Rockstar Video games dropped the second trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 right now, shedding extra gentle in regards to the sport’s characters and story. As followers tried to find out which actors might be voicing which characters, I used to be hung up on a wholly totally different however in any other case utterly inconsequential element: Is that the Clevelander?!
GTA 6 takes place in Vice Metropolis, the Grand Theft Auto facsimile of Miami and the eponymous setting of Grand Theft Auto: Vice Metropolis. Upon its launch in 2006, Vice Metropolis portrayed an admirable recreation of Miami. However graphical know-how in video video games has clearly improved immensely within the intervening 20 years. All trailers and screenshots launched so far point out that GTA 6’s tackle Miami might be stunningly near the true factor — so shut, in actual fact, that it seems to function some IRL establishments.
A consultant for Rockstar Video games didn’t reply to a request for remark in time for publication, so I can’t declare with 100% certainty that that is meant to be the Clevelander, but additionally: That is clearly the Clevelander. I’m positive of it. In all probability.
The Clevelander, a resort situated on Ocean Drive within the heart of Miami Seaside’s Artwork Deco district, was initially constructed within the Thirties, nevertheless it didn’t come into its personal till a sale and subsequent renovation within the late Nineteen Eighties. Based on the Miami Design Preservation League, brothers Tony and Kent Kay took over the house, added a bar, and booked musical acts for out of doors live shows each evening. Native noise ordinance legal guidelines handed within the ’90s prevented many accommodations from taking part in loud music late into the night, however the Clevelander occurred to be situated in a two-block radius exempted from these legal guidelines, basically permitting for the occasion to proceed till it ran out of steam.
Nicely, 30 years later, the occasion continues to be going. At just about all hours, you’ll see individuals slinging again tequila photographs and dancing — not simply on the elevated dance flooring, however within the pool, on tables, and possibly even on the bar. The Clevelander is the kind of place the place a bare-chested man will present up at 1:30 a.m. on a Thursday sporting a floor-length leopard fur coat and never even remotely look misplaced (true story). It’s, in different phrases, Grand Theft Auto fodder in a bottle.
Right here’s one other enjoyable element that illustrates how a lot of a celebration vibe the Clevelander offers off: The resort’s advertising division (which, say, a journalist reaching out for remark would usually hit up) shares a telephone extension with its bottle service reservations.
The Clevelander didn’t reply to a request for remark in time for publication.
For roughly 0.06 seconds within the second GTA 6 trailer, you’ll catch a shot of a neon-pink courtyard, flanked by Artwork Deco partitions that look suspiciously like these of the Clevelander (one curved, one straight). Individuals dance on actually all surfaces. You possibly can’t see anybody rocking a full-length fur coat in 85ºF climate, however you simply know, someplace off display, he’s there, watching, ready, most likely crushing a margarita, undoubtedly sucking down a whole cigarette in a single drag.
I visited the place earlier this yr, and got here away with the takeaway that the Clevelander is Miami Seaside. (Not a praise a lot as an remark.) I requested the individual with whom I visited if the screenshot above bore a resemblance to the place we noticed a bunch of off-duty banking interns dancing subsequent to plastic flamingos.
Their response? “Abbbbbbbbsolutely.”
