GTA: The Definitive Edition trilogy gets surprise update

The controversial Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition got a surprise update on Tuesday that brought some welcome and much-needed changes to the game — and it only took three years.

As reported by Rockstar Intel, the “definitive” versions of Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One got a slew of fixes and updates, including one that fixes a huge sticking point with the release: lighting.

Much of the criticism surrounding the PC and console versions involved the lighting when they launched in 2021. Each game had a distinctive look, a lot of which came down to some broad hues. For example, GTA: San Andreas famously has an orange tint. However, each of these hues was removed for the Definitive Edition, leaving the games looking more bland. Lighting across the board was lackluster, either looking too bright or being removed altogether. This Reddit thread shows how a lot of  the environmental lighting had been either toned down or removed. The games just generally felt like a downgrade in terms of graphics, with strange-looking character models, and no clouds in the sky. That’s not even taking into account all the technical issues users reported at launch, like crashes and other bugs.

It was so bad that Rockstar Games had to issue an apology and release the classic PC versions of those three games back to the Rockstar Store, offering them up for free for users who bought the Definitive Edition.

A lot of these issues were fixed when Netflix released the trilogy on its platform in late 2023. It featured a classic lighting option that brought back the games’ respective classic tints, fixes to water and clothing, and more general lighting fixes to things like streetlights. It appears that a lot of these have now been brought to PC and console in the new update.

Looks like mentions of Grove Street Games and their logos have been removed from the splash screen and main menu of the #GTA Definitive Editions as well. pic.twitter.com/ZmXpccyiyS

— TJGM (@TJGM_) November 12, 2024

However, as Grand Theft Auto YouTuber TJGM noted on X, mentions of Grove Street Games, the studio behind the original Definitive Edition, have been removed in the new update. The GTA Trilogy wasn’t well received, but it seems like an odd choice regardless of the reasoning.