GTA 6 weather hits boats, aircraft and pedestrians, Rockstar says
Rockstar's Aaron Garbut tells Edge that GTA 6 weather varies by region, rocks boats, shakes aircraft with turbulence and sends pedestrians running for cover.
Confirmed. Rockstar Games or Take-Two said this on the record.
In GTA 6, weather does more than change the look of the sky. Rockstar co-studio head Aaron Garbut told Edge magazine that the new weather system changes how boats handle, puts strain on aircraft and changes how pedestrians behave. Brazilian outlets GameVicio and Critical Hits reported his comments on October 29, and GameVicio credits GamesRadar and GamingBolt for picking them up first.
Weather that changes by region
Garbut compared the new setup with GTA 5, where weather mostly meant either rain or sunshine. In GTA 6, he said, conditions can differ across the map. You could be standing in sunshine on one stretch of coast while a storm builds on the horizon somewhere else.
Drive toward that storm and things change gradually, according to Garbut. Wind starts moving the trees, the clouds and the ocean swell, and pedestrians hurry to get out of the rain. He described the system as far more granular than anything in Rockstar's earlier games.
A map that Rockstar says is roughly twice the size of GTA 5's has room for this kind of local variation. A single global weather state across Leonida would have felt odd at that scale.
Sheltered water and rough seas
The most practical detail concerns boats. Garbut explained that islands and buildings can block some of the wind and waves, which creates calmer pockets of water during a storm. That means two boats in the same downpour can have very different rides. Depending on where you are, he said, your boat will either skim over the chop or get knocked around badly.
For anyone who spends a lot of time on the water around Vice City, that turns geography into a tactical choice. Hugging the leeward side of an island or a built-up waterfront could be the difference between a smooth run and a rough one.
Turbulence and damage in the air
Pilots will have to pay attention too. Flying into a storm brings turbulence, and Garbut said aircraft can take minor damage if you stay in bad weather too long. Critical Hits says this applies to both planes and helicopters. Neither report says how much damage is possible or whether a storm alone can bring an aircraft down, so for now the safe reading is wear and tear rather than guaranteed crashes.
Garbut said the aim is for all these pieces to work together, so weather shapes how players move around the map and not only how it looks.
What we still don't know
The reports leave several questions open. Rockstar hasn't said whether storms affect cars on the road, whether weather has any connection to missions or police behavior, or whether major events like hurricanes are part of the system. Nothing has been said yet about how weather works in the eventual online mode.
This is one more detail from Rockstar's Edge cover feature, which has also covered NPCs, police dogs and the map. Players won't have long to see it for themselves: GTA 6 launches on November 19 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
