GTA 6 graphics have been downgraded complain fans as experts say the opposite

A new batch of GTA 6 screenshots has the internet arguing over whether the game’s graphics are really as good as they look or if they’re worse than the trailers.

Alongside opening pre-orders for GTA 6 and proper confirmation of its pricing, developer Rockstar has also shared a bevy of new screenshots this week, mostly to promote the exclusive contents of the £90 Ultimate Edition.

Taken at first glance, the screenshots only further emphasise how good GTA 6’s graphics are, while highlighting how varied the customisation options for protagonists Jason and Lucia are.

Unsurprisingly, some people have spent a long time studying these screenshots and depending on who you ask, GTA 6’s purported visuals are either so good that they’re probably not real or a downgrade compared to the trailers.

Across social media, a number of fans have expressed disappointment over how the visuals in the new screenshots look, such as this comparison of Jason’s house.

Others have argued that any discrepancies are simply due to a change in lighting but not only are there Reddit threads insisting that the character models now look worse, some think the lighting itself has been downgraded too.

‘Is it just me, or did Rockstar completely butcher the lighting model since Trailer 2? Look at the occlusion shadows under the car chassis – they look incredibly muddy compared to the first and second trailer,’ reads one such thread.

Another comparison of Jason’s house claims ‘the highly detailed light and shadow bounce have almost been completely cut’ and things look slightly less realistic, making the graphics more akin to what’s seen in GTA Online.

Conversely, Digital Foundry has praised the ‘unprecedented level of polish’ seen in the screenshots, particularly the ray traced reflections. In doing so it questions exactly which platform – PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X – the screenshots actually come from.

It even suggests that Rockstar grabbed the screenshots directly from its development environment ‘where the framing, character positions, and lighting could orchestrate a perfect shot – irrespective of frame rate – with all settings dialled up to 11.’

Quite why everyone’s getting so upset about the character models posing to show off DLC clothing we’re not sure, but either way there’s no pretence that these are shots of gameplay and they seem a strange thing to try and judge the whole game by.

The whole situation is reminiscent of the ridiculous Puddlegate controversy surrounding Insomniac’s Spider-Man, where some fans were convinced the puddles in the final game looked worse than what was shown in a trailer.

This was repeated for Spider-Man 2, as there were complaints about how the water looked, not that it mattered since it went on to become the fastest-selling PlayStation exclusive ever made.

Likewise, no amount of graphics discourse will impact the hype for GTA 6 in any meaningful way, but it would be easier to gauge if there has been a substantial downgrade if there was any real gameplay footage to analyse.

Rockstar did say that everything shown in the last trailer was running on a base PlayStation 5 and ‘comprised of equal parts gameplay and cut scenes.’

At the same time though, Rockstar has not shown how the game looks when someone is actually playing it, leaving a lot of key details, like general gameplay structure or how driving and combat work, up to fan imagination.

Considering Rockstar didn’t share a new trailer to coincide with the pre-orders, we don’t expect one to drop for another couple of months, although given how most of this month’s announcements have come without any prior warning it’s impossible to predict anything accurately.

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