GTA 6 in Game Informer: hurricanes, 170 animals and 12 new images 🌀

GTA 6 is on the cover of Game Informer, and Rockstar is giving the story away: 14 pages on Leonida, 12 new images and a wave of fresh details.

This is the cover everyone is talking about. 📰 GTA 6 is on the cover of Game Informer issue 382, the well-known American video game magazine. Inside: a 14-page cover story by Marcus Stewart, a journalist who has spent his whole life in South Florida, the region that inspired Leonida.

To write it, he interviewed several senior people at Rockstar Games. The story went live digitally on September 29, 2026, along with 12 brand-new screenshots.

Here is everything you need to know, based on Game Informer and the outlets that read the full story.

⚡ The essentials in 30 seconds

• The magazine: Game Informer issue 382, 14 pages on GTA 6 and 12 new images
• Access: free in the Game Informer app, thanks to Rockstar
• The map: about twice the size of GTA 5's, denser, with many more interiors
• The weather: localized and persistent, with tropical storms and hurricanes
• The animals: more than 170 species, including over 60 types of birds and more than 30 land mammals
• The locals: more varied than ever, right down to tattoos and clothing
• Release: November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S

📰 A cover drawn by Rockstar

The artwork was created by Rockstar Games for the magazine. It shows Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, pistols in hand, in a pink convertible riddled with bullet holes.

The print edition will reach subscribers and newsstands in the coming weeks. Game Informer calls it a collector's issue, available for a limited time only. Its print subscription is now offered in more than 50 countries, Europe included.

🗺️ Leonida: twice the size of GTA 5's map

Aaron Garbut, one of the leads at Rockstar North, confirms it: Leonida is the biggest map Rockstar has ever made, around twice the size of GTA 5's.

And it isn't just bigger. It is denser, more detailed and more interactive, with many more interiors. "We obsessed about every part," says Aaron Garbut: the rooftops, the alleys, the interiors.

Vice City has been rebuilt and expanded for the present day. The six main regions, revealed in 2025, get a little more detail:

• Vice City: the game's Miami, with its beaches, Art Deco buildings, cruise port and traffic jams
• Leonida Keys: the game's take on the Florida Keys
• Grassrivers: the game's Everglades, wetlands full of reptiles… and outdoorsmen who may be armed
• Port Gellhorn: a faded tourist town of cheap motels, closed-down attractions and crumbling shopping plazas
• Ambrosia: factories, refineries and a biker gang that runs the place
• Mount Kalaga National Park: a national park in the north of the state

Northern Leonida, the real news

The story lifts the lid on the north of the map, near the border with Gloriana, the game's version of Georgia. Paul MacPherson, who leads the environment artists, names Panama City, Jacksonville, Ocala and the small rural towns in between as references.

Expect logging operations, private communities with their own airstrips and struggling west coast towns. For fun: ATV trails, motocross, mountain biking, mud parks, demolition derbies, farms, ranches, golf and bass fishing.

What about Orlando's theme parks, or Cape Canaveral? Game Informer asked. Paul MacPherson doesn't confirm anything: Rockstar picks the landscapes and landmarks that serve the game, rather than recreating all of Florida.

⛈️ Local weather… and hurricanes

Owen Shepherd, who oversees lighting and rendering at Rockstar, explains that the weather has been re-engineered from Red Dead Redemption 2's system. The goal: weather that is localized and persistent.

• Dynamic cloudscapes roll across Leonida, from clear blue skies to towering storm clouds.
• You can stand in the sunshine and watch a downpour hit another part of the map.
• After the rain, puddles and wet surfaces stick around: you can tell it just rained.
• In the right light, a rainbow can appear after a shower.

The wind has been reworked too: coastal breezes after sunset, rising updrafts of warm air, buildings that block the gusts. As a result, hair and debris swirl around on rooftops, water ripples and swamp grass bends.

And yes, there will be hurricanes. 🌀 Tropical storms and hurricanes can hit Leonida, with "heavy clouds, strong winds, dense atmospherics, and a lot of rain." Water pours off rooftops and lampposts, and lightning lights up the clouds.

Rockstar hasn't said yet how often these storms happen, or whether they change missions or the story.

🦩 More than 170 animal species

Leonida is home to more than 170 animal species on land, in the air and in the water: over 60 types of birds, more than 30 land mammals, plus fish and reptiles. Several have never appeared in a Rockstar game before.

• The local stars: alligators, manatees, flamingos and pelicans
• In the water: several shark species, whales, rays, turtles and jellyfish, each with its own way of moving
• Invasive species: green iguanas, cane toads, feral cats, armadillos and even rhesus macaques. Yes, Florida has monkeys. 🐒

Rockstar is building on its work on Red Dead Redemption. Some animals are iridescent, bioluminescent or translucent, feathers vary from bird to bird, and fur is simulated: it gets wet, dirty and matted, and its color varies from one animal to the next.

As in Red Dead Redemption 2, some animals can be tracked. They fall into three categories, Rare, Discoverable and Legendary, but Rockstar is keeping their identities secret. The wildlife we already know about is on our GTA 6 Animals page.

👥 The most varied locals yet

Game Informer describes GTA 6's pedestrians as the most diverse in the series. They vary in height, build and musculature, and their skin shows freckles, moles or tan lines.

Michael Kane, from Rockstar's art team, explains that the team paid "a crazy amount of attention" to tattoos, so that they match Leonida's different communities. There are more hairstyles, and Rockstar has never offered so much clothing: it changes with the location, the person, dirt and wear.

There is even a whole team dedicated to writing what passers-by say.

🚔 Jason, Lucia and the police: the reminders

The story also goes back over what August's Extended Look showed, with a few extra details:

• The duo: Jason and Lucia can stay friends or become a couple, depending on your choices. Holding hands, opening doors for each other or answering calls quickly brings them closer, and decisions big and small can change the direction of the story.
• Robberies: alone or together, loud or quiet. Some missions only unlock once you have enough money.
• The police: six-star wanted levels return, with a new Heat system. Cops identify you from your appearance and the crime scene: changing your outfit or hairstyle, ditching the car or splitting up helps you lose them.
• Cars: high-end models require special tools, and some have security systems or a tracker. The WAiNK app scans a vehicle to show its security, the cost of registering it and what a fence would pay for it.
• The phone: the RydeMe app works as ride-share fast travel, and the map gets a satellite-style look. Snapmatic returns, but Jason and Lucia don't post anything: they're wanted.

🏄 Confirmed activities

Outside of missions, Leonida promises plenty to do:

• base jumping
• billiards
• gyms
• kayaking
• mini golf
• scuba diving
• street and off-road racing
• zoos
• airboats
• jet skis

Hiking is one of the dates Jason and Lucia can go on. Several of these activities already appeared in the Extended Look.

📸 The rest of the new images

Here are the remaining screenshots released with the story:

💬 Frequently asked questions

As a reminder, GTA 6 comes out on November 19, 2026 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The 12 new images and the cover are also in our GTA 6 gallery, and the regions are on our GTA 6 map.

Also worth reading: the GTA 6 Extended Look and the Vice City collector's box.

Sources: Game Informer (issue 382 and articles from September 25 and 29, 2026), Rockstar Games, and reports from GTA BOOM, VGTimes, RockstarINTEL, Push Square and Pure Xbox. Images © Rockstar Games / Game Informer. GTA6Codes.fr is a fan site, not affiliated with Rockstar Games, Take-Two Interactive or Game Informer.