Three Years Later, Grand Theft Auto's Worst Release Just Got a Little Better
Rockstar is still course-correcting from the disastrous launch.
In a surprise no one saw coming, developer Rockstar Games released a brand new patch for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition nearly three years to the day the disastrous and buggy remasters first released on consoles and PC.
The update, which was released on current generation consoles and PC on Tuesday and PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch today, corrects a handful of nagging issues plaguing the now infamous remastered trilogy. Improvements include a new “classic lighting mode” which aims to better replicate the specific look and atmosphere of the original PlayStation 2-era classics. Rockstar’s abridged patch notes also say that “numerous fixes and improvements” have been made, which players documented with footage on social media.
Among the changes is better volumetric fog that makes San Andreas, Vice City, and Liberty City feel less small. Lighting and weather are more distinct between different locations in the city. Several animations that were broken have now been fixed, including the way CJ drinks soda and sits on bicycles. Certain AI-upscaled assets and misspellings have been corrected. And the glitch that allowed players to access the second and third islands in Grand Theft Auto III right at the start has finally been fixed.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition Unreal Engine sheen is stunning in screenshots, but the game’s performance was abysmal.
Some all-new features have also been added. Cutscenes can now be paused. New lighting effects have been added to fire and explosions. Weapons that required players to shoot while stationary in Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City can now be used while running.
It’s been a long road to recovery for the Definitive Editions of Rockstar’s seminal classics. When it was released in November 2021, the three games were marred with game-breaking bugs, typos, awkward-looking character models, and awful performance. The port house in charge of the remasters, a developer named Grove Street Games, had clear issues transferring the game from Rockstar’s old RenderWare engine to Unreal Engine 4. A reliance on AI also riddled the game’s signage and textures with errors that dampened the series cutting satire.
To make matters worse for players, Rockstar removed the original versions of the three games from Steam, as well as the 10-year anniversary editions from console storefronts in the lead-up to release. The developer’s parent company Take-Two also issued DMCA takedowns of popular mods that painstakingly updated the visuals of these older games. Whether players liked it or not, the broken (and $50) Definitive Editions were the only way to play the trilogy that popularized the open-world genre.
As tragic as the launch was, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition had some pretty hilarious bugs.
Shortly after release, several patches were rolled out to stamp out the most egregious bugs. The game’s mobile port, which was released in 2023, launched in better shape than its console counterparts. Many of the fixes rolled out this week are actually features that were already present in the iOS and Android versions.
While it's great to see these games continue to get the love and care they deserve, it’s still unacceptable that players have had to wait three years to play a better-optimized version of 20-year-old titles. And still, even after the most recent patch, they’re nowhere near the quality of the originals. Hopefully, it’s a sign that more improvements are still on the way.
Looking to the future, Rockstar Games has a massive 2025 ahead of it. The much-anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to release next fall according to Take Two, despite the developer’s storied history of missing its intended launch dates.
