We all know games are getting bigger. Since the launch of the PS3 and Xbox 360 and the start of the open world craze, developers and publishers have been more and more focused on bringing us bigger and better worlds to immerse ourselves in.
Rockstar has long been at the forefront of technological achievement – even back in the PS2 days, games like GTA: San Andreas and Vice City wowed audiences with their impressive scale and depth of detail.
Since then, Rockstar has consistently iterated upon its open world formula – sometimes getting bigger (GTAV, Red Dead Redemption 2) and sometimes getting smaller, but dialing in on the nuance (GTA IV).
As we’re at the boundary between this generation and the next, we’re excited to see what Rockstar releases next. The only real specs we have about next-gen so far comes from Sony, who revealed that the PlayStation 5 will be capable of delivering realistic 8K graphics and can potentially eliminate loading times thanks to some incredible new hardware.
So, using next-gen tech like the PlayStation 5’s CPU (which is based on the third generation of AMD’s Ryzen line and contains eight cores of the company’s new 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture) and the GPU ( a custom variant of Radeon’s Navi family that will support ray tracing), it’s safe to say Rockstar will be able to deliver a huge open world.
Let’s use Red Dead Redemption 2 as a baseline for how big the next GTA game may be.
It’s widely agreed that Red Dead Redemption 2 is about four times the size of the first Red Dead Redemption – resulting in the title clocking in at a massive 29 square miles (source).
We don’t anticipate the GTA VI map being bigger than that, necessarily – after all, a more modern day setting would require a higher density of content. But imagine the size of Red Dead Redemption 2 in a more urban environment, with graphics like this, and whatever gameplay elements Rockstar plans to add as we jump between generations.
The resulting game would be more immersive and more engaging than anything we’ve seen from the developer so far: a thriving, vibrant world filled with Stranger encounters, hidden missions, incredible lighting and best-in-class writing.
There is a chance that the game could amplify the size of previous game’s worlds, too: Rockstar does seem to get bigger and better with every release. The bigger the world, the longer the development time, though, and we’re already pretty certain we’re not going to see the game until at least 2021 (if previous Rockstar release patterns are anything to go by).
But where would such a game be set? The internet has some rumours suggesting we could see a return to Vice City and Liberty City, the same way GTA V returned to San Andreas.
Earlier in May, we may have seen some of the first information about GTA 6 start to surface, thanks to a leaker that uploaded some pretty interesting information to Pastebin.
The post – now deleted – did get scoped by Dexerto before it was removed, though. If you want a hint as to the authenticity of the post, leakers at Pastebin have recently had more GTA 6 news to share, and they also correctly predicted the specs for the PS5 before it was announced.
“You will start as a small time guy in Liberty City doing odd chores and small-time thefts and eventually work your way to Vice city where you will join a famous gang,” the leaker notes.
Apparently, the end game is you becoming a ‘Drug Lord’ – we’re thinking Breaking Bad vibes, but can’t be sure.
“Certain shops will sell different types of items in different eras. RDR2 type stranger dialogues will be implemented,” continues the leaker.
“There are big plans in online and with major content like newer towns. They are working closely with Microsoft and Sony on cloud gaming which will help them enable online to be a continuous process.”
You can read more about that rumour at link above.
- Rockstar Games
Source: Read Full Article
