The GTA Trilogy Gets a Surprise Update That Makes It Much Better

Rockstar Games has released updates for each of the remastered versions Grand Theft Auto games included in the Definitive Edition of the GTA Trilogy collection that makes these maligned versions more playable, while also making them more like the original games released on PS2 in the early 2000s.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition contains remasters of three Rockstar titles from the PS2 era:GTA III, Vice City, et San Andreas—which were heavily criticized upon their launch in November 2021. The games featured nice visual improvements, but were poorly playable, contained many bugs, ugly character models, new glitches and broken textures, and I felt generally unfinished. Some updates improved the games in the months following launch, but for two years the Trilogie GTA remained a mostly disappointing update to classic open-world games. Then, in 2023, Netflix released the remastered trilogy on phones and they were surprisingly better. Now, about a year later, the changes from that version (and others) have finally been applied to console and PC ports.

On November 12, Rockstar Games quietly released a new update for the controversial game Trilogie GTA sur PC, PS5, et Xbox Series X/S. Twitter user BeskInfinity has done a fantastic job documenting many new updates, big and small, to classic games.

The most notable change, as documented by BeskInfinityis a new “Classic Lighting” option that was included in Netflix’s mobile ports for the first time. In games like San Andreas, the new lighting makes the games look more like the PS2 originals, with Orange sunsets and purple desertsand sad blue storms. Fog has also been applied to all games, making worlds feel larger because you can’t see all the way across the map.

Beyond improved lighting and visual changes, like prettier high-altitude clouds Saint AndreaWhile flowers and blossoms are added to street lamps in cities, the new update also fixes some animation bugs. One of the nicest changes you’ll experience while playing the update is the ability to run while aiming with any weapon, not just the Uzi or pistol.

Rain in the remastered trilogy, which was originally so bad that it was fixed quickly after launchhas been modified once again and now it’s even more beautiful, especially when driving around town. Shadows also update correctly now, and the maps have been updated to be more accurate and correctly display all lands and streets.

Rockstar Games also removed Grove Street Games logo on each game’s splash screens. I checked and it’s no longer there. Grove Street was responsible for the original remasters and some older mobile ports of GTA games, and was heavily criticized by the community for the way they handled these projects. The Netflix versions of the games were developed by Video Games Deluxewho previously carried LA Noire to VR.

The remastered ones are too GTA games worth playing in 2024? I mean, it depends on what you want from them. If you want a simple way to play old games on modern hardware with some quality of life improvements, like autosave and a weapon wheel, then the Trilogy is better than ever and a solid option. If you want perfect emulation of these old games, then the Trilogy still doesn’t come close to offering that.

Unfortunately, if you’re playing on PS4, Xbox One, or Switch, you don’t have access to the update yet and are still stuck with older versions. At the end of the day, Trilogy it’s still a bit of a mess, but it’s much better now than in 2021. And that’s good!

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