GTA Trilogy Remaster was not intended to replace Rockstar’s PS2 originals

Today Rockstar finally showed footage of the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy remaster and they look surprisingly good, but they are also very different from the original games. This has raised concerns about erasing and remembering the series’ past the fragmented state of game conservation.

Today’s trailer proved that Rockstar not only refreshed the old graphics, but completely overhauled them. GTA: The Trilogy seems to have improved textures, more vivid colors, better lighting, higher resolutions, better character models, and a new weather system.

“Not against the art upgrades here. Excited even, ”freelance critic and game reporter Jeremy Peel wrote on Twitter. “But they’re so different that I think you must have the originals somewhere. You can’t just disappear. “

Remasters and remakes can be great, but rarely, if ever Perfect

substitute for the originals. The rare exception is if the newer version allows you to switch back and forth seamlessly to the old.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened. GTA: The Trilogy, contains GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas, will not go on sale until November 11th, but already the original versions of the PS2 era GTA Games are gone. Rock star the same day made the trilogy official after months of Reports and leaks, it also the games removed of digital shop windows for consoles and PCs.

Rockstar didn’t say when or if the original versions of the games would ever come back; one could imagine initial sales fading for the remasters, or in a strange future where Take-Two is releasing its own Game Pass-like subscription service. As far as we currently know, games have gone from modern platforms for good. Rockstar did not respond to a request for comment when asked about his plans.

Continue reading: Why some video games are in danger of disappearing forever

Other companies have handled the recent remasters differently. EA released in May Mass Effect Legendary Edition, an updated version of the trilogy that debuted in 2007. She changed the visual style significantly and made fundamental changes to certain mechanics of the original game. Fortunately, if you, like me, did not appreciate the new lens flares from Eden Prime or the loss of unlimited ammunition, the original version of the games can still be purchased on Steam and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, publisher Take-Two went a little further than just sorting the old versions of GTA. For the past few months, his lawyers have been on one Rampage of fan projects, hits numerous mods with DMCA deactivations

and sue those who try reverse engineer GTA III to make it playable on other platforms. Many games remain trapped on outdated platforms, but few are as popular and widespread as that GTA Series have seen such committed attempts to later make them more difficult to access. That’s the price we pay for companies to run the world.

It’s not just the story that is lost or the craft, although they certainly are. the GTA Remasters are enough different from their predecessors that there is a perfectly reasonable argument for those who might prefer that muddier Y2K aesthetic the originals. And what use are digital sales and the internet if they don’t offer people more choice at the price of next to nothing?

I look forward to driving around Vice City for the first time in years on the OLED Nintendo Switch. But for the sake of art, history, and my own stupid nostalgia, it would have been nice to keep the option of revising the old version as well.