On Friday, Rockstar finally published an apology for the poor quality of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. The release, featuring modern remasters of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas, featured obvious technical and visual issues, including some of the ugliest rain effects seen for years. Club386 mentioned the pulling of the remastered GTA trilogy from the PC store in our news roundup this time last week.
“The Grand Theft Auto series — and the games that make up this iconic trilogy — are as special to us as we know they are to fans around the world. The updated versions of these classic games did not launch in a state that meets our own standards of quality, or the standards our fans have come to expect,” said Rockstar in its statement. “We have ongoing plans to address the technical issues and to improve each game going forward. With each planned update, the games will reach the level of quality that they deserve to be.”
To create the remasters Rockstar contracted Grove Street Games, who used the Unreal Engine to revamp the titles and make them easily portable across computers and consoles. Incidentally, Rockstar is asking gamers to stop harassing Grove Street Games, as such behaviour is uncivil.
Drawing a line
Having drawn a line under its failure, there are a number of things that Rockstar has now pledged to do to make amends. With regard to addressing the quality issues, you should receive updates to The Definitive Edition, whatever your platform, in the “coming days.” For example, on Saturday, Rockstar released Title Update 1.02 for PlayStation and Xbox platforms, It would be lucky if Rockstar could address all the wrinkles in one shot, but if not, one hopes there is an ongoing update plan to continually refine these remasters until complaints about technicals/visuals become rare.
Another ameliorative move by Rockstar is that it is going to re-introduce the classic PC versions of Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas back to the Rockstar Store as a bundle. All Definitive Edition owners can grab this bundle for free until June 30, 2022.
Keep an eye on Rockstar’s Twitter for news on when the above indicated releases/updates will be shared for PC gamers.
