These 3 key things were missing from the GTA 6 Extended Look, at least as far as I'm concerned
We're still surprisingly short on some details
Well, it took a bit of time but here we are – living in a post Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look world. Rockstar waited almost as long as it could to showcase the next GTA game properly, and almost certainly wishes it had gone a little earlier, given the plague of leaks in August.
Now, though, we can all sink in to watch the Extended Look for free on YouTube, after its maddening Netflix exclusivity faded. What a showcase it is, too, fully 27 minutes of cut-together gameplay that makes the game look like possibly the most accomplished console release in ages, at least visually.
Still, for as much as the preview obviously does give us a clear look at the game and its structure, particularly where main missions will be concerned, it still leaves quite a lot vague. Here are three things I think were missing from the showcase, ranging from the technical to the stylistic.
1. Performance details!
Rockstar ends the Extended Look by clarifying that it was captured on a PS5 (not a PS5 Pro), which confirms what everyone suspected – the game is going to look fairly unbelievable.
However, beyond that one fact we don't really know much at all about its approach to performance. In interviews with influencers released just after the showcase, Rockstar apparently confirmed that the game will target 30FPS on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, with no 60FPS mode available at launch.
We still don't know what might differ on the PS5 Pro, though, which is a major variable, and I would have loved to find out more about the wizardry being employed to get such a dense world working.
There's clearly some degree of ray-tracing going on in the lighting engine, for one, but there are also some moments where what I can only assume is upscaling gives some blurriness in busy moments. I'd have loved Rockstar to give us a more precise readout on this all, although such details might still come down the line.
2. Proper introductions to our main characters
Sure, those with a smattering of media literacy who've watched the previous trailers and now the Extended Look can easily build out a picture of Jason and Lucia, but still – why not give us firmer details?
These two characters are clearly going to be the centre of the game, and we'll be able to swap between them with relative freedom outside of scripted moments. Maybe they're blanker slates than I realise, but I'd have been interested to learn more about them this time.
Is their motivation pure capitalistic greed? Do they have a social mission that's simmering under the surface? Is Lucia really going to be this much more lively to watch than the somewhat morose Jason? All these questions and more are lingering after watching the showcase, and I do think Rockstar could have grounded us in their characters a little more, given the length of the showcase.
3. Where's my darn voiceover?
Okay, this might start off sounding daft, but stick with me. Some of my clearest memories of gaming trailers from my younger life have been Rockstar's showcases of its games, using serene and calm voiceovers to explain the game world and the technical advancements being shown.
Check out these trailers for Red Dead Redemption and its sequel, Red Dead Redemption 2, for instance. Both feature lovely voiceovers explaining the times the games are set in, and the things you'll be able to do in each. Sure, they're a little bit more old-fashioned as a result, but by golly, they're informative.
I get why Rockstar didn't take this approach for the Extended Look, from a marketing point of view, since it left the showcase open-ended and gave the impression of limitless activities in-game, but I really missed some explanation. This was Rockstar's chance to control the narrative more carefully and to actually go into detail, but it stuck to the broad brush instead.
I'm now left hoping that subsequent trailers will return to that old style, so we can actually get some more concrete details about what we're looking at.
