“Vampire ferris wheel”: GTA 6 fans dissect new clip over one odd detail

Rockstar has finally announced the pre-order date for GTA 6: starting June 25, fans will be able to reserve what is arguably the most anticipated game of all time. To mark the occasion, new material has also been released on the official website – including a short video showing the Vice City skyline at night. As is typical of the GTA community, fans are already analyzing every detail. In a recent Reddit thread, more than 1,500 comments accumulated in less than 20 hours.

Several users have spotted references to Miami, Bayside, Dodge Island and the MacArthur Causeway. For many fans, part of the fascination lies in recognizing real-world locations in Rockstar’s cities. In the thread’s top comment, u/NoN-Stop-Dank wonders how much the GTA Mapping Group might be able to extract from the new GTA 6 material. This refers to the group of so-called “mappers” who have been trying for months to create the most accurate map possible based on all the details about the game released so far. Another detail is also attracting a lot of attention in the current discussion: the Ferris wheel in the background.

The “vampire Ferris wheel”

As some users have noticed, the Ferris wheel in the background neither casts a shadow nor is it reflected in the water – unlike the skyscrapers next to it. Some users jokingly refer to it as a “vampire Ferris wheel,” while others are already ironically calling for the next delay. Behind the jokes, however, there also seems to be genuine skepticism. Several fans are discussing whether the clip could indicate that GTA 6 uses only limited reflections on consoles. Terms such as ray tracing and screen-space reflections are mentioned in the comments. Some users suspect that Rockstar has to make technical compromises regarding draw distance and the size of the game world so that the game runs properly on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

More criticism

The water surface is also taking a beating in the discussion. Some Redditors complain that it looks quite static and that there is hardly any visible movement or waves caused by boats. Some even feel that the video looks more like GTA 5 (PS5 version currently around $26 on Amazon) with better lighting than the expected next-gen leap. u/EchoOneFour writes, for example: “If someone had said it was GTA 5, I wouldn’t have questioned it.” However, there are also positive comments praising the high draw distance, the dense skyline, the visible traffic in the distance and the many small details in the sky and around the harbor.