Those banned remasters of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City look very good and it's got us amped for the possibility of the official remasters from Rockstar Games.
While the developer is yet to confirm or deny the remasters, the report from Kotaku asserts that Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas are getting a lick of paint and are coming to consoles some time in the autumn of this year. Sources say that the visuals of the remasters are a mix of "new and old graphics" and reminiscent of a classic entry from the series with mods which, coincidentally, is an accurate description of what these Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City remastered mods are.
Unfortunately, a DMCA notice from Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two Interactive scuppered the plans of the modders. Speaking in an investor call, CEO Strauss Zelnick explained that takedowns are motivated on whether or not "the economy is threatened or if there's bad behavior." Given that Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came out in 2002 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas followed in 2004, the impact on Take-Two Interactive's bottom line is going to be negligible. In that same call, the company praised the lucrativeness of Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online, so I don't think it's going to be taken to the cleaners any time soon.
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Grab some popcorn and settle in for our roundup of everything we know about the next Grand Theft Auto game.
While these mods have been removed from the Internet, that didn't stop people from snagging the files before they evaporated under Take-Two Interactive's watchful glare. YouTuber Inter nabbed MrVicho13's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in Grand Theft Auto V mod and showed off the result with maximum graphics settings. The textures are, of course, brilliant and the lighting is very realistic. However, the assets themselves are older and more polygonal than the smoothed off shapes that we're used to in 2021. The result is an image of what you remember San Andreas looking like rather than what it actually looked like. And that's not a half-bad thing.
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On the other hand, DoctorGTA got the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City remastered mod before it was zapped. This one had been in development for four years thanks to the work of modder lunchxbles and included new models, MLO interiors, bump-mapped roads and various buildings, 3D neon models and new missions. Obviously, it's a shame that this project had to be taken away from the fans but the silver lining is that showcases like this one is a way for it to endure in spite of what happened.
Featured Image Credit: Inter via YouTube, Hossein Diba via ArtStation, DoctorGTA via YouTubeTopics: Rockstar Games, Take-Two Interactive, Grand Theft Auto