Kayaking

Kayaking's in the Extended Look, and reporting says Jason and Lucia can go out together. That makes it one of the activities that works as time spent as a couple, with no job attached to it.

Rockstar also puts a Crest Kayak at Jason's safehouse in the Ultimate Edition.

A kayak in a paid edition

Bonus content gets picked because people will want it. A supercar and a scoped revolver are the obvious picks. Putting a kayak in there says the studio expects people to spend time on the water for no reason at all, and thinks that'll help sell the edition.

Red Dead Redemption 2 built a lot of its reputation on exactly this: activities with no criminal purpose, no payout and no progression. It's why people talk about living in that world, more than about playing it.

Paddling as a couple

Grand Theft Auto 6 is built around two leads whose relationship is a tracked system, with a heart sitting between them on the character switch wheel. Reporting describes texting, dates and time spent together as shifting where they stand.

An activity both characters do at the same time, slowly, facing the same way, is a strange thing for this series to build unless it feeds that. No earlier Grand Theft Auto has had a two-person vehicle where the whole point is the two people sitting in it.

There's more to go on now. Kayaking is on the list of activities Rockstar's designers gave Game Informer for its issue 382 cover story, on the water next to jet skiing, airboating and scuba diving. And Rob Nelson of Rockstar North, in his demo with IGN on 7 October as reported by Inven Global, named kayaking among the things the pair can do together, alongside pool and mini golf, and said time together feeds the relationship.

Edge's issue 430 cover feature, out on 29 October, describes how that's tracked: a four-point scale, raised by things like beach walks, cycling, the gym and driving around Leonida together. Kayaking isn't in Edge's examples, but it fits the pattern exactly. All of this is reported from Rockstar's demos, and Rockstar hasn't published it itself.

Rivers, wetland and the Keys

You'd paddle the rivers of Mount Kalaga, the shallow wetland of Grassrivers, and the sheltered water of the Keys. A powerboat either can't get into any of those or would look ridiculous there.

What isn't known

We don't know whether kayaks can be found out in the world or only owned, or whether the two-up paddling is a scripted moment or something you can do in free roam. Nelson says time together counts, but nobody's said how far a paddle gets you along Edge's four-point scale compared with a drive or the gym, or what happens at the top and bottom of it.