Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition is kinda rough and kinda janky, but it isn't quite the disaster that the dogpile claims it is. Sure, the character design looks rough in high resolution and there are a fair number of bugs, but the games largely function as they did three generations back when they released. It ain't great, but we've certainly seen worse.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition can be fun to play thanks to the inherent strengths of the three all-time classics it remasters, but the remastering itself feels shoddy, thoughtless, and rushed.

Grand Theft Auto Trilogy: The Definitive Edition is one of those “Be careful what you wish for” games. While it has all the improvements that would be considered the bare minimum for Rockstar to put into something, it also exposes the ages of the titles, making the cheapness appear worse than it is. Grand Theft Auto Trilogy: The Definitive Edition is barely worth it for returning players, but is p...

Most games are lucky if they can successfully put a small spin on an existing genre, but there’s an elite few that transcend categories, changing the gaming landscape as we know it. The PS2 Grand Theft Auto Trilogy (Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) were landscape changers. They essentially created the modern open-world template that underpins mo...

As I sit to write the review for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition (GTA: DE), I can’t help but be reminded of Vito Corleone, lamenting over the massacre of his boy in Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Godfather.’ I think many like-minded 30-somethings that grew up with Grand Theft Auto consider these games as more than just nuggets of blissful, adolescent nostalgia born out of sunny Sat...

Two of the three games are still pretty great, but this is one of the most brazenly offensive cash grab releases I've seen in recent memory.

Overall, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition was set up to be one of the best things for GTA fans and it failed to hit that mark. It will now be remembered as a failure to launch title but I am sure Rockstar will step in and continue to fix some items within their game world. Released on November 11, 2021, this trilogy is listed at 59.99 USD and is available for all current and ...

Combining GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas into some sort of video game Megazord seems like an easy win for publisher Rockstar Games. When it comes to remastering classics, nostalgia can carry a lot of the burden, but not even my fond memories of sneaking off to play GTA 3 at my mate’s house can shoulder the weight of this mess.

The Grand Theft Auto series will always be seen as a cultural milestone in video gaming which led to the open world games that we cherish now, but the years have been a bit harsh on the trilogy and the complete lack of care put into what is essentially an afterthought of a remaster doesn’t help matters much. The few updates made with controls, shooting, and lighting are nice, but not enough to jus...

So, to recap my advice at the beginning: stick to your original copies if you still have them. If you need to see this mess in action for yourself, either wait until developer Grove Street Games heavily patches this collection or wait for a deeply discounted sale.

Rockstar's remastered trilogy is, appropriately, an absolute car wreck of creative neglect.

In this, the year of remasters, remakes and re-releases, none tickled my fancy more than the long-awaited return of the most iconic gaming trilogy from my childhood – the reason I spent months cobbling together every cent I could muster to buy a second-hand PlayStation 2 in 2004 – and we didn’t even officially know it existed until a few weeks ago.