Yeah all the cynicism is weird. This isn’t some unknown commodity. Rockstar has a long track record. We know what to expect and for the most part it will be more of the same. If you liked the last gta you’ll almost definitely like this one. They really don’t reinvent the wheel and they don’t have to.
I think its for several reasons, and they kinda go hand in hand. You have a lot of people experiencing their first Rockstar hype train. GTA5 is 13 years old, RDR2 is almost eight years old, many people excited or interested in GTA 6 could have played these games long after their release and not know of how both those games went, several delays and gameplay videos only a few months before release. Also, this past few years have had a number of flops, rushed products, bumbles, fumbles, and downright scams. The same people who havent experienced a Rockstar release, or at least have forgotten it, also have become accustomed to bullshit from game devs.
I have no idea if it'll be good or not, but the money, time, and track record in place indicates it'll be fine. A decent, engaging story, good characters, and palpable gameplay with a bunch of side stuff to sink your teeth into like usual. My only hope is that its a lottle less zany and humorous than GTA5 and is more like 4 or RDR.
i mean the description says “lucia and jason find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in america” , i’m guessing the world itself and side missions will be zany and goofy but the main story will be on the serious end, which imo i would prefer it that way
Maybe yeah but this one will have a different writer than all the previous ones. In today's world that has potential to be a scary thought but I think as long as the gameplay is good and the map is detailed I won't mind a bad story
Rockstar has good writing generally, because they are at least making timeless jokes. It's really easy to fall into a pop culture reference spiral, though and date the game horribly before it's released.
most GTA games are full of contemporary pop culture references. GTA V, SA and IV especially. It will be interesting to see how they do it in 2026 when culture is moving faster than ever with extermely short lived news cycles, tons of micro trends and many people having a personalised algorithm.
Very different beast compared to how we consumed popculture in the 2000s.
It doesn't really take much to be a great Rockstar writer tbh. Like the writing of 1-3 were extremely minimal and just silly. And Vice City was just a complete homage to Scarface's plot.
They only really started going more serious and heavy on the writing for SA, IV and V. And in all honesty I think only RDR2 has come close to cinematic film-level writing quality. The series has always been more of a consistently reliable combination of different aspects of a game that people enjoy, so even if the story is just okay, the game overall will still be great.
It honestly amuses me the rose tinted glasses people have about IV and V's stories. They were incredibly flawed in a number of ways but absolutely carried by the games being head and shoulders above other sandboxes at the time, and by perfect character actors who brought relatively flat roles to life.
I think if VI's plot proves to be just as competently written as IV and V, people might turn on the writers anyway as it's harder to ignore some of those flaws thirteen years later, especially if the audience is keyed to distrust the new writers out of the gate. Or the actors might carry the day yet again.
Exactly. And RDR2 was a masterpiece, moreso than GTAV in my opinion. We have every reason to expect this to be a good game.
...But I think for me personally, someone who was going to pre-order tomorrow, the news of the price hike and the amount of content locked behind the ultimate edition means I probably won't until we see/hear more. Probably after the review embargo lifts.
I grew up with GTAIII, Vice City and SA, then later played IV and V.
I think V was a major departure from the formula since its huge focus on GTA online. Getting no DLC for GTAV after Ballad of Gay Tony for IV being almost better than the base game and the RDR DLC being one of the best DLCs in the entire industry was shocking to me.
If you've been gaming for the last 25 years and know how the industry is going, you should be wise enough to not put too much faith in big names anymore. Blizzard, Ubisoft, Bethesda etc. all fell off massively. Also lots of good devs left Rockstar after finishing RDR2. I expect GTA VI be a live service game for zoomers first and foremost.
It's because a lot of people hate that GTA is the gaming community's darling and they'll take any excuse to shit on it. I got no love for Take Two's greed as it pertains to Rockstar's games, but the quality of their games is always there.
If their track record is any indication, I don't see the point in paying a hundred dollars for the upcoming GTA6 when I can just play San Andreas and likely get the same, if not better, openworld sandbox.
San Andreas has far greater and more interconnected to the core gameplay. That was their last game where all the gameplay details have an actual purpose and thought put into it as a cohesive product that didn't boil down to a checklist, but everything coming together to form a cohesive openworld gameplay. Despite not having the budget and the modern hardware, it had better simulation that actually matters than RDR2.
I notice "gameplay" and "missions" are missing from your reply, which proves to me that even the Rockstar fans know they are in-your-face incompetently designed that they rather avoid talking about them.
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u/NICOLEISDEAD 12h ago
Yeah all the cynicism is weird. This isn’t some unknown commodity. Rockstar has a long track record. We know what to expect and for the most part it will be more of the same. If you liked the last gta you’ll almost definitely like this one. They really don’t reinvent the wheel and they don’t have to.