General Grand Theft Auto Thread

I kinda think Rockstar in general has taken a massive dip in quality as a company since 2013. The only new game we’ve seen from them since GTA V was RDR 2. Everything else is either a port or remaster.

And this remastered trilogy being in the state that it’s in is legitimately depressing. I’ll just stick to playing the PS 2 versions emulated on PS 3 and PS 4. At least on those I can still play working versions of III, Vice City, and San Andreas. It’s sad also because from what I’m hearing the remasters do have quality of life features like GTA V-style controls and the ability to instantly start from a checkpoint each time you fail.

I just don’t like this “rush everything to make a quick buck, screw having a quality product” direction that the industry has taken since the end of the seventh generation of games.

Wait, this collection was based off of the mobile ports?! Seriously?!

I don't play GTA, but even I think that's borderline lazy!

Unfortunately, that's kind of a common trend in recent times. Square Enix is prone to do that as well.

When LCS was ported to mobile, I expected Rockstar to release it to PC by making one of those cheap mobile-to-PC ports... but even that was too much asking.

Edited by morenohijazo on Nov 14th 2021 at 9:03:27 PM

And I hate it as the ports tend to turn out bad.

I'm also reading reports of III and VC being butchered in regards to missions involving the Yardies and the Haitians respectively. Not just altered dialogues as in previous versions, but missions that have been outright removed.

Oh no.

Why remove the missions instead of just altering the dialogue?

To be clear, this doesn't remove the old GTA games in your Steam library if you've bought them before, right? They're not going to prevent me from playing the games I've bought because there's a new version or something.

I think if you've bought them, you can still download and play them.

I know that I’m still able to play the original San Andreas on my PS 4. And was still able to buy GTA III on my PS 3 just before the remasters launched.

Well, Digital Foundry posted a video showing how the Definitive Edition of GTA III runs on different consoles, and how it compares to the PlayStation 2 original. I'm pretty sure Vice City and San Andreas both run very similarly to III.

Best performing version: Xbox Series X in performance mode, followed by PlayStation 5 running the PS4 Pro version in performance mode. Those versions are probably the best options for an approximately 60 FPS experience.

Worst performing version: The Nintendo Switch. The port is terribly optimized, and it runs worse than the original PS2 version.

Edited by IvanovTroping97 on Nov 15th 2021 at 9:54:00 PM

I knew the Switch port was the worst one of the bunch, but there's absolutely NO EXCUSE for it to be worse than the original PS 2 versions

I heard from my friend that Switch is terrible and ran worse than PSP port of VCS. I can tolerate playing 10fps and slow loading from UMD in that game, but how really is the Switch port performs worse?

Shame I was planning to buy that retail copy because they rarely port the series on Nintendo after Advance and Chinatown Wars.

Honestly, it's not really worth buying any version of these remasters on any console. You're better off playing the original PC versions and modding them.

They're all based on the mobile port, so they're inferior by default. The broken lighting and detail also makes it graphically worse than the originals too. All the greasy lighting and dark colors in 3 are all thrown out and gone. Worse lighting, broken rain, fucked up character models, AI upscaling without checking, it's all just worse.

Funniest is the invisible bridge that sometimes loses collision.

I saw some webms of random lightspeed AI cars and I can't stop laughing.

If you want to play these games today using an official method, best to use either the original discs on real hardware connected to an upscaler, a backwards compatible PS 3 for San Andreas specifically, any other PS 3 for III and Vice City as you could get those through the online store, or even the emulated versions on PS 4 if you got them before last month.

Rockstar Games has plans to address the technical issues regarding the Definitive Edition with various title updates.

Also, the original versions of GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas will be returning on the Rockstar Games Launcher as a bundle, and those who purchased the Definitive Edition on PC but do not own the original copies can receive the classic versions of the games for free until June 30 of 2022.

Honestly, I think that's how the Definitive Edition should've been released in the first place, co-existing alongside the original versions of the games and offered as a free upgrade (even if it's limited) as opposed to costing $60. Those original games should've never been delisted. Personally, while it's good to know that Rockstar is going to fix the issues in the Definitive Edition, I'm afraid the damage was already done, and they'll never live this down.

Everybody is waiting for GTA 6 to come, and Rockstar here just commissions a half-assed update of their classics hoping the fans would eat up. That's because GTA Online is still played to this very day, Rockstar can now rest on their laurels and soak up whatever their newfound wealth goes from their continuous releases of DL Cs and whatnot.

At this point, if they decided to release the Stories spinoff (LCS and VCS), they better fix those issues present in the definitive edition. And not just bringing features in GTA 5 to there, but actually improving in-game models and gameplay optimisation.

Digital Foundry posted a video seeing how the Definitive Editions of both Vice City and San Andreas perform compared to the originals.

As with GTA III, the worst performing version of both games is the Nintendo Switch version, which isn't really surprising. What's surprising, however, is that there is no real best performing version of either games, as all of the current-gen consoles can't keep a consistent framerate, even in the fidelity (30 FPS) mode. Though, I do think that goes to show how rushed this remaster was.

Bottom line: stick with the original versions instead (or the PS2 Classics versions on PS4 if you still have them).

Edited by IvanovTroping97 on Nov 21st 2021 at 8:22:45 PM

I bought and installed GTA IV just in case Rockstar has plans on fucking that up too.

Honestly, having remastered classic GTA games for modern consoles is hardly the worst idea ever.

What is the worst idea is using the mobile versions of those games as the templates for your remastered GTA games when using the OG PS2 versions should be child's play by now.

Seriously, who's the wise guy that even suggested using the mobile ports? That is bottom-of-the-barrel levels of stupidity right there.

I think it’s a case of Take Two needing a quick buck.

You’d think that companies would realize that taking the time, effort, and money into making sure their games are good could translate into more sales but nope they don’t realize it.

Edited by powerpuffbats on Nov 22nd 2021 at 10:16:15 AM

I'm starting to think that the problem is, the opposite thing happens. It doesn't matter how many times a fiasco happens (Warcraft 3 Reforged, Cyberpunk 2077, Fallout 76, now this). People don't learn anything, and still buy games on launch day (or even pre-order them), without bothering to check reviews to see if the game is good or not. Companies probably think that they still turn profit with these games, because people still buy them.

And this, kids, is why we all laugh at an industry that never learns anything, tee-hee-hee!

(But really, eff Take-Two for not thinking this through. Butt-heads.)

Honestly, I do think people just don’t learn anything anymore.

Like people just don’t learn from history anymore.