The GTA Trilogy Isnt The New Cyberpunk 2077, The Definitive Edition Is Worse – Forbes

GTA 3/Cyberpunk 2077

Yesterday, Cyberpunk 2077 started trending on social media, and surprise, it wasnt because of any new updates to the game. Rather, it was because people were comparing the disastrous launch of the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy: The Definitive Edition, to the release of Cyberpunk 2077, one of the biggest letdowns in gaming.

For me, thats actually an insult to Cyberpunk 2077, because what were seeing with the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition is worse.

Dont get me wrong, I can still recite the list of Cyberpunk 2077s crimes by heart. The game was barely playable on last-gen consoles, so much so that Sony removed the entire game from the PlayStation store for six months. Ahead of launch, CDPR said Cyberpunk would perform well on last-gen consoles, but didnt give out console review codes ahead of time and that ended up being far from the case.

The game itself fell short of the lofty expectations that had been set for it, as it was missing a lot of features, had issues with AI and a myriad of goofy bugs at launch. It wasnt the game that was promised, even if over time, many fans found they could have a good time with it, and opinions have somewhat softened a year later for many. That said, it remains a cautionary tale.

Cyberpunk 2077

So, if all this went wrong, why am I saying whats going on with the GTA Definitive Edition is worse?

One quote I read yesterday was that CDPR shot for the moon with Cyberpunk 2077 and missed, while Rockstar shot for the ground and somehowstill missed.

Cyberpunk 2077 was attempting to make a sprawling, brand new RPG and surpass the beloved Witcher 3. The GTA Definitive Edition was simply remastering a bunch of old games, a seemingly far easier task, and it still went so, so terribly wrong.

Whats going on with the PC edition of the game right now is bizarre. Sony took Cyberpunk offline on the PS store, but you could still buy physical copies or play the digital version you already owned. But Rockstar itself has taken the PC version of GTA down in order to remove files left inside it ranging from everything from unlicensed songs to proprietary company tools to the San Andreas Hot Coffee sex mod. So, even if you bought the PC version, Rockstar is literally preventing you from playing it indefinitely.

Theres also the broadness of the poor performance to consider. Cyberpunk 2077 was a sliding scale. The PC version of the game actually ran and looked pretty great, even at launch. Xbox Series X and PS5 playing upconverted last-gen versions were okay, not amazing. Last gen consoles, especially base PS4 and Xbox One, were quite bad. But GTA Definitive Edition? All the versions, all six, PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch are all performing badly for most players. People have commented that somehow PS3 ran GTA 5 better than a PS5 is running GTA 3. How is that happening?

GTA

Cyberpunks issue was that it leaned too hard into the PC version while ignoring consoles. Rockstars problem is that they tasked a mobile-based studio with remastering these three games mostly based on a mobile port, and as a result, the hardware doesnt matter because the software has so many issues.

Finally, perhaps the worst aspect of all this, something that elevates what Rockstar has done here to a new level, is the fact that they spent time hunting down player-made remaster mods and taking those offline, and then stopped selling the original versions of the game altogether, clearing the way for this remaster which is worse than any of them. That was a terrible, terrible move, and fans are rightly roasting them for it now, given the state of the game.

This is not a project that should have been done halfheartedly. These are three of the most popular, most beloved games in industry history. They deserved proper care and attention for a quality remaster, not whateverthis was. And it does not jibe with what Take-Twos Strauss Zelnick said in March about taking the time to do remasters correctly:

"Remastering has always been a part of the strategy. What we've done differently than the competition is we don't just port titles over," he said. "We actually take the time to do the very best job we can making the title different for the new release for the new technology that we're launching it on."

Cyberpunk 2077 had its issues, but zooming back to look at the full picture, I think whats happening with the GTA Definitive Edition here is clearly worse, given the context, and how much easier the task at hand should have been. Well see what fixes they roll out, but this entire endeavor might be irreparable damaged at its core.

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The GTA Trilogy Isnt The New Cyberpunk 2077, The Definitive Edition Is Worse - Forbes