Rockstar Games quietly rolled out a new update for the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition games on Tuesday, with a patch that more accurately restores elements of the original games. Those improvements for the Definitive Edition versions of Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas are only available for current-gen consoles and the PC releases, however.
But if you’re playing Rockstar’s remastered versions of those early aughts open-world crime sprees on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, or Xbox Series X, you’ll see new “Classic Lighting” effects that improve the look of the games. Rockstar’s patch notes for the Nov. 12 update are thin on detail, but players have spotted lighting that’s tuned to the multiple cities and weather effects of San Andreas. There are also new fire and glass-breaking effects, more accurate street lighting, and changes to swimming. In-game rain, a glaring issue when the Definitive Edition versions were released in 2021, has also received a visual upgrade.
Tuesday’s changes to Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition incorporate updates that were made to the mobile versions of GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas when they were released through Netflix. Players who haven’t touched the Definitive Edition versions since the collection’s troubled launch — or Rockstar’s quick attempts to fix the games — will notice that a lot has changed over the past three years. The mobile versions, developed by Video Games Deluxe, brought improvements to the games’ water visuals, fog and draw distance, character models, textures, and collision. Now, (some) console and PC gamers can enjoy the fruit of that labor.
The Definitive Edition versions of Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas are also available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.