Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition did not release as many thought it would, containing numerous bugs and glitches not present in the original games. Rockstar Games has started rolling out updates to fix many of the games' issues, one in particular aimed at the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy's distracting rain effects.
For its time, the original PS2 Grand Theft Auto trilogy offered an impressive day and night system with convincing weather effects like rain and fog. Anyone that has been following the status of The Trilogy remaster will have likely seen the ridiculous rain effects, one of the most egregious and hard to miss problems of the game at launch. The effect was a storm of bad parts: the density, intensity, and color of the rain would make the game unseeable, and there were layering issues causing the rain effect to appear in places where it clearly shouldn't have been. Rockstar Games apologized for The Trilogy's state and has been working to fix it as soon as possible.
A new update for The Trilogy has drastically improved the rain effects across the three GTA remasters. Players have begun sharing screenshots and videos of the updated remasters, showing that the game's rain effects are now less intense and overbearing compared to how they recently were. GTANet on Twitter shared footage posted by Chronic Hydro of them simply driving in GTA 3, where the rain is much more subtle, the droplets not being an intense white, and in turn, not obstructing as much of the screen. Another post shows a screenshot of San Andreas, where everything on the screen is clearly viewable thanks to the rain's changes.
Rockstar Games improved the rain in a handful of more specific instances as well, mostly in places where it would be falling while indoors. For example, in the cutscene for the GTA 3 mission "Cutting the Grass," the rain could previously be seen inside the mansion. Other areas the update addressed include also in GTA 3 "an issue where the rain appears under water when falling," and in San Andreas "where rain drops did not appear on the water surface," throughout the city. Besides the rain through, the update fixed many of the remasters' other issues like the Rockstar Games pool in Vice City, and a litany of the typos on signs that the AI texture upscaling had misspelled.
Update 1.02 dropped for the GTA Trilogy remasters on November 20, which brought a lot of immediate fixes to the game, so to see another big update like this so soon is a good sign for Rockstar Games and those looking to enjoy these games. As time goes on, and the game becomes further stabilized, the updates will become less frequent, though this process will remain a heavy reminder for Rockstar Games about shipping an unready product. Fans won't be forgetting about this anytime soon.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Rockstar Games