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Grand Theft Auto VI Will Have Female Main Character, New Map Focused on Fictionalized Miami (bloomberg.com) 148

An anonymous reader shares a report: After a public controversy four years ago, Rockstar, the maker of Grand Theft Auto, is reinventing itself as a kinder, gentler company. But employees aren't sure it can still produce the chart-topping caliber of game the studio has become known for. The development of Grand Theft Auto VI has been slower than impatient fans and even longtime employees have expected, despite morale across the company being higher than ever, according to many staffers. Between the company's new direction and the 2019 departure of Dan Houser, who led creative direction on many previous games, all indications suggest Grand Theft Auto VI will feel very different than its predecessor.

The game will feature a playable female protagonist for the first time, according to people familiar with the matter. [...] Industry analysts anticipate that the next Grand Theft Auto will be out sometime in Take-Two's 2024 fiscal year, which runs from April 2023 through March 2024, but developers are skeptical. The game has been in development in some form since 2014. Although there are loose schedules in place, people interviewed for this article said they didn't know of any firm release date and that they expect the game to be at least two years away. [...] The game's new map is now focused on a fictional version of Miami and its surrounding areas. Rockstar's plan is to continually update the game over time, adding new missions and cities on a regular basis, which leadership hopes will lead to less crunch during the game's final months.

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Grand Theft Auto VI Will Have Female Main Character, New Map Focused on Fictionalized Miami

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  • and not some aweful female gangsta cliché inspired by contemporary rappers.

    • I can't wait for all the complaints about the sex scenes.

      (will I be able to go full lesbian?)

    • Either way they've failed. If they're trying to be diverse, they haven't tried hard enough. They need it to tell a story of a transnonbinarypoc struggling with her gender identity as she rises from being a petty thug to a criminal mastermind mafia leader. Transnonbinarypocs can be criminal mastermind mafia leaders too, you know, and her followers will have to learn to be accepting or else they'll get whacked.

      • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @11:49AM (#62738398)

        ...followed 2 seconds later by the outcry why a poc is cast as a criminal.

    • I'm hoping it will be the whole Kardouchian family.

  • GTA always was trying to take itself more serious than it actually was.
    I rather have Saint Row V. That way I can play as what I want and have a fun time.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    How do we now that the main character identifies as female?

  • by mwfischer ( 1919758 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @10:50AM (#62738166) Journal

    "Rockstar’s plan is to continually update the game over time, adding new missions and cities on a regular basis, which leadership hopes will lead to less crunch during the game’s final months"

    yea no. please be wrong

    • by GoTeam ( 5042081 )
      They promised that last time too. It just turned into GTA online getting updates because... $$$.
    • Pffft. The actuality is in a few years, RockStar will release a special edition which is the same game but with slightly better and infamously worse graphics. And so many bugs. Consumers will have to pay full price again. Also MOAR micro transactions because. . .
  • The article states they wanted to include South America as well, which makes some sense since they already did that for Max Payne 3, but have pared it back. Outside of the very first GTA games everything has been in like 3 very American locales:

    GTA3 - "Liberty City" aka New York City
    Vice City - Miami
    San Andreas - Basically LA but more of an amalgamation of CA cities
    GTA4 - Liberty City again
    GTA5 - Los Angeles, again

    Now we are back to Miami again. Maybe it's just me but I was hoping for something a little more out of the norm. They did London in an earlier game, I've always wanted to see them return to that with a modern approach, especially with the craziness of London roads and it's chock full of landmarks and set pieces.

    Since this is obviously a Vice City follow-up it's too bad Ray Liotta just died, would have been a nice reference to make him the antagonist, even just in voice but imagine the mob boss you are taking down in Tommy Vercetti himself.

    • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Why not have Mormon missionaries go AWOL and terrorize people on bicycles. You're having a relaxing dinner, then knock knock...

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      The article states they wanted to include South America as well, which makes some sense since they already did that for Max Payne 3, but have pared it back. Outside of the very first GTA games everything has been in like 3 very American locales:

      GTA3 - "Liberty City" aka New York City
      Vice City - Miami
      San Andreas - Basically LA but more of an amalgamation of CA cities
      GTA4 - Liberty City again
      GTA5 - Los Angeles, again

      Now we are back to Miami again. Maybe it's just me but I was hoping for something a little more out of the norm. They did London in an earlier game, I've always wanted to see them return to that with a modern approach, especially with the craziness of London roads and it's chock full of landmarks and set pieces.

      Since this is obviously a Vice City follow-up it's too bad Ray Liotta just died, would have been a nice reference to make him the antagonist, even just in voice but imagine the mob boss you are taking down in Tommy Vercetti himself.

      RS said years ago that they wouldn't do a(nother) GTA outside of the US. Arguably, there would be few places suitable for it. Maaaaybe Australia but I suspect a lot of Australiana would go over people's heads and there'd be so many c*nts that Billy Butcher would blush, the censors heads would be blown clear off.

      If you've ever driven in London, you'd know exactly why a driving game there would never work and driving is core to GTA. The main reason I didn't like GTA IV is because driving in fake NYC is alm

      • Thanks for the down low on that, it does make sense thematically since GTA is kinda built on being a satire of American culture. Modern Miami just feels a little, unremarkable to me outside the South Beach area but one could easily say the same about Los Angeles and that worked so RS can probably make anything work but if it has to be America I think Chicago is probably the next most "iconic" US city for something like that.

        To me I think you could do something neat with London driving for that very reason,

  • Will the game be fun? Immersive?

    GTA V worked because the missions were fun, the writing was entertaining and clever, and the environment was extremely well done. I still fire it up every now and then just to drive around Los Santos.

    I couldn't care less about the sex of the protagonists. If they choose to make that central to the game I fear they'll have lost sight of what made the prior games so good.

    • by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @12:47PM (#62738586)

      I couldn't care less about the sex of the protagonists. If they choose to make that central to the game I fear they'll have lost sight of what made the prior games so good.

      From the linked to article

      "The game will feature a playable female protagonist for the first time, according to people familiar with the matter. The woman is Latina and will be one of a pair of leading characters in a story influenced by the bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde."

      So you can play as male or female, your choice.

      It kind of stands to reason it would allow the player to chose their sex as well given that almost every RPG does nowadays and I've never seen said choice become central to the game's experience.

      • We really don't know but coming off GTA5 I imagine you will play as both characters similar to how you played all 3 characters in GTAV. Sometimes there are solo missions, sometimes with 2 or 3 of the characters. It was an interesting dynamic with some clever concepts (like when you switched to another character between missions they would actually be out in the world doing something).

        • Trevor was my absolute favorite in this regard. You never know what you're jumping into. I once switched over to him in a tutu on the dam. No explanation as to why, so I left him in that tutu until some mission changed his apparel.

        • by skam240 ( 789197 )

          Ha, the fact that I havent played the last few GTAs is showing!

          If that's how they've done their games in the past I'd wager you're on point.

      • You'd hope not, but we've seen other venues be so proud of their inclusivity that they forget to be entertaining ( Dr Who, I'm looing at you ).

        The plot concept sounds like fun. I hope they surpass GTA V.

  • Or make absolute controversy by allowing the player to for example do prostitution jobs

  • I hope they have fixed loading times this time around..
    https://nee.lv/2021/02/28/How-... [nee.lv]

    I am looking forward to seeing what they do with Miami this time though.

    Going to Miami after playing Vice City was a bit of a "hey, I know this!"-experience. They did well.

    • by GoTeam ( 5042081 )
      My wife still laughs at me because I was able to drive around to places in LA based on playing GTA V. They do a great job of mixing real locations with something that isn't too big to be fun.
      • My wife still laughs at me because I was able to drive around to places in LA based on playing GTA V. They do a great job of mixing real locations with something that isn't too big to be fun.

        Good to know, I will have a playthrough of GTA V before going to LA.

  • How many actual customers asked for "a playable female protagonist for the first time" ? My guess is approximately zero.

    I tried playing San Andreas. I found it boring because I couldn't relate to "thug culture". I don't think I played it more than an hour or two before saying "fuck it".

    Vice City is where it's at.

    That is all.

    • How many actual customers asked for "a playable female protagonist for the first time" ? My guess is approximately zero.

      I tried playing San Andreas. I found it boring because I couldn't relate to "thug culture". I don't think I played it more than an hour or two before saying "fuck it".

      Vice City is where it's at.

      That is all.

      Glad I am not alone in this opinion.
      Vice city had it all. Fun missions, multiple paths to completion, awesome soundtrack. So I bought San Andreas when it came out, and the missions were dull, the music sucks(Subjective, I know.). They had added this weird mechanic where you needed to go to the gym to stay in shape. WTF? If I wanted to go the the gym, I would just go the the gym.
      Played for about 2 days and quit, never to return. Vice City I am playing again now. For at least the 10th time.

      • San Andreas was boring. GTA V was not though.

        But for sure my favorites are GTA Vice City and GTA IV, both had compelling story lines.

        • Agree on GTA4, I know it has some gameplay issues but Niko Bellic was probably the most relatable and human of the GTA main series protagonists. The other games have fun and outsized characters to play but he was probably the closest they ever got to having a main character with some earned empathy

    • Same, I bought that game really wanting to like it but I could not get passed the first few missions, it just bored the hell out of me. I intended to play it further but just never got around to it. I never even played GTA 4. I bought 5 just recently, haven't started playing yet though.

    • To paraphrase, if I'm wandering around in 3rd person, do I want to have a man's ass in my face? No. Nudity mods will be the first thing released.

    • How many actual customers asked for "a playable female protagonist for the first time" ? My guess is approximately zero.

      Customers no, critics sure.

      But then, that's kind of tautological. People who are offended by a game aren't going to give you money to play it. In theory, complying with those people's wishes might bring in some of them and widen the audience ($$).

  • by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @11:35AM (#62738348)

    need to do Chicago!

  • ...when you could play a male, female or anything between protagonist in Saints Row 2.

  • Rockstar isnt stupid. They are either doing this to pander to critics who would never play the game, market to girls who might be more inclined to play, or horny boys who want to look at a hot cartoon girl tearing up the city. If its done well, why not and have fun. Anyone who takes video games seriously is a danger to society.
    • We at Rockstar want a character with attitude. She's edgy, she's "in your face." You've heard the expression, "let's get busy"? Well, this is a character who gets "biz-zay!" Consistently and thoroughly.

  • Make her black, have some serious illness or body defect, let her turn into gender fluid person as the story unfolds. Jokes aside, we have had games in which You have the option to choose to have a male or female protagonist since the dawn of time.
  • I had a lot of fun playing the GTA games over the years. But frankly, when it got all "ghetto", it kind of lost me. I mean, the original mobster theme was one thing - but the street gang / thug theme was less relatable and interesting. I mean, it not only had lots of cliches, but just some brain-dead mini-games (like working out in the virtual gym, which was just some button-mashing).

    The *real* reason the GTA franchise is well-liked has more to do with the expansive, interactive maps than anything else, IMO

  • ...it's really going to be more about crashing cars, then?

  • I hope they will now start putting a warning sticker on such games: "Notice to parents: this game contains woke content."

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