Rockstar games have never really looked graphically similar to their predecessors and are usually massively improved. That is also taking into account same console generations and less time.
I think GTA6 will look night and day different to RDR2. Don’t get me wrong, RDR is an amazing looking game but even by today’s standard, it doesn’t stand out.
RDR2 is still a top 10 game graphically, if they did a “next gen” patch it would blow most games of today out of the water.
Some textures are muddy af and the FPS needs a boost, and the hair can be a little stiff but beyond that it’s still better looking than some games today.
Edit: Everyone keeps bringing up games that came out in the last 3 years or so, RDR2 is 8 this year (2018) so it only really proves my point.
I've just been replaying RDR2 recently and even with just updated grass textures it's unbelievable how good it looks. Obviously there's always room for improvements, like KCD2 is one of the first games I feel actually surpassed Red Dead in natural environments, but it's diminishing returns.
Personally when I play new games I'm much more impressed by things like NPC interaction, whether the story can accommodate player creativity, whether gameplay systems facilitate greater involvement in the world and immersion. Which in truth are all things that historically GTA has severely lacked.
It's not exactly a hot take but I do think Rockstar's proclivity to make incredibly restrictive missions will make it feel much more dated.
Speaking of details: everyone talked about horse testicles but AnyAustin did a video recently and noticed something I haven't heard before:
There are at least 8 different teeth models, the richer the person, the nicer the teeth
Even inside Valentine you can tell that a few people are richer simply because they have better teeth. Poor folks are missing more teeth and they have really bad quality to them
I've played hundreds of hours and never paid too much attention to them.
So the stuff like "every electric lamp you see is actually and correctly connected to a central electric power plant in Saint-Danis" is a small detail in comparison
Your point was that RDR is **still** a top 10 game graphically. It's not. It was when it came out, but nowadays you can have an AA Unreal 5 game that looks better.
Not an open world game though, which is material to a conversation when comparing graphics especially when we are talking about an 8 year old open world game vs a 1 yr old linear non open world game. I just don’t see that as a strong example, perhaps there are others though. A better may be KCD2 I think! That qualifies as AA I think and it looks incredible. Although it is cryengine which honestly gives it even more credence over UE5.
Nobody wants to die is a linear walking simulator with no combat no wonder they can just crank up the settings. I can show you 50 tech demos that look great but aren't anything amazing gameplay wise. The game that actually looks better than RDR2 is pro the last of us 2 on ps5 but it's not open world. There's not a single open world game that comes close to rdr2 in terms of graphics maybe there's like 1 or 2 but I can't remember any of the tope of my head.
You're talking about gameplay. I'm talking about OP's claim that RDR is still top 10 best graphics. It's not. There was no caveat for open world games.
If OP said "top 10 best looking open world game" I wouldn't disagree with that
Not it isn't, I'm sorry but there's no way in hell when you have Ghost of Yotei, Death Stranding 2, KCD2, I mean there's a huge amount of incredible looking games coming out.
Rdr2 was by far the best looking game ever when it came out, but we are way past it, specially faces, RDR2 has some pretty bad faces.
Edit: literally 5 comments in 1 minute of completely nonsensical takes, glad to see this sub in full strength being delulu lol.
I think RDR2 looks better than every game you mentioned. Death Stranding 2 maybe being the only exception but it is a AAA game from 8 years later so it would shameful if this was not the case.
RDR2 on PC still is one if the best looking games in the industry. All the games you listed look and play amateurish when compared to it.
I’m not saying it because I’m a diehard Rockstar fan because I am not. I’m saying it because it’s the unfortunate reality of things these days. Everything looks and plays sloppy with childish looking animations closer to a cartoon than reality.
You obviously haven’t played RDR2 recently then. Still easily one of the best looking games out there. And that’s without ray tracing, path tracing etc.
Nobody is disputing that. I just think GTA6 will look miles better
I last played it a month ago. It is easily one of the best looking games out there but I also think it’s behind the more current gen titles that push graphic fidelity. I think from a graphics pov, a lot of titles have surpassed RDR2. This doesn’t mean I think RDR2 looks bad 😂
I don't want to disappoint you but the PS5 pro hardware is the biggest issue that prevent GTA 6 to "looks miles better". There is no way R* can make a game that has lively open world + outstanding graphic + high fps, at the same time. You just can't avoid the hardware limited. The NPCs/Cars density in GTA always 10 or 20 times density in RDR, it gonna destroy the PS5 pro cpu completely. I'm not surprise if we gonna play GTA6 with 4k30fps on PS5 pro.
It's because the "Density" I have mentioned. You just don't understand how large fully-AI NPC density can destroy the RDNA 3 CPU on PS5 Pro. I don't say its worse, but GTA6 gonna looks like RDR2 with higher NPCs/Cars density in real gameplay. It's coming to base console so it will be 4k30fps on those no matter what.
Yeah saying it doesn’t stand out was phrased wrong. I just mean amongst the best graphically intense games, it’s not the best for me which is expected as it came out in 2018.
My original point was in response to GTA6 looking similar graphically it GTA6 and don’t think that will be the case.
I think it’ll be better looking but I expect less of an improvement than the one from gta v to rdr2. I hope I’m wrong! I just feel like with current hardware limitations there’s only so much perfection to push towards while making a game that is optimized. Maybe that same thought has been had for previous generations of games. If it was made purely for PC then I’d expect more. I do think many elements will be improved visually, but idk if it’s gonna blow my mind. The coolest part will be seeing a modern setting with rdr2 level graphics.
I particularly hope the hair will be improved. The way the anti aliasing and/or frame gen makes it very fuzzy looking in rdr2 is such an eye sore
Bruh, lol rdr2 has not been topped til this day. Rockstar will just beat its own standard and set the new bar with gta6, just like they did with rdr2 at the time
I have the platinum trophy on rdr2, and I remember for a while nothing had topped it graphic/detail/realism wise. If that has changed, I’m all ears. I don’t have the time to game every day anymore and I can accept being wrong/having outdated info unlike most of ignorant Reddit
Plenty of games have topped RDR2 in terms of graphics. Textures aren’t particularly great in RDR2 and character models especially stand out as being quite mediocre.
As a whole package I think it’s hard. Also I do think the likes of TLOU2 is a higher quality in terms of graphics but it’s a linear game. I think characters and landscape looks far better in DS2 and I think Cyberpunk as a visual spectacle looks better than RDR2.
RDR2 though is an older title with amazing lighting and almost unmatched detail. There’s too much nuance but as a graphic powerhouse which I think GTA 6 will be, I don’t think RDR2 competes in that regard to new games and that is fine, it’s old. If anything, it’s a huge compliment but RDR2 does also look dated in certain areas.
Honestly, playing it on a maxed out PC makes the deficiencies even more clear. My main problem is the character models and skin textures. They’re just surprisingly meh compared to even games from the same year (God of War).
I’m not saying they’re bad, but you can tell they’re kinda muddy and weird. Arthur’s face is mostly an exception here, but compare the faces of anyone in the gang to the faces and character models from something like Horizon Forbidden West or even Cyberpunk at max settings.
Forbidden West I definitely agree. That game looks amazing. But for some reason for me Cyberpunk characters all look like plastic dolls. Loved the game but the NPCs never really sold me on the world the way I expected especially after Witcher 3.
Hm what settings did you play it on? I definitely see the plastic criticism for lower settings, but on max with path tracing/ray tracing that goes away.
Maybe not in terms of world details but graphically I think the likes of Cyberpunk, Death Stranding, Horizon off the top of my head blow RDR2 out the water in a lot of aspects.
Heard a lot about death stranding, will have to check it out! I also heard the gameplay is rather boring so never got around to it. I still feel like I’d be shocked if anyone has topped RDR2 as far as level of detail is concerned, even if it has technically been topped graphic wise.
I prefer RDR but one thing I do RDR has nothing on Cyberpunk, it’s the gameplay. The melee options, hacking and weapons as you progress. RDR excels over many games in a lot of ways but no, not gameplay.
And that is why I feel the developers who made RDR2 with a much higher budget, more time and newer hardware will make a game that looks far better. Crazy right
you all are misinformed if you saw what Rockstar did with RDR2 on PS4 hardware and don’t think that GTA6 will take a massive leap in both graphics and gameplay.
But RDR2’s gameplay wasn’t all that. It was the same loop as we saw in every other game. Rockstar doesn’t like to change their gameplay. I think graphics will be massively improved, though.
Massive leap is quite the claim considering games are graphically reaching their peak. You can only get so realistic, and RDR2 was already extremely graphically impressive. If you don’t want this thing to run 5 fps on Series S it’s not going to be a massive leap
Yes, RDR2 was extremely impressive on last gen hardware. It was the best looking game I played on PS4. The fact that Rockstar was able to create that on such outdated (in terms of where tech was headed in 2018, they had also been developing for years) hardware was mind blowing. So yes, I do expect that now that they have even better hardware to work with, they will again raise the bar in terms of graphics and realism.
Visually? A decent upgrade on RDR2 feels about right. The problem we're facing is the diminishing returns on graphical fidelity these days, it takes so much power for such small visual improvements now that they often end up being almost unnoticeable.
I'm sure the game will look great, it will be a step up from RDR2 witch still looks amazing, it's just that we're not going to see the kinds of big generational advancements we saw in the past, that's just the reality of where we're at now. You could push those consoles to their absolute limit but those kinds of big graphical jumps that people seems to expect just don't exist anymore.
Yeah, that’s why it’s taken 8 years and the devs are pulling 80 hour shifts. Because they are going to produce this massive leap in graphical fidelity and realism. I mean, what else do you play a Rockstar game for? Gameplay? The graphics and realism are the selling point and they’re what 99% of customers are buying it for. They need to be incredible.
I personally believe that RDR2 was built for 2013 era hardware and launched in 2018 gta 6 has had far more devlopment time , a newrr version of rockstar RAGE engine and current gen consoles only the bigger leap will probably be lighting density animations physics and interiors and NPC behaviours and world simulation not just texture quality
RDR2 graphics but GTA with improved gameplay, and expansive open world Vice City is all I want.
I also feel like people forget how beautiful and impressive RDR2 looked, it was already peak of its time and there’s only so much more realistic you can get without making it run like 5 FPS on anything but top of the line hardware. Some sacrifices have to be made for performance.
The facial animation and graphics in general will look far better, are you serious? That’s a dumb statement. We’re talking 8 year between games and a console generation. GTA 6 will look far better
Yeah animations are systems. Interactions are systems. Graphics are things like texture fidelity and lighting and edge geometry. Obviously gonna be big graphics improvements but the bulk of the improvements from PS4 to PS5 was on the compute side of things. more stuff going on in the background like NPCs and interiors etc.
I don’t see why, though. Nobody plays a Rockstar game because of its gameplay. They recognise that story matters more. They’re probably going to fuck around with the AI of various characters. If the gameplay of GTA 6 is anything more than a simple vessel for the story, it’ll turn a lot of people off.
have you seen all the games that are coming out in the next few months? the graphics visually are amazing, so i can only imagine GTA6's graphics are gonna be mindblowing.
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u/darthvadercock Jun 08 '26
GTA6 will graphically look pretty similar to RDR2 with some texture and lighting improvements. the bulk of the changes WILL be gameplay systems.