Go back

'Grand Theft Auto VI' Extended Look Instant Reactions | Button Mash

71m 25s

'Grand Theft Auto VI' Extended Look Instant Reactions | Button Mash

GTA 6’s Netflix extended look delivers a visually stunning, highly polished experience that blends the open-world chaos of classic GTA with the immersive, realistic tone of Red Dead Redemption 2. The gameplay showcases granular details, cinematic camera work, and seamless interactions—like character switching via R1 and realistic NPC behavior—suggesting a deeply lived-in world. While the game retains core GTA elements such as freedom and violence, it introduces meaningful consequences through systems like the honor system and character-driven romance, where player choices affect outcomes and relationships. Despite strong visuals, key questions remain, especially around multiplayer integration, which may take time to build, and the game’s tonal balance between wild freedom and simulation. The absence of certain features—like planes, helicopters, or full vehicle classes—leaves fans eager for more. The trailer’s authenticity, cultural references, and subtle storytelling moments deepen its appeal. Even more significant is the cultural impact: GTA 6 is poised to become a monocultural phenomenon, dominating discourse and fan engagement for months. While leaks and controversies (notably the cyber leak saga) have added drama, the overall reaction is one of high anticipation and cautious optimism. Fans are excited, yet aware that the game’s success will depend on how well it balances freedom, realism, and consequence—ensuring it feels both fresh and true to the franchise’s legacy.

Transcription

12790 Words, 66551 Characters

English
(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome into The Ringerverse, your nexus feed for all things fandom. I am Ben, booby Lindbergh, senior editor at The Ringer, button Nash host. And just as Lucia has heard Jason, we have ours. Joining us now, post of The Ringer's wait a second podcast. It's Jason Concepcion, hi Jason. - Delayful to be here. - Always lovely to have you here on button Nash and The Ringerverse at large. Also with us, is a midnight boy. Jomi Adeneron, hi Jomi. - It's good, fellas. I'm ready to get back to Vice City. Let's go. - Me too. We just got our first non-leaked, legally sanctioned look at Grand Theft Auto 6 gameplay. Via the GTA 6 extended look on Netflix, we had time to take it in twice. We have hardly digested it, but we just wanted to hop on the mic and get a reaction out here, even before this trailer hits YouTube. And it was nice to see some GTA gameplay and footage without a meme coin ad plastered on top of it. That was a nice little treat. And as Jason says to Lucia, damn, worth the wait. Shall we say the same? - I'm sure people are going to be going frame by frame scouring this thing for insights, but overall impressions. I think the first needle drop in this extended look was Let Your Love Flow by the Bellamy Brothers. Is that what we will be doing? We'll be letting our love flow. Jason, would you care to let some love flow? - Off rip. You're just blown away by how it looks. It looks unbelievable. It looks granular, you know. If you're catching it like out of the corner of your eye or a little bit far away or like this, like it's almost like a photo reel issue. And then once you get beyond that, I was overwhelmed. I was both overwhelmed and underwhelmed. Overwhelmed in that, it looks amazing. All the stuff you can do, the gunplay, the, et cetera. Underwhelmed in that, I didn't see anything that was like, here's the new thing that's added to GTA. It's GTA. - Yeah. From what I've seen, I like the new cleaner HUD without all the stuff in it. I loved some of the new camera angles that you were seeing and what I assume are cut scenes or maybe dynamic, active action scenes appeared to be GTA to me. I don't know, but I'm a tremendously excited. - Yeah. I think I'm sold. I think I'm gonna get the game. What do you guys think? I think you're gonna get, I was considering to see this one out, you know? - I was debating. I was on the fence. - I was on the fence. - Yeah. - Oh no, yeah. - Now, you guys watched the leaks? - Cyber leaks sold me before this did, but yeah, we'll get into the cyber leaks saga. Joe, me, you abstained. You waited. - I'm an ethical consumer. (laughing) - I did. - You waited for GTA marriage to enjoy. - Yeah. - Exactly. Between this and Avatar, I was like, no. I'm not letting you guys win. I'm watching this what I'm supposed to. - Yeah. - But to Jason's point, man, this is a game that when they tell you it took 13 years to make, you can see, you can see why. The thing just looks incredible. The scene, the polish, I was talking to Jacob in the back, and he was like, this is like red dead redemption to style just put into the GTA format. The way it looks is incredible. The way it sounds, the gameplay. Yeah, it doesn't, I don't think it's reinvention the wheel. - Right. - By any stretch of the imagination. But, man, when there's a part where you're out, you're playing this Jason shooting the back of a car, it stops, and then you switch to Lucia, and you start driving. I'm like, all right, that kind of does feel cool. That kind of does feel like a move, you know what I mean? - That was a next gen moment. - Yeah, that was awesome. - That was right, right. - GTA V had character switching, but the system that they've set up here, and there were still some questions about how exactly this would work. And we gotta look at it here. It seems super simple and streamlined. It looks like, at least on PlayStation, you press R1, and that's that, and you just switch characters. There's one shot we see of Lucia parachuting off a building, and you press R1, you see a map screen, and then you just switch to Jason, who is presumably somewhere on the other side of the city, sort of in real time. But, you are alluding to this. There's a car chase going on. Lucia's literally riding shotgun. Jason's driving the car, and you could just do an instantaneous change, which is pretty interesting because it suggests that there are multiple ways to play this game and to approach each mission. If you wanna be the wheelman or wheel woman, if you wanna be the drive-by shooter, you can do that. It seems like there's some flexibility in terms of do you wanna stick together as a couple? Do you wanna go off on your own and do different things divide and conquer? So we still don't know exactly how that's gonna work, but it sure seems like you can kind of take your own personally tailored approach to playing through this thing. Which, that's quite compelling. I think it's less like, all right, this character does this mission, that character does that mission. You can kind of do it the way you want based on what we've seen so far. - We got a little bit of a look at the honor system. - Yes. - I will be interested to see this being GTA, how that will work since this is a game and a game series that I think incentivizes extremely dishonorable behavior at all times. - Yeah. (laughing) - Can you still go to the strip club and be honorable? Is my question right? If I go there, if I sit there at all, if I throw all my ones, right? - Yeah. - If I throw I, I look respect for you. - Right. - Don't put your hands on anyone. - Yeah. - We gonna get you to medical school. You don't have to live like this. I can help you, I can save you. Is that ethical hoops? - Is it? (laughing) - It is so, that is one of my big questions about this. And I wanna get into sort of this hybrid, the synthesis of GTA and Red Dead, which it seems like we're seeing here, just to pull back a bit. So what we actually saw here, because as some people might be listening to this, they may not have been able to view this yet. It's kind of a flex to do it this way at all, right? To do the Netflix premiere, the six hour exclusive window, not a lot of games. I think would command that kind of crossover attention to eventize this, even though they did say, you know, people can co-stream this. And so it's not fully exclusive. Nonetheless, there's something to the Netflix unveiling. I don't know whether you guys had this experience. I was expecting this tile to be plastered on the home screen. It was not for me, at least. - Yeah, it was fine. - I know, I searched GTA, nothing came up. I had to search the full grand theft auto to get to it. It wasn't highlighted on the home screen, at least for me, which was somewhat surprising. Nonetheless, I was having some issues connecting. It was asking me if I wanted to update my app. I was like, this is probably a terrible time to do that. And I gave up on that. So I think they were sort of swamped, as we've seen with Tyson fights or whatever else. Sometimes there's too much demands, but it seemed to have held up. But people didn't know what this extended look would look like. And so it turns out to be a roughly 26 minute compilation of footage. And there's kind of a cold open, which is just six uninterrupted minutes from one mission. At that point, I was wondering if that was what this was going to be, just one entire mission, which would have been also quite a flex. But it still is, I think, to just say, here's the game, and it speaks for itself, right? This is just all gameplay. It's not voice over. There are no tag lines. There's no, hey, here are the new features we're highlighting. It's just like, here it is. You want it, don't you? Which is, I guess not surprising, but not a lot of games, I think, could just lead with the gameplay itself and be confident that that would get everyone as hyped as this seems to have. Did that first mission, did that look like remind you guys of the first mission of GTA 5? Because that's the first thing I thought of. Yeah, a little bit. It was just like going through the hallway, things are happening. I'm like, okay, so you're like original boy Jason. Nothing new. I was like, this seemed very familiar to me. In a way that like, I don't mind it. Right, it's one thing for it to be like, okay, they're just taking all the old stuff and making it new again for new generation. But it just felt kind of like, oh, I recognize this. I've seen this before. I think the thing that will be interesting to me is, you know, thinking about the leap from Red Dead 1 to Red Dead 2. Red Dead 2, now I remember seeing the trailer for the first time, the volumetric God rays and all this, the animals and all the beautiful. Yeah. And you're thinking, okay, at least I was. Looks like Red Dead, but prettier, much of what I'm thinking now. But then when you fired it up, it was a significantly different experience, primarily in how much slower it was. The progression was meaningfully slowed down consciously. So like they clearly wanted you to feel like, hey, this is the 19th century. You're taking it slower. You're getting on your horse. It's going to take a minute to get your rope out. All this stuff. And so that is part of me wants to know. I almost wish there was a little bit of a developer monologue here, just to understand like, yes, this looks incredible. And I had those, that was my baseline. I knew it was going to look incredible, of course. Yeah. But what's moving through the world going to look like? I think if there is a criticism that you could have of Grand Theft over the years, it's like, combat is wonky. You're trying to look at a guy. The radical goes here. [BLANK_AUDIO] Look in there, how do I center my camera? It looked very seamless. This version of it, there's that moment where you see it is like one hand reloading a shot gun and you walk it through like a trap house? - That was sick, that was sick. - And the camera was just kind of centered in a way that I don't think I've seen before in a GTA. I'm not off to the shoulder, it was just kind of centered in a very cinematic way. And so I wanted those kind of quality of life, minute to minute play experiences, or really the thing that I'm interested in now. And to your point, that I think we talk a lot about monoculture as people who think about pop culture. I think this is it. If you want to know where monoculture is right now, I think it's Grand Theft Auto 6. - Yeah, which is really exciting to me. I'm just, I'm looking forward to playing this game. I'm also looking forward to other people playing this game. And just wallowing in the impressions and just the weeks of reactions to this thing, and the hot takes, and this puddle doesn't look good enough discourse probably, but I'm really looking forward to this just kind of dominating the culture for some time because yes, we have fewer monocultural moments. We've always had fewer of those when it comes to video games. So it's nice for video games to get the spotlight like that. And if this is just a once in a 13 year event, I'm just gonna give myself over to it. I want to read everyone's impressions and complaints and praise and all the rest of it and just live this life from November 19th through the end of the year and just embed fully in GTA 6. Maybe at some point, there'll be GTA 6 fatigue and we will all be ready to move on to the next thing, but I'm nowhere near that yet, which is exciting. - I'm excited. - Five is a current game. - It is, yeah. - Five is an active current game right now. - Yep, and that's what gave Rockstar and take to the long leash that they have had here 'cause they're printing money as we learned from other leaks, which again, only makes the company look stronger and more powerful. It's like, oh no, you revealed that we're generating a million dollars a day with our micro transactions in GTA Online or whatever we would do now. But because of that, that totally took the pressure off for them to take their time. And it's not like there's any one thing in GTA 6 or any GTA game that you can't find in any other game as you were sort of saying, you could watch a minute or two of this and it might look like a lot of other games. It's the combination of all of them in one package and then it's the realism and the granular detail and all of that. And maybe that's because Rockstar is uniquely talented and great at game development. It might also be because they got this first mover advantage. They had the first GTA before everyone else had GTA likes that kind of open world crime simulator. And now it's just this unbeatable brand so that they can take their time and perfect and polish this thing. And there was a preview piece that came out this week in Days Magazine, which had interviews with a lot of Rockstar developers and it was actually pretty illuminating. And one of the little tidbits there, the team that's working on this game is twice the size of the team that worked on Red Dead. And they have offices everywhere. They have one branch in L.A. dedicated almost solely to the world of NPCs in game pedestrians. Oh man. So everyone's like, wow, look how life like these NPCs are. Look at the variety of body types, look at the animations, look at how they have personalized the way that these characters look and sound. This 'cause they just have a whole office that's doing that, that's their whole job. So most companies do not have the luxury of time or money to devote to that. And so you have to cut corners somewhere. And that's the GTA difference, I think, is that they don't have to cut corners. They will just delay the game a year or two years or however many years it takes to deliver a product that they think will satisfy everyone. So that's where we are. And we're just a few months away. - It's gonna be that time, fellas. I've always been on the track that this game is never coming out. I will never see a lot of day, never. Jason, this is the winds of winter for you. - This is, I was the first one. Well, it might have been like one of the first pods we did on GTA and when it's supposed to come out last year and I was like, it's not coming out in 2025. - You were the, the George has no pages of the GTA pods, just, it's not coming out in 2025, it's impossible. Then it gets delayed in 2026 and I'm like, November 26th, I'm like, I don't know. You can still push that to like April 27th if you really wanted to, right? And so the fact that like, fellas, we're really here. We're only like a couple months away from like one of, to your point Jason, one of the big moments of monoculture, finally coming to a head when GTA 6 comes out. I mean, you talked about it on, wait a second, great episode, you should listen to it. Where the military is offering people four days off to play the game. If you're realist for two more years. This is not a, this is not a bit. This is not a joke. This is really happening right now. And the fact that in a couple months, we're gonna be able to like go into this game and like play to still kind of surreal to me. - Yeah, I always wonder when you're the person who's playing in the captured footage that a billion people are gonna watch. Do you, do you mess up intentionally, occasionally to make it more life like? Cause you're right Jason, like this seems much more streamlined than GTA combat we've seen before. Whoever was playing barely missed a shot in these 26 minutes since like, this is not quite true to my personal experience where I will probably lift a little less confident. - I was wonder, do you just kinda, you know, do you sandbag a little bit? Do you just like, wide right on a shot just to sort of simulate the authentic GTA playing experience? But then you don't wanna make it look like the combat system is unintuitive and that you can't target the character you're trying to shoot. So this person was practiced. This was a professional they got playing this thing. - It might also be that the playable character in question, either Jason and Alessia in these scenes had been training at the shooting range, doing their jogging, you know, like building up the character - Bench pressing? - In a way that bench pressing, you know, not eating too many hamburgers and stuff in the back, doing the backyard boxing and just working so that their targeting is on point. That's another thing that I can't wait to see is the RPG elements of this. They've really, all the reporting points do them really integrating more RPG elements, which they've had, you know, since for a while in GTA and certainly Red Dead 2 took it to a different level but it really feels like they have Tom Agacciized the experience to the point that your playable characters are going to feel like. I think this is the hope living, breathing people that you have to make sure they're, you know, they're glucose is low, they're getting lean protein and they're getting the right amount of cardio. - Yeah, and you gotta get your sleep, which is challenging for me as someone. It's just white knuckling it through sleep deprivation at all times, evidently that actually takes a toll on your character attributes, which I'm sure it doesn't real life too. It's just that I'm too tired to notice how impaired I am, but unfortunately when I'm playing the game, my stats are gonna significantly decrease if I don't go back to the safehouse and get some Z's or something. I have been wondering about that. So there's precedent, obviously San Andreas, right? You can bulk up or slim down, you can hit the weights, that affects, you know, how much stamina you have, that sort of thing. So we're bringing that back and that's part of the red edification here. And for anyone who didn't read Jason's red dead two review, way back when on TheRinger.com, what a great website. I'd encourage you all to do that because you really touched on that deliberate, uncompromising pace, right? This was like, we're in the, in the old west, you know, this is like, things should be hard, right? The button presses should be kind of complicated. Things should not necessarily come easy to you. And it seems like what they're aiming for, based on everything we've seen and read, is some sort of synthesis of the two, where we had the over-the-top old school GTA, where despite occasional RPG elements, you could kind of run rampant, do what you want, that world was your oyster. You could go on some incredible killing spree. And yes, maybe the military would call out the tanks at some point, but, you know, you were free to cause havoc and mayhem. And this game, which seems to be placing some limitations on you. And so what I keep wondering is, where's the sweet spot? Do they find the perfect balance? Do they find the best of both worlds of RDR and GTA? Or do you somehow detract from this perfect sandbox you've built? Let us play in it. Let us do our thing, right? And so if you feel like, oh, suddenly, I have to fuel up my car when I want to escape the cops, right? Come on, man, you can run out of gas. It's like, do I want that? Is that cinematic, you know? French connection. Like, are you pulling over for a refill, right? And so, but then there's something satisfying about that simulation aspect. Like that really grounds you in this world, maybe makes it more immersive. So where's the sweet spot there? Like, if you can't carry your entire arsenal on your person at all times, if you have to stash weapons, if you have to stash money, if you have a stamina system with the hand-to-hand combat, if there are things that are kind of tying your hands, does that get frustrating? Or does that feel like, no, actually, we've elevated the formula. And so this is much more satisfying because it feels more real. So where do you come down on that Jason? I hope they do that. Maybe this will be divisive and people won't like that. I think the thing that is sustained. GTA GTA 5 in particular all the way through here is the role playing entire like servers of people who are like cops and robbering this experience to make it feel real. And I think that's a thing that Red Dead explored to me very effectively and that I think GTA could go even further with. I think that they could take it there so that when this game launches and develops a fan base of its own and a role playing fan base of its own there's more tools in that box to create that role play world of like yeah I'm running from the cops. I gotta call my guy and be like this is a thing that happened by the way recently in LA there was a guy going running from the cops on a dirt bike. He called somebody and was like I'm running at a gas leave me like a can of gas in the park and he rode into the park found the can of gas in his friend left and like dumped it into the thing and drove off. I think that would be really cool. Yeah personally which people be frustrated by that maybe yeah but I hope they do it. I think it's tough for me like because yeah honor system is great it's a way to like level players out and you know you could you very much welcome to play the game the crazy way or whatever but you can't do that and also bring back the six star right now that's what I want to want to do. First thing I hop in the game all right let me get that six star let me see what it's all about man GTA five you only had five right they four had six so they're bringing that back I would like to have some fun get it you know get the get the military called all me at least one time but I can't do that if the honest system will play now my game plays hampered I don't know. I was wondering about this too I was talking to a friend of mine my oldest friend who we have a a year's long tradition of whenever a GTA game comes out which doesn't happen often we drop everything and just marathon it take time off from work whatever it takes unless your job is playing GTA which is if you can work that out the way that we have them do that but he was wondering you know as this gets more and more life like does there then become kind of a moral quam about simulating just completely unrestricted violence you know like one of the leaked scenes we saw the other day you're just riding down a beach and everyone is wowed by the waves and the lighting but also just the variety and body types it's kind of incredible you know so often in games you just have a crowd of NPCs they're all sort of shaped the same you know they look more or less the same here it is actually individually tailored and so if this game looks this good then you know it's like you're riding down a beach in a post bondy beach world not to get too heavy about things it's like is there any hesitation on rock stars part to just let you go wild you know to like create these incredibly differentiated NPCs who seem like lifelike and then let you waste them all you know to your hearts content and you know there's always been some moral panic surrounding GTA right and that was more true in the early 2000s than it is today even back then you went to a beach and there might be like three NPCs and and some paper flying around you know it was just kind of a ghost town and yet back then because it was new this was the post-colon buying world today it looks incredibly primitive but at the time it seemed super lifelike and obviously you had the whole uproar over uh you know think of the children right we're creating a whole generation of people who were conditioned to want in violence from GTA and I think that's you know most people at least who study this scientifically and in good faith find that there's no connection between actual violence and playing violent video games but I do wonder about the backlash just the more realistic this gets and we learned from that days to preview it does seem as if you can just get a wanted level via open carry I mean it's not exactly like can you carry a pistol or something is that okay if you're just strutting around with an assault rifle or something cops are gonna come after you so it's not just that NPCs are gonna have some scared emote and are gonna dive out of the way or something like you're a wanted man if you're just wondering around right and so what happened in my country this is America this is a second amendment I mean if I have a rocket launcher yeah I shouldn't be able to walk into a warmer right yeah pick up my stuff and leave it's unamair this is crazy and nonetheless this is extremely unamair wow so I wonder whether I don't know if that's because it fears of of a backlash or whether it's because this system this franchise has to evolve somehow it can't just be cookie cutter carbon copy GTA but a little bit prettier and so maybe this is one way to make the series evolve and mature is to say actually violence has to mean something here there have to be some stakes but then the people who play GTA and this is not a small group who play it less for the story than to just run around and destroy stuff then I just wonder whether you know you're gonna feel like I'm kind of handcuffed here figuratively and literally if I actually do what you have conditioned to do in all the previous 3d GTA so I'm hoping that this is a happy medium and look there are six stars still so I'm sure that you can get up to do good in this game I don't think you know you're gonna get pulled over for for running a red or something and that's gonna be that so I do have faith that you know they will find some perfect balance here but but that'll be an adjustment I think if you actually have to consider oh wait I have to kind of cosplay like I have to do a little larking here because I can't just run around and do whatever I want and expect no consequences for that so I'm more thoughtful approach to playing this this game that might actually be refreshing I'm kind of excited about that there is a part in the the extended look where they they're running from the cops they switch cars they burn the car and they get into this like little van and they stop at a stop sign and that was notable because I don't know if you guys have ever played GTA but I've never stopped at a stop sign no no no I've never stopped at a red light yeah so I'm looking around I'm like okay you actually might have to you got to follow the rules here ah this is it's gonna be very new I imagine a lot of people are gonna come in yeah with GTA I'm gonna blow this whole thing out I'm gonna go crazy and then when the game when the game you know different words you for that but like what happened I thought I was playing GTA every they got to like lay the first thing going to be like hey guys if you do some crazy messed up stuff it will affect your gameplay we got to let you know now because people will come in have a ball and then realize uh oh I kind of I may have met messed up there some of the big questions that I had about this which I wrote about at the ringer a couple months ago I mean what is just like will the wild factor be there as we're saying because GTA 5 came out a couple console generations ago but it keeps coming out and so it has looked better and better and so has everything else and the leaps from one generation to the next get smaller and smaller so will you watch this thing and think well my mind is blown my jaw is dropped and debatable right I mean it does to some extent look like GTA but better but prettier and I would say if anything this might undersell how impressive it will look in action I think because even though as is the case with rocks are typically it it says captured on ps5 like this is gameplay I don't know if it's base ps5 or ps5 pro I guess they could say captured on ps5 and it could be ps5 pro for the privileged ps5 pro owners like myself I asked rock star they have not answered about that yet but I think the streaming you know like there's some compression when you're watching something on Netflix as opposed to just playing it in 4k on your own TV and then I think the interactivity adds so much to it too it's like you know when you feel like you're in that world as opposed to watching footage of someone else play it just it hits harder right then it does when you're watching something that you are not directly controlling so it looks incredible you know that that alone but like the nuance is just the lighting right the nighttime scenes the yeah atmospheric depiction of by city enhanced by the needle drops and the soundtrack I was wondering because you know a lot of this is interacting with a phone and and you can sort of scroll social media food feeds and we saw some streaming stuff here whether the music playing would be personalized too you know because that is how most people play music now it's not so much just listening to whatever's on the radio you're curating your own playlist it seems like from from what we've heard so far that they are still sticking with the radio model right which which might suit the game better even if it seems slightly anachronistic but there's just nothing that can compare with that feeling of just like cruising down a street in by city the sun is setting the perfect song is playing it's just like something about seeing those little scenes you know more so than than the havoc that's what makes me want to get my hands on this game and it's a strange thing because it's like I could just go outside you know I live in New York City there's a lot going on out there and yet I want to be in the game seeing the simulation of real life way more than I want to just go stand on the street and watch actual people walk around is something about that it's just like so much more impressive to me than real life If it's like I'm watching them kayak, I could just go kayaking. it's not that far from me. I'm near, I live near the Hudson River, but I'm probably not going to do that. I did that once, but kayaking in the game. I mean, I don't have to get all wet and and rent a boat and such. So the water's probably better than GTA. Yeah, for sure. Potentially less toxic too, but, but yeah, like, it's those little moments that that stood out to me the most about the trailer, even just like, you know, the scene of the fan boats in the swamp, the water. And I don't know if it was manatees or what just swimming around under water, scuba diving, right? Like, it was an interesting choice because there was just a compilation, just a montage of all different, you know, it's like, plopping us into part of one mission. Then we're going to a different neighborhood. We're seeing something else just a little snippet of this activity or that activity was just like, let's give everyone a cross section, a sense of what is available to them, even though it's a bit disjointed to see it all without any kind of connective tissue. Were there any like side activities that you spotted here, anything like that that was kind of off the beaten path that impressed you? Not so much. Even the phone stuff is very interesting to me. To your point about wow factor and just stuff looking better, that doesn't last. Yeah. As we all know, like that is the last for five minutes, you know, and then once you're in the game, you know, it's like, I think about what San Andreas or any of the old GTA, what that experience was like before the new game came out and I was just like locked it. You're not thinking about the graphics at that point. But the phone part of it is interesting. I've been playing Cyberpunk 1777 and I think that has been a great utilization of devices in a game, you know, you can text, you can call, you can do other stuff and it's pretty seamless as part of your interaction with the other NPCs in the game. And I would expect that Rockstar would do something better and more relatable as a personal device in the year 2026 to the player. Like I would expect there to be other podcasts to the other podcast episodes that come out like over the course of the game, you know, like it's been five days in game time and there's a new podcast episode of this episode of this the Joe Rogan, you know, like I expect that. I expect them to do something like that and I certainly expect that texting, phoning, streaming, video calls, video conferencing, all of that stuff is going to be implemented in a really interesting way. So that's the relationship between the character and their devices and the internet I think is something I'm really interested in seeing. Yeah, and I don't want the totally personalized experience. I don't want to like import my own playlist into GT6, even if eventually you could do that in a PC mod. I want this curated for me. I want to see the Rockstar experience and what that looks like and sounds like. I thought just we got a glimpse of scuba diving. That looked, you know, right. Pretty nice. Just underwater environments. The water looks just flexing now. Yes. The water looks lovely. He's just chilling on now. He's going underwater. Yeah. You don't drown instantly when you touch water. That's nice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, you know, like the facial animations, pretty, pretty impressive, even when you're not looking at a cutscene. It's just like that Rockstar touch of just doing everything a little bit more and a little bit better than anyone else does just with a bigger budget and more time and attention to detail. Lots of racing footage in this trailer, street racing, dirt bike racing. Not that that's brand new, but it looks like there's going to be a big emphasis on that in this game as well. I mean, I'm looking forward to seeing some of the country side, you know, off the beaten path like we saw a lot of cityscapes here in different neighborhoods of by city, but aside from that swampy area, we didn't see so much like the the Mount Chiliads equivalent kind of, you know, just wondering the the back roads of GTA, which is often my favorite. South Florida not known for its elevations, I don't think so. Maybe not mountains, but yeah, I want to lose myself in the wilderness a little bit and see what's waiting for me out there. And, and yes, you can pet the dog so we confirmed that in GTA 6. Yes. And that is when you see that honor boost, right? So yeah, this was something that came out in the leaked footage as well. And yeah, we've seen this, you know, this is a red dead thing as well, but that goes hand in hand with what we were talking about before with like how naughty can we be in this game? What will the consequences of being bad in this game be? Like you don't, you know, to play GTA and and be a choir boy, basically, it seems like we're wasting the potential, but then that's the thing that makes me think like, Jesus Christ, what is bad in GTA? Right. Like, right. Serial killer type. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They better be egregious. So that was in one of the leaked clips, I think, like, you know, Jesus was in a fight. And then only when you start beating someone when they're down, do you get the the honor subtraction? Because so often in games, it's this very binary kind of cut and dry, you know, paragon or, you know, it's just like the obvious good choice or the obvious bad choice. I'm going to assume it'll be a little more nuanced and complex and subtle than that, I hope. And then how big an impact on gameplay does that have? Does it affect your relationship with Lucia and Jason? Does it affect, you know, what you're able to do in the city? Is it just like our NPCs cowering in fear when you approach or hailing you as a hero or are there real consequences to that and does that again, enhance the gameplay, make you feel like you're really in this world. Or do you then feel the pressure to perform the way that you do? It's like in GTA 4, I often had the experience because Nico is constantly like wanting to turn over a new leaf, wanting to stick to the straight narrow. And then as soon as I get control of Nico, I'm committing heinous atrocities. And then we're going right back to the cut scene where he's like, man, sure got to stop being bads all the time. And that always felt slightly discordant. So I wonder if this is the way of trying to resolve that tension. It's like, you know, trying to usher us into better behavior, but not not being on our best behavior that I wouldn't want. I was just going to say, like, how do you all feel about the racing? Because I, one of the things I like about 2077 is you can be like, you know what? I don't want to do the street race to the character who's offering it to you. I'm good. Yeah. And what do we think? Is that something that you would want to in a GTA? Obviously, you can just not, you can just let your cue fill up. But do you want that to be part of your characters like response system? Just be like, you know what? I'm not really a straight short race guy person offering me this. I'm good. Yeah. So here's things, Jason. Yeah. It's probably the closest we'll get to a midnight club three double edition in play in 2026. Yeah. So at this point, you might as well. Let's have some fun. You know, let's, let's live our, our childhood memories out and pick a race from time to time. Yeah. There was, there was like a lot of footage on that with the dirt bikes and like in the city. Not all that. So like, I mean, they put emphasis in time and money anyway, you gotta at least see what it's all about before you, you know, just be like, all right, I'm good off this race and stuff. Yeah. It could be fun. Driving in GTA is not my strong suit or in real life for that matter, very little experience behind the wheel. So when I play, I typically hand off the driving sequences. My friend is the wheel man. We kind of do a Jason Lucia real-time swap of the controller. We have our, our particular set of skills. And that's not mine necessarily, but no, I, I hope that, you know, it's good when they at least make you dabble in the range of activities, right? So maybe there's an initial race that you have to do or something. And then beyond that, maybe you can go as deep into that as you want and you can specialize and you can take your pick and kind of, you know, make it a little less linear in experience. But I, I do want to kind of be forced to sample at least every system in the game, you know, give me the guided tour of what's available to me and then give me some choice about what I want to do. But I'm also wondering, you know, this was one of my big questions coming in. It's like, okay, we're talking about maybe a hybrid form of gameplay. Also, there's going to be some shift in tone here from the over the top old school sort of softmouric GTA that we know. And there's still certainly some of that here, right? There's definitely some some mood humor. We've still got the like satirical ads on the TV that you can sit and watch that sort of thing. But we do have a female playable protagonist, a non-white playable protagonist, a couple, a love story. They're really going for the Bonnie and Clyde thing here. And romance has never really been at the heart of the GTA experience, you know, hot coffee, some sex, stripcrubs. Yes. But meaningful romantic relationships. No. So we don't know exactly how that's going to work. Can we trust Rockstar to do that? Well, we still don't know whether that aspect of the game will be satisfying. But I thought some of the little character moments here, you know, like when they're ready, they're getting ready to go to the meat. They're talking about what to wear, whatever it is. Like some of that more more sensitive, lower key stuff. That was kind of encouraging, but this is an all gonna be sort of silly, totally over at the top GTA as it has in the past. - So I'm worried, you guys. - Uh oh, actually, this is great, Jason, because I just want to take people back away to our Dispatch episode. - Oh yeah, you were unlucky in love. - Play Dispatch, unlucky in love, in a way that the creators of the game are virtually impossible. - I didn't know you could strike out the best. - You got to listen to episode that cannot believe it. - And so for GTA 6, it turns out that there is a bit of a romance thing, right? Like you can, depending on like if you and Jason, and like if you guys hang out outside of missions through the whole thing, like whether or not you end up as a couple at the end of the game, is based on how you play with those two characters how you interact. And so now I'm like, oh man, because it didn't go well in Dispatch, which was bone dry, easy, anybody, a monkey with two fingers in a blanket had done it. And now I have to do this in GTA 6 amongst the millions of other things going on, the honor system, China, you know, get them off the street, the whole thing, fellas is cooked. - We see it will leave you somehow in this game. And you will not be able to switch to her character anymore. You will blaze a new trail in Grand Theft Auto. - It's forever alone. - It's tough, man. I'm already thinking about, I'm already thinking about what's gonna happen to the end of the game. It's gonna be like, I need, I need her to be there for me. And she's not gonna be there because I was out there to strip love too late at night at 3 4 a.m. - Yeah, it's gonna come for you to track. - It's cooked. (laughs) And do they go all the way, not to spoil Bonnie and Clyde, but not a happy ending in that movie and story and actual real life couple. Are we heading for a tragedy or can we change that? Will there be multiple endings? I was also wondering, would there be any sign that things are dated just because of how protracted the development has been? That we've had a 13 year gap. Not that the game was an active development that entire time, obviously they made RDR in the middle. But would we be able to see like, oh, this is probably an idea that they had in 2017 or something. And here we are in 2026 and it seems of that era 'cause each GTA is kind of a time capsule. It's like, oh right, this is what life was like, you know, at the time the game came out. I don't know about you guys. I didn't see any particular. I mean, other than the reliance on the radio, maybe it doesn't seem as if there's anything that hit me over the head like, oh yeah, this is a 2010s relic in my 2026 game necessarily. And maybe it's kind of a collage of eras and memes and Florida people. But, you know, it seemed more or less of this moment as far as we could tell from this trailer, right? - The only thing that was, I was thinking about was the Wix. The guy in the first, the first scene. At the Wix, I don't know if you-- - Enough of it at the Wix, Ben Lambert. - Air styles. Yes, there were, there was a certain, you know, not a lot of people rocking the Joby Cut in that scene that I saw. - They ain't got the high, they ain't got the high tip of faith. - But I was like, okay, Wix, all right, for sure. That's like, you know, I mean, it's not like a way out the way. This is like, you know, early, like, you know, COVID, early 2020, 2021 type of stuff. But I mean, people were probably still even rocking it out to this day. But I was like, oh, okay, I just, I was just like, interesting. I didn't know Rockstar was that deep into it, you know what I mean? I didn't know Rockstar had feet on the ground journalism. But clearly, they're locked in, they know more. - Yeah, there is a meme about how just every black character in a video game has this kind of like, dreads, comb over kind of Miles Morales look, right? And there's a little bit of that here, but at least some variety. I mean, obviously they're going for, for very similar to it and respectful life-like portrayals. And they've talked a big game about how they've embedded a whole team in Miami for research. And, you know, they're trying to be authentic and everything. So, yes. - For research. - Dude, could you imagine being those guys? Yeah, I mean, that's my strip club trip. - I got to start this, I got to start this co-op. - Yeah. - Maybe listen. Maybe listen. - One thing Onyx told me last night when we were getting out of the club, you're very interesting. Comment to me about the culture of the place. - Yeah. - Baby, Tyler Hero, you know, I was, I was, I was going to go home. - Yeah. - Well, Tyler Hero was like, come out. I was like, I had to do it. I mean, we were one up. We went to, you know, it was just, I got home at 6 a.m. But I got to do it for Rockstar, maybe. It's for the fans. - Yeah. - For the fans. - Yeah. One thing that seemed slightly, you know, we've seen this before. It's like the bullet time slow motion kind of landing headshots and then the kill replace, you know, you hit a headshot and then we flash to like the slow motion blood spatter. I feel like we've seen enough of that. Maybe over the past decade or two, that feels slightly dated to me, maybe. But I did notice as you said, Jason, like the UI looks pretty clean here. - Very clean. - Maybe that's just-- - Noticably clean. - Yeah, maybe that's just the choice they made for this trailer. I'm sure it's customizable and you can load it up with mini maps or whatever else you want. But yeah, there was not a ton on the screen here, which just made it more cinematic. And, you know what I want. - I want a dynamic replay of like my action scenes, my gun fights where I can just play it back and the engine cuts it like an action movie. Like, fucking John Wick, and then I can just rewatch the play. - Yeah, I guess they're aiming for it just looking like that in real time. That's the goal here. But we'll see if they get there. You know, another thing that we still have no idea of and like we're pretty late in the game here. Obviously like pre-orders opened a while ago. So they asked people to buy this game before actually showing them the game. And many people obliged did not need to see a connection. But, and it's not as if they've really like done hands on previews and stuff a lot further before release, but at least relative to when pre-order started they did. One thing we still have no idea about is the multiplayer component, which ultimately that's gonna be the centerpiece of this thing for a lot of people, right? I mean, sure this thing will come out for PS6 or PS7 or whatever if we even still are making consoles at that point and there's any RAM left in the world. But for the staying power of this thing and ultimately the money-minting power of this thing, it's gonna be whatever the successor is to GTA Online. And we still have no idea what the plan is for that. And GTA V launched initially without GTA Online and then that launched shortly after. And then it took a while for it to find it stride. Maybe the same thing will happen here, but we don't even really know. Like an online listing did specify that it's a single player experience, but obviously not permanently. So for how long? What are they gonna do? Is there gonna be a version of GTA Online that sort of swallows the existing GTA Online? Will there just be a GTA Online 2? Will there be some hub where you can play in multiple cities? Like we have no idea of how they're gonna handle that, which is pretty wilds this close to release. GTA V Online came out like a couple weeks after, right? - Yes. - Like a multi-shell? - Yeah. - I imagine with the way it's, I mean, 13 years, it might be a minute, right? That's might be like a 2027 outfit. I'm like, it just, because you put so much effort. And again, everything we've been talking about for the last hour or so, about how much effort, how much detail, how granular that this story in this world, what it looks like and how it feels like, right? To now then do that and have to like pour in how many, you know, millions of people to play in like a different server, whatever it may be, brothers, it just seems like, whoo, let's pump the brakes on this one. We just got your GTA 6. We're gonna give you our GTA 6. Let's, we'll work on the online in the, in the, in the, in the, in the inter. - Yeah, you know, I think, I think two things about the online. The first is that they don't meaningfully need to reinvent the wheel on that. It will, my guess is it will be, it will look in large part exactly like GTA 5 online, various events, a kind of co-op-ish, kind of multiplayer experience, where you can also be adversarial towards other players. I think that the, my question and knowing nothing is, I'm with Jomi, I think it's gonna take a while. I think it's gonna take longer than GTA 5. And I, for the simple reason of, they're probably not gonna be able to use the GTA 5 infrastructure. They're probably gonna have to build more resources, right? Or compile more compute, et cetera, server racks, et cetera, to run GTA 6 multiplayer independently of GTA 5. Like they're not just gonna pull the plug and say, let's move all these computers over GTA 6, right? They're not gonna do that. And so I think that's gonna take a minute, considering how hard it is to get computer stuff. These days, I think it might take a while. - We'll see. I'll certainly have plenty of time. I mean, my heart will be content to just run around this massive virtual by city without anyone else for some number of weeks or months, 'cause it's gonna take that long to see all that there is to see. So that we saw a lot, among the things we didn't see that we haven't talked about, the last voice-overline in this look, You know, it's sort of a self-congratulatory. patting themselves on the back, maybe these are the glory days. If this right now was all that there is, all the time, it would be perfect. Trust me is what we hear. And that's almost a message to us from Rockstar. And a lot of people did trust them that they would deliver after 13 years. And I think this largely lives up to the hype based on what we saw. But is there anything that we didn't see that you are still really wondering about aside from the multiplayer, the romance, some of those aspects, just anything bigger, small, that you're still show me this? Plains, aircraft of any kind, and if I'm scuba diving, where is my cartel subroom? That'd be great. You're asking the real questions. Yeah, so we didn't see entire classes of vehicles that I fully expect to be in this game. So that is interesting to me. We didn't in this look, at least, thanks to Cyberleaf. Yeah. We got a clip. Yeah. Right. Yes. No, it's true for a game that's built around jacking cars, like helicopters, planes, even going back to the dodo, which was barely airborne, just being able to experience the city that way and get the bird's eye view look. And especially in this, if you can just parachute from anywhere, from a plane, I mean, yeah. So that's a big thing that they withheld here. That's a good one. Anything show me that you're itching to see still? No, I was thinking the same thing. Yeah. Like multitude of cars, planes, vehicles. I mean, again, the game was very, or the extended look was very story oriented. So I can understand why we didn't get to tell those. But I was like, man, we're not going to see no Titans, you know? No, nothing. Like a Fagio, nowhere. Like, what's going on? What happened to my, what happened to my game? No, that was, that was most, that was mostly it for me. Also, like, I mean, the, you mentioned the last line of the, of the extended look. And as soon as I heard that, I was like, I know who that is. Bobby Moynihan. I was like, I know that. Yeah. There were some recognized. Stephen Root for sure. Stephen Root. Stephen Root, the guy in there. And so I'm like, okay, they kind of rock star getting in the bag. I want to see who else they got in this thing. Some like rumor folks, sure, the leaks that you guys, that you guys have watched rock star. If you're watching, I didn't watch any leaks. I'm, I'm a G with it. I'm cool. But I'm sure there are like, I mean, if you're going to, you know, give us Stephen Root and Bobby Moynihan. Sure, there's a lot of other people in the cut in the story. I'm interested to see. Well, is entering the world of Phi City and GTA 6 that we might know. Yeah. Although, you know, sometimes I find the celebrity drop-ins almost a little distracting. It takes me out of the narrative a little bit, but I'm not going to, I'm not going to say, don't give me Stephen Root if you're offering Stephen Root to me. But sometimes it can be a little bit like, you know, oh, right. I say some right now. If I'm playing a game and I hear Shay Wiggum, 10 out of 10, we're going to see a lot of time. I tell you that right now. Yeah. Well, this was pretty darn impressive. I guess before we, we finished, we should just talk a little bit about the cyber leak saga. Even though Jomi has remained untainted by any illicit leaks, I'm sure you've been following this saga. As we speak, cyber leak is still at large. Whoever you are, they are. We don't know if this is a person, a group. But what odds do you give on cyber leak evading the long arm of the law here? First of all, because Rockstar has been, you know, subpoenaing discord and whatever else. It seems like people are Microsoft, yeah, they're hot on the trail and people have been documenting, you know, like they found the crypto wallet, right. And it appears that cyber leak has gotten out of the game now has cashed out and, you know, pumped up this meme coin and didn't do the typical pump and dump meme coin crypto scam. But was like profiting from the transactions on it that were advertised in the leaks and evidently made off with about 250k, which is, I mean, it's a nice haul. But is that going to be worth the eventual consequences here? It's just we don't know that Rockstar take to didn't also pay him. So that's, here's the thing. Here's the thing that conspiracy theory guy was going to wait a second. But yeah, oh, no, I don't know. The thing that made the leak, not like other leaks that we've seen is GTA six weeks that we've seen, you know, four years ago. Yeah, in the game, he had his character right leak into a wall with bullets showing that they had a playable build of the game. So this wasn't just like I hacked a discord and got gameplay clips and now I'm putting a gameplay play clips out. It's possible and certainly weak intimated that they had enough assets and an engine to like play the game outside of Rockstar infrastructure. So that's pretty huge and did Rockstar paying him to not release that stuff, not put it out or get it back. I don't know, it seems like he went away. They went away just asking questions. I'm just asking like this seems to me noticing noticing cyber ransom stuff happens all the time in a lot of different businesses. What happens in most of those situations is the company's pay and the person goes away just because like the whole thing is just way too complicated to get into. And so you we must ask the question like did was a ransom paid in order to make Mr or Miss Leaks stop doing so you're not suggesting that that this was all orchestrated by Rockstar just that that they they silenced cyber leaks somehow without putting them behind bars, which which could be coming. But no, it was really I mean it became kind of a appointment viewing it was just every every day days at a time for days on end we're going to get a new two minute clip here and you know this this conspiracy theory of course was circulating. Oh, this is all some sort of work, you know, this is like a ARG or something like rockstar is doing this to build up anticipation seem quite far fetched to me, but but I understand the conspiracy because it only helped really ultimately probably right I know that this is tough. I don't condone packing into hell for studios and servers and releasing footage and obviously if you've orchestrated this whole campaign you have this big net's like exclusive premier and everything and then someone comes along is just leaking things and drips and drabs like that's going to be frustrating and it's marked by this you know supposedly someone who's kind of campaigning for video game principles, but also is pumping up a meme coin at the same time. Give me a fucking yeah, really stepping up for physical, yeah, and also, but yeah, I mean, I you know it's tough for devs because they keep things close to the best for so long and how hard it is to keep the secrets and everything and then when you show it off you want to show it off to its best advantage and you don't want just things to come out and to kind of be at the mercy of someone you don't know what they have and how they got it and what could be coming next. Yeah, and I thought it was really interesting the statement that rocks are put out on Wednesday after being radio silent for for days of these leaks going on and you know they said it has been heartbreaking for our team. It's kind of uncharacteristic for rocks are to say anything usually they just let the game speak for itself and you know they'll take their sweet time and and we will wait and we will like it and we will pay them whatever they ask and 80 bucks and 100 bucks sure please give me more and they actually apologize multiple times in this statement which was interesting because part of it I think people were looking at cyber leak almost as some sort of like Robin Hood figure it's like well rock star just took too long and you're so secretive and you're asking us to buy the game and you haven't actually showed it to us and so here comes cyber leak actually giving us a look at this game that you will not divulge and they actually said we are very sorry that everything has taken as long as it has from getting the game finished nearly there to sharing more details and official gameplay and providing the community with everything you want to know so they didn't say like yeah we had this common like cyber leak was justified because we we dragged our feet but I did think that was interesting that they were like we're sorry that this took so long and we made you look so long and then they said well it is unfortunate that the intended game experience may now be impacted by some spoilers we hope that everyone will wait a bit longer to experience the games for themselves on November 19th and Jomi said you got it rock star I will wait as long as you want me to I guarantee sample the footage but that was interesting too because like it sounded as if they didn't know what was coming yet and that was another thing that I think got the public a little bit more on the side of cyber leak is that there were no real spoilers here because the footage was all just like you know he's shooting a basketball they paid him the last there was a little flurry at the end where it was just like rock stars about to show the official footage I better just use whatever I have here where there were a couple of scenes there was one pro log cutscene which I did not watch because I have no interest in being spoiled so if the game itself had leaked if serious spoilers had leaked then I think everyone would have turned against it because no one wants their experience to be spoiled after waiting this long right so the fact that we only got snippets of gameplay as a opposed to which made you wonder like, well, does this person have access to the whole game? Is there a reason why they're sitting on some of this stuff? We only saw Jason footage, not Lucia footage. Like, do they have some kind of limited bill or something? Or are they just trying not to like bring down everyone on the internet against them by, you know, get the six star wanted level by like releasing story spoilers or something. So that was an interesting choice. But the effect that it had ultimately was just getting people even more psyched for the game. Ultimately, it's, it's kind of immaterial because leaks are no leaks. Extended look or no extended look. Everyone's going to get the game. Like, it doesn't even matter how you market it or if you market it at all. Really, they have us where they want us. And so as hard as it may have been for them to have it come out this way. If anything, it only increased interest because a lot of people were looking at the beach footage and the NPCs and the plane footage and being like, oh, man, like, this is, this is what we wanted. And if anything, it just built anticipation leading into this trailer. So I don't think cyber leak stole rock stars thunder in any kind of quantifiable miserable way here. Like, it didn't decrease my hype. If anything, it increased it finally getting a look at this thing. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I, we said this like in the years we were talking about this game where you have to get GTA 6, right? There's no way you give a look or a launch. And it's not perfect because then you can't even, you mentioned cyberpunk 2017 or that came out and it was buggy and it didn't work. And it was an issue and people lost their minds, right? And eventually, they got it to a place where you play cyberpunk right now. It's spectacular. Fantastic. But you, you have one opportunity to make a first impression. And for a game with this much hype, with this much excitement behind it, you gotta nail it. So I don't fault rock star for playing things close to the chest and being like, we will slow roll what we show you because if it does not live up to your expectations, if it does not meet the certain level of quality, we're cooked. We are absolutely fried. And so I can understand. And that's why the, the, um, the apology to the people, that was like, oh my gosh, there they really mean this. They're really locked in because normally, when something leaks, I remember, man, the Somniac leaks a couple years ago, I haven't heard from the Somniac for years. After those leaks, they were like, we're gone. Don't talk to us. Don't hit us up. We know nothing. Not until Wolverine started coming back out today, uh, started showing back up again. For the most part, these companies don't say anything about it. They're like, they might release like a little statement like, sorry that happened. Uh, we will be better next time. And then they go ready to sign it for rock star to come out and say something like that. That means that that's why I believe it's real as much as I love entertaining Jason's, uh, Jason's theories for 250 came in. You gotta come on man. You gotta be better than that, brother. It's gonna be the, the bail you have to post when they finally catch you. So, you know what I mean? I mean, you better come up half a half a mill at least, brother. Come on. Who knows? He didn't. Maybe I've said it's cost me. He got that. We're not releasing other stuff. I'm just saying. But you know, Joey, you're right. I think that it's become a strategy nowadays in gaming to release a game that's unfinished. Starfield. 2077. Oh, man. No man's guy. And just be like, we'll update it. We'll update it. We'll update it. And the games, those are all really good to great games actually that have been updated to levels that are awesome. That honestly, me personally left me feeling like, why the fuck did I pre-ordered this? Why did I order the deluxe edition? Why did I do this? And the game is not just doesn't feel right. And it took me, I mean, it took me now what are three, four years to get back to 2077 and be like, let me get it. I hear it's good now. Let me give it a chance. And so I'm glad that Rockstar has that dedication to getting it right the first time and not the this kind of strategic money grab that we have seen other games and other companies do. Well, we still have a lot of questions. I don't generally advise people to pre-order games because what do you get out of it other than maybe pre-downloading so that you don't have to wait the second. It goes on sale. Yeah. But beyond that, you can do that hours in advance. You don't have to do that months in advance. But with a game like this, you know, you're probably, you're going to be missing out. This is going to be the ultimate FOMO experience because everyone will be talking about GTA 6. As will we here at Budmash? So there's still a lot. We don't know, you know, we got to look at this little minimal dialogue interface, which again goes with the sort of stripped down UI. It just looks like, you know, a button press to trigger dialogue. We don't know like is Rockstar going to get into political territory here? Is Rockstar going to get into the culture wars? We don't know. We didn't see any indication of that either way here. But I think it's going to melt our minds. If this was a base PS5, which seems to be the case probably, then it's going to look really impressive in person. I think, you know, the map is supposedly triple the size of red dead tooth, which is already enormous. So I mean, yeah, it's going to be maybe more of the same. And maybe just iteration as opposed to revolution. But that alone, I think, is enough to wet our appetites here. So we will bring you much more on GTA 6 in the weeks and months to come. And of course, we'll be covering the zillion games that are coming out before GTA 6 because they want nothing to do with coming out in that same time, including next week on Amusha orbitals, the blood of Don Walker, Marvel's Wolverine, the week after that, the Resident Evil movie, new control game, new Silent Hill, Galactic Racer, Gears of War is combat. It's going to be just a nuts, just sprint and bus rush of video games between now and November 19th. And then it will be full court press, all GTA, all the time. And hopefully we will have an opportunity to talk about it again. So thanks so much guys. I guess we should cop off so we can go watch this extended look several more times and enjoy the reaction when it hits YouTube. As one character says to Lucia, this could be the start of something good. I believe it will be for GTA 6. And as Stephen Root says, you got to know when to get off Jason, you hear me. I guess we got to get off this podcast right now. But everyone should check out, of course, Jomi and his fellow Midnight boys on the ringerverse as well as the wait a second podcast, which recently featured one Jomi Adeneron as a guest talking about Mark Walter and the Lakers. And Jason's many other podcasts outside the ringerverse, including X-ray vision, including a brand new podcast launching next week called organizing things, a good movie podcast with our old pal, Shay Serrano. So check that out too. Jason, I was a pleasure to listen to you. I was a pleasure to talk to you. Thanks for having me. You can contact us at ringverse gaming at gmail.com. Please share your impressions of this trailer, but Mesh will be back next week. [Music]

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. GTA 6’s first non-leaked, legally sanctioned look on Netflix generated strong excitement, with critics praising its visual polish and realism.
  2. The game appears to blend GTA’s open-world freedom with Red Dead’s atmospheric, slower-paced realism, creating a hybrid experience.
  3. Key innovations include dynamic character switching (via R1), a clean HUD, and a deeply immersive world with lifelike NPCs and detailed environmental interactions.
  4. The honor system introduces moral consequences for player behavior, raising questions about balance between freedom and realism.
  5. Romance mechanics are tied to player choices, with potential for a tragic or happy ending based on interaction with the couple.
  6. Multiplayer remains a major unknown, with no clear details on how it will evolve from GTA Online, likely requiring new infrastructure.
  7. A strong cultural moment is anticipated, with GTA 6 potentially dominating pop culture for months.
  8. The trailer features subtle nods to current culture (e.g., Wix, early 2020s fashion) and celebrity cameos (Stephen Root, Bobby Moynihan), adding authenticity.
  9. Cyber leak drama remains unresolved, with speculation that Rockstar may have paid to silence the leak, though no evidence confirms this.

Summary:

GTA 6’s Netflix extended look delivers a visually stunning, highly polished experience that blends the open-world chaos of classic GTA with the immersive, realistic tone of Red Dead Redemption 2. The gameplay showcases granular details, cinematic camera work, and seamless interactions—like character switching via R1 and realistic NPC behavior—suggesting a deeply lived-in world. While the game retains core GTA elements such as freedom and violence, it introduces meaningful consequences through systems like the honor system and character-driven romance, where player choices affect outcomes and relationships.

Despite strong visuals, key questions remain, especially around multiplayer integration, which may take time to build, and the game’s tonal balance between wild freedom and simulation. The absence of certain features—like planes, helicopters, or full vehicle classes—leaves fans eager for more. The trailer’s authenticity, cultural references, and subtle storytelling moments deepen its appeal.

Even more significant is the cultural impact: GTA 6 is poised to become a monocultural phenomenon, dominating discourse and fan engagement for months. While leaks and controversies (notably the cyber leak saga) have added drama, the overall reaction is one of high anticipation and cautious optimism. Fans are excited, yet aware that the game’s success will depend on how well it balances freedom, realism, and consequence—ensuring it feels both fresh and true to the franchise’s legacy.

FAQs

The game features a clean, minimal HUD, dynamic camera angles, and a character-switching system that allows players to switch between characters in real time, such as Jason and Lucia. It also includes realistic mechanics like stamina, honor systems, and the need to rest or refuel, making gameplay more immersive and life-like.

Yes, there is a romance system where player interactions with characters like Lucia and Jason influence their relationship. If players engage in negative behavior, such as being too aggressive, they risk losing the relationship. If they remain loyal, the relationship can grow, and the game may end with a happy or tragic outcome based on choices made.

The honor system tracks player behavior, penalizing actions like violence or stealing. Good behavior increases honor, while bad actions decrease it. This affects NPC reactions, such as whether they fear or welcome the player, and may impact gameplay and progression.

The game introduces realistic mechanics like hunger, fatigue, sleep, and stamina. Players must manage their character's health and well-being, with poor habits like lack of sleep or overexertion negatively affecting stats and performance in the game.

The Netflix exclusive premiere generated significant hype and public attention, offering a first non-leaked, legally sanctioned look at gameplay. It featured over 26 minutes of uninterrupted gameplay without voiceovers or promotional content, emphasizing the game’s realism and polish.

Yes, the extended look did not show key features like helicopters, planes, or advanced vehicle classes. Also, the multiplayer component and full details of online gameplay remain unclear, creating anticipation for what may be a major evolution of GTA Online.

Chat with AI

Loading...

Pro features

Go deeper with this episode

Unlock creator-grade tools that turn any transcript into show notes and subtitle files.