Achievement images for the upcoming (but still officially unannounced) remasters of GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas have spilled online, in the latest leak pointing to the buffed up trilogy's imminent reveal.
The new achievement art, posted to Twitter by GTANet, come from an update to Rockstar's own game launcher made available this week. Game icons for the three remasters were also found.
Kotaku reported last month that the three remasters were being developed by Rockstar Dundee (formerly Ruffian Games) and worked on in Unreal Engine. They will resemble a "heavily-modded version of a classic GTA title" - alongside an updated UI, but with gameplay which sticks "true to the PS2-era GTA games as much as possible".
A listing for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition has been spotted on South Korea's game rating board's site.
According to the details of the listing, the application for an official rating was made by Take-Two Interactive for an action game originating from the United States.
The game has been rated 18 or unavailable for youth in the country.
The makers of another long-running GTA San Andreas mod have pulled it offline themselves amid the ongoing crackdown by Take-Two.
The lead developer of GTA Underground, one of the largest, most ambitious mods for the 16-year-old Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, announced development had ceased and all downloads hauled offline after six years of work.
This was "due to the increasing hostility towards the modding community and imminent danger to our mental and financial well-being", chief developer dkluin wrote in a post on GTAForums.com.
This week, Kotaku reported Rockstar is working on remastered versions of Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, using Unreal Engine to create a mix of "new and old graphics".
The news helps explain Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive's recent GTA mod takedown spree - particular mods that recreated the games in question.
But it also helps explain why Rockstar nuked a San Andreas fan remake trailer in July 2020, too.
Rockstar is reportedly putting the finishing touches to remasters of its open-world PlayStation 2-era classics Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas for release later this year.
Rumours of possible remasters for the games first bubbled up over the summer as fans began wondering why Take-Two's lawyers had suddenly started issuing a raft of takedown notices for classic GTA mods. Speculation grew further following Take-Two's recent confirmation it had three unannounced "new iterations of previously released titles" in the works.
Now, however, an investigation by Kotaku has revealed more tangible details, with its sources - who, the website says, have a proven track record providing accurate information on GTA Online and Red Dead Online - claiming Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas are indeed getting the remaster treatment.
The makers of a 14-year-old Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas mod have pulled it offline themselves over a fear of a takedown from Take-Two.
GTA United is a mod based on San Andreas for PC. It unites the maps of Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto Vice City in one game area within San Andreas, effectively replacing San Andreas' map.
Work on the free, non-commercial mod began in 2006. The first beta of what was then known as "Vice City 2 San Andreas" came out in early 2007. The beta for "Liberty City 2 San Andreas" came out soon after. Then, in late 2007, the beta for a combined effort called GTA United was released. Five years later, in December 2012, GTA United 1.2 was released. It remained available ever since - until now.
After disabling the option to buy Grand Theft Auto IV in January, Rockstar now say 2008’s open-world murder simulator will return to sale in March with a few changes. Microsoft’s awful Games For Windows Live technogubbins is being removed because it caused the trouble in the first place, and that’s great news. It seems some folks will also receive the expansions or base game for free too. Unfortunately, Rockstar are also removing GTA IV’s multiplayer mode and will temporarily disable several radio stations. A mixed crimebag.
After 21 years as a Rockstar Games big cheese, Dan Houser will leave the company in March. He’s co-written almost every Rockstar game since 1999, including Grand Theft Auto from London through to V, Bully, Max Payne 3, and the Red Dead Redemptions. That’s made him a big influence on the tone of Rockstar’s games. I wonder how that might change once he’s moved on. Where he’s going and what he’ll do next, we don’t know. He can probably afford to eat pizza while watching Heat on loop the rest of his life, to be honest.
Just in time to launch Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC, Rockstar announced their own game launcher for desktop. Despite having both Grand Theft Auto V and San Andreas available on the new digital storefront, Grand Theft Auto IV is still notably absent. Now it’s been delisted from Steam as well, though it doesn’t actually seem to be related to any grand plans Rockstar have for their own launcher.