GTA 6 has just received one of its biggest information drops yet, with Rockstar Games revealing a huge number of new details about its open world, characters, weather, wildlife, police system and activities in an exclusive interview with Game Informer.

The 14-page Game Informer GTA 6 cover story gives fans a much closer look at how Rockstar has built Leonida and what players can expect when they finally enter Vice City on November 19, 2026.

The interview includes comments from several Rockstar developers, including Aaron Garbut, who describes the new world as the biggest map the studio has ever created.

One of the biggest revelations is just how much Rockstar has expanded the world compared with GTA 5.

According to Garbut, Leonida is roughly twice the size of GTA 5’s map, while also being more detailed, interactive and dense.

Rockstar says the team obsessed over everything from rooftops and alleys to interiors and the spaces between buildings.

The goal was to make the world feel like one connected place rather than a collection of separate areas.

The map is divided into six major regions: Vice City, the Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga National Park.

Vice City brings back the series’ famous Miami-inspired setting, but this time it is much larger and more detailed.

The city combines glamorous areas, Art Deco buildings and busy roads with the stranger side of modern Florida.

Outside the city, Leonida becomes much more varied.

The Leonida Keys offer a tropical island environment, while Grassrivers takes players into the dangerous Everglades-inspired wetlands.

Port Gellhorn is built around struggling tourist areas filled with cheap motels, abandoned attractions and run-down shopping centers.

Ambrosia represents the industrial side of Leonida, with factories, refineries and a local biker gang playing an important role in the region.

Then there is Mount Kalaga National Park, located along Leonida’s northern border.

Rockstar says this area draws inspiration from northern Florida and the Florida-Georgia border, with rural towns, farms, forests, beaches and communities built around private aircraft.

Players can find ATV trails, mud parks, mountain bike trails, farms, ranches, golf courses and private landing strips scattered throughout the northern areas.

Rockstar also spent years researching Florida itself before creating Leonida.

Developers reportedly made repeated trips to Miami and South Florida, visiting beaches, nightclubs, the Everglades and the Florida Keys.

They also rode around at night with former police officers and spoke with local residents to better understand the area’s culture, crime and law enforcement.

Garbut describes Florida as “America dialed up to 11,” which Rockstar sees as almost the perfect setting for a Grand Theft Auto game because of its mix of beauty, wealth, crime and cultural contrasts.

The weather system is another major upgrade.

Rockstar says it has completely re-engineered GTA 6’s weather system to make weather more localized and persistent. That means the weather can be different in different parts of Leonida at the same time.

Players could be standing under clear skies while watching a storm moving across another part of the map.

Rain will also leave persistent puddles behind, while certain lighting conditions can create realistic rainbows.

The wind system has also been designed to react to the environment, with buildings blocking airflow and warm air rising in different areas.

Players will see wind pushing debris across rooftops, creating ripples on the water and bending grass in the swamps.

And yes, hurricanes and tropical storms are coming to GTA 6.

Rockstar’s art team says major storms will feature heavy clouds, powerful winds, dense atmosphere and large amounts of rain.

Water can pour from rooftops and street lights while thunder and lightning make the storms feel much more dramatic.

Wildlife is another area where Rockstar has gone much further than previous games.

GTA 6 will feature more than 170 animal species across Leonida, including more than 60 types of birds and over 30 land mammals. Players will also encounter fish, reptiles, manatees, flamingos, pelicans and alligators.

Rockstar has even included invasive species found in Florida, including green iguanas, cane toads, feral cats, rhesus macaques and nine-banded armadillos.

The wildlife system goes beyond simply putting animals into the world. Sharks, whales, rays, turtles and jellyfish will have their own movement behaviors, while animals can display different visual effects such as iridescence, translucency and bioluminescence.

Animal fur is also being simulated in greater detail, including how it reacts to water, dirt and different environments.

Some animals will also be classified as Rare, Discoverable or Legendary, giving players another reason to explore Leonida and track down wildlife.

Rockstar is also putting a huge amount of work into the people who live in Leonida.

The developers describe GTA 6’s NPCs as the most diverse and detailed in the series, with characters featuring different heights, body types, skin details, tattoos, hairstyles and clothing.

NPC fashion will also change depending on where players are in Leonida, helping different communities feel like they belong to different parts of the state.

Rockstar even has a team in Los Angeles focused specifically on writing NPC dialogue, showing how much attention is being given to the conversations players will hear while exploring.

The relationship between Jason and Lucia is another major part of the game.

Jason begins the story as an army veteran working for local drug runners in the Leonida Keys, while Lucia is a Liberty City native who learned combat sports from her father before a mysterious incident involving her family sent her to prison.

Players cannot make Jason and Lucia permanently break up, but they can influence whether their relationship stays platonic or becomes romantic.

The relationship system is completely optional. Players do not have to hold hands, open doors for each other, respond to calls and texts or spend time together if they don’t want to.

There are also no gameplay bonuses for choosing romance over friendship.

However, Rockstar says the relationship can affect parts of the story, meaning players may see different moments depending on how they choose to develop Jason and Lucia’s bond.

Robberies are also tied into the relationship system.

Players can carry out certain robberies alone or with their partner. They can also approach some crimes quietly or go in loudly, with the way the robbery plays out affecting how the police respond.

Some missions can also become available only after players have accumulated enough money.

The police system is getting one of the biggest upgrades yet.

The familiar six-star wanted level is returning, but Rockstar is also introducing a new Heat system that allows police to gather information about the player’s appearance and location.

That means simply driving away may not always be enough.

Changing clothes, changing hairstyles and abandoning the vehicle used during a crime can help players escape the police.

If Jason and Lucia are being chased together, splitting up can also divide the police’s attention.

Vehicle theft is becoming more complicated too.

Depending on the vehicle, players may be able to steal it normally or may need special tools. Expensive cars can have advanced security systems and trackers.

A new phone application called WAiNK can scan vehicles and provide information about their security systems.

It can also show the cost of registering a vehicle as a personal car and estimate how much it could be worth when sold to a fence.

And Rockstar wants players to actually explore all of this.

The developers say GTA 6 rewards players for spending time exploring Leonida, while the story has been designed with multiple playthroughs in mind.

Big and small decisions can change the direction of the story, giving players reasons to return to the game and experience things differently.

There are also plenty of activities waiting outside the main story, including base jumping, billiards, gyms, kayaking, mini golf, scuba diving, street racing, off-road racing, zoos, air boating and jet skiing.

All of these systems help explain why Rockstar has spent so many years working on GTA 6.

The studio is not simply making a larger version of GTA 5. It is trying to make the world more reactive, detailed and alive, from the weather and animals to the NPCs, police, vehicles and relationship between Jason and Lucia.

Garbut also acknowledged the enormous pressure surrounding the game, saying Rockstar responded by trying to overdeliver rather than choosing between scale, detail and interaction.

With GTA 6 scheduled to release on November 19, 2026, this Game Informer interview may be one of the clearest looks yet at what Rockstar has been building behind the scenes.

And if these details are any indication, Leonida could be far more detailed and interactive than anything Rockstar has created before.