With the release of numerous screenshots, confirmation of predictably high price points for its standard and premium editions, as well as preorders going live, we are now fully in the midst of the Grand Theft Auto VI hype machine. I’ve got a pretty unpopular takeaway: Wow, this game might actually be gorgeous! Though I’ve often been adversarial to photorealism in games, there is something admirable about GTA 6’s fidelity. Poring over its screenshots makes me want to just take pictures of it in action, which sounds more exciting than actually playing the game at this point.
Look at how luscious the Floridian–I mean Leonidan wetlands look. Look at how impeccably styled Jason and Lucia, GTA 6’s dual protagonists, can be. Look at the sheer diversity of bodies on display across its trailers and how expressively animated everyone is. They look real and beautiful, and it all makes me want to take out a camera and document it for myself. I certainly want to do that more than I want to flip a car in the midst of a police chase, though I guess that could also be fun.
I’ve never really been one for photo modes in games. I’ve dabbled in titles that naturally lent themselves to a deluge of pictures, like Remedy Games’ visually arresting Control, but I much prefer holding an actual camera, walking around new cities and countries, and shooting the landscape. I am, though, at best, a twice-a-year hobbyist, with the exception of all the pictures one casually accrues now that we all have high-quality cameras in our phones. GTA 6 might make all the difference though.
Look at this picture!
I cannot stop thinking about this shot. Look at the shadow that Jason’s jawline and scraggly beard nearly perfectly casts on his own neck. Without looking at the background elements, which more clearly telegraph that this is a video game screenshot, this simply looks like a photo of a real person. The angle and flash on Jason’s clearly sour pout gives this picture the feeling of a surprise candid in the middle of a house party. You can infer a whole story from the composition of the image, in large part because the model at its center is capable of conveying so much in such photorealistic detail. It’s damn impressive, and it’s driven me to madness just thinking I could possibly take a similar shot.
