I'm aware that most of my enjoyment comes from viewing the games through nostalgic rose-tinted glasses, but it's enjoyment all the same.
Once I got past the performance issues, I slowly found my footing. It currently isn't a great experience on the PC, and I hope Grove Street Games optimizes the trilogy on all three systems for more stable and reliable performance and a better way to optimize performance via the graphic settings. In my experience, "planar" reflections on cars seemingly have the most notable impact, and turning it off helped us reach acceptable frame rates more consistently, but the game still functions inconsistently, even when locked to a specific frame rate.
A lot of this is down to available graphic settings being unclear on performance impact or differences between settings. The other two titles seem to run better, but their output and performance are still erratic. Even when it didn't, I still experienced micro-stutters every so often. We found settings that pushed performance above that line most of the time, but we repeatedly hit snags where the frame rate would drop hard. On our test rig with a 3070 and a 5600x, we struggled to get the best visual settings locked in with a stable 60+fps at 1440p (with DLSS enabled). In my experience, they improve chronologically, with GTA3 being the biggest offender and San Andreas running relatively the best. GTA 3 put up an especially fierce fight, but all three games are poorly optimized and struggle to run smoothly in many situations. All three games have been entirely ported/rebuilt on Unreal Engine, including a bunch of visual upgrades, but they're essentially the same games that were released 15-20 years ago. Starting chronologically with GTA 3, things didn't look great. My experience got worse before it got better.
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It also didn't help that Rockstar's communication during that downtime was lacking, and I was all but ready to rip apart the Definitive Edition when I managed to download and start the games four days later.
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I'll preface the review with this: The egregious issues with Rockstar's Launcher that prevented many PC players from playing any of their purchased games is another reminder that forced online connectivity for single-player games is a terrible practice. Rockstar wouldn't rush a remaster and then dump it into the world to get a leg up in holiday sales, would it? Let's say that I've learned several things in the past few days. There were definitely red flags leading up to the game release, such as the limited footage and coverage, but I was cautiously optimistic because this is Rockstar's most iconic game franchise. Despite all of these roadblocks, it's strange that I've had a blast playing the "definitive edition" of this iconic trilogy. PC players like me didn't get to play the game until days later due to a string of Rockstar Launcher issues. The visual presentation is inconsistent, and there are performance issues and cut content.
Between the technical issues and overall product quality, the release of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition has not gone smoothly.