Why GTA 6’s Driving Mechanics Will Be the Best in the Series

The driving mechanics in GTA 6 are set to be my favorite in the series, and probably that of many others. As Rob Nelson, Co-Studio Head at Rockstar North, said to TGG in the video below: “The vehicles team has gone bananas on this one.”

To frame this all up, I like the driving in both GTA 4 and GTA 5. When I played 4 for the first time, I wasn’t so sold. But as time went on and I learned the mechanics, it quickly became one of my favorite driving games, where skills and patience are actually rewarded.

The driving in GTA 5 was fun and all, but it was too easy. It didn’t feel like there was any real reason to focus on getting good, since almost anyone could just grab a controller and start racing around Los Santos without much trouble.

GTA 6 is set to be the best of both worlds, with weightier driving and more distinction between vehicles with different drivetrains. And if that’s all true, I don’t think I’ll miss GTA 4’s driving anymore.

Newsletter Free

The Vice Gazette

GTA 6 news, leaks and rumours — rounded up and sent to your inbox. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

• Release-date and trailer news the moment it lands
• Leaks and rumours, with our credibility rating attached
• Map, character and vehicle deep-dives from the wiki

You’re on the list.

The next edition of The Vice Gazette will land in your inbox.

Get the full GTA 6 Bible experience

Daily game streaks, comments, and your rumour votes saved across devices.

Create a free account

Email address

Subscribe Subscribing…

By subscribing you agree to receive The Vice Gazette by email. Unsubscribe any time. See our Privacy Policy.

Faster Cars, Heavier Handling

Alright, so not everyone loves the driving in GTA 4. It does kind of feel like you have a giant water tank on the roof of the car for a while, until you get used to it. Still, there’s a lot to love about the driving in both prior games. GTA 5 is more arcadey, and it’s honestly difficult to spin a vehicle out around a corner in the base game.

This is partially fixed in later GTA Online updates, with cars like the new Pfister Growler being an utter headache to keep in check, while others like the FMJ stick to the road like Michael to money… like Trevor to his childhood trauma.

Rob Nelson says that driving in GTA 6 will be a mix of both, but only the good bits, as shown in the TGG interview below.

You’ll also notice Rob saying that we’ll be able to tweak a whole bunch of settings to really make the cars feel the way we want them to, and that’s a mouthwatering prospect to me. I love tweaking vehicles in driving games, and the fact that I’ll be able to do that in GTA 6 is just awesome.

You’ll also feel whether you’re driving a front-, rear-, or all-wheel-drive car, with far more distinction between them than what we saw in previous entries in the series. As Rob says, we’ll need to be careful with the throttle of some of the RWD ones.

Add to that narrower roads and denser traffic, and we’re looking at quite the challenge navigating Vice City in GTA 6. There will actually be an incentive to get good at driving once more. And you can kind of tell from the Extended Look, around the 18:39 mark, that the car does indeed look a bit “heavier” than in GTA 5. There’s quite a bit of play on the suspension, but it still looks snappy and responsive.

Finally, to cap it off here, fast cars are actually fast. In GTA 5, even the fast cars feel slow, and the motorcycles have always felt slow to me in GTA games. Finally, in GTA 6, motorcycles will actually be worth the extra risk of riding them, and the fast cars will actually feel fast.

Sometimes, even when you’ve hit top speed in GTA 5, it feels like cars on the highway aren’t too far behind. Once, in my youth, I was taken for a drive in a very fast car, and the other cars on the highway certainly didn’t feel like they were even remotely keeping up.

So I’m excited for this change, and I can’t wait to get behind the wheel and try it out for myself. I’m definitely a car fan, and I’m really excited to see what other customization options we’ll have. Just how fast can we make a Classic Sentinel, for example? Can we slam a huge turbo in there and make it go like a Lambo?

I really hope so, but for now, the driving improvements we’re in for are making me even more hyped for the game, if that’s even possible.