My hopes are high for GTA 6. We're going back to Vice City (albeit a reimagined, modernized version) and, based on Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar's ability to spin a convincing, epic crime drama has only gotten better in the past ten years. But the shadow of the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition still looms large over my memory. The 'improved' visuals effectively robbed GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas of all their identity and atmosphere. Forget the bugs and other technical problems – even when they were running correctly, the new versions of the classic Grand Theft Auto games just looked worse. But now, thanks to a surprise update from Rockstar, things have suddenly improved.
The San Andreas, and GTA 3 having sadly been pulled from digital stores. And now, thanks to the new update, one of the worst problems in Rockstar's remaster set has been resolved: the horrible sky and lighting effects have been replaced.
It was particularly noticeable in San Andreas. The warm, orange hue of the 2004 original was replaced in the Definitive Edition with a colder, muddier, color palette that robbed the entire game of its distinctive style. Now, however, there is a new option in the Definitive Edition to enable 'classic lighting.' This makes every game in the bundle look a lot more like it did back in the day – and like it should.
The feature was first implemented for the mobile and Netflix versions of the Definitive Edition, but it's now been ported over to PC and consoles. You can see a handy comparison in the video below, ed by YouTuber 'Fess Beast.'
And this isn't the only good GTA news lately. Rockstar confirms that could be coming soon.
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