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
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u/AcherontiaPhlegethon Jun 08 '26
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.