harder handling and more punishing crashes might be what makes gta 6's map feel truly massive

been thinking about why the GTA 6 map might end up feeling way bigger than it actually is, and I keep coming back to two things: handling and crash damage.

In GTA V you can basically floor it everywhere. Smash into oncoming traffic at 120 mph and your car just gets a few scratches. That's partly because the PS3 had like 512 MB of RAM, so they had to dial back the damage physics to make the world work. But with current gen hardware, there's no reason they can't bring back something closer to GTA IV's weighty driving and brutal crashes.

I'm not saying it'll be full GTA IV simulation. Rockstar will probably find a sweet spot between that and V's arcade feel. But if handling gets noticeably harder at high speeds and a bad crash can actually wreck your car or kill you, people are gonna drive more carefully. You won't just hold down the trigger and blast across the map in two minutes. You'll slow down, take corners properly, actually pay attention to the road.

Combine that with a map that's already confirmed to be bigger than V's, and one that doesn't look like it has a simple loop highway circling everything, and the whole place is gonna feel enormous. Even a sports car won't let you cheese the travel times if you're worried about wrapping it around a palm tree.

I think that's lowkey genius if Rockstar pulls it off. The world doesn't need to be absurdly huge on paper if the gameplay itself forces you to experience it at a slower pace.

Do you think they'll actually make crashes punishing enough to change how people drive, or will it still be bumper cars with better deformation?

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Source: r/GTA6 · Curated content.