when examining the entire trailer rather than scene by scene. While there were motorcycles in GTA1, motorcycle riding was truly brought to life in GTA Vice City with wheelie and stoppie tricks and the compact size of the bikes, providing opportunities unique to motorcycles in an open-world setting. In GTA San Andreas and GTA IV, developers further refined these vehicles, giving them proper weight, evolving their physics, and in GTA V, basic tuning options became available. However, despite DLCs like GTA IV: The Lost and Damned and updates like GTA Online Bikers, motorcycle riding still noticeably lags behind driving in terms of spectacle in the Grand Theft Auto series, and in many aspects, the game treats motorcycles as if they were just cars on the roads.

We still have to see more to judge how motorcycle riding will change in GTA VI, but based on what we've seen so far in the first trailer, developers are paying attention to this aspect as well. For example, the motorcycles of the devil bikers' motorcycle gang bear unique liveries, which is still rare for motorcycles (or similar rogue flying objects) in GTA Online. While the scenes may be staged, the real wheelie trick is spectacularly back in GTA VI, and in addition, on Ocean Drive – although it may also be a spawn-only solution –, two motorcycles are seen parked perpendicular to the road, using a parking space sized for cars, which indicates that the game's NPCs also consider the different characteristics of motorcycles compared to cars, not just where the vehicle can fit when we... khm... terrorize an NPC, but also in general situations. The question now is whether there will finally be visible damage on motorcycles, which is still missing from the Grand Theft Auto series, as after a total frontal collision in GTA IV and GTA V, we can simply pick the two-wheeled steed up as if nothing happened.

The first trailer for GTA VI is full of scenes that make our heads spin, but it also reveals deeper details from the world of the third implementation of Vice City and the state of Leonida that we will experience in the game for the first time. Grand Theft Auto VI is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles in calendar year 2025. Rockstar Games has not announced a PC version of GTA VI yet, but computer versions have always arrived later with some enhancements compared to the initial console releases in the Grand Theft Auto series.