A few months ago Rockstar surprised us with the remasters of GTA III, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas in a pack that promised to bring back the sensations we experienced when playing them at the time, but at the same time providing us with editions that took advantage of what technology allows today. And yes, I have said that we were surprised, the pity is that it was for the worse, because the initial state of the same was so unfortunate when it reached the market that the company had to withdraw it from the store.
It is true that after the correction work, the new versions are somewhat more decent. Namely, at least some of the unfortunate effects that we could see in the initial version no longer occur. The bad thing is that, starting from such a low base, it was impossible to aspire to too high. And be careful, of course I’m not referring to the classics themselves, far from it. I’m talking about what the company made clear to us when it released these remasters, and that was, well, you don’t have to work yourself to death either. GTA III, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas were not that bad, according to the work of their creators.
Additionally, the company had a precious detail with the community (yes, now that “precious” is deeply sarcastic), by beginning to demand that the creators of add-ons of the original versions to immediately cease their activity and to remove the plug-ins they had published. Of course, if it turns out that any fan of the saga creates and distributes free improvements for GTA Vice City that are much, much better than those offered by the developer after checkout… well, it doesn’t leave the studio in a very good place, right? ?
The current situation is that we can buy the pack with the remastered versions of GTA III, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas in the Rockstar store for 59.99 euros (39.99 at this time, due to the spring sales) to enjoy a halfway remastering, an outsourced job in which there is very, very little desireand with which the company showed us that its lack of interest in some games that took it to the top is, more less, comparable to the one it feels for their community.
The latest example of this, that the community shows much more interest, respect and affection for the games than Rockstar itself, is found in a remake of GTA Vice City created with Unreal Engine 5 by TeaserPlay. It is made clear in the video that his only intention is to show what could be obtained, that is, that he has no plans to distribute it, but it does serve to verify that a dedicated fan can do better than Rockstar. Although, well, I think I made the wrong verb, instead of being able I should have said want. And this makes everything much, much worse.
And of course, I can’t help but take advantage of this news to remember Ray Liotta, remembered above all for his role in Uno de los Nuestro, but who was also responsible for giving voice to Tommy Vercetti, the protagonist of GTA Vice City. May his memory last as long as his work.
