GTA 5 – does it deserve its success? (Picture: Rockstar Games)

The Thursday letters page wonders what will happen to other games releasing in 2025, as one reader hopes for GTA 6 gameplay improvements.

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PLEASE NOTE: We are currently preparing content to run over the Christmas and New Year break and, as usual, we’d like this to include Reader’s Features. So, if you’ve had an idea for a feature, that you’ve never got around to writing, then sending it in now would be the perfect time. In can be on any subject, but anything taking a long-term view of recent trends or games would be particularly apt.

Linear preference
I can’t be the only one, surely, that has no interest in GTA 6. The level of hype for this game seems to be bordering on fetishism. Yes, the game looked technically impressive, but I’ve never liked open world games, finding them both oppressive and daunting whilst also being a gateway to lazy game design and frequent padding out. Not saying this will happen with GTA 6 but personally I find a well-designed linear game to be a superior experience.

I fell for the hype and purchased GTA 5 but only got a few hours in before being bored and passed it onto a friend. The only reason I still have GTA 4 in my collection is because the DLC is reasonably enjoyable. I can’t say I’m looking forward to the release date either, as the podcasts that I listen to will be no doubt be talking about it for weeks on end, making for monotonous listening.

I am not trying to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm and I hope people looking forward to the game get what they want out of it, but I just can’t drum up any interest in another open world game.
Chaosphere616

Stop everything
Does the revealing of Grand Theft Auto 6’s release year push back projects that are already in development? Who would be brave enough to launch in the same year? Apart from the obvious Call Of Duty and EA Sports FC.

If they’d put a potential month/quarter companies could’ve worked around it, being so vague could damage the games industry. 2025 may be the quietest year yet.
DJ

GC: The whole year is going a bit far but certainly every game on the same platforms will try to leave as much space between them and GTA 6 as possible.

Impossible standards
My main take away from the GTA 6 trailer was less about the quality of the graphics themselves and more the animation work and density of the world created. The game definitely still looks like GTA, a generational leap over Read Dead Redemption 2 for sure but still the same technology – more evolution than revolution.

However, the animation work was sublime and the main reason I think the game looks so advanced. Then you have the density of characters and the environment which was definitely a step up. It shows you need to do more than just cranking up the geometric detail and resolution to push gaming graphics forward. I second your article about the game itself though, this needs to be more than the janky gameplay and old fashioned story telling of GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemptions 2 with cutting edge technology.

I’m worried about some of the fan reaction, and you’ve seen it in the letters that have come into GC, that this is ‘the new standard’. The reason GTA 6 looks like this is because Rockstar have put 10 years and nearly a billion dollars (by some rumours) into the development of one game…. a stack of resources that no other gaming company can compete with.

I mean, Microsoft might have near bottomless pockets but do you really think they would sign off on $600, $700, $800+ million budgets for each and all its titles? No chance and nor should they. If this is the new standard then forget it when it comes to gaming, it’ll die. There literally isn’t enough money in the market to go around or development staff to create the games. AI can’t take the strain yet.

Hopefully when Nintendo enter the next gen arena with the Switch 2 it won’t fall into the ‘bigger, better, more’ trap of escalating costs others have over the PlayStation 4 generation. The level of creativity and interactivity on show in Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom suggests they won’t, and we’ll finally see gameplay advancement after recent AAA title stagnation.
Marc

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Resolutely unfluffed
RE: GTA 6. It was a nice looking trailer and cracking song pick.

It did cross my mind that recent chatter here has been about how games are too expensive, take too long to make, are cookie cutter, and don’t take risks and often suffer from unnecessary bloat.

GTA 6 is counter to these concerns, having possibly the highest gaming budget ever, reportedly at twice as large as GTA 5 and over a decade since the last game.

But even with no idea of the gameplay and the company’s last game, Red Dead Redemption 2, considered by quite a few to be style over substance, a bit of a borefest with clunky gameplay systems, GTA 6 is held up as the second coming for games, that justifies the current gen consoles and sets a new unrealistic minimum bar others have no excuse to not meet.

But hey the graphics. It had graphics, did you see the graphics? You may of think you played graphics but it wasn’t graphics because that was graphics. It was probably your dad making a TV out of cardboard, handing you a controller, doing finger puppetry and tricking you into thinking you were playing graphics before.

I genuinely did think it was a fantastic trailer and very excited for the game and feel there’s hope the game will push gameplay barriers if not quite as much as graphics.

I’m just having a bit of a knee jerk reaction to the letters saying I’m lying if I say I’ve not been fluffed into oblivion by the trailer.

Thanks for listening.
Simundo

At any price
I’ve been thinking about everyone saying GTA 6 is $150. To be honest, I don’t think that is a bad price. Take some of the other games that’s just came out, Nintendo with Super Mario Bros. Wonder that’s £50 for around 10 hours play, which is a lot for a game that length but it got 10/10 from most places. Then there is Sony’s Spider-Man 2, which on average got 8/10, that was £70 and you got 25 hours play.

Yet look at GTA, you’re getting one massive map, there is going to be at least 40+ hours I’d say, for the single-player, and then with the online as well I’d pay £100 for a game that’s going to give me years of online play with free content on top of that.

You have seen how much work has gone into the graphics, those graphics are out of this world, everyone said so. For games like that you need to open your wallets a bit more. That game gets 8/10 or over and it’s £100. I’m sorry its bargain of the decade.
David

GC: It’s not going to be $150, we already said that.

Dissenting opinion
Seeing how everyone is talking about the GTA 6 trailer, I thought I’d talk about a different game.

GTA 5 was a disappointment. I’m not passing judgement on the online mode, which I didn’t play, but the characters and plot of the single-player story were painfully dull. The return to San Andreas was expected to also bring back the fun and enjoyment of earlier titles. The end product was a nonsensical narrative in which career criminals and self-professed psychopaths were forced to do the dirty work of men in chinos, instead of… you know… just killing them.

The city lacked charm and the desert even more so. The missions were bland and not very original. And there was no real character progression, except for Franklin who moved into a fancy house on the hills.

Maybe I’m being too harsh and maybe the online mode is where the real fun was to be had. Anyway, the most promising element of the new trailer was Lucia and her unnamed co-star. Bonnie and Clyde meets Scarface is an excitable prospect. And the new hardware is obviously being put to work. I just hope the single-player gets the attention it deserves.
ESS-DEE-95 (PSN ID)

It’s Joker time
The Persona 5 Joker amiibo is currently available to order on the Nintendo Store UK website, here’s the link.

I just bought one for my amiibo collection. If you want one, best to buy one quick before they sell out.
Andrew J.

More: Trending

Star Fox Universe
Been meaning to compose my thoughts on this for a while but the mass of nothing but GTA in yesterday’s Inbox finally pushed me.

I think Nintendo have the perfect chance to show Microsoft exactly how games are done and give us the Starfield we deserve. They even have the perfect franchise to do it with, one that is currently lying dormant: Star Fox.

Imagine using the Arwing/Great Fox to explore the universe and have epic space battles, before finding a new world to explore, maybe shooting up some enemy aircraft as you enter orbit, and then landing and exploring the region with your chosen anthropomorphic character. I can’t think of a more fitting direction for the franchise, but frankly I’d take any new Star Fox game lol.

I’ve recently tried Lylat Wars on N64 but found the control scheme troubling, and I couldn’t find a good way to play it without forking out for an N64 controller, which I won’t do, so we really need a new one!

In the meantime, I’ve asked for Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince for Xmas, will you be reviewing it? I remember thoroughly enjoying the first game on the Game Boy and thinking it was miles better than Pokémon, so am hopeful it’s going to be good.

Regards and merry Xmas
Solabound

GC: You have our sword. As for Dragon Quest Monsters, we’ll have to see. There’s a lot to sort out before Christmas.

Inbox also-rans
Still patiently waiting for GTA: Coruscant edition.
Fokwok

RE: Trepsils. I’m unimpressed, but then I was unimpressed by any GTA and Red Dead Redemption games since GTA: Vice City. Unless they drastically improve the controls in the game, and move away from the childish humour, it’s not going to be for me.
Kiran

This week’s Hot Topic
By Tuesday afternoon the first GTA 6 teaser should be released – an initial look at the first new Grand Theft Auto game in over a decade. So, for this weekend’s Inbox we ask the obvious question: what did you think of it?

Was the trailer what you expected, and did it meet, exceed, or undershoot your expectations? How excited are you about the game now and what are you hopes and expectations for its features, story, gameplay, and open world? Do you think it will be as big or bigger than GTA 5 and do you intend to get it day one?

Do feel free to comment on the game in the weekday Inbox as well – perhaps leave your more considered thoughts for the Hot Topic, after you’ve had a couple of days to think things over – but either way please clearly indicate whether a letter is intended for the normal Inbox or the Hot Topic.

E-mail your comments to: [email protected]

The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE : Games Inbox: Debunking the GTA 6 $150 rumour, GTA 6 release date, and GTA 6 graphics

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MORE : GTA 6 comparison pics for GTA: Vice City show 21 years of graphical improvement

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The Thursday letters page wonders what will happen to other games releasing in 2025, as one reader hopes for GTA 6 gameplay improvements.