2001's Grand Theft Auto 3 broke new ground for the 3D open-world sandbox genre. From that point on, GTA has continued to be at the forefront of the gaming industry, pushing technical boundaries and offering unprecedented scope with each new entry. The gaming world is on the cusp of getting a brand-new Grand Theft Auto entry, and though it's unlikely, if it all somehow goes wrong, it unfortunately wouldn't be the first time developer Rockstar has disappointed fans with a highly anticipated release.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition hit consoles and PC back in November 2021, and it quickly became one of Rockstar's most infamous failures. What should have been a triumphant celebration of three of GTA's best entries ended up being a lackluster remaster that featured sub-par graphics and character models, along with an assortment of technical issues. But that failure doesn't mean Rockstar should abandon the concept of GTA remasters altogether.
The Argument for Rockstar to Make a Second GTA Remastered Collection
There's Another GTA Trilogy That Deserves a Remaster
The Grand Theft Auto franchise has been going since 1997, and while the vast majority of the series' mainline entries are fondly remembered today, the same can't be said for some of the series' lesser-known spinoffs. Two prime examples of this are Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories, two spinoffs that were originally released exclusively for the PlayStation Portable in 2005 and 2006 respectively.
Two pretty groundbreaking titles for their era, GTA: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories were the first 3D handheld entries in the franchise, and while their maps are a little more compact than their mainline console counterparts, these prequels still offered a surprising amount of player-freedom given the PSP's natural limitations.
In 2009, the series would dabble in the handheld market once more, with Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars releasing for the Nintendo DS and then for the PSP a few months later. Set once again in Liberty City, Chinatown Wars hearkens back to the first few franchise entries by adopting a top-down perspective. Chinatown Wars earned critical acclaim upon its 2009 debut, and again broke new ground for the handheld gaming market.
Though all three games received iOS and Android ports back in 2014/2015, there hasn't been a good way to play these games in at least a decade. A remastered trilogy that collected all three handheld GTA games could be a great way for new fans to experience the often overlooked entries.
A Second Grand Theft Auto Remastered Trilogy Could Right Some Wrongs
The abysmal state of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition at launch did some pretty severe damage to Rockstar's brand. Though Grove Street Games was technically the trilogy's developer, Rockstar was the primary name attached to the remaster, and as such took a lot of the flak after its launch. Rockstar had always been renowned for its quality assurance, but GTA: The Trilogy shattered that reputation in one fell swoop.
Creating and releasing a second Grand Theft Auto remastered trilogy would be an inevitable uphill battle, but Rockstar could restore some faith if the second trilogy met expectations. Additionally, there would be lower expectations for remasters of the GTA handheld games as they're not nearly as renowned as GTA 3, Vice City, or San Andreas, which would make it much easier to meet them.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 54 /100 Critics Rec: 12%
- Released
- November 11, 2021
- ESRB
- m
- Developer(s)
- Grove Street Games
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Engine
- unreal engine 4, unreal engine
- Franchise
- Grand Theft Auto
WHERE TO PLAY
Three iconic cities, three epic stories. Play the genre-defining classics of the original Grand Theft Auto Trilogy: Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas updated for a new generation, now with across-the-board enhancements including brilliant new lighting and environmental upgrades, 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.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition includes:
Grand Theft Auto III: It all starts in Liberty City. With the revolutionary freedom to go anywhere and jack anyone, Grand Theft Auto III puts the center of the criminal underworld at your fingertips, if you have enough guts to take it.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: Welcome to the 1980s. From the decade of big hair and pastel suits comes the story of one man's rise to the top of the criminal pile. Grand Theft Auto returns with Tommy Vercetti’s tale of betrayal and revenge in a neon-soaked tropical town full of excess and brimming with possibilities.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Five years ago, Carl ‘CJ’ Johnson escaped the haze of Los Santos, San Andreas...a city tearing itself apart with gang trouble, drugs, and corruption. Now, it's the early 90s. CJ’s got to go home - his mother has been murdered, his family has fallen apart, and his childhood friends are all heading towards disaster. On his return to the neighborhood, a couple of cops frame him for homicide, forcing CJ on a journey that takes him across the entire state of San Andreas, to save his family and to take control of the streets in the next iteration of the series that changed everything.
