Clarity Potion

Every driving game can be mapped onto a spectrum. At one end are those with arcadey vehicle physics. Vehicles in these games do not handle realistically at all; they are typically cartoonish and deliberately silly. At the other end are those with realistic vehicle physics; these games aim to recreate the experience of driving actual vehicles.

The Grand Theft Auto series has leaned more on the realistic side of the spectrum since GTA 3. The PS2 games featured vehicle physics at their most arcadey, though they were relatively realistic by the standards of the time. The physics and damage models are simple compared to modern GTAs. They would undoubtedly be considered outdated if alternative urban sims such as Watch Dogs and even many dedicated racing games weren’t still lagging behind Rockstar’s earliest efforts.

GTA 4 leaned heavily towards realism. The vehicles became heavier. The physics and damage models became more complex. The PS2 vehicles, by comparison, handled like dodgem cars and were retroactively deemed arcadey due to the new bar for realism GTA 4 set. GTA 4 made driving more complex, challenging, and immersive.

GTA 5 rolled back the realism of GTA 4 in some areas. Those who found GTA 4’s vehicle physics frustrating welcomed the adoption of a more accessible, controllable driving style. Others felt GTA 5 ventured too far toward the arcade side of the spectrum and consequently made driving too easy.

These subtle differences between 4 and 5 have provoked one of the biggest debates among GTA fans. This debate is up there with what the best game is in the series and whether Franklin’s haircut is or is not in fact yee yee ass (imo, I think it’s fine, Lamer’s just upset that Franklin didn’t let him into his crib.)

Besides being fun to argue, the outcome of this fanbase-wide debate also has a point. Player feedback to GTA 4 and 5’s vehicle physics will influence Rockstar’s approach to vehicle physics in GTA 6. Most likely, Rockstar has already decided roughly how they want the vehicles to work based on the past decade of feedback they’ve received.

It’s natural to fear GTA 6 will get its driving physics wrong. The next instalment in the series has been a long, long time in the making. It has seemed especially long for people like me who didn’t enjoy GTA 5 very much (seriously, the wait for GTA 6 has been painful).

There’s a chance Rockstar will misunderstand what people like and dislike about the driving in their games. Many gamers are notoriously bad at introspection and articulating the reasoning behind their enjoyment or lack thereof. There’s also the aforementioned disagreement about whether GTA 4’s realistic or GTA 5’s more arcadey approach is best. No matter what Rockstar does, not everyone will be happy.

So it’s worth comparing the vehicle physics of GTA 4 and 5 and figuring out what each game does well and what each does poorly. Considering how similar both games’ vehicles are, there must be a way to take the best qualities of both and find a synthesis that will satisfy the majority of GTA fans and give them what they consider to be the best driving physics in the GTA series yet.

GTA 4

Fans criticised GTA 4 for its boat-like vehicle physics. Gentle turns and sudden stops caused cars to wobble comically on their suspensions. They had wide turning arcs, forcing drivers to slow way down when rounding corners. Drifts were hard to pull off and cars were easily overturned. The bikes were ridiculously tough to control. Players felt they were constantly fighting with exaggerated physical forces.

Vehicle damage was also severe. Crashes caused vehicles to crumple in realistic ways few games can match even today. Unlike in the PS2 games, damage would often hamper a vehicle’s performance, causing them to slow down, lean to one side, stop working entirely, or even set the player on fire. To punish the player for never wearing a seatbelt, high-speed crashes would send Niko flying from the windshield. These effects were a pleasure to look at and certainly added to GTA 4’s sense of realism. Many players, however, felt that crashes had become too punishing. This, combined with the difficult handling, only worsened their frustration.

A common argument against GTA 4’s vehicles is that they are not actually realistic. ‘My car doesn’t drive like that,’ they say. ‘Anyone who says GTA 4 has realistic vehicle physics hasn’t driven a car before.’

Well, I have driven a car, and the truth is somewhere in the middle. Cars certainly do not wobble on their suspensions as in GTA 4. In terms of their actual handling characteristics, though, they handle somewhat realistically. Most people don’t speed the way they do in video games; they’ve never taken tight turns at high speed or attempted any of the manoeuvres they commonly perform in games. But if you watch a few car crash compilations on YouTube, you’ll see how easily cars flip and struggle to turn when the speedometer starts spinning. If anything, GTA 4’s cars are easier to control than they are in reality. The physics are more forgiving if you consider only the cars and ignore the bikes.

But the question of realism is beside the point. GTA is not a driving sim. Driving is not supposed to be realistic—it is supposed to be fun. And if you can overcome GTA 4’s learning curve and accept the slightly comical wobble of the vehicles, driving in GTA 4 can be very fun indeed.

The best effects of GTA 4’s weighty driving physics are challenge and tension.

Since driving is challenging, it takes skill to drive well. Early in the game, you’re likely to crash a lot. But as you learn how the cars work, driving becomes more manageable and you crash less often. The better at driving you get, the faster you can go. Eventually, you’ll be moving faster and better than you initially thought possible. The satisfaction of overcoming GTA 4’s learning curve and mastering the art of driving is one of its most outstanding achievements.

No matter how good you get, the tension is always there. Since crashes can cause significant damage, there are consequences to failure besides being temporarily stopped. This risk increases the faster you go.

The danger is at its most acute when driving sports cars. These fast, flashy compensators are naturally at the top of every carjacker’s to-steal list. They can get you where you need to go faster than any other type of car and do so in style.

The brilliance of GTA 4’s driving physics and damage models is that the utility of sports cars is counterbalanced by risk. Drive recklessly and these cars will spin out of control and easily totaled. To enjoy the benefits of a sports car, the driver must have the skill to earn it.

GTA 5

With GTA 5, Rockstar took a different approach to driving physics. Complaints regarding GTA 4’s boat-like vehicle physics clearly affected Rockstar’s design philosophy.

The new driving physics made vehicles easier to control. They turned more sharply, accelerated faster, and stuck more stubbornly to the ground. That crazy wobble was gone, and it was even possible to control the angle of cars as they flew through the air.

The consequences of crashing were also reduced. Cars would rarely crumble, damage would rarely affect a car’s performance, and you could now flip cars right-side-up after overturning them. GTA 4’s damage model still exists within the game’s code, but it takes extreme, almost game-breaking weight—such as crushes under the HVY Dump Truck—to cause enough crumple damage to evoke the standard crashes of GTA 4.

Overall, GTA 5’s vehicles are less challenging to drive. When high speeds are so easily achieved, the satisfaction of a skilfully executed manoeuvre is lessened. The reduced damage vehicles suffer saps high-speed driving of much of its tension. Crashing is a less scary when the likelihood of sustaining severe damage is extremely low.

That said, GTA 5 ups the consequences of crashing in one specific way. Failing to land on your wheels when falling from tall heights will usually cause your car to explode. This was likely done to encourage players to use the tilt controls in the air. The problem is that this feature robs players of the fun of tumbling down GTA 5’s many mountains. Barrel-rolling after a bad crash in GTA 4 was hilarious and an excellent opportunity to admire the game’s impressive physics. Try this in GTA 5, though, and the fun will usually be cut short by an explosion and a teleport to the hospital. It’s bizarre that a game emphasising freedom and casual play over challenge and consequence would implement such a sudden and severe consequence for this specific circumstance, especially where much fun could be derived from long, uncontrollable tumbles down tall heights.

Putting that one oddity aside, GTA 5’s vehicles are overall easier and safer to drive. A lot of people welcomed this change and still do to this day. As time has passed, though, I’ve noticed more people express nostalgia for GTA 4’s more challenging and tension-filled way of doing things. GTA 5 is too easy for many players. After over ten years of GTA 5, many fans thirst for more of a challenge and greater visual satisfaction regarding their crashes.

I do not believe GTA 6 should fully reimplement GTA 4’s vehicle physics. I do, however, think that much could be learned from both systems and that the most enjoyable system for most fans lies in a synthesis between both styles.

GTA 6

In my view, the ideal driving system for GTA 6 would be a combination of the previous two games. Rockstar was right to make GTA 5’s driving more accessible, but they went too far. Driving was sapped of too much tension and reward, making the act of driving an almost mindless activity.

For the next game, Rockstar should increase the weightiness of the vehicles. Acceleration should be a little slower, turns should be a little trickier, and stopping at high speed should require a slightly longer hold on the breaks.

I don’t think the vehicles should be as challenging to control as GTA 4, but some effort should be made to regain some of the feel of GTA 4’s vehicles and thus reintroduce some of that sense of reward for skilled players.

Vehicle damage should also be increased. Now that we are 15 years and several console generations out from the release of GTA 4, GTA 6 should be capable of much more impressive damage effects.

This is not to say that damage should be more crippling to a vehicle’s performance than GTA 4. I understand making vehicles too easy to total would frustrate many people. GTA 6 should not attempt to outdo BeamNG.drive. It should, however, make damage more punishing than in the relatively consequence-free GTA 5.

As driving in GTA 5 lacks too much tension, a return to the consequences of GTA 4, combined with more visually impressive damage models, would be ideal. Not only would this make crashes more punishing, and thus skilful driving more thrilling, but the spectacle of sophisticated vehicle damage would surely overcome the frustration of crashing and transform failure into a delight all of its own.

Needless to say, Rockstar should remove the ability to flip cars right side up. One of the classic GTA scenarios, going all the way back to GTA 3, is flipping your car and being forced to abandon it as punishment for sucking so bad. It’s an iconic aspect of GTA gameplay—a well-earned consequence of the most embarrassing mistake you can make with a car. GTA 5 ruined it by allowing players to resolve this situation without consequence. It’s boring and it should be removed.

I’d also like to see fall damage no longer result in instant death. Instant death is rarely fun. Much more enjoyable is falls reducing a vehicle’s mobility or disabling it entirely. A bad crash should rarely end a player’s fun. They should have the chance to get out, admire the damage, and shamefully scurry away to find a replacement.

Rockstar must have already decided what kind of driving GTA 6 will have. Most likely, they’ll be tweaking the physics for the duration of development. We can only hope they don’t listen to the extremists on either side of the arcade vs realism debate. I genuinely believe a middle ground is the best course to take.

Unfortunately, the cynical part of me suspects the popularity of GTA Online may have caused Take Two to prohibit Rockstar from making driving more challenging or punishing. I suspect Take Two is afraid of upsetting casual players who would perceive any skill barrier to them driving at max speed at all times in the flashiest of vehicles to be an attack on their ability to have fun.

Then again, Red Dead Redemption 2 was pretty realistic, so we’ll just have to wait and see.