Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy on Nov. 11: Cartoonier, flashier, and Game Pass-ier
Enlarge / Aw, blank, here we go again. (credit: Rockstar Games)
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy: The Definitive Experience may go down as 2021's worst-kept secret, but how it would actually look remained surprisingly well-protected until the game's Friday reveal went live. The new look is visible in a one-minute trailer, which comes with a release date: November 11 for the Xbox console family, PS4/PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC (via the Rockstar Games Launcher).
Today's reveal video primarily shows the visual top-to-bottom touch-up applied to all three games in the collection (Grand Theft Auto III, GTA Vice City, and GTA San Andreas), with a few "wipe" transitions comparing a vanilla version of each game to its remastered equivalent. The footage largely consists of cut scenes, as opposed to the behind-the-back view of average gameplay, but we still see enough to get a look at Rockstar Games' bold artistic changes.
Remastered GTA San Andreas.
Thanks to the trailer's focus on cinematic scenes, we get a clear view of how Rockstar updated the characters' bulky, Mickey Mouse-like blob hands to ones with details like individual fingers. In order to include the new additions while remaining true to the games' original code and animations, Rockstar has opted for a bulbous, cartoony aesthetic, perhaps most visible in the above after-and-before gallery where a mob boss gestures with his hands while sporting a higher-res, cartoonier face. Each shot also makes clear that Rockstar is employing many higher-res textures, higher shadow resolutions, improved ambient occlusion, increased model geometry, and an entirely new staging of both pre-baked and dynamic lighting. What might look off-putting in screenshots comes together much nicer in the trilogy's full video trailer (embedded at the end of this article).
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