On Thursday, Rockstar Games finally pulled back the curtain on Grand Theft Auto 6 and gave fans a nearly 30-minute trailer for the game. The game looks amazing and massive. But it’s also not the first time that the GTA series visits Vice City, Rockstar’s parody of Miami, Florida. 24 years ago, GTA Vice City was released for PS2 and became one of the most popular games of the time. So, with our first GTA 6 game finally available, let’s compare it to the decades-old Vice City to see how far Rockstar’s technology and visuals have come since 2002. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that, yes, GTA 6 looks a lot better than GTA: Vice City. I took a few different screenshots from the 26-minute long gameplay video to directly compare them to similar scenes and locations seen in Vice City. Some are from the PS2 version, others from the PC version of the classic 2002 open-world game. Either way, the difference is staggering. Let’s get started, okay? Use the sliders below to compare the games. This is perhaps one of my favorite comparisons. In both screenshots, Rockstar attempts to recreate a dilapidated trailer park in the middle of Florida. But with the power of modern consoles and the RAGE engine, Rockstar is getting much closer to what they were trying to achieve in 2002. Another comparison I like is how much more crowded and lively the clubs in GTA 6 look compared to the smaller Malibu Club in GTA Vice City. It should be noted that GTA Vice City was incredibly impressive in its day and even now, seeing it running on a PS2 is insane. But it’s nowhere near the visual fidelity shown in GTA 6. Plus, it only took about a year to make GTA Vice City and almost a decade to make GTA 6. And let’s finish with an example of what a police chase in 2002 was like compared to a police chase in 2026. Grand Theft Auto 6 arrives in November on PS5 and Xbox.
