Metal detecting

A man sweeping a metal detector across the sand on a busy beach — the most unexpected activity in the whole press pack.

The press screenshot catches him mid-sweep: the coil flat to the sand, the shaft angled, headphones nowhere in sight but the posture unmistakable. He is barefoot in swim shorts and sunglasses, heavyset and sunburnt, and entirely absorbed.

Around him the beach is full: sunbathers, a lifeguard tower, umbrellas, people walking the waterline. He is not staged in an empty scene; he is one of the things the beach has on it.

Whether this is something the player can do is the open question, and it matters more than it sounds. A detector on a beach implies things buried to find, and a collectible system is one of the things people ask about first after launch.

How to recognise it

• A metal detector with the coil flat to the sand
• Barefoot, in swim shorts, on a crowded beach
• A lifeguard tower and umbrellas behind
• Mid-sweep rather than standing still

The frame it comes from

The frame is a still from the official Press pack, which carries no timecode. It is 3840 by 2160, and the vehicle occupies 614 by 994 of it. Also in it: Vice City and a lifeguard quad.

What we still do not know

• Whether the player can use a detector
• Whether there is anything buried to find
• Whether it connects to a collectible system
• Where the detector comes from