The digital edition of Game Informer’s November issue went out on 29 September with GTA VI on the cover: a 14-page story built on new interviews with people at Rockstar, and 12 exclusive screenshots (Game Informer). The full story can be read free in the magazine’s app on iOS and Android (Game Informer). Some outlets credit Rockstar with that decision, after complaints about the paywall; neither Rockstar nor Game Informer has said so publicly.
We have not been able to read the whole magazine, so everything below comes from the outlets that have summed it up, linked point by point.
Six of the new screenshots
These are Rockstar screenshots published exclusively by Game Informer, with its watermark; Rockstar has not put them on its own channels. Tap any of them to see it whole.
The map: twice GTA 5, and denser
Aaron Garbut, head of development and co-studio head, tells the magazine that Leonida is the biggest map Rockstar has made, by a distance: twice the size of GTA 5’s, with more detail (VGC). He dwells on density more than size: rooftops, alleys and above all interiors, to the point where the buildings feel real inside and out (Vice).
The ratio is not new — Rob Nelson gave it in July — but now a second Rockstar executive repeats it, in print. It is all there, to scale, in our map size guide.
The six regions, in Rockstar’s words
They are the six we already knew, and the story adds how the studio itself describes them (VGC):
- Vice City, the urban centre, drawn from Miami: Art Deco, beaches and a big cruise-ship port.
- Leonida Keys, its take on the Florida Keys.
- Grassrivers, the Everglades: a vast wetland full of wildlife.
- Port Gellhorn, the smaller tourist towns that have seen better days: cheap motels and run-down shopping centres.
- Ambrosia, the industrial heart of the state, with factories, refineries and a biker gang that carries a lot of weight there.
- Mount Kalaga National Park, at the northern edge: nature, wildlife and the culture of the Florida–Georgia border.
All six, with their official screenshots, are in our regions.
Weather that changes from place to place
Owen Shepherd, vice president of art for lighting and rendering, says the weather system has been rebuilt to be local and persistent: one part of Leonida can be in sunshine while a downpour falls a short way off, as happens in Florida (VGC). The clouds are fully dynamic and move across the map, from the clear skies of a Miami winter to the thunderheads of a summer afternoon.
- There will be tropical storms and hurricanes, with heavy rain, strong wind, thunder and water pouring off roofs and lampposts (Vandal).
- The wind kicks up rubbish on rooftops, ripples the water and moves the grass in the swamps (Vice).
- Not known: how often a hurricane hits, or whether it affects missions. Rockstar has not said (VGC).
More than 170 animal species
According to Rockstar, Leonida will have more than 170 species: over 60 kinds of bird, over 30 land mammals, and a range of fish and reptiles (VGC). Among those it names: manatees, flamingos, pelicans and alligators, and at sea several kinds of shark, whales, rays, turtles and jellyfish, each with its own way of moving (Vice).
It also covers how they look: some animals are iridescent, translucent or bioluminescent, birds have different feather types, and a new fur system lets coats get wet, dirty or matted depending on where the animal has been (Vice).
Activities
The story confirms these activities (VGC): base jumping, billiards, gyms, kayaking, mini golf, scuba diving, street and off-road racing, zoos, airboating and jet skiing. According to Vice, some of them look like dates for Jason and Lucia, hiking among them, though which ones is not clear (Vice). It is not the full list: these are the ones Rockstar has named so far.
How Rockstar did its research
Rupert Humphries, senior vice president of narrative, explains that the team has spent years travelling to Florida to see it first-hand: night drives with former police officers, clubs, beaches, the Everglades and the Keys. And he sums up the game’s setting in one idea: rich and poor living next door to each other, with crime and corruption as the thread that ties everyone together (GamesRadar+).
The story also covers the people of Leonida: varied builds, and tattoo styles that belong to its different communities (3DJuegos).