moved from a 2025 launch window to a May 26, 2026 release date. On the upside, that means there’s plenty of time for fans to overanalyze every frame of the two current trailers and speculate on what GTA 6 has in store next year. While no features have been confirmed explicitly by Rockstar Games, the development company behind the long-running series, some long-lost features could – and should – make a comeback.
One of the most entertaining features in any GTA game was the muscle and weight gain mechanic of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Managing food and exercise might sound like a pain in a game like GTA, where players mostly want to run and gun, but it actually provided a very fun way to alter the experience by gaining and losing certain combat skills.
Building Muscles In San Andreas Was A Great Mechanic
Managing Food Was Important To Keeping CJ In Peak Condition
Two decades after its release, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas remains one of the most beloved GTA games. In it, players take on the role of CJ as he returns to San Andreas and its cities — Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas — to fight a gang war and investigate his mother’s death. Like most GTA games, the gameplay of San Andreas focuses on cars and guns, but an additional mechanic allowed players to modify CJ’s weight and muscle mass through his diet and exercise.
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Working out or gaining weight weren’t just aesthetic changes to CJ, as spending time at the gym built CJ’s stamina and strength and modified gameplay in a lot of interesting ways. When in peak condition, CJ could strengthen his hand-to-hand combat to take out enemies faster and run faster for longer periods of time. However, it was easy to lose weight and, in turn, muscle mass if players forgot to feed CJ regularly.
To keep up with CJ’s fitness regime, players would need to keep him on a regular diet of Cluckin' Bell, Burger Shot, or Well Stacked Pizza. These iconic fast-food restaurants were actually more important than they might seem, since CJ had to eat somewhat frequently to avoid becoming weaker and slower over time. Eventually, CJ could even face the worst-case scenario of starving to death.
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This mechanic is incredibly weird and fun, and it should make its return to the series in GTA 6. While players could train their stamina and skills in GTA 5 to become faster and stronger over time, it wasn’t nearly as fun as the weight and muscle mechanic in San Andreas. Making sure CJ doesn’t get too skinny to throw a punch by stocking up on burritos and chicken wings at Cluckin' Bell was a great way to interact with both the world in the game and to modify the overall gameplay experience.
GTA 6 Has The Opportunity To Bring Back Lost RPG Elements
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It’s been over a decade since the last GTA game came out, which means there are years’ worth of expectations being piled onto GTA 6. Rockstar's track record gives the game a good shot at being a next-gen masterpiece, but it could still benefit from taking this opportunity to bring back some of the earlier RPG mechanics that made classic GTA games so entertaining. Improving your character’s stats is a standard video game mechanic, and it was somewhat present in GTA 5, but adding in a mechanic that needs to be carefully balanced is much more fun and immersive.
It’s unlikely that Rockstar Games would be willing to let players make Jason and Lucia, two exceptionally attractive main characters, overweight by downing too many burgers in one sitting. However, GTA 6 could still bring back the muscle gain mechanic by making it important to work out occasionally to keep stamina and strength stats up. Jason can be spotted lifting weights on the beach in the second GTA 6 trailer, which indicates that pumping iron might already be an available activity. Ideally, it should take direct effort to hit the gym to build muscle and unlock more advanced combat abilities.
Grand Theft Auto 6
- Released
- May 26, 2026
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Engine
- Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE)
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Prequel(s)
- Grand Theft Auto 5
