GTA The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition: the most interesting news

GTA The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition

After many rumors, the official announcement has finally arrived on Grand Theft Auto The Trilogy: The Definitive Edition, or a re-edition of the classic trilogy of the Rockstar Games series, containing the remastered versions of GTA III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas. It had been talked about for some time now with clues that have gradually become real evidence, which is why the actual presentation was not exactly surprising, but it did not make less noise for this. The titles in question are now part of popular culture and have a significant impact in any audience, but even the most updated on videogame news had a great curiosity to understand what was the essence of this operation, or how much and how the games would have been modified from the original versions.

Well, based on what we saw quite clearly even in the recent trailer that highlighted the differences with the classic versions, we can say that Rockstar Games has opted for an intermediate approach between the remake and the remaster, remaining closer to the latter than a real deep reworking of games.

It is also a shareable choice: the three titles have achieved such notoriety as to make any work of profound modification of their appearance risky and of the code behind the games, as well as potentially being very expensive in terms of resources and time for development. Without considering that a launch of this type is probably enough and advances to obtain a positive response from the public, given how the series continues to sell beyond everything.

The choice of an intermediate interpretation between modern graphic standards and the somewhat caricatured characterization of the originals also has the advantage of keeping intact the artistic direction that characterized the three chapters, giving the whole a remarkable coherence. The result, looking at at least the first presentation trailer released in these days and the next based on the differences with the originals, ends up being incredibly close to the image of the trilogy that derives from memories, notoriously softened by the nostalgic perspective and without the brusque impact with the edgy technological reality of the time.

New graphics

GTA: Vice City, new lights and meteorological effects are visible in the image The most consistent element of novelty lies, obviously in the graphics of the three chapters in this new edition, with a not shocking but still very accurate and extensive reworking, especially if you think about how they appeared in the original versions. Rebuilding everything from scratch would have been a considerable undertaking, also considering how some of the largest games of all still remain, but even going to touch only some aspects, or working on non-revolutionary adaptations, the result still appears quite in step with the times.

Which shows above all how GTA III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas were already incredibly ahead, with their huge sandboxes and the usual spectacular Rockstar Games directing. One might think that the mods released over the years for the PC versions return much more realistic and technologically advanced images of these remasters, and it is actually true, but the Definitive Editions must be recognized for the - largely successful - attempt to remain faithful to the vision. original, smoothing it and improving it in even minor aspects until it becomes new and clean.

There is no mention of substantial changes to the polygonal constructs of scenarios and characters, which indeed remain quite close to the original vision of the early 2000s, but rather of a work carried out on apparently secondary elements, demonstrating how these have a huge impact on the overall image: the lighting system, for example, is probably the area on which Rockstar Games has worked the most and with great results.

GTA III: the protagonist appears very close to the original on the stylistic front but technically more modern Sources of light and shadows, reflections, diffusion of light also in concert with the meteorological variations are enough on their own to restore an image fundamentally new to the games, to which are added reworked textures, in many cases completely redone, and 3D models enriched as regards above all characters and vehicles. Furthermore, a significant increase in visual distance allows you to have wider views on the explorable environments, enhancing their vastness. We are far from the pushed realism of some modern games, of course, but the choices made by Rockstar Games appear somehow "elegant", as they are consistent with the original style and calibrated to re-propose it nowadays without many of the distortions that would derive from issues purely technological.

New controls

GTA Trilogy, an action scene with shooting and car racing If the changes to the graphics are the only ones that we can already evaluate from the videos and images released from Rockstar Games, we are waiting to understand the extent of the changes to the controls made in this Definitive Edition to also evaluate the transformation made to the gameplay. There is little to get around it: in the face of a sensational sandbox and an intoxicating freedom of action, the greatest limits that could be detected in the original chapters derive precisely from a control system that was not exactly reactive and intuitive, which often invalidated the gaming experience making it even frustrating in some cases. On this aspect we can only follow what was reported by the developers, since there has not yet been a way to directly test the reworked GTA Trilogy in order to evaluate the work done on the modernization of the control system, but Rockstar Games has reported having applied the model of GTA 5 to the previous chapters.

This can represent a change of even greater order than the other reworkings carried out on the graphics, because it could significantly modify the gameplay.

GTA Trilogy: Definitive Edition should offer new controls for characters and vehicles A more direct control over the character, able to respond more reactively to commands, as well as better camera management and greater dynamism of the action may result in much deeper changes than purely aesthetic ones from the point of view of actual use. The adoption of the model seen in GTA 5 could also introduce a real cover system, which practically did not exist in the previous chapters, making the shooter phases of GTA III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas much more profound and engaging. , which is truly of great depth if we consider the importance covered by these sections. If we also associate this with new driving models based on the much more advanced system seen in the fifth chapter compared to the originals, we understand how these reworkings - albeit hidden from view - can represent the true soul of this restructuring operation.

Other improvements between frame-rate and Quality of Life

GTA Trilogy: Definitive Edition, a scene from GTA III Among the official details released so far by Rockstar Games we also find references to improvements made on the front of the frame- installments and changes in the "Quality of Life" so to speak, or options and adjustments designed to make the approach to three games that originally came out in a somewhat different historical period, as regards the use, more pleasant and less frustrating of video games. As for the frame-rate, the next-gen versions on PS5 and Xbox Series X aim for 60 frames per second, at least as a target, still offering 4K resolution, which should be easily achieved even by the most performing PCs. Nvidia's DLSS technology will also be present on the latter platform, capable of improving performance without affecting the overall graphics quality, provided of course you have a GPU of the brand in question.

As regards specifically Nintendo Switch, we are not talking about 60 fps but about some adaptations of the control system, which will use the touch screen and gyroscope as additions to the standard commands. Finally, Rockstar also mentioned changes to the orientation in the map through new waypoints and a more forgiving system regarding the possibility of restarting after a game over. In the originals, it often happened that even rather long missions had to start from the beginning due to minimal errors, which should be somewhat mitigated in this Definitive Edition perhaps with the application of more frequent checkpoints, even if there is not yet a lot of clarity on the specific changes made in this area.

A positive balance, with some notes

GTA Trilogy, a typical scene from San Andreas The changes made are not few, as it is easy to notice at the end of this examination, therefore, there are several concrete elements to push the great expectations for this GTA The Trilogy: The Definitive Edition, even beyond the simple nostalgic re-enactment. While it remains easy to think that Rockstar Games could have tried a little harder to reconstruct the three historical chapters in an even more complex and advanced form, one must also evaluate how much sense it can make to invest large resources in the reworking of games that are now gone when the series has above all need to move forward with something completely new, like a probable GTA 6 which hopefully has been in the works for some time now. Starting from this point of view and with a view to a remastering and not a remake work, the GTA Trilogy is probably one of the best interpretations of this type of operation, given the fidelity it shows towards the originals but also the drive towards a modernization also in the mechanics of the gameplay. All this leads us to wait impatiently for the actual test, to understand how the three historical games are able to present themselves nowadays with an official reinterpretation by the developers themselves.

Having said that, they still remain some dubious elements on this relaunch by Rockstar, ranging from the quality of the realization to the choices made from a purely commercial point of view. Considering that we are talking about one of the richest and most powerful labels in the gaming landscape, it was still legitimate to expect something even more grandiose from a technical point of view, although it is still early to give an overall evaluation, given that a lot is played right on the gameplay front. . On the other hand, the choice to remove the original versions of GTA III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas from the market with the launch of this Definitive Edition seems like a sort of abuse on the part of the publisher, which effectively removes users the freedom to buy the original versions while also denying their historical value, which is also aggravated by the fact that the re-editions lack some content as much of the original soundtrack, which can no longer be recovered by new users.

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