This is one outlet's own report from PC Gamer — the article as it was filed.
AIPROPX ReportPC Gamer · 1d ago
After seeing what GTA 6 does to a PS5 we're even more desperate to see what the PC version has for us
So GTA 6 officially slammed into our collective eyeballs last night with a full 26 minutes of pure gameplay (well, that and some cutscenes) and it has made us ever more desperate to get our hands on a proper PC build of the game.
But the hardware team has been poring over the released footage captured on a lowly PlayStation 5 and we've put our heads together to figure out what we think, and what extra bells and whistly things we want to see built into the eventual PC build of the game.
For right now, we have an admittedly beautifully looking game running at a peasant 30 fps frame rate, on a seven year-old Sony console. The top PC hardware of today is far beyond what the aging hardware inside the PS5 is capable of… even if right now the cost of admittance to the world of top PC hardware is inexcusably high. Who knows, maybe by the time GTA 6 is allowed to release on PC the RAMpocalypse will be over? Though that either means GTA 6 won't release on PC until maybe 2031 or the AI bubble pops sending us back into the economic stone age. Cheery thought.
Grand Theft Auto 6 GTA 6 guide : Everything we know GTA 6 cars : The garage lineup GTA 6 characters : Your anti-hero cast GTA 6 editions : What's in each version GTA 6 PC release : When it might happen
Hard shadows, fluorescent lights, dingey hallways, sunlit expanses… the team at Rockstar are putting the PlayStation 5 to work in GTA 6. Though the first five minutes of extended gameplay make me feel as though I'll be adjusting the brightness on my TV to see what's actually going on.
As for the open world, I can spot some reflections and lighting that look like they're rendered in a pretty traditional way, rather than full RT. Look to the shiny floor in Lucia's apartment and the reflection of the windows, from the TV set, or the light coming through the blinds onto the kitchen countertop—we're not getting RT cranked to the max on PS5. Same goes for the storefronts we see Lucia holding up at gunpoint later in the gameplay trailer. Though the car chases look pretty lush out in the amber sun-lit tones of Vice City.
(Image credit: Rockstar)
We're still trying to spot where effects are more faithfully reproduced out in the open world. We think we've maybe whittled it down to RT for reflections, used sparingly for cutscenes. Though it's definitely a challenge to make out with recorded gameplay going through YouTube's servers.
There do appear to be some RT reflections on the van, puddle, and window around the 16:40-16:50 mark. As Dave also pointed out to me, there's also a touch of what appears to be denoising in some places—on the rear of the van at, say, 16:10—but in other places, RT effects appear pretty low-key or non-existent. Like the molotov cocktail just moments before. A selective approach to balance the beauty of cutscenes and the demands of a massive open world? Makes sense, especially on the PS5's hardware.
With more firepower on PC, a few softer shadows wouldn't go amiss.
With more firepower on PC, a few softer shadows wouldn't go amiss. Some indirect lighting, too, as the shadows look hard enough you could cut them with a knife at times. Presuming GTA 6 will follow in the footsteps of Red Dead Redemption 2 with DLSS support, we should get some help bear the brunt of the graphical load when it does launch on PC.
So, moody lighting, massively high contrast, and gorgeous vistas. It's impressive what can be achieved on this seven-year-old console hardware, no doubt about that; but with that in mind, I'm just more pumped for the PC version after watching this. GTA 6 looks like a game that has the potential to look absolutely stunning with more performance under the hood and when it's not curtailed by outgoing console hardware. It's screaming out for a cutting-edge GPU. It can't come to PC soon enough.
It's a confident move from Rockstar to just put up almost half an hour's worth of actual gameplay, and the lighting looks really quite striking… in stills. Every time I pause the trailer, I admire a little bit of the game's artistry, from its graffiti to the hair of its characters, and it makes the rundown nature of the first building really shine. How good that will be to play is a different matter, as the game's approach to realism does make those dark halls a little darker than I'd want, and without sufficient clarity to easily make out what's going on in an instant.
You can spot Rockstar's pretty incredible attention to detail in some reflections, like you can see Jason in the convex mirror at 12:09.
(Image credit: Rockstar)
In motion, it looks surprisingly choppy for an official gameplay trailer.
Rockstar's attention to detail can be a double-edged sword though, as things like the fire on the car at 16:04 looking a tad flat or the lack of an accurate viewfinder in the camera at 20:17 make the world feel a little more plastic. These aren't things I would traditionally even care about, but it's Rockstar's approach to its world that makes them feel a little off. Rockstar's history, plus budget, make it the realistic open world maker, so it has become its unique cross to bear.
In fairness, the game looks undeniably good to me. Rockstar has the reputation for engaging, immersive, and realistic worlds for a reason, and the clarity of textures, plus strong lighting, makes GTA 6 look even more immersive and realistic than its predecessor. Whether or not it's as engaging will have to wait until we have it in our hands.
In motion, it looks surprisingly choppy for an official gameplay trailer. There's notable slowdown right after Jason enters the building at the start, and there are plenty of little sections where the flow of the game is just interrupted. But alas, that's the game running on a PlayStation 5, and we PC gamers have the ability to run this game at higher frame rates, especially when we consider the array of upscaling and frame generation. And Rockstar will have some time between the console and PC release to fine-tune ...
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.
