Game Informer confirms it: GTA VI gets hurricanes, 170+ species and a map twice the size of GTA V

Sep 29

we've now read the full cover story in the Game Informer app and expanded this article with everything it reveals.

GTA VI is on the cover of Game Informer issue 382. The 14-page story, "Welcome to Leonida", written by Marcus Stewart, is free to read in the magazine's app thanks to a deal with Rockstar. After talking to several of the studio's leads, the magazine lands two big headlines: Leonida gets hurricanes, and the map is twice the size of GTA V's.

Hurricanes and weather that changes by area

The story says it plainly: Leonida will get tropical storms and hurricanes. Owen Shepherd, vice president of art for lighting and rendering, didn't say how often they hit or whether they affect missions or the story, but he did describe how they'll look: heavy clouds, strong winds, lots of rain, water pouring off rooftops and lampposts, thunder, and lightning lighting up the clouds.

According to Shepherd, the weather system has been rebuilt to be far more localized and persistent:

• It can be pouring in one area while you're standing in the sun a few blocks away.
• Clouds are fully dynamic and roll across the map, from clear Miami winter skies to the lightning-filled cumulonimbus of summer afternoons.
• Rain can create rainbows in the right light, and puddles and wet ground stick around after the storm passes: you can arrive somewhere and tell it just rained.
• Wind has its own system, with offshore breezes after sunset, updrafts and shelter from buildings. It moves hair and rooftop debris, ripples the water and bends the swamp grass.

Rockstar's biggest map

Aaron Garbut, head of development and co-studio head, says Leonida is the biggest map Rockstar has ever made "by some degree": roughly twice the size of GTA V's, and denser, more detailed and more interactive too. Garbut says the team obsessed over every rooftop, alley and interior until the buildings started to feel "more real inside and out."

Rupert Humphries, senior vice president of narrative, explains the team made multiple trips to Miami and South Florida: night ride-alongs with ex-cops, clubs, beaches, the Everglades and the Keys. The story is built to take you across the whole state, with rich and poor living side by side and crime and corruption tying everyone together.

The six main regions:

• Vice City: Miami's glamour, art deco architecture, beaches, a cruise port and traffic heavy enough to make police chases harder.
• Leonida Keys: the game's take on the Florida Keys, where Jason works for drug runners at the start of the game.
• Grassrivers: the game's Everglades, a wetland full of reptiles and "probably armed" locals.
• Port Gellhorn: faded tourist-trap Florida, with abandoned attractions, cheap motels and derelict strip malls.
• Ambrosia: Leonida's industrial heart, with factories, refineries and a biker gang running things.
• Mount Kalaga: a national park on the northern border, along the line with Gloriana (the game's Georgia). Paul MacPherson, senior vice president of environment art, cites Panama City, Jacksonville and Ocala as references, and mentions the lumber industry, gated communities with private airstrips, struggling coastal towns, ATV trails, mud park parties, demolition derbies, motocross and bass fishing.

On Orlando or the Space Coast, MacPherson confirms nothing: those exact places may not be there, but everything is designed to deliver the full Florida experience.

More than 170 animal species

Michael Kane, vice president of dynamic art, confirms more than 170 species, some never seen in a Rockstar game: over 60 types of birds, over 30 land mammals, plus fish, reptiles and more. Confirmed so far:

• Florida wildlife: manatees, flamingos, pelicans and alligators.
• Invasive species: green iguanas, feral cats, cane toads, nine-banded armadillos and rhesus macaques.
• Marine life: several shark species, whales, rays, turtles and jellyfish.

Building on Red Dead Redemption, animals get iridescence, bioluminescence, feathers and simulated fur that gets dirty or wet. And like RDR2, there are animals to track in Rare, Discoverable and Legendary categories, whose identities Rockstar is keeping secret.

Jason and Lucia: friends or couple

You can't split Jason and Lucia up, but you decide whether they stay friends or become a couple. The relationship grows through missions together and small gestures: holding hands, opening doors, answering calls and texts on time, or accepting invitations. It gives no gameplay advantage, but Rockstar confirms it affects parts of the story. Like GTA V, you can switch characters almost any time.

Robberies and the police

• Some missions only unlock based on your income, so money matters more than ever.
• You can rob places solo or as a duo (the duo grows the relationship), loud and fast or quiet and careful. How far you escalate decides whether and how the police respond.
• Six-star wanted levels return, with a new Heat system: cops collect details on your appearance and where you were seen. Changing your hair and clothes or ditching the getaway car helps shake them.
• Splitting up divides police attention, but if one of you gets arrested, it's "Busted" even if the other escapes.
• Stealing cars is more involved: some need special tools, and the new WAiNK app scans a vehicle to show its security, whether it has a tracker, what it costs to register and what a fence would pay.

More new details

• Fast travel: a ride-share app called RydeMe, where you can chat with other passengers on shared rides.
• A map that looks like satellite imagery.
• Radio with new licensed songs and ads.
• Snapmatic returns: Jason and Lucia can scroll social media but don't post, since they're wanted.
• NPCs: the most varied in the series. Different heights, builds, musculature and fat distribution; freckles, moles and tan lines; tattoos and hairstyles true to each community; and clothing that changes by area. Rockstar has a team in Los Angeles writing nothing but ambient dialogue.

Confirmed activities

Base jumping, billiards, gyms, kayaking, mini golf, scuba diving, street and off-road racing, zoos, airboats and jet skis. Some are for blowing off steam, others strengthen Jason and Lucia's relationship.

The cast

The story runs through the known characters: Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, Cal Hampton (Jason's conspiracy-loving friend), Brian Heder (veteran drug runner and one of the main mission givers; actor Stephen Root has said he voices him), Raul Bautista (a bank robber who recruits them as getaway drivers), Boobie Ike (a Vice City entrepreneur in real estate, music and less legal business), Dre'Quan Priest (a hustler at Only Raw Records) and Real Dimez (Bae-Luxe and Roxy, a one-hit-wonder rap duo chasing a comeback).

What we still don't know

• How often hurricanes hit and whether they affect missions or the story.
• Which animals fall into the Rare, Discoverable and Legendary categories.
• Whether there'll be versions of Orlando or the Space Coast.

GTA VI launches November 19. These details come from Game Informer's cover story; VICE, VGC and RockstarINTEL have also covered it.

Full hurricane or something subtler? Let's argue about it in the forum thread.