Grand Theft Auto The Trilogy: Definitive Edition Improved - Is It Actually Definitive Now?

[@Joshimuz]

As a speedrunner for the original GTA:SA (and general GTA games), I can fill in the gaps gameplay wise: There's still a lot missing in the latest update. The movement/controls are still very wrong, stuff like not being able to move while aiming rockets/sniper rifle, having physics freak out in car crashes sometimes, or just car handling in general being very inaccurate to the OG. Swimming is still agonisingly slow, and sky diving is still way too fast, both of which all stem from the game running above 30 FPS without all the frame rate dependant physics being fixed. For god sake you still just yeet hay bales into the next town over whenever you drive into them instead of them exploding into lots of pieces like they do in OG. The further into the game you play the more you realise it's still bad. Los Santos is the most polished, but play past San Fierro and the game really starts to fall apart. You still cannot control the camera inside aircraft, it's just locked to the Horizon. "Accelerate" in Helicopters still makes them lean forwards instead of going up (like ya know, accelerating the engine would?) and unless you wanna unbind W from accelerate in every other vehicle you can't fix that through settings/rebinding. There's so many more things. Overall the update is good, a big step in the right direction, but for me to consider this the "definitive" edition of the game they'd had to fix a lot more stuff.

[@MemeNess]

To build on what you're saying, did any of the re-releases post PS2 era have the correct physics? Or this issue exclusive to the definitive edition?

[@marc_alm]

@@MemeNess The OG PC version has the same physics issues if you run it with the framerate limiter off and let it go above 30.

[@Joshimuz]

@@MemeNess PC and Xbox original are fine, as long as you stick to 25-30 FPS. Anything after the 10 year anniversary mobile versions is totally busted.

[@zanesix.]

Also WHERE THE HELL IS MY SUPER SPRINT? How do they just FORGET a movement mechanic in SA and it still isn't added back 3 years later? if I was a dev this would be priority number zero. It messes with muscle memory and makes control over movement blatantly inaccurate from the original game.

[@MadX8]

@@MemeNess The OG Xbox version of these games might the best way to play the original imo

[@oktusprime3637]

lmao why is there a performance and fidelity mode for PS2-era games? They should all be 4K60.

[@urmomma2688]

The ps5 pc equivalent can maybe do like 40 fps at 4k. This game isnt as easy to run as it looks

[@gerardocardona259]

@@urmomma2688 I think his comment still stands, it seems more an implementation issue (be it from the original engine or due to poor porting)

[@JamaiiQ]

The games will break past 51-52 fps

[@bradnimbus4836]

@@urmomma2688 How much of that is due to it being a poorly optimized port though?

[@cacomeat7385]

These are modern game engines running legacy content and code, not 1:1 remasters of the original games.

[@SCMabridged]

Just think, maybe in another six years will have something almost as good and the PS2 versions.

[@st0rmchild]

Probably not though.

[@Victor2face216]

I heard Rockstar is going to put a san adreas mini game in gta 6. If both protagonist are in the safehouse at the same time, you can play SA co-op. With the ai player behaving like Trevor if you picked him up as a friend in gta 5.

[@rare6499]

It’s not like they’ve made enough money over the years to do a faithful remaster.

[@DBTHEPLUG]

F remasters. Put that money into GTA 6.

[@andoniliev3857]

@rare6499 Money is never enough! You can ask my wife :P

[@rare6499]

@@andoniliev3857 and mine 🤣

[@InnuendoXP]

You'd think they could afford to pay to renew those music licences.

[@MrJomalley123]

@@DBTHEPLUG rockstar isnt working on these remasters they're working on gta 6 so its all good

[@vanman266]

It's not a definite edition without the full soundtrack

[@LDFrost117]

There's easy to use mods that restore them, sadly that's likely an impossible fix to be official cause I doubt Rockstar will pay the high fees for the missing songs, even if they 100% can afford it, but oh well....

[@-PVL93-]

​@@Elatenl yes you can. Rockstar aren't a poor indie studio, they're an industry giant. The only reason why the newest ports don't have all the songs is greed

[@tylernol1566]

@@Elatenl What are we talking about here? The consumer doesn't give a fuck about "licensing deals" -- they want what they want. Can't make it happen? It's a worse product. Simple.

[@UltimateInkling]

​@-PVL93- u realize even if u try to pay for the licenses they still can refuse, this is prolly the case with the gta trilogy.

[@Marcusianery]

@@UltimateInkling Then they can say so.

[@ENXGMA_YT]

They need to do something about character-models. They still look like they're made of clay.

[@futeish3468]

they should just let you switch to the OG models

[@DrSpaceman42]

Yup, they STILL look horrendous.. love your videos btw!

[@YonderComesSin]

I lose interest in the collection once I reach the Joey Leone missions in III, he looks ridiculous, and his hair looks detachable.

[@RhonteaBennett-xo3if]

@@YonderComesSin😂😂😂

[@CHA0SHACKER]

@@futeish3468 These are the OG models, just with other textures.

[@Kiluei]

The definitive edition was the original games.

[@hydraulikdamian5676]

Still is.

[@brandontalbort]

bingo! GTA Trilogy on PS2.

[@Wobble2007]

The OGXB versions on XEMU on a CRT (or OLED) monitor in 1440p is the definitive way to play them.

[@st0rmchild]

Yep.

[@leoviper]

I played on PS4, it was legit.

[@Floodsye]

As someone that has personally upscaled old game textures with AI upscaling solutions, it blows my mind that Grove Street was so monumentally lazy as to not do so correctly. Yes, L A Z Y. Topaz, like shown in the video, doesn't require crazy amounts of user input, but you have to play around a lot with parameters, running the upscaler dozens of times to get just the right look, and then hand edit if absolutely needed...it takes a moderate amount of time, gives you excellent results with just a bit of care. Grove Street couldn't be bothered to do that and obviously took the first upscale pass and called it a day.

[@paintbox9899]

Agree, but I wouldn't rule out Grove Street being told by Rockstar they want minimum effort to meet deadlines.

[@st0rmchild]

I'd guess incompetence over laziness.

[@Solleret]

Rockstar turned the boat around and scrubbed Grove Street from the title screen to save face. The suits thought they could pull a fast one. Now we’re witnessing the PR cycle of the show. Rockstar made their money already because anything they put their name on will sell millions anyway.

[@MLWJ1993]

It's pretty much impossible to do that for 3 games in that timespan anyway... I'm of the opinion that they should've worked on 1 game at a time.

[@fireaza]

I mean... They were expected to remaster three games, which took years to develop when they were originally released, in less time than it took to develop just one of them. Quality probably wasn't on the table.

[@MikeHeldTheWorld]

I just cannot, for the life of me, understand why we need a performance mode and a fidelity mode for games that are over 20 years old. You're telling me that fidelity mode can't run at 60fps on a PS5. Like, really?

[@bigt4135]

Should be 4k/120 native on ps5

[@urmomma2688]

@@MikeHeldTheWorld this game isn't that well optimised regardless where it runs. The ps5 is at about expected performance range compared to the pc equivalent

[@milanw_]

It's because it's a PS4 game and at release and the horrible optimising it definitely couldn't handle fidelity in at 60. They just didn't bother, as usual, to give us a button to uncap the framerate. PS5 probably could run at 120, performance mode at least.

[@ltodom5884]

these games aren’t 20 years old, this came out in 2021 and uses alot of the UE4 graphical settings. this is a false comparison, of course it’s gonna run worse when it’s using a brand new rendering engine with features that didn’t exist 20 years ago

[@Diddy69God]

​@@ltodom5884bro thinks this is how it looked on PS2 💀

[@Tomica0009]

They never controlled nor played well on PC. It's so obvious that the ports were developed primarily for touchscreen controlls. Only about 10% of bugs and issues were fixed with this patch. And an easy softlock condition has been added to the "Black Project" mission of San Andreas for some reason.

[@dolan_plz]

It's still bafflingly CPU limited. I get drops to 40-ish FPS on my 4090/7700X setup which is kinda ridiculous for a remaster of 20 year old games.

[@GhostARMYY7]

It’s on unreal engine 4, what do you expect? lol

[@SuzukiBalls]

How? That sounds like an issue on your part, I never dip below 90FPS on my 7700XT + i7 9700 and that CPU is pretty dated. You could try rendering it with DX12 or Vulkan though, add -dx12 to your commandline arguments or use DXVK with DX11.

[@AlexRoseGames]

@@GhostARMYY7 what do you think you even wrote? did you just learn those words today? you probably played iphone/android games in 2015 built in ue4 and ran them at 60fps

[@sujimayne]

​@@GhostARMYY7 Is this supposed to be a jab at UE4? Because UE4 is a very fine engine that gave us some of the best games ever made. Or do you genuinely believe just being on UE4 warrants the terrible performance? You are wrong again, as there are very optimized UE4 games that both look and run better than this.

[@Aplayz42]

@@sujimayne I just finished Vicy city locked 120 at quality DLSS @ 4k 4070ti 5700x3d its a problem on your end

[@LetsTakeWalk]

“Ah, sh*t, here we go again”

[@thanksbetotap]

Rockstar: this is a good start, but you have many, many fixes still to make to turn this into a serious finished product and worthy of the GTA legacy. If you make the necessary ongoing effort, the community will appreciate something worthy of a “definitive” moniker. Also the phrase “my helicopter is technically on fire here” is hilarious lol

[@olaf3140]

Thanks for having a chat with Rockstar about this, I'm sure this cleared things up for them.

[@dr_diddy]

it's grove street games not rockstar to handles these ports.

[@zachhiggins1668]

A child will grow up in the time it takes

[@billy_naing]

​@@dr_diddy It's just Rockstar now. I don't think Grove Street Games are allowed to work on this now. Their logos have even been removed from the opening stuff (they're still in the credits)

[@Alecup06]

​@@billy_naing thats fucking hilarious 😂

[@comicsamsthegreat]

I still can't get over the unreal engine look these remasters have, I wish someone like Nightdive did these ports

[@captaincrabmeat]

It’s fucking shit that the draw distance of vegetation doesn’t stretch to the limits of the maps at this point in time. Development of games has gone downhill so fast in the last 20 years that even with hardware that’s 10 times as powerful they can’t work out a way to increase the draw distance

[@DoctorRostemi]

Exactly, just sad!

[@staples6]

It’s embarrassing that the game still has so many glaring issues this long after release. It’s not like Rockstar couldn’t afford to put more love into the game

[@Crimsongz]

Rockstar ain't the one doing this.

[@CrashFan03]

@@Crimsongz they're the ones that hired an external team of mobile game devs to remaster 3 big games concurrently (with a low budget no less) and then replaced said mobile game devs with another external dev team. they own so many internal developers that'd probably chomp at the bit to remaster the 3d era games but no they cheaped out and outsourced a rush job

[@chuckgreen41]

So you didn't pay attention to this video then?

[@Crimsongz]

@@CrashFan03 No that would be take-two interactive you know the publisher.

[@dr_diddy]

​@@Crimsongzyh lol, dunno why people blame rockstar, the publisher is what determines what gets released and who works in what.

[@Spoggi99YT]

It is important to note that the classic lighting in the Netflix versions did not work correctly in GTA SA as it used the Los Santos lighting in San Fierro and Las Venturas as well, making them look pretty weird. It also had way less ground fog, so the map still felt very small. Great to see these improvements! Still three years too late but I am glad that they haven’t completely abandoned the trilogy…

[@wazzuppoo]

Do the console versions also use the same lighting in all cities?

[@memoryman3586]

@@wazzuppoo Nope. The console versions have unique city lighting now.

[@MysteryMii]

Yeah. Considering how the previous ports by Grove Street were pretty much abandoned as soon as they were released, it’s refreshing to actually see them try to fix the glaring issues with these remasters this time around (even if they’re not exactly happy with how Rockstar has treated them as of late, given how the most recent update removed their logo from the splash screen).

[@Spoggi99YT]

@@MysteryMii The new update was not made by Grove Street Games (hence why the logo was removed too). The Trilogy is now handled by Video Games Deluxe, who also did the LA Noire VR Case Files.

[@VdWck]

I would like trashes and tree leaves in the streets of GTA3, as well as improvement in the missions side: like objective labbel and marking, etc.

[@dannyfrost1746]

It will never be definitive when so much of the original music is missing.

[@Solleret]

You get it

[@ltmeowingtons9393]

Dont forget you can now shoot and walk with all weapon’s in gta 3 and vice city

[@Beaut_Beau]

Rockstar released all three original games between 2001-2004 2001: GTA 3 2002: GTA Vice City 2004: GTA San Andreas This definitive edition has been getting worked on and patched for almost as long as it took Rockstar to create them all in the first place! And it's still a steaming turd... so glad i got the originals on Steam before they were delisted by Cockstar.

[@MarcinSzklany]

Aren't these "definitive edition" games based on the mobile versions released in 2011?

[@AlexRoseGames]

they did have to remake the entire game, it's not like you can just take scripts from 2000 from renderware and drop them into unreal and they'll just go "it's all just c++ whatever, run!", most of the time taking the more simple scripts in the game assigning them correctly to the right actors in the right place and having the architecture work in the same order is way more complicated than just writing it fresh. not sure what the team sizes are like either but even if they porting team isn't much smaller than the original rockstar team, the rockstar team were the absolute cream of the crop working on one of the most revolutionary games in the world at the time, versus this is a mid tier studio doing a remaster

[@MarcinSzklany]

@@AlexRoseGames I fully agree that it's hard and complicated to port a game to a new engine. It's just obvious that the publisher decided to severly underfund the project.

[@TheCynicalAutist]

​@@AlexRoseGamesLet's not defend it just because it's "hard".

[@-PVL93-]

@@AlexRoseGames they didn't need to switch to unreal in the first place

[@purple6012]

Never forget take-two took down the gta 3, vice city and lcs reverse engineered projects, which despite being closed since 2021, they are still the superior way to play on pc without issues and also compatible with some other mods like the xbox textures from gta 3.

[@onceuponatimeonearth]

The remaster getting patches for 3 years to simply approach the look of the original game is crazy

[@-PVL93-]

The ps2 originals are the Definitive versions as far as I'm concerned All the music is there, no weird texturing or lighting, no engine switches, no asinine gameplay adjustments These rereleases have been and still are a joke

[@milanw_]

1:33 the original PS2 version still has that little "something" about it. Here your have the impression to really be deep down in inside a big city in between large buildings. The classic lighting doesn't replicate this. Honestly stunning that they're unable to restore the light rockstar did 20 years ago.

[@saiyaman9000]

I spent so many hours just driving around listening to the radio in Vice City back in the day

[@zachhiggins1668]

Straight up. The edition doesn't "work", and still a long way off

[@GuyLogen]

Probably cause the cam is closer to the player in the original PS2 version, and it had a little bit of that "fog of war" effect.

[@sargentordb507]

It’s just nostalgia. It looks like shit.

[@milanw_]

@@sargentordb507well no. There's simply no shadow in the middle as I would expect it in the trenches of a city

[@vegetarey]

the og trilogy on Steam/PC with the restored PS2 effects still looks way better, also supports 16:9 aspect ratio, native 4k (even 8K) and modern controllers, just with a couple of mods

[@rafaelfreitas8274]

I wish they would put the old games on Steam again.

[@ivanpr0ff]

9:10 this texture tiling is fukin killing me 💀💀💀

[@yewtewbstew547]

lmao yeah that is so bad, what the hell

[@Solleret]

Thanks so much for introducing fancy particles and reflections just so that the very vibe of the game is sterile and shitty

[@dmer-zy3rb]

it looks like the original doom if you run it in a modern source port in high resolution 💀💀

[@michiganjack1337]

Wow that's just an abomination.

[@TechOrigami]

This has to be the definitive video for the definitive update for the definitive edition. Btw, User Tracks are still not supported. What a shame.

[@chuckgreen41]

Spotify, and pandora dah....

[@chris42069]

Can you even add music to an Xbox hard drive anymore??? The 360 had an audio ripping feature

[@GameBrainOfficial]

This remaster in general just boils my blood. They dont need anything but re-releases that are 1 to 1 of the originals, with maybe some extra bells and whistles for hardcore fans who really want them. The original games are excellent. If you want something 'newer', then play a newer game. Doesn't help that the team behind this did a laughably bad job / were given no time or resources by Rockstar (or both).

[@Solleret]

Another company rotting from within with greed stamped on their foreheads. I guess you could say Rockstar really gave this project their “definitive” best effort.

[@MLWJ1993]

The modding team that was reverse engineering these games would've blown this out of the water. That's probably why T2 & R* decided to sue after 20 years of not giving a shit & even encouraging modifications to these games...

[@528hrtz]

What’s missing in the definitive edition is “Trails”… made the games look so much better.. especially vice city

[@liublanka3925]

Still looks like the best way to play these is via emulator. Playing ps2 games on my oled steam deck along with MAME/16bit era etc. is so awesome and you get all the music

[@boogaboom]

Just play the OG PC versions with QOL mods, they can perform and control much better and look just as good as PS2. Actually, look for re3 and reVC, the reverse engineered versions. They have a number of QOL features.

[@lockonandfire]

They need a VCR filter that mucks up the image, adds bloom, headlight trails for cars, scuzzy artifacting. These games were just not designed to be seen in high definition, so don't treat them like they were.

[@zachhiggins1668]

1000% there should have been a whole classic mode that was just qol changes

[@EvilMammal]

The pop-in in these games is outrageous

[@chris42069]

Yeah but it's definitive

[@DeadPixel1105]

Question: Wouldn't it be more accurate to call it "Classic Color Grading Mode", rather than "Classic Lighting Mode"? Because the actual lighting technique is the same post-patch. It's just the color tint/grading of the lighting that is different.

[@2psah2]

I played the GTA PS2 era games on PCSX2 in 4k. Enjoyed them a lot & they looked really good. Only issues were draw distance & pop up. But those are PS2 era games problems.

[@mazda9624]

It's absolutely shocking to me that the games didn't just launch with classic lighting as an option since the very beginning. Rockstar made *billions* off the success of GTA Online, yet they couldn't be bothered to reinvest some of those earnings into proper remasters for such integral games to their company's legacy.

[@skRapKlan]

The fact that these new editions can't get the music from the original makes them total stinkers...

[@CikosDarkPassenger]

you really miss billie jean that much? lol

[@TheClax123]

There is a mod that restores those songs

[@chuckgreen41]

That makes sense some old songs missing means these are totally worthless. Your so smart. You must be a leader.

[@kishenchohan1286]

​@CikosDarkPassenthats literally the best song in GTA Vice City

[@r3troNoiz]

You forgot to mention that there's no HDR support.. and there used to be when this definitive edition first launched.

[@chris42069]

Can't xbox/windows force HDR in any game?

[@fredsorre6605]

my biggest gripe is that they updated the models for the main characters with updated and improved designs but yet left everyone else alone so the quality disparity between them and NPC's is like night and day that if feels like a mod instead of a remaster.

[@MoodySelection]

It's a shame you didn't tackle the PC ports because these versions are a stutter fest, at least at high frame rates...

[@Keepskatin]

GTA 4 and 5 are Goated on PC.📦

[@chris42069]

They're smooth as butter on PS5

[@CallumSk8er]

@@Keepskatin 4 was one of the worst pc ports of all time

[@akaheadlesschicken]

Maybe we can get a proper remake 10 years from now 🙃

[@Keepskatin]

Remaster, no Remake yet, Remake means to re-envision...alternate

[@Rafa-Silva-Alt]

No, please, no. I'm sick of half-baked remakes that don't light a candle to the originals, come censored or with cut content.

[@Ray-dl5mp]

The games need one more major update. Don’t drop the ball Rockstar. You’re close. These are gems of the gaming industry. Gotta deliver.

[@Fedzor]

Some really great coverage here, guys. You showed a decent amount of improvements, and some bugs (new and old) that I was unaware of or thought had been fixed, but as someone who has put way too much time into finding differences in the new patch, there is quite a lot missing here. Still, general basis was covered, and I'm personally happy with the patch, as long as additional work is continued in the future.

[@platypusduck54]

I’ll still play these on my original Xbox with custom soundtracks

[@XenonXyanide]

The best version 👍 Custom soundtracks actually play as if they're integrated into the gameplay.

[@enqoleva]

2:02 it tells how big of an impact classic lighting has when you almost can't tell whether there's a wall or a sand on the right when classic lighting is turned off

[@skajme]

I think the new developers are trying to get through and fix it all as they go along. They have fixed SO much stuff, but there was SO SO much wrong in the first place due to Grove Street Games. They are essentially remastering the remaster

[@Malpaise_Legate]

The biggest issue, at least for people like me, is the fact that the character models don't fit the environment. Many textures have been scaled up in resolution, or given entirely new texture maps. This directly contrasts with the near plastic appearance of the character models, making them stand out quite horrendously.

[@2097xl]

My verdict after playing them again: 3 and Vice city are much more fun to play through, San Andreas still needs a lot of work

[@Momoka7]

The thing I find most important to know here is.... the original GTA3 & Vice City ran at 30fps, and San Andreas at 25fps. You could uncap that but... many of the physics mechanics in those games where tied to the fps so you would see wonky behavior when uncapping the fps. That and GTA3 didn't have a ingame map, or the colored minimap Vice City and San Andreas had. 12:38 I agree that the Definitive Edition is the way to play those old games, especially if you want 60fps gameplay.

[@josephtaylor9081]

"...graphics can look ok as long as you don't look at anything too closely." 😂 Like it's last call at the bar, and you don't want to go home alone.

[@arekb5951]

It still has a lot of bugs, weirdly placed textures, geometry etc. It's a turd that's been polished to the point it's kinda shiny, but it's still a turd. No Cyberpunk 2077 arc here.

[@cacomeat7385]

Tbf the original game also had a lot of weird graphical issues, but it's a damn shame that the additional visual problems have yet to be fixed.

[@mrtomhallett]

Until the music comes back it’s not definitive

[@mister-pinkman]

Many record labels refuse to renew licenses for old games, even with a heavy price. Michael Jackson is a perfect example, the MJ estate would never renew them. It doesn’t just have to do with money. People just don’t understand that.

[@chengong388]

I just don’t understand why they would port these games to a totally new engine but don’t bother to actually rework most of the assets. Usually with game remasters the cheapest way is to keep the same engine but rework the assets, not the other way around.

[@danielposey0620]

I don’t know why the lighting & fog/atmosphere was ever changed in the first place with most of the San Andreas ports. The notion that you would purposely subtract graphical effects & make your game look & feel worse is weird & bizarre. That would be like removing the fog from Silent hill 2 ports because the newer hardware didn’t need the fog to hide limitations of the older hardware, lol. The fog is SUPPOSED to be there to evoke a certain look & feel in the player, same thing applies to San Andreas.

[@SmellsLikeRacing]

We don't know what was the original vision, it could have been that Rockstar was forced to add the fog originally because technical reasons, so they might have ordered it without the fog in this version. It's all assumptions that it was suppose to look like this originally.

[@pondwhale]

changing the look wasn't necessarily intentional, rather the hardware and development environment was quite different from platform to platform at the time. this meant that some effects couldn't be implemented in the exact same way, or sometimes at all, in a performant manner.

[@herczegmarton9972]

Back then consoles weren't just PCs with limited options and a more reasonable price, they were a very different kind of hardware. I know nothing of the technology but I know that PS2 games used very different methods in texturing, colours, lighting and effects. Most PS2 games when ported to PC suffered issues like this to some extent, San Andreas is just one of the more extreme examples, the PC version of that game looked way worse than the original, even as a kid I noticed it. Thankfully the community fixed pretty much all of these issues over the years so if one wants to they can restore the game to its former glory through modding.

[@shannonconley2730]

That depends on the game settings and console settings I have ps4 pro you can change the brightness blur etc I also have it boost mode, just change it what works best for you

[@JaviArte]

I think is better to make a remake from the ground.

[@ozzyg82]

The biggest issue with GTA games for me personally is the egregious amount of pop-in, both foliage and traffic - I would have loved the devs to take advantage of modern console power and draw all that out far to the horizon.

[@catchapoc]

No switch info?

[@justinc3100]

I've been playing on PS5 (PS5, not PS4 versions) with performance mode. However, since this patch, I've had to move the in-game brightness up 2 notches. Otherwise, I think the games are much nicer now.

[@croneryveit9070]

AShashahha those textures at 09:14. Looks like a 12 year old's first unity project.

[@digitalchewie]

The fire from the helicopter instantly reminded me of Poe's from Zelda.

[@jamestaylor6105]

Amazing how it's 2024 and in a game for the PS2 we still can't have high fidelity and 60fps.

[@reganmickle9821]

I own the original xbox version on disc and whats worse is they now download the mobile remaster from 2012, instead of the xbox version from 2004. Bloody ridiculous something I've paid for has been taken away from me and replaced with an inferior mobile version.

[@dethskullcrusher]

I apreciate the improvements shown here.. but i think i'll stick with the originals for the moment.

[@AvgSkillGamer]

Been playing GTA 3 DE and Honestly I've been a little disappointed they didn't add more modern features like saving from anywhere and more forgiving checkpoints in missions etc. I would have much rathered gameplay improvements like that over any significant Graphical changes (which they barely did) I don't honestly mind they didn't change it much though I'd like the true experience visually (mostly) as I have never experienced these games in the first place

[@georged7627]

What about the Switch versions ?????

[@trueFleGMan]

7:12 that fire looks like something from Duke Nukem 3D or Carmageddon

[@SalveMonesvol]

Why didn't they just keep the original engine and improve what they could? I mean, RenderWare would be perfectly capable of supporting 4k 120hz. Nothing stops the devs from using textured 4X as large as in the og xbox version, increasing draw distances and so on. If something wasnt supported by the old engine at all, just dont include it, simple as that.

[@MarcinSzklany]

It's probably much cheaper to hire some studio that works with Unreal and uses an AI upscaler than to find programmers capable of updating the old engine and to pay actual artists to improve the art. This release is a dissapointment for gamers, but the shareholders must be pleased.

[@SalveMonesvol]

@@MarcinSzklany It would have been worth it to spend a millon more to make a remaster that still looks 10 years old at the time of release, but doesn't break the game.

[@boshi9]

The original engine doesn’t support most of the platforms this title was targeted for. Pretty much only Windows, and even that with old APIs and 32 bit, so you have a hard cap on how much memory can be used.

[@SalveMonesvol]

@@boshi9 Well, even if the game can only adress 4gb, it will never need more than that, and the remaining 12gb can be used as a ramdisk to keep pretty much the whole game pre-loaded there. Even with all the limitations we can think of, look at how the OG pc version without any optimizations runs on an equivalent system. It would easily be a 4k120hz title. You don't need more than 10X the cpu and memory resources of an OG xbox for that, only a 2Tflops GPU. The only part of a ps5 pro that would have to put serious work is the memory bus due to the resolution and frame rate.

[@JerryFlowersIII]

The new fire looks awkward to me. I think it stands out being too realistic but still really static (in the way it just continues to animate in the same way, not responding to movement) while the original fire looks video-game-y in a way that looks natural for this kinda game.

[@baphi865]

I don't know, but I still think the PS 2 version looks the best, I like the pixels and the blurry parts. Damn, I'm a boomer.

[@TheCynicalAutist]

Art style beats technical fidelity everytime.

[@OCDtea]

2 things that infuriates me the most in GTA SA def edition: broken aim system and Carl ALWAYS closing the door when you get out of a vehicle

[@haydenmatthews2622]

Don't forget that lamp posts and traffic lights still fall through the ground when you hit them. They need to fix that.

[@djtomoy]

as is always the case you must play of original hardware with original optical media on a period correct display to properly experience older games such as these and to correctly respect the design intention of the original developers. these things are obviously true.

[@XXtheJUMPoffXX]

I bought this trilogy 3 years ago but never really got into it til now, thanks to this patch. Glad I waited 😅

[@joed8025]

No reason why this can't do upscaled 4k at 120fps

[@urmomma2688]

There definitely is a reason: Unreal engine 4

[@AlexRoseGames]

@@urmomma2688 unreal engine has had dynamic resolution scaling since 4.19 and the engine itself runs at like 600fps on a ps5 so I don't know what you think you're' talking about. it absolutely could do that if it rendereed the ui at 4k and the game at 1080, it even supports pssr

[@urmomma2688]

@@AlexRoseGames this game has cpu issues. And even if it didn't , for 120hz you'd need a very low internal res. Add some fsr on there and you have some proper vaseline looking assets

[@daddykarlmarx6183]

Like you said towards the end, even just redoing the upscaling of textures with a more modern program could improve the game significantly with like, a single afternoons worth of work

[@DrPepperone]

Give it another 3 years and it'll be ok

[@james_nolan]

The PC version seems to have issues with frame drops still. You mainly notice it while driving, but I was told that's a combination of traversal stutter and shader compilation. I wish they'd find a way to fix that. It's nice being able to play these games at 120fps.

[@NxtDoc1851]

It can not be the definitive edition without the full soundtracks. And there is still some work to be done. But they are slightly better

[@ww3pl]

I agree - I'd consider renewing licenses for the soundtracks a priority

[@ivofixzone6410]

It's a "definite" 30FPS 🤣

[@carlosmaldonado7194]

@@ww3pl it depends on the rights holder, for example, micheal jackson's label does NOT wanna hand it out anymore.

[@lutherheggs451]

@@ww3pl LMFAO yeah no....They don't care what a handful of people who have a negative Pi grasp on how licensing works. They're also not going to pay pie in the sky prices to some bands who think they're gods gift to music. The majority who are the people they focus on could care less about "missing songs"

[@ww3pl]

@lutherheggs451 i wouldn't mind that comment if Rockstar wasn't removing those songs from non-definitive edition versions of the game via a patch (digital versions only). I do believe the topic goes beyond licensing and requires new, updated legislation, to ensure proper ownership of a product. And I do hope you could agree with this on me.

[@erelpc]

Why don't they pay to renew the licenses for all the removed music?

[@ClassicRoc87]

is it the switch version too that's better???

[@richardwilliams5387]

Well, props to them for keeping up with it at least. A lot of studios would've just cut their losses.

[@sensoeirensen]

PS2 still looks the best.

[@executable3]

5:36 A shame they didn't push out the LoDs like Valve did in HL2 recently. It would have helped this issue while also looking a lot better.

[@Konic_and_Snuckles]

Verdict: Still not definitive and could benefit from additional patches, but it is probably the best way to play these three games in 2024.

[@xportz]

The missing music tracks are still a big disappointment. For a company with so many resources, you'd think they'd be able to work out those contracts.

[@craigsampson3386]

The best way would be the originals with no bugs and just lightly modded. All original music still in it too.

[@ralfiejr34]

​@@xportzthe artists want too much

[@craigsampson3386]

​@@xportzthey really need to negotiate life time contracts rather than short term ones, its one of the worst things in games having content removed.

[@kraftypk7283]

Nah, I'd take the originals all day long, the remasters just look wrong

[@1chiTheKiller]

They should've used Nightdive Studios. At least they would've made the games all run correctly and wouldn't screw up the graphics and give the games all sorts of other issues.

[@Vinicius_Berger]

12:38 "The Definitive Edition versions are probably the best way to play the older GTA games right now" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no

[@bernbern309]

Can you guys do a video on the switch version

[@KirbyBandicoot]

...ok but the switch? ...ok bu-but the switch? ...ok no switch LOL

[@Aleut1]

On the last patch, driving across the rural southwest area of the San Andreas map, there was a section that would repeatedly make the game drop to like 3 fps for around 30 seconds.

[@mangaas]

Congrats, they turned on depth fog with a single line of code: r.Fog=1

[@martinramirez9647]

Imagine a PS2 era game dropping frames on a current gen console, 3 gens later...

[@laurenalexander4438]

I mean, no. Because Vice City is still needlessly censored and songs are still missing. Not to mention; the Xbox version models and textures should have been used as the base. Unless they fix those problems, they'll never be definitive

[@spht9ng]

Song licensing is so expensive that will never happen without mods.

[@millsjonah]

​@@spht9ngGTA can afford the licenses, lol

[@danielposey0620]

I’ve got both the ps2 & Xbox versions of San Andreas, they both look rough to me, especially the Xbox version because for some bizarre reason they toned down the lighting heat wave haze effects making the Xbox version look objectively worse.

[@spht9ng]

@@millsjonah They HAVE the money but are they willing to spend it? How many times has Take Two Interactive paid to re-license classic songs to keep their legacy catalog faithful? Basically never. They don't see it as important and people will buy the remasters anyway so they don't feel the need to pay for expensive licensing. They pinch pennies and license cheaper songs from a small time artist instead.

[@millsjonah]

@@spht9ng yes, but that's not a case of the songs being too expensive. It's 2k being cheap, those are wildly different

[@phil.wilcox]

I'll be honest here, its like Rockstar entrusted devs to do the work for them but never had any oversight on the final product, where were the internal project directors or teams to help support the devs? Did the devs even obtain the original game assets or textures from Rockstar? Did Rockstar have regular meetings to review project expectations. So many questions left unanswered here. I won't be throwing the third party devs here under the bus since when you contract out a project you are supposed to have a collaboration between the client and the vendor and the expectations on the final project should be mapped out ahead of time. What has entailed is quite the embarrassment on Rockstar especially for an IP as large as GTA. I am happy to see them providing updates for this! However it makes the physical copy of this game completely moribund. Great video Oliver!

[@ShadowMan64572]

I hate remasters in general. HD textures and modern stuff look wrong with old assets.

[@kraftypk7283]

🙏🙏🙏 thank you, someone here who isn't blind

[@alo0ann]

Remakes are the only things that are worth working at. I enjoyed GTA 3 defenitive edition but I think It could've been better.

[@greendusk93]

REMAKES would have been more fitting for these games. Was Rockstar ever gonna consider it? Fuck no, mfs will still buy half-assed remasters.

[@spht9ng]

True, I would prefer a straight up PC conversion with original assets and higher render resolution.

[@RKramer105]

It can definitely hurt cohesion

[@theinvisibleman-e8v]

Oliver is such a pro. Great stuff.

[@igb2904]

i'll stick to playing on ps2..

[@rigo_025]

The constant pop ins from poor LOD is so annoying. The camera controls are very strict. Gaps still around the whole map. These should be the next main focus for a patch.

[@sean7332]

The pop in is disgusting still and I won't buy it because of that

[@Spendingryan]

Those weird black seams in the ground look like they have a sorting issue with fog too, so they stick out through the fog or haze.