Fans of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto video game series were elated when the US company announced it would be releasing remasters of three of its most-loved games.
GTA III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas will be coming out in remastered form on November 11 (digital edition) and on December 6 in Europe and December 7 in the US (physical editions). The remasters will be available on PS4, Xbox One, PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.
The games will be bundled in a compilation titled Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition which will retail for $60 US dollars.
The PC version will use the Rockstar Games Launcher, and Rockstar has not revealed whether this is coming to the Steam store or not, although recent rumors seem to suggest it might eventualy be available on Steam too.
And in order to whet gamers’ appetites for the remaster, Rockstar has released a video trailer which compares the originals to the remasters, giving us an idea of how much better the remastered versions of GTA III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas will look.
What’s clear judging by this trailer is that the remastered versions will look more colorful than the originals, and also retain that cartoony look, especially GTA: Vice City.
Actually, developer Grove Street Games (to which Rockstar has outsourced these Grand Theft Auto remasters) seems to have doubled down on the cartoony look for Vice City.
Meanwhile, GTA: San Andreas seems closer to the original but with a higher visual fidelity, not so surprising taking into account it’s the newest game of the lot. Also, the impact of the visual upgrade can be appreciated the most in GTA III, which makes sense taking into account it’s more than 20 years old now.
Regarding the graphics, Rockstar has said there will be “brilliant new lighting and environmental upgrades, with high-resolution textures, increased draw distances, Grand Theft Auto V-style controls and targeting, and much more, bringing these beloved worlds to life with all new levels of detail”.
Aside from the visual upgrade, the remasters featuring controls similar to those of GTA V will make it easier for those who are familiar with Rockstar’s most recent GTA game to get into the remasters (and that’s a helluva lot of people by the way). This will allow fans and newcomers to relive or enjoy for the first time some of the best open-world, crime and action games made to date.
Read more: Rockstar to release Grand Theft Auto remastered trilogy later this year