Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City & San Andreas Demastered

[wakka]

I hate to think that but you could well be right. Houser and the Benz are both long gone, too.

[Asura]

Oh I’m not saying they did. My point (replying to Asura) was that effort does not equal price point, nor should it.

Admittedly price-point should be whatever Rockstar think they can sell for whatever price to maximise revenue, if they're doing their job right. It's just nice sometimes to see too much of that mercenary thinking get a big company a bloody nose in response.

[fuse]

I’d probably be willing to forgive a lot had they not had the gall to call it the ‘definitive’ edition.

I went back to look before I posted and this was the exact thought that'd been swimming around in my head too. Put aside the port quality for a second, and how much of the damage and upset here is because of the naming and marketing?

Also, I am all for observing and respecting the creator's intent, but I do think games have it pretty tough in this regard. When you issue a shiny new reprint of a movie, you're not having to reshoot the whole movie. I am sure there are shortcuts (like AI upscaling visual assets), but porting a game and all of the myriad ways you can interact with it across generations of engines/middleware/hardware to reproduce the exact same thing does not feel like a fair comparison, even before you get into matters of opinion on the finer details, tricks that take advantage of tech of the time (like CRT blurring), and so on.

I'm not trying to excuse this GTA mess for what it's worth - just wanting to address some of the nuance.

[wakka]

Very true re: not reshooting the whole movie.

[Cassius_Smoke]

It's definitely not an easy job. I think Rockstar had 2 options
1: remake each game alla Bluepoint games taking time and money but ultimately worth it
2: realise that the only working version you have is the mobile version and it's ****, so don't bother releasing them

They went with option 3
3: Know it's cheap and ****, but just port the mobile versions anyway....oh and strip the original versions from the store.

[Dogg Thang]

I feel like there was a 3+ option. Build from the mobile version but adjust models, lighting and effects to try to at least capture the intention of the originals. Looking at what is really wrong with it, I don't feel this would have been an unreasonable option.

[wakka]

I think the third (or fourth!) option would be to reverse engineer the PC game and not use the mobile version at all?

I don't know much (read: anything) about making games or coding etc, but I'm playing re3 at the moment, which is a fan-made reverse engineering of the PC version of GTA 3.

There is an article from Feb about it here:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-02-17-how-a-small-group-of-gta-fanatics-reverse-engineered-gta-3-and-vice-city-without-so-far-getting-shut-down-by-take-two

The info there is out of date because it did get cease-and-desisted by TakeTwo not long afterwards, but you can still find it online.

You need the GTA 3 PC game files to run it (which you can sadly no longer legally purchase of course since it was delisted in favour of the Demastered edition), but then you can run it on Windows, Linux, Mac, Switch, Vita, and probably other platforms.

It's basically GTA 3 OG, but running at 4K. It looks, sounds and plays great. There are a few small tweaks, like an optional instant restart when you fail a mission, and a free look camera mapped to the right analogue stick. It automatically recognises controllers and shows the correct contextual controls - I connected a Bone pad via Bluetooth to my Mac and the button prompts I get are the correct ones, like X to jump or RB to lock on.

Widescreen is properly implemented too, so you don't get a weird stretched minimap etc.

Oh, and the map is accessible from the pause menu (which it wasn't in the original game, apparently - although I'd forgotten that).

Other than that, it's pretty much stock, but high res and at a stable framerate.

I'm really enjoying it.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, you look at the money they have and the mod work out there and if you wanted it done well and quick it would have been better to tap into that avenue

[Lebowski]

It's definitely not an easy job. I think Rockstar had 2 options
1: remake each game alla Bluepoint games taking time and money but ultimately worth it
2: realise that the only working version you have is the mobile version and it's ****, so don't bother releasing them

They went with option 3
3: Know it's cheap and ****, but just port the mobile versions anyway....oh and strip the original versions from the store.

the mobile port was the only version of the game that had been converted to a modern game engine which is why they went this route they will still have everything in render-ware but it would need porting over to a new engine or rebuilding from scratch which is far more costly and time consuming that the option they chose.

What they did is put in the bare minimum of effort to released a product knowing full well that even though it was low quality it would sell well, its the Fast and Furious method where you trade on IP and fan base. its how EA are able to sell new versions of FIFA every year, the community don't care if its a step back or nothing that new as they will buy it regardless of bad reviews or predatory practices. I'm seeing a lot of people defending it online and saying we expected too much and its still fun to play and that they are glad they bought it.

[Asura]

the Fast and Furious method where you trade on IP and fan base

Whoa, whoa... Let's not say stuff we can't take back

[Cassius_Smoke]

Rockstar have acknowledged the ****ness and plan to fix it all.
They are giving the original games to PC owners for free too.

https://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/393o373751k48k/a-note-from-the-rockstar-games-team-re-grand-theft-auto-the-trilogy-th?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=o_social&utm_campaign=gta-trilogy_announcement_update-20211119

[Brad]

That wording. Unexpected issues. Some of you have encountered technical issues. Ffs. And gamers will let this slide generally. Good grief the whole world is going to pot and this is just one example. No wonder I’m so angry all the time.

[Cassius_Smoke]

That wording. Unexpected issues. Some of you have encountered technical issues. Ffs. And gamers will let this slide generally. Good grief the whole world is going to pot and this is just one example. No wonder I’m so angry all the time.

Yeah it's taking the piss. They knew it was bollocks because they didn't show much in trailers and blocked reviews for as long as possible. Its not unexpected. They just released it anyway for a cash grab.

[Dogg Thang]

Anyone who has ever worked, well, anywhere, will know they had to pick their words very carefully regardless of the reality or leave themselves very exposed. At least this is something.

[Brad]

Anyone who has ever worked, well, anywhere, will know they had to pick their words very carefully regardless of the reality or leave themselves very exposed. At least this is something.

Yep. We all live the lie and we all know that no one's falling for it but we carry on doing it anyway.