It's not that. They're not holding anything back to protect our feelings or whatever. You're basically asking for completely destructible environments, in an already extremely complex game. They'd have to create a whole new engine just for that. If they were able to actually accomplish that, on top of all the other moving parts in the game world, a high end PC would probably melt after three seconds of gameplay. I don't think the tech is quite there yet.
I'm not literally expecting the detail of 9/11, as far as buildings collapsing (though that would be great). But I do expect the airplane to explode on impact into a huge fireball. That should be very doable, especially considering cars already do that if you crash going fast enough. Not just stop dead in its tracks, wings pop off like a toy, and it falls to the ground like nothing.
As for fully destructible environments, that's something I've been wanting since SA. I remember playing PS2 games where that was possible, and more modern games have a lot of destructible environments. I don't see why that would be such an issue for what is basically the premier video game company on the planet. I hate that basicaly all of the structures in GTA are made out of adamantium.
I don't know why they couldn't implement it into their existing engine. Or at least a future version of their engine (RDR2 = RAGE 8, GTA 6 = RAGE 9). By RAGE 10, 11, 12, or whatever it is when the next GTA gets here they shouldn't have so many limitations and should be able to implement this stuff.
The way I see it, depending on what the object is, it'll either be easier or harder to destroy. If you want to burn down a Cluckin' Bell, it shouldn't be too hard with enough fire and explosives. But if you want to bring down the FIB building or a bridge over the bay, it's going to take A TON of explosives and whatnot (you can't bring it down by just spaming rockets from a bazooka). As you're attacking it you're quickly building a wanted level, making it even more difficult. Point is, the bigger you want to go, the more difficult it is. But say you're successful and bring it down, then over the next several in-game days NPCs will be busy cleaning it up and will eventually rebuild it. Maybe it takes an in-game week. Not too long, but long enough to do your damage justice. During this time the area is off limits and any missions that take place there will be temporarily suspended. If you try to go back and stop NPCs from rebuilding it you'll get an instant 5 star wanted level. This allows the game time to repair itself as you destroy it, and keeps you from leveling huge chunks of the city in one go. Of course this depends on what the object is. If you go back to the Cluckin' Bell while they're rebuilding it and mess with them in any way, it's an instant 2 star wanted level, but an actual skyscraper is 5. In the mean time the radio will acknowledge the terrorist attacks and comment about the perp still being at large (if you survived the police coming after you). If you die during the attack, the game will skip ahead to whatever you damaged being ~85% fixed. The radio could still acknowledge the attacks in some way. Then when it's finished the game continues on like nothing happened.
That's how I envision it being done. With today's technology and how quickly it's advancing, including the implementation of AI, I don't see why this won't be possible by the time GTA 7 rolls around in ~12 years. From where we are today (2024) versus ~12 years from now, shits gonna be revolutionary to an almost unimaginable degree.
A GTA game will fully destructible environments is my dream for GTA, along with a map the size of Just Cause 2.
