GTA 6 in Game Informer: Everything the Cover Story Revealed

Quick Answer. A man on a quad bike stops at a creek with a scoped rifle on his back, and two deer drink at the water in front of him. It’s one of the twelve new screenshots Game Informer published on September 29, 2026, and it’s the one I keep zooming into. Behind the pictures is a 14-page cover story from issue 382 that answers things we’ve been guessing at since the first trailer: hurricanes are in, there are more than 170 animal species, and Leonida is roughly twice the size of GTA V’s map. This page is the guide to the whole story, and every topic links to the article that holds the details.

What Game Informer published

The cover story runs 14 pages in issue 382. It was written by senior associate editor Marcus Stewart and built on interviews with Rockstar’s lead designers. The digital issue went live on September 29, and instead of keeping the story for subscribers, Rockstar partnered with Game Informer to make it free for everyone in the Game Informer app. The catch is the app itself: you have to install it and sign up to read. Print copies follow in the coming weeks. We first wrote about the cover in our news post on the issue; this page is the full breakdown.

Hurricanes, storms and wind

Yes, there are hurricanes. Leonida gets tropical storms and hurricanes, and Rockstar describes them the way a lighting artist would: heavy clouds, strong winds, a dense atmosphere and a lot of rain, so everything drips wet, water pours off roof edges and lamp posts, thunder rolls and lightning flashes light up the clouds. Storms are local. You can stand in sunshine and watch one hit the coast in the distance, and rain leaves puddles and wet surfaces behind, with rainbows once the light is right. The wind is new as well: hair and debris swirl on rooftops, gusts push ripples across the water and bend the grass in the swamps.

How often the big storms hit, and what they do to a mission, is the part we’ll learn closer to launch. The weather page has the full breakdown, including the fake hurricane clips that have been going around for months.

More than 170 animal species

There are more than 170 species across land, air and sea, and some have never appeared in a Rockstar game before. Game Informer’s numbers: over 60 kinds of birds, more than 30 land mammals, and fish, reptiles and the rest on top. The names confirmed so far are manatees, flamingos, pelicans and alligators, plus sharks, whales, rays, turtles and jellyfish, and Florida’s invasive crowd of green iguanas, cane toads, feral cats and monkeys.

The part I like most is how they’re built. Rockstar lists iridescence, bioluminescence, translucency, several feather types and a new fur system where a coat gets wet, dirty and matted. As someone who writes shaders for a living: iridescence and translucency are exactly what stop a bird from looking like plastic in low sun, and matted wet fur is the detail you notice when a deer at a creek is the only thing on screen.

Animals are sorted into Rare, Discoverable and Legendary, and Rockstar is keeping the rare ones secret. Rockstar’s own copy for Mount Kalaga already names hunting, and the screenshot above, a scoped rifle next to drinking deer, is the first time we see it on screen. Legendary animals are an RDR2 idea, so I know how I’d read that. How a hunt actually plays is still to come. The wildlife page keeps the full list of every animal seen in the trailers and screenshots.

A map twice the size of GTA V

Leonida is the biggest map Rockstar has built, roughly twice the size of GTA V’s world, and denser, more detailed and more interactive on top of that. There are six main regions: Vice City, Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga National Park. Vice City gets the glamour, the traffic and the cruise port; Grassrivers is the swamp with its alligators and their neighbours. The size and the comparison with real Florida live on the Florida map page, and the tour of all six regions is in the locations overview.

Two of the twelve screenshots are far from the beach: a stilt house in the swamp at night, and a park with a waterfall and wooden footbridges.

Police, and two people who can swap places

The six-star wanted level is back, and there’s a Heat system: police collect information about what you look like and where you were seen at the crime scene, so getting away can mean changing your appearance. How that plays out in a chase is on the police page.

You can switch between Jason and Lucia almost any time, and they can stay friends or become a couple if you invest in it. More on the pair in the relationship article.

Everyone looks different

Game Informer’s NPC details are about variety. Citizens differ in height and body type, with visible differences in muscle and in where weight sits. Skin has freckles, moles and tans. Tattoos were researched for each community and region of Leonida instead of coming from one shared pool, and there are far more hair and grooming styles, ethnic ones included. Dazed said the same about Jason’s and Lucia’s own bodies; this time it’s the crowd. How those people behave is on the NPC page.

Look at the two biker screenshots: vests reading Final Chapter and Ambrosia, forearms full of ink, a pool table and a chopper outside a roadside bar. That’s the biker side of Leonida, and gangs and factions is where it lives.

Activities

The confirmed list so far: base jumping, billiards, gyms, kayaking, mini golf, scuba diving, street and off-road racing, zoos, airboats and jet skis. It reads like the start of a longer list, and the what you can do page keeps track of it as it grows.

Twelve screenshots, and the one I’d hang on the wall is the storm over the Keys: a seaplane, a long bridge and a cloud that is about to ruin someone’s day.

FAQ

What did Game Informer reveal about GTA 6?
Hurricanes and tropical storms in Leonida, more than 170 animal species, a map roughly twice the size of GTA V’s with six main regions, the return of six wanted stars with a new Heat system, switching between Jason and Lucia almost any time, far more varied NPCs, and a list of activities from base jumping to mini golf.

How many new screenshots did Game Informer publish?
Twelve, all new, published with the cover story on September 29, 2026.

Can you read the Game Informer GTA 6 story for free?
Yes. Rockstar partnered with Game Informer to make the digital cover story free for everyone in the Game Informer app. You need to install the app and sign up, but no subscription.

Everything here comes from official Rockstar materials. Analysis is labeled. We don’t publish leaks.