Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy: The Definitive Edition review – an infuriating disappointment

PC, Xbox, PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch; Rockstar Games/Grove Street Games/Take-Two Interactive
These remasters feel less stable than the glitchy originals, with a lack of attention to detail that undermines the games' character

Given the extreme complexity of the art form, remasters of decades-old games can be ... variable. But when a publisher applies the label definitive edition" to newly packaged versions of three landmark open-world crime games, games that loom so large in collective pop-cultural memory, it is reasonable to expect more than unstable rereleases with a graphical update. These versions of Grand Theft Auto III (2001), Vice City (2002) and San Andreas (2004) are in no way definitive. Seeing them like this is more than a disappointment. It is infuriating.

Graphical glitches, irritating controls and random crashes were, to be fair, all part of gaming in the 00s, before the days of online patches that allowed developers to fix things bit by bit. We put up with it then. But why are we putting up with it now, and paying for it? These remasters feel less stable than the PlayStation 2 originals. Within a couple of hours of starting GTA III - the oldest and least interesting of these three games, an astonishing step forward for gaming in 2001 that feels a little sterile now - I had reached a mission that I couldn't complete, because the character I was chasing kept falling through the world. Once, my car randomly exploded. I ran through collectibles that I could not pick up.