Exactly 3 Years and 1 day after the GTA Trilogy’s disastrous launch, Rockstar has deployed a patch that allows players to restore the game to be closer to its original PS2 version. While this update is welcome news for fans languishing over the state of these revered games, there is a lot more than meets the eye than some simple bug fixes. So buckle up as we take yet another look at the GTA Trilogy and how it’s faring on the Nintendo Switch.
Firstly, the most interesting part of this update is that Grove Street Games logo has been removed from each game in the trilogy. It’s also interesting that this update comes exactly one day after the third anniversary of the Trilogy’s release. While I can only speculate here as Rockstar themselves have been rather reserved with a simple, two-sentence release note page, it seems to indicate that there has been a service level agreement that most likely expired, allowing Rockstar to both remove Grove Street Game from the project and take back updates and control of the Trilogy once more. There are rumours circulating that Rockstar is moving to distance themselves from Grove Street Games, and will continue to support the GTA Trilogy moving forward. Rockstars parent company Take Two, has also offloaded some of its other studios, so this could be a strategy to clean house in order to focus on their larger franchises, like the upcoming GTA 6 and Mafia. It’s also interesting to note that Rockstar Games now only credits Grove Street Games for “adapting” the Definitive Version and if you click on the Trilogy on Grove Street Games website, it immediately redirects to Rockstar, unlike every other game listing under their games pages.
Now, all rumours and speculation aside, this latest update moves the Trilogy closer to the better-received Netflix versions of the game, with the major feature being the ability to switch back to “classic lighting,” moving the game closer to the PS2 version aesthetics. Classic lighting still utilises modern engine improvements like reflective surfaces on cars and puddles, and usually has a more aggressive hue overlay that sometimes works, and sometimes doesn’t. San Andreas doesn’t seem to benefit as much as GTA 3 and Vice City from this update, but that could be because it has a slightly better-looking environment in both its original and updated form. The lighting can be switched on and off on the fly and doesn’t require re-loading or re-rendering, allowing players to quickly change back and forth depending on their preferences.
Outside of the lighting, there are many updates and bug fixes, too numerous to cover in just one video. The weapon wheel overlay finally fills the full screen, something pointed out in my last video that many players also were annoyed by. There are many models and texture fixes, with Rockstar claiming “nearly all” models in the game are now fixed, including the horrendous bike riding animations, and while there are still some framerate dips on Switch, they appear to be fewer and farther between. There is still the appearance of the blurred textures under and around cars when the camera moves, but the effect is more subtle than in previous versions. Running and gunning animations are now fixed, making the game have a better level of polish and not having your character’s arm wildly swaying. All these bug fixes work well to provide a similar experience to what players were expecting it was going to be at launch, but there’s still a long road ahead.
There’s also a huge update to environmental effects in all three games including re-adding fog which makes the world look more immersive, updated the rain weather effects which now look much better, and fire and smoke effects have been improved. With both original and classic lighting, the games seem sharper overall, and I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it does feel like a more enjoyable experience, or maybe that’s the GTA fan in me having a renewed spark of hope for the Trilogy.
I guess that’s what this patch might do for the fanbase… restore a bit of hope in the Definitive Edition coming back under Rockstars umbrella, and returning the Trilogy to its former glory by slowly undoing the very upgrades that stripped it of the things that made them so special in the first place. Who would have thought the best thing we could have done for the GTA Trilogy is left it alone?
