A frame with flip-flops from GTA 6 and Vice City shows 24 years of graphics evolution
One of the most talked about GTA 6 images this week contains no new locations, characters, or story hints.
The top half of the picture shows a foot in a flip-flop from GTA Vice City, released in 2002. The bottom half shows almost the same angle from a recent GTA 6 gameplay reveal. That is the whole image.
On PlayStation 2, the foot is built from a handful of flat planes, with toes simply drawn onto the texture. The sandal sole looks like a flat hexagon, and the strap reads as a black line with no thickness at all. As for the arch, artists and photographers could probably write essays about that alone.
The bottom half of the frame shows what that same detail turned into twenty-four years later. It highlights how much detail now goes into things that simply did not exist as objects back in 2002.
What shows up in the 2026 frame:
Individual toes with their own geometry and white pedicure
A strap that presses into the skin and casts a soft shadow on the foot
Translucent skin with visible tendons and creases near the ankle
A rubber sole that looks genuinely rubber
The image went viral because of how simple the comparison is. Vice City panorama comparisons usually turn into arguments about art direction, lighting, and post-processing, where both sides can always find a point to argue. A foot in a sandal leaves no room for that kind of debate, since everyone knows exactly what a foot looks like.
The picture also settles another long-running argument. After the first trailers, part of the audience kept saying that GTA 6 looked too close to GTA 5, and this comparison with 2002 answered that without a single word.
Then again, some of the attention also comes from jokes about Quentin Tarantino and his well-known fondness for filming feet.
Expect plenty more conversations about GTA 6 feet in the near future. And that is just the tip of a much bigger iceberg, since the game will likely give people things to discuss for the next decade.
GTA 6 launches on November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series. A PC version has not been announced yet.
