The launch of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition has not been a smooth experience, to say the least. A primary focus, for those that can even play the game they purchased, is the GTA Trilogy's remastered graphics. Rockstar chose to go with a cartoonish style, rather than a more typical remaster style of higher fidelity. Amid growing criticism of the decision, many Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition players are starting to compare its visuals to mods they believe did a better job.

Several videos have been made and published over the past several days comparing Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition to Grand Theft Auto visual mods released over the past several years. Obviously, they're not fair comparisons, since mods require a PC that can deliver much higher performance and visual fidelity while the trilogy remaster has been designed to scale down visuals to what the Nintendo Switch is able to run. Still, it's a compelling comparison.

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The results of these comparisons are surprising in many ways. It's true that mods are better able to add visual features like improved lighting and reflections, but the Definitive Edition makes up for it in polish. For example, in San Andreas' cinematics, a mod may have uneven lighting, where the Definitive Edition's developers paid closer attention to these sequences. Also, while the remaster's visuals have been described as cartoonish, compared to the original game they still stand out as a marked improvement. At least on PC, the GTA Trilogy remaster compares very favorably to mods.

What's perhaps a more important question is whether the GTA Trilogy remaster is so impressive that it justifies Rockstar publisher Take-Two's aggressive legal efforts to shut down mods. For example, the Vice Cry mod ported Grand Theft Auto: Vice City into Grand Theft Auto 5's engine. That's not an easy question to answer, but there's clearly a statement being made within the GTA community saying that these mods are valued and comparable to the official remaster (if not better).

It's also worth pointing out that Rockstar has removed the original versions of the three Grand Theft Auto games included in the trilogy remaster from PC and console storefronts. There's no legal way to purchase these games other than via the new bundle on its supported platforms.

Further, it's just a matter of time before modders do the work required to get their projects updated for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition. That's if they even feel comfortable working on Rockstar projects anymore, after the way Take-Two treated them leading up to the GTA Trilogy's launch. Rockstar will also need to get the GTA Trilogy back up and running on PC in the first place for this to happen.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is available now on PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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