Stealing cars

In the Extended Look, walking up to a parked car brings up a prompt: use a Slim Jim, or just put the window through. One's quiet and takes time. The other's instant and makes a noise, in a game where noise now counts as evidence against you.

One button has become a choice

Car theft in Grand Theft Auto has been a single button since the first 3D game. You walk up, you press, you're driving. It's the series' signature verb and it's never had any friction in it. Adding a choice, even one with only two options, changes the feel of every unplanned getaway. Standing in the street working a Slim Jim while a description of your face is going round feels very different from pulling a door open and driving off.

Reporting on the same footage says you'll need a key cloner for more valuable vehicles, which would put a tool between you and the best cars on the street. Rockstar hasn't confirmed that, so treat the cloner as reported. It hasn't been shown.

WAINK, fences and trackers

Edge's cover feature (issue 430, 29 October) adds a whole economy on top, from a demo Rockstar North ran for the magazine. An app called WAINK lists cars that fences want to buy. Each listing gives you the model, its security features and whether it can be tracked. Pricier cars have better security, so they're harder to steal and harder to deliver.

Some cars keep broadcasting where they are after you've taken them. Fences usually have kit that blocks the signal, so a tracked car goes quiet once it's delivered. Owners can also report a theft even when there's no tracker. And what you get paid depends on the car's condition when you hand it over, so the getaway has to be careful as well as quick.

That money matters. Edge says some story missions need Jason and Lucia to raise cash first, and stealing cars for fences is one of the ways to do it, alongside robbing stores. Edge calls car theft a central part of the game's criminal economy.

Fuel, engine health and drivers who fight back

Edge also reports that every vehicle has a fuel gauge and an engine-health readout. Refuelling is quick, but a car that's low on fuel or knocked about can let you down halfway through a getaway. Fuel turned up in leak reports back in August. This is the first time anyone's described it from a Rockstar demo.

Pulling someone out of a car isn't a sure thing either. Some drivers run when you threaten them. Others refuse, and some of those will fight back with a weapon.

How it connects to everything else

A broken window is a damaged car, and a damaged car is easier to pick out under an evidence-based wanted system. And since larger weapons travel in your vehicle and not on you, the car you steal is also the car carrying your loadout. Losing it costs you a lot more than a walk.

What isn't known

Rockstar hasn't shown whether the tools get used up, bought or unlocked, or what happens when a Slim Jim attempt goes wrong. Edge's account covers owners reporting thefts and drivers fighting back, but alarms and passers-by haven't been shown reacting to this prompt yet.

We also don't know how much a fence pays, how many cars WAINK lists at once, how the key cloner fits in with WAINK's security tiers, or what happens when you run out of fuel mid-chase.