Gamers of a certain age are likely intimately familiar with the PS2’s GTA trilogy, and with news of a GTA Remastered Trilogy potentially on the way, we’re thinking its about time we got to revisit the chaotic, crime-filled adventures of Claude Speed, Tommy Vercetti and Carl Johnson.
The GTA Remastered Trilogy would be comprised of Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Each are among the best-selling PS2 games of all time, and have also found success on other platforms such as Xbox and PC.
As good as this trilogy of criminal classics are, it’s hard to deny that they’re definitely long in the tooth, and each game has certainly aged considerably since they originally released. GTA 3, especially, could use something of a facelift. That would be great to see, as we’re still likely a few years away from being able to play GTA 6.
And while nothing has been confirmed on behalf of Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive as of yet, news that the publisher is planning to release at least three remasters in 2022 makes it seems like the GTA Remastered Trilogy is all but confirmed at this point.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? A potential remastered collection of GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas
- When can I play it? Late 2021 or sometime in 2022
- What can I play it on? Rumors have suggested PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC and even Nintendo Switch
GTA Remastered Trilogy release date
We hate to let you down, but the existence of the GTA Remastered Trilogy has not been confirmed as of yet, let alone a release date for the product. However, rumors reported by Kotaku claim the release date could be as soon as “late October or early November.”
We’ve compiled the rumors from Kotaku below.
GTA Remastered Trilogy: the rumors so far
Nintendo Switch release
Quite a surprising rumor, given that Nintendo consoles haven’t been graced with a GTA since the Nintendo DS’s Chinatown Wars, but a welcome one nonetheless. The GTA Remastered Trilogy could be heading to Nintendo Switch, alongside all other major consoles and PC.
Developed on Unreal Engine
The developer of the GTA Remastered Trilogy is rumored to be Rockstar Dundee, a Scottish-based branch of Rockstar Games. The trilogy might be developed on the Unreal Engine, and feature a mixture of “new and old graphics.”
PC and mobile ports might come later
Rockstar Dundee could be putting the PC and mobile ports of the GTA Remastered Trilogy on hold while the developer focuses on the console ports first. If so, we might not see the PC and mobile ports until well into 2022.
GTA Remastered Trilogy: what we want to see
4K 60fps
This might be a lot trickier than it sounds. For example, the PC version of GTA San Andreas couldn’t go higher than 30fps. This is because the game speed and physics are tied to that framerate, and anything higher would cause the game to run unnaturally fast, and the physics could act like you’ve accidentally entered some wacky cheat code.
All three games may need to be built from the ground up to support a 60fps framerate, but a 4K resolution should be manageable and actually look quite nice with cleaned up textures, too.
Trophy and achievement support
When Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy re-released on PS4, Rockstar went the extra mile and included Trophy support. We imagine the GTA Remastered Trilogy would feature both achievements on Xbox Series X/S and Trophy support on PS5.
Even better, a completely fresh set of achievements/Trophies separate from The Trilogy release would be great. And for Nintendo Switch? A dedicated menu for the achievements would be nice, if not wholly necessary.
Restoration of cut content
We’re straying into the ambitious now, but GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas all had content that was sadly left on the cutting room floor or, even worse, is in the game, but inaccessible to the player without cheats or hacks.
Cut content includes everything from vehicles and weapons to missions, modes and voice lines. We’d understand if Rockstar wanted to leave this stuff out, especially the more controversial features like San Andreas’s infamous Hot Coffee mode.