GTA VI already shows enough side activities to make players forget the missions for hours

Rockstar did not present GTA VI through a traditional feature list.

The August 27 Extended Look instead delivers 26 minutes of missions, situations and fragments of everyday life across Leonida.

Rockstar confirms that the entire presentation consists of in-game footage captured on PlayStation 5.

Between the shootouts and police chases are enough side activities to suggest an open-world philosophy built around more than mission markers.

Weightlifting is one of the clearest confirmed activities

Lucia sits down at a bench press in an outdoor gym.

Controller prompts appear directly on screen and ask the player to use the PS5 triggers during the exercise.

This is not simply a background animation.

Game Informer describes it as a weightlifting minigame reminiscent of GTA: San Andreas.

The activity even has a confirmed persistent consequence: Rockstar tells Dazed that exercise visibly builds and tones Jason and Lucia's muscles.

Basketball is back on Vice City's courts

Another sequence shows Jason taking a shot on a basketball court.

The playable nature of the scene appears reasonably clear, but its rules are far less defined than weightlifting.

Rockstar has not confirmed full games, AI opponents, competitions or statistical progression.

Game Informer therefore sensibly places basketball among the potential activities spotted in the footage rather than describing a fully documented minigame.

That distinction matters throughout the Extended Look.

The shooting range looks like a genuine training area

Lucia also appears inside what resembles a military or training facility.

She fires automatic weapons and a pistol at targets.

The sequence immediately recalls shooting ranges from earlier Grand Theft Auto games.

Rockstar has not explained whether practice improves a statistic, awards prizes or exists purely as a marksmanship challenge.

The activity is visible. Its progression system is not.

Racing clearly extends beyond one discipline

This may be the richest category shown in the presentation.

Game Informer identifies a proper rally car on a race course, nighttime racing, stock-car competition and off-road racing.

In the latter sequence, Lucia rides a dirt bike against other bikes, ATVs and what appears to be a car.

That variety matters because it gives different vehicle classes distinct purposes.

A dirt bike is no longer merely a narrower car with two wheels; it can become the natural tool for an entire class of events.

Some activities only make sense because Leonida has this particular geography

Kayaking is a perfect example.

Jason and Lucia are shown on the water in small craft that obviously have little value for crossing the map at maximum speed.

A kayak only makes sense if rivers, coves and coastal environments are worth traversing slowly.

That creates a very different relationship with the map from highways and downtown streets.

Scuba diving turns the space beneath the map into somewhere worth visiting

GTA VI shows more than ordinary swimming.

One sequence features a protagonist in full diving equipment moving through a rocky underwater area resembling an explorable cave.

Rockstar has not explained what can be discovered beneath the surface.

No universal underwater treasure, wreck-diving or salvage system has been announced.

But designing an underwater environment that appears intended for traversal already gives new purpose to a part of the map that remained relatively peripheral in GTA V.

The airboat exists because Grassrivers exists

Leonida's wetlands provide one of the clearest examples of activity and vehicle design working together.

Rockstar shows Jason piloting an airboat, a vehicle naturally suited to the shallow water of its fictional Everglades.

It is not merely an exotic boat model.

It solves a terrain problem.

Leonida's geography can therefore encourage players to change how they travel rather than simply driving the same car everywhere.

Jet skiing looks like racing, but Rockstar has not confirmed that yet

Lucia also appears on a jet ski behind two other riders at sunset.

The composition strongly resembles a race.

Game Informer reaches the same conclusion while correctly pointing out that no race interface appears.

The personal watercraft is clearly present.

A structured jet-ski racing discipline is not yet confirmed.

Parachuting and base jumping return too

One sequence shows Lucia descending by parachute after jumping from a great height above Vice City.

Parachuting is therefore clearly back as a traversal mechanic.

No organized challenge structure appears in the footage.

We do not yet know whether GTA VI contains timed jumps, checkpoints or events comparable with earlier installments.

The mechanic is shown; a dedicated minigame remains unconfirmed.

Even backyard wrestling appears on the list

One of the stranger moments has Jason participating in an improvised wrestling match in what looks like someone's yard.

He is thoroughly beaten by his opponent.

The moment fits Rockstar's depiction of Leonida, where mundane recreation and absurd spectacle regularly overlap.

We still do not know whether wrestling includes a full series of matches, controllable moves or any form of progression.

Fishing appears too, but a few seconds do not make it Red Dead Redemption 2

Game Informer also identifies fishing among the montage's open-world moments.

The obvious comparison is Red Dead Redemption 2.

That game built equipment, bait, species and locations into a complete fishing system.

Rockstar has not provided anything approaching that level of detail for GTA VI.

The safest conclusion is simply that fishing is shown, not that every system from Rockstar's Western has automatically transferred to Leonida.

These activities do not all seem designed to produce the same reward

That may be the most promising part of the collection.

Weightlifting visibly changes Jason and Lucia's bodies.

A shooting range can test player accuracy. Racing tests driving. Kayaking and scuba diving appear much more focused on exploration.

A strip club, television or social activity serves yet another purpose: spending time inside the culture Rockstar created.

At least from what is shown, Leonida does not treat every side activity as another way to fill the same progress bar.

It is also a way to stop the open world becoming a highway between missions

Grand Theft Auto has always built large maps.

The familiar danger is optimization. After enough hours, players learn the fastest routes and the city becomes little more than space between objective icons.

Local activities can resist that process.

An outdoor gym beside a beach, a basketball court visible from the road or a kayak waiting beside a river can create reasons to stop without opening a quest log.

That kind of density matters more than simply counting buildings.

San Andreas looks almost as influential here as GTA V

Weightlifting, basketball and multiple recreational activities immediately recall GTA: San Andreas.

The 2004 game devoted unusual attention to things that were unnecessary for the story but changed how players inhabited Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas.

GTA V retained plenty of hobbies but largely abandoned the persistent physical transformation linked to some of them.

GTA VI appears to combine both approaches: numerous distractions and, at least for training and food, lasting consequences for the protagonists.

Red Dead Redemption 2 supplies the other half of the formula

Rockstar's previous major game made time spent away from missions central to its identity.

Fishing, hunting, games, camp activity, eating and horse care all gave value to slowing down.

GTA VI is obviously faster and more chaotic, but parts of that philosophy appear to survive.

Kayaking, diving, training and domestic activities do not necessarily accelerate progression.

They make Leonida somewhere to inhabit.

The long lists of “confirmed minigames” still need caution

The Extended Look shows much more than it explains.

Game Informer explicitly acknowledges this in its own list: some moments clearly demonstrate playable mechanics while others may simply be open-world scenes or scripted sequences.

Weightlifting has unmistakable interface prompts.

Several races clearly show the player competing.

Basketball, fishing, jet skiing and television remain less fully defined.

The accurate conclusion is not that Rockstar has formally documented twenty minigames.

It is that GTA VI already shows an unusually wide range of things happening outside its main missions, several of which are unquestionably playable.

Leonida's real luxury may be wasting the player's time

Players will obviously be able to move through GTA VI by following Jason and Lucia from one story objective to the next.

Everything Rockstar has shown suggests Leonida is designed to resist that efficiency.

A race appears somewhere. A basketball court catches the eye. A kayak waits beside the water. A gym can alter a protagonist's body. A high ledge begs to be jumped from.

Those are exactly the distractions that make an open world memorable once the robberies are over.

GTA VI's physical size will remain a talking point until release.

The Extended Look raises a much more useful question: how often will players willingly forget where they were supposed to be going?

Grand Theft Auto VI launches November 19, 2026 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.