After years of trailers, rumors, leaks, and delays, Rockstar Games finally gave us an extended look at what “Grand Theft Auto VI” actually feels like in motion, and my biggest takeaway from Thursday’s nearly 27-minute presentation on Netflix was pretty simple: I understand why this game has taken so long.

Rockstar said the entire presentation was captured from in-game footage on a PlayStation 5, and for most of it I found myself paying almost as much attention to the world surrounding Jason and Lucia as I did to whatever they were actually doing.

The skylines were probably what grabbed me first, especially when the camera pulled back enough to show just how enormous Vice City feels and how far the city seems to stretch into the distance without everything turning into some blurry background that only exists to make the map feel bigger.

The highways looked incredible, the waterways convincing, and even the smaller details, including parking lots, apartment buildings, storefronts, vegetation, and the clutter filling ordinary spaces, made it all feel less like a collection of carefully designed video game environments and more like an actual place people live in.

The racetracks were another standout for me, with the presentation showing both street racing and dirt racing, and the cars themselves looked so good that there were moments when I stopped paying attention to the objective because I was watching reflections move across the paint or looking at the road stretching out ahead.

Rockstar also showed clubbing, canoeing, parachuting, and plenty of the criminal chaos that has always defined GTA, but what impressed me most was how much of the world appeared to exist independently of whatever the player happened to be doing.

Then somebody would start walking, and the illusion would break a little.

The People Still Look Like GTA People

Jason, Lucia, and everyone else Rockstar showed look dramatically better than the characters we were watching when Grand Theft Auto V arrived in 2013, and I am not pretending the animation is bad because it clearly is not.

There is just something about human movement that video games still cannot completely recreate, particularly when those humans are standing inside environments that are getting frighteningly close to looking real.

People still turn a little strangely, faces occasionally have that unmistakable video-game quality, and bodies sometimes move with a smoothness or stiffness that actual people simply do not.

At first, I thought that was the one thing keeping GTA VI from completely blowing me away visually, but the longer I watched, the more I started wondering whether I actually want Rockstar to fix it.

This is still Grand Theft Auto, after all, which means we are going to steal cars, get into shootouts, run from police, and probably send more than a few pedestrians flying over the hood of whatever vehicle we happen to be driving.

Maybe those pedestrians should not look completely real.

There is still a tiny bit of cartoon left in the characters, and I think GTA might actually need that because it creates a little distance between the ridiculous things we do in these games and what those same things would look like if Rockstar ever achieved perfect photorealism.

A nearly photorealistic sunset over Vice City sounds amazing, as do realistic thunderstorms, highways, beaches, race cars, and neon reflecting across wet pavement.

A completely photorealistic person reacting to being shot or hit by a car starts becoming something very different.

Now I Understand Some of the Waiting

That does not mean Rockstar gets a complete pass on how long GTA VI has taken to arrive.

The game was originally announced for 2025 before Rockstar delayed it to May 26, 2026, saying it needed additional time to deliver the level of quality players expected. It was later delayed again to Nov. 19, with Rockstar saying the extra months would allow the team to finish the game with the level of polish players expect.

By the time it finally releases, it will have been more than 13 years since Grand Theft Auto V first arrived in September 2013, which has created expectations for this game that would be almost impossible for any developer to meet.

Thursday’s presentation was the first time I really looked at GTA VI and thought Rockstar might actually pull it off.

I want to drive through those streets, see how far those highways go, waste time on the side quests, wander through Vice City at night, and inevitably spend hours doing things that have absolutely nothing to do with Jason and Lucia’s actual story.

More than anything, it all finally looks less like a collection of impressive screenshots and trailers and more like an actual place I want to explore.

The people still look a little like cartoons walking through an almost photorealistic world, and strangely enough, I think I am OK with that.

Rockstar can keep making the skylines, sunsets, racetracks, cars, and landscapes look more real, because considering what we are eventually going to do to the people living there, maybe they should stay just fake enough.

About the Author

Anthony W. Haddad is a Fresno-based reporter and columnist best known for the award-winning Millennial View column series. He covers a wide range of topics, from pressing local issues and community concerns to the everyday challenges and experiences facing millennials today.

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