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On August 27, 2026, Rockstar Games aired Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look, a 26-minute presentation captured entirely on PlayStation 5. Not on PC, not on PS5 Pro, on a standard PS5. It premiered on Netflix (which actually crashed under the flood of connections) before landing on YouTube six hours later. It is the longest official gameplay sequence ever released by the studio. After two cinematic trailers, years of speculation and a massive 2022 leak that showed fragments of a game still in development, we finally got to see what GTA 6 looks like when you actually play it.
And the takeaway is twofold. On one hand, Leonida (the fictional version of Florida, centred on Vice City) is probably the most impressive open world ever built for a video game. On the other, the structure of the missions shown remains surprisingly faithful to the GTA formula as we have known it since 2013. The best and the most debatable coexist in these 26 minutes, and that is what makes this presentation as fascinating as it is ambiguous.
The first thing that hits you is the level of visual detail. Every street, every building, every reflection on a wet car body radiates obsessive care. Rockstar doubled the size of its studio compared to Red Dead Redemption 2 to achieve this result, and it shows. The textures, the lighting, the character animations, the tropical vegetation swaying in the wind: everything gives the impression of a world that existed before you turned on the console and will continue to exist after you turn it off.
But the most striking thing is not the graphics. It is the density of life. NPCs do not just walk along pavements in loops. They react to events, interact with each other, and seem to follow believable routines. You see a group chatting outside a bar, a man unloading groceries from a car boot, people taking photos with their phones. Rockstar has always excelled at creating worlds that give the illusion of life, but Leonida pushes this to a level that competitors simply cannot reach with normal budgets and headcounts.
The sheer amount of activities shown in 26 minutes is almost overwhelming. Skydiving, dirt bike racing, store robberies, diving, social interactions with other characters, and everyday life moments: eating, drinking, sleeping, hanging out with friends, exercising. Over 700 stores are reportedly accessible in the game. Shopping centres can be entered, some skyscrapers have working lifts that take you to the roof. Leonida feels like a place where you want to exist, not merely a backdrop for missions.
GTA 6 features two playable protagonists: Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos. The presentation alternates between both characters and shows the character-switching system in action. Unlike GTA V, where you controlled three characters who lived their lives separately and whom you could join individually, GTA 6 seems to let you roam the open world with both protagonists together, not just switch between them. It is a subtle but significant change: Jason and Lucia share the space, interact continuously, and their relationship is clearly the narrative thread of the story.
The presentation shows contextual dialogue during missions, spontaneous reactions to the environment, and quieter moments that build their dynamic. When Jason makes a sarcastic remark and Lucia rolls her eyes as she replies, it does not sound like two scripted dialogue lines glued together. It sounds like two people who know each other well and have history. Rockstar has always known how to write memorable characters, and the first impressions of this duo are convincing.
Lucia appears to be the entry point into the story, with the game opening tied to her release from prison. It is a smart narrative choice: reintroducing gameplay mechanics to a character rediscovering freedom is a natural excuse for a tutorial that does not feel like a tutorial.
The shooting sequences shown in the Extended Look are the most fluid ever seen in a GTA. Cover feels more natural, on-foot movement is more responsive and less stiff than in GTA V, and weapon impact seems to carry weight. You can feel the Red Dead Redemption 2 heritage in how the characters move, but without the deliberate slowness that could frustrate in that game.
The weapon system actually adopts the RDR2 approach: a limited inventory, the ability to store weapons in the boot of your car, no weapon wheel holding 15 rifles at once. It is more realistic, more consistent with the game's tone, even if some players who preferred GTA V's unlimited arsenal might find it restrictive at first.
Driving also looks improved. The car chases shown in the presentation convey a genuine sense of speed, vehicles respond differently depending on their type, and skidding on wet surfaces is particularly convincing. One moment shows Jason and Lucia fleeing a botched robbery, dodging police cars through narrow alleyways, and the intensity of the sequence is remarkable.
Where opinions diverge is on mission structure. After a 13-year wait, some were hoping for a game design overhaul. What we saw remains classic GTA in its structure: go here, talk to this character, a deal goes south, shoot these enemies, flee the police. Execution is significantly better than anything Rockstar has done before, but the formula has not fundamentally changed. It is both reassuring for fans of the series and slightly disappointing for those who hoped Rockstar would reinvent the genre.
Beyond the big systems, it is the small details that give this presentation its flavour. There are now multiple ways to steal a car: smash the window or use a slim jim. It is no longer a single universal action button. The contextual menus strongly recall those of Red Dead Redemption 2, with specific interactions depending on the environment, the character in front of you, and the time of day.
The police chases suggest a revamped law enforcement system. Cops no longer seem to appear out of thin air as if by magic: they respond to calls, arrive from logical directions, and use more realistic encirclement tactics. The presentation shows Jason and Lucia evading the police by hiding in an alley and waiting for things to cool down, which suggests stealth could play a role in managing wanted stars. If so, it is a welcome change from GTA V's "5 stars, 200 cops materialising from nowhere, inevitable death" system.
Another telling detail: the cultural references. Two nods to Phil Collins (who played himself in GTA Vice City Stories back in 2006) were spotted in the presentation. Rockstar has not forgotten its history, and Leonida is clearly conceived as a modernised tribute to Vice City as much as a new creation.
The Extended Look leaves several questions unanswered. No details on GTA Online, the multiplayer mode that generated billions of dollars in revenue with GTA V and will presumably be an economic pillar of GTA 6. No PC version announcement: the game launches on November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S only for now, and PC players will likely have to wait until 2027 or 2028 if Rockstar follows the same schedule as for GTA V and RDR2.
No detailed technical breakdown either. We know the footage comes from a standard PS5, but Rockstar did not communicate on resolution modes, framerate options (30 FPS vs 60 FPS), or PS5 Pro performance. For a game releasing in less than three months, that is somewhat surprising. And no complete view of the narrative structure: according to unconfirmed leaks, the story would have 5 chapters, but Rockstar has said nothing official on the subject.
GTA 6 looks exactly like what you would expect from a game Rockstar has worked on for over a decade with resources no other studio can afford. The open world is spectacular. The characters seem more human and believable than in any previous GTA. The amount of content, even based on these 26 minutes alone, is staggering.
The real question is about game design. Rockstar is unmatched at building worlds, but its missions remain corridors disguised as freedom. If Leonida is rich enough for players to lose themselves between missions, if the world itself becomes the main content and missions an excuse to discover it, then the classic formula will not be a problem. If missions become the heart of the experience and they follow the "cutscene, drive, shootout, escape" pattern for 40 hours, the contrast with the open world's ambition could become apparent.
We lean towards the first option. Rockstar knows what it is doing, and the studio has clearly invested more in the world than in any single aspect of the game. Leonida looks like a place where you want to spend time, and that might be the best compliment you can pay an open world.
See you on November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S for the final verdict.
26 minutes of gameplay confirmed that GTA 6 will be technically and visually a generation above anything that currently exists in open-world gaming. Leonida is alive, Jason and Lucia make a convincing duo, and the amount of content seems staggering. The missions follow a tried-and-tested formula that has not radically changed, but the execution is at a level only Rockstar can achieve. On November 19, 2026, we will find out whether the world is good enough for the formula to remain sufficient.