According to rumors circulating from a Kotaku article, Rockstar Games is currently in the process of remastering their PS2-Era Grand Theft Auto titles. This set of games would theoretically include GTA 3, Vice City, and the fan-favorite San Andreas. While remasters can be both hit or miss, EA’s recent Mass Effect Legendary Edition collection and its financial success prove the market is ripe for classic 3D-era games being upgraded for next-gen consoles. While the extent of the remaster (and the remaster itself) is still unknown, social-media sites have sunk their teeth into the prospect of this rumored GTA collection and fans have revealed what they hope the collection improves upon (other than graphics, which is a given), but more importantly, what they hope remains the same.
5. Swimming
Famously, or rather infamously, Grand Theft Auto made shockwaves for the amount of freedom it gave its player. Running down civilians, high-speed chases, or taking a trip to the strip club, Rockstar seemed to let players do absolutely everything… except swimming. Apparently in Claude and Tommy’s criminal training, they skipped the doggy-paddle day. While this is an unnecessary change, and may even alter how the larger map can be navigated, small quality-of-life changes such as a basic swimming animation would appeal to many players.
4. Mordernized Controls
As with many titles during the tween days of 3D games, the movement and shooting controls of the early GTA’s, especially GTA 3, have not aged particularly well. While the games certainly control better than PS1 and N64 era games, Rockstar and the industry at large were still finding their footing early on in the new millennium. In the last decade and a half, Rockstar has fine-tuned their movement, driving, and combat controls. With modern technology, they have the opportunity to improve their slightly sluggish controls to be both responsive and realistic, especially in a certain mission featuring a remote-control plane that shall not be named.
3. Legacy Cheats
In the early & mid-2000s, countless pieces of notebook paper lined the inside of old plastic game boxes, and had inscribed on them the secrets to power and riches: the cheat code. GTA’s famous string of commands were memorized by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of gamers. GTA IV strayed away from the traditional cheat-code along with the rest of the gaming industry by incorporating them as speed-dial features on your phone, and GTA V further removed them as a prominent feature. For Rockstar to truly capture that dual-shock button-smashing experience, legacy cheat codes are a must.
2. Modernized Saves
The classic GTA saving system was fine for its era, but with gamers adapting to autosave as the standard, location-based save-systems seem archaic to many, and simply limiting. While GTA does not necessarily need on-the-spot saving like Bethesda games have, an updated save system that values a player’s time would be appreciated by many.
1. Classic Radio
Whether it’s the maniacal ravings of Lazlow Jones or Hall & Oates, cruising through traffic in a stolen sports car should always have a memorable soundtrack. Rockstar has ensured that the options that a player has in their car radio are a sure hit. With different stations capturing the atmosphere of each of the different games, one of Rockstar’s top priorities should be ensuring as many in-game radio stations stay intact as possible. This may be easier said than done, however, since music rights are an extremely tricky area that can prove very costly. We’ve already seen what happens when Rockstar ran into music licensing issues in GTA IV. While it can remain a dream, gamers hope Rockstar fights for their rights to party.
- Psychonauts 2 Review: Long Live the Platformer - August 31, 2021
- War For Relevance: Is Marvel’s Avengers at Its Endgame? - August 18, 2021
- 5 Things We Need in the Rumored GTA Remasters - August 15, 2021