Edge plays GTA VI with Rockstar: police now hunt you by your description

Edge magazine's November issue, number 430, puts GTA VI on the cover with a 16-page story, and the full text went up free on GamesRadar+ on 29 October, the day the issue hit shelves. Writer Simon Parkin visited Rockstar North in Edinburgh. There Rob Nelson, co-studio head and head of development, played the current build for 90 minutes with no script. Aaron Garbut and Phil Hooker, who share the head of development title, also spoke on the record.

The biggest change is how the police find you. A heat system keeps track of what officers know: your description, whether you worked alone or with a partner, what you wore, whether a CCTV camera caught you and which weapon you carried. Icons at the top of the screen show that report. Splitting up with your partner, changing clothes or dropping the weapon each removes a clue, so escaping means becoming harder to recognise rather than waiting for stars to fade. Pricier cars can carry trackers, some drivers are armed and fight back, police lay stinger strips, and K-9 units join chases for the first time in the series.

How you commit crimes now matters too. A Criminal Profile rates Jason and Lucia from "Professional" to "Irredeemable", shown with angel and devil icons. You can knock an enemy out, threaten or intimidate instead of killing, and Rockstar says the profile changes how the story unfolds. People also react to how you carry a gun: a shotgun on your back draws less attention than one in your hands. Dropping a weapon in time can keep you from getting a wanted level. The couple's closeness sits on a four-point scale that grows with time spent together, from beach walks and cycling to the gym. Nelson would neither confirm nor deny that they can marry.

Daily life gets its own tools. The Scooter Bros phone app delivers your car within seconds for a small fee, and your whole arsenal rides in its boot. A second app, WAINK, lists car models that fences want, with their security and trackers, and part of your pay depends on the car's condition. Every vehicle shows fuel and engine health. Buses and trains run on real routes. "I'm obsessed with making sure they always turn up," says Hooker, who has memorised them all. Coffee boosts stamina and a protein shake adds health.

The world itself is slower and denser. The day-night cycle is much longer than in GTA V, and roads were narrowed to "a more believable size". The map is about twice GTA V's, and Rockstar says its total landmass is nearly as large as the playable maps of GTA IV, GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 combined. Garbut says the game has "an order of magnitude more interiors" and he still finds places he has never seen. A team in Los Angeles worked on pedestrians, with around 600,000 animations. Between story missions, the couple sometimes has to raise cash before the next job.

This is the most detailed look yet at how GTA VI plays, three weeks before it launches on 19 November on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. "We've made what we wanted to make," Hooker says. Rockstar has not posted any of it on its own Newswire, so the magazine is the first-hand source.