Three Years After Its Release, ‘Grand Theft Auto: The Definitive Edition’ Trilogy Is Finally Worth Buying

So, remember when Rockstar Games released the supposed “definitive” editions of some of our favorite games? While the graphics may have looked a bit better, everything about them was somehow worse than their 20+-year-old counterparts. Well, randomly after three years on the market, a massive update has been pushed out, and the Grand Theft Auto: Definitive Edition trilogy is almost on par with the originals.

Why Did It Take This Long for ‘Grand Theft Auto: The Definitive Edition’ to Get Good?

In a thread compiled by X user @GTASixInfo, a massive number of improvements to the classic games have been shown. The biggest, and likely most important, is the return of classic lighting. PS2-era Grand Theft Auto games had quite a vibe to them, and that vibe was gone with these remasters. Now? They look better than ever, with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas seeing the most drastic improvement.

Alongside the lighting improvements, fog has returned as it was in the original games. Animations have been retooled and overhauled. A lot of love and care has seemingly gone into this patch, and it’s not going unnoticed. It also seems that Rockstar Games has started to distance itself from Grove Street Games. Their credits have been completely removed from the remasters, as it seems that Rockstar may have taken over internally developing these updates to save their reputation.

I love the idea of classic games being modernized and brought into the newest generation. Grand Theft Auto: Definitive Edition should be a stark reminder that not everyone is going to be blinded by nostalgia, however. The sheer lack of quality control made many people lose faith in these remasters. People had dunked on this collection for years. But now, we can finally dive in and see what the developers were cooking this whole time, and experience our favorite games again. I’m just glad they got rid of Hunchback CJ when he’s riding a bike. That was nightmare fuel.

There are still some problems with this trilogy, but at least we’re on the right path forward. It shouldn’t have taken this long to get these games into a playable state. But, unlike other open-world games that have been left in the past, Rockstar is doing whatever it can to preserve these titles.