← Second Chance

Twelve new weather & gameplay screenshots

Weather in Oakhaven

It is a Midlands town, so the weather is most of the conversation. The cloud builds before the rain comes. Storms bring lightning that only ever drops out of a dark sky, and thunder that arrives late. Rain soaks whoever is stood out in it. Then the sun comes back, low and gold, across a field full of puddles.

Word is GTA 6's weather gets its close-up this week. Vice City can keep the sunshine. This is Radworth's.

A red-brick terraced street under a dark grey storm sky, fork lightning over the chimneys and telegraph wires, rain falling, and two men standing on the wet pavement. — 01Radworth Road, one in the afternoon. The cloud deck has rolled in, the rain has started and a fork of lightning is coming down over the chimneys.

A terraced street at night in heavy rain, a bright white lightning bolt coming down at the far end of the road and lighting the wet tarmac and bins orange. — 02After dark, a bolt comes down about two kilometres off at the end of the road. The thunder follows at the speed of sound, so you can count the seconds.

A terraced street under a dark grey sky running downhill into brown floodwater that fills the road ahead, wheelie bins standing in it and a car stranded out in the water. — 03The Great Radworth Flood, which is being built now. The river is over its banks and Thornyholt Boulevard runs straight down into it.

A woman in a green top standing on the pavement of a terraced street, looking down the road at brown floodwater filling it from kerb to kerb. — 04Somebody from the street, stood on the last dry pavement, watching it come up.

Brown floodwater pouring across low ground towards a row of red-brick houses under a dark storm sky, the houses reflected in the water. — 05Where the bank gives way, the river runs straight across the fields and into the estate.

Looking up past red-brick houses at night as a jagged white lightning bolt strikes the tip of a church spire. — 06Lightning goes for the highest thing about. On this street, that is St Cuthbert's.

Two men standing in front of a blue front door in the rain, their waistcoat, shirt and tee dark and shiny with water. — 07Stand out in it and you get wet. Every layer soaks through and darkens, and it dries out again once you are back indoors. The streaks are raindrops caught mid-fall.

A terraced street at midday under a deep blue sky with a few white clouds, a green front door and wheelie bins on the pavement. — 08And the other kind of day. Radworth Road at noon, the sky deep blue overhead and paler down at the horizon.

A low sun sitting right on top of a church spire, trees in silhouette either side, and a wet field in the foreground catching the light. — 09The sun sitting on St Cuthbert's spire, and the field still wet from the last shower, catching it.

An orange sunset sky with rays fanning out from behind a church and a line of trees, small clouds lit gold above. — 10Two minutes past nine. The sun has dropped behind the trees and the rays are still coming through the cloud.

Waterlogged ground after heavy rain, the low sun reflecting gold in dozens of puddles, with houses on the far side. — 11After heavy rain the ground holds the water, and a low sun finds every puddle. The mud is the weather, not a missing texture.

A gap between red-brick houses looking out over grass to a snow-capped peak on the skyline, a delivery bike and a red car in the foreground. — 12On a clear day you can see snow on the hills from Radworth.

Also in the weather

Come in out of the rain and you leave wet footprints across the floor, which dry and fade.
Ride the bus in a downpour and the rain runs down the windscreen while the wipers go.
Rain splashes where it lands, and heavy rain sends people walking faster.
Aircraft leave contrails across a clear sky.

Coming: the Great Radworth Flood

Frames 03 to 05 are the first look at it. One day the river will burst its banks and threaten to flood the town, and whoever is about will get the chance to be the one who saves it.