GTA 6 vs. Forza Horizon 6: Car Undersides Spark an Unexpected Debate

The wait for GTA 6 is in the home stretch, and the community is looking for any excuse to keep talking about the game. The latest one comes from Reddit user aditya_545, who decided to compare the cars in Rockstar's new entry with those in Forza Horizon 6. Not the bodywork, the reflections or the headlights, but the undersides: the part of the vehicle almost nobody looks at, unless the car ends up on its roof in the middle of a chase.

As reported by Vida Extra, the comparison pits the overturned cars seen in GTA 6's An Extended Look against a Forza Horizon 6 photo mode screenshot showing a car upside down. The result has sparked plenty of debate because, at first glance, the underside of Rockstar's vehicles looks far more detailed. And this matters more than it might seem: it confirms that GTA 6 is shaping up to be the new benchmark the community will measure everything else against, just as Red Dead Redemption 2 was for years.

What you need to know

• Reddit user aditya_545 compared the undersides of the cars in GTA 6 with those in Forza Horizon 6.
• For GTA 6, they used overturned vehicles seen in An Extended Look; for Forza Horizon 6, a photo mode screenshot of an upside-down car.
• The comparison highlights the enormous care Rockstar has put into an area that usually goes unnoticed.
• According to Vida Extra, there is still roughly a month to go until GTA 6 launches.
• The game looks set to replace Red Dead Redemption 2 as the community's go-to yardstick for comparisons.

From Red Dead meme to new standard

Anyone who spends time on forums and social media knows the joke: no matter what game comes out, someone always compares a specific detail to Red Dead Redemption 2. How the snow melts, how the horses react, how clothes get dirty. That game set such a high technical bar that the comparison became almost a genre of its own within gaming discussions.

What Vida Extra suggests is that this throne is about to change hands. GTA 6 isn't even out yet and it's already filling that role. The fact that the comparison is against Forza Horizon 6, a series whose whole reason for existing is cars, makes it even juicier: Rockstar isn't being measured against just any game, but against one built around showing off vehicles in fine detail.

A comparison with caveats

Before drawing any final conclusions, it's worth looking at exactly what is being compared. A clip of promotional material is not the same as a screenshot taken by a player in photo mode, and a story-driven open world doesn't have the same priorities as a racing game.

The source is clear that the gap in Rockstar's favor is significant, and we're not going to argue with that. But it's worth remembering that we're talking about one very specific part of the car, not an overall assessment of how either game looks or drives.

Our take

Here at Underworld Lordz, we love Rockstar's obsession with detail; it's part of what makes its worlds feel believable. The fact that someone took the trouble to lovingly model the underside of a car says a lot about the studio's ambition. That said, for a competitive player, the level of detail on a vehicle's underside is completely irrelevant. What matters is that the game runs smoothly, the physics are consistent and the online mode isn't a mess. Hopefully the same conversation that's now focused on bolts and exhaust pipes will shift to performance once the game is in our hands.

For content creators, on the other hand, this is pure gold. Side-by-side comparisons drive clicks, comments and debate, and GTA 6 is going to be a goldmine for months. Still, we're asking for a bit of honesty: comparing carefully prepared promotional material with a homemade screenshot isn't entirely fair, and that should be said out loud instead of selling the difference as a humiliation. Forza has its own priorities and doesn't deserve to become meme fodder just because another game did a better job modeling an area we almost never see.

All that said, the trend is clear: GTA 6 is going to be the new yardstick, and every studio knows it. We'll see whether the final game lives up to the hype or whether it's time to recalibrate expectations.

What do you think?

Do you care about this level of detail, or would you rather studios put that effort into performance and gameplay? Do you think the comparison with Forza Horizon 6 is fair, or is it missing context? Tell us where you stand in the team chat or on our Discord: do you really look at the underside of a car when you play?