The Gamers Arms

This has only been discussed in a news thread so far and I imagine some of us may be playing, so here's a thread.

It seems to be embroiled in quite a bit of controversy due to the very dodgy looking character models and various bugs from the mobile ports the remaster was based on.

I'm playing through the beginning of 3 right now and no question the Unreal lighting looks good, but the performance is a bit off, the car physics feel quite different in not such a great way and the rain is excruciatingly low effort that it hurts my eyes to look at for too long. The opening cutcene was almost impossible to discern what was happening because they added the rain shader over literally everything so all you can see is white streaks running all over the screen. It was even raining inside the police van, and the shader had been applied as a blanket over the top of some of the distant scenery.

I'm a little disappointed given it was £55. But time will tell if some of these glaring issues get patched or if it will just become abandonware and Rockstar will weather the Internet hate they get for it.

The GTA sub-reddit makes for some entertaining reading right now at least. Some of the San Andreas character models look like they've been redone by an AI on loose approximations of what a human looks like, incredibly low shoulders or multiple jointed arms and legs.

Played San Andreas for a bit today and it's fine. The opening bit on the bicycle made me lose my temper on several occasions which isn't a great start to a game. Officer Tenpenny's face was so dark he looked like a talking shadow and Sweet's face is a random collection of shapes. The fucking rain...it's like interference on an old TV, what were they thinking!?

Apart from all that it's an old GTA game that's still fun if a little janky. Looking forward to getting out of Los Santos and exploring the rest of the map.

To follow up on the reddit stuff here's a couple of my faves so far

Mantis wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 11, 2021 8:06 pm

I'm playing through the beginning of 3 right now and no question the Unreal lighting looks good, but the performance is a bit off, the car physics feel quite different in not such a great way and the rain is excruciatingly low effort that it hurts my eyes to look at for too long. The opening cutcene was almost impossible to discern what was happening because they added the rain shader over literally everything so all you can see is white streaks running all over the screen.

I’m glad it’s not just me - the rain is bizarrely bad. As for the performance, on my Series X it’s totally playable but even on performance mode there is the briefest of stuttering sometimes when steering. It’s not a disaster, but it’s distracting in the middle of fast driving. I don’t mind the car physics overall as it was never going to be GTA V quality and it feels how I remember the old games playing.

On the plus side, the problems haven’t spoiled my first bout of GTA III in what must be 18 years. I even remember the streets - the nostalgia hit is undeniably potent. For better or worse, I’m really looking forward to playing the trilogy again. There’s a certain scrappy charm to them that was lost in IV and V.

The rain was aweful. Overall it looks fine. Tbh it have been amazing if they completely remastered it similar to Mafia. I am interested in GTA 3 and Vice City. I have no desire to play San Andreas and unfortunately that is the free one with GamePass.

I would pick this up for £20 no more

Someone criticised the cartoony look of the DE, I can see what they mean

It’s nuts that this and Diablo 2 have performance and quality modes on the top end consoles. Feels like a couldn’t be arsed optimising thing.

Kill drug dealers in San Andreas, not as a rightwing statement but as a good way to make about $2000 each time.

I was finding a lot of the missions in 3 quite irritating and tiresome, compounded by them not putting a proper checkpoint system in, so booted up Vice City and San Andreas to play through the first couple of missions in each. They don't feel quite as dated as 3, the addition of the motorcycles makes driving around far less tedious at least. I'm sticking with 3 first though or else I won't be able to go back and complete it after enjoying the advancements of the later entries.

The Reddit hunt for more examples of bugs and shoddy remastering is ongoing.

Oh no, it's the Surprising Adventures of Sir Digby Chicken Johnson.

Raid wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 12, 2021 3:54 pm

Oh no, it's the Surprising Adventures of Sir Digby Chicken Johnson.

The pc version got pulled from the store because someone worked out how to get all the music tracks to work. It's becoming a bit if a shit show.

That's bloody brilliant... And appalling at the same time, that would save on disc space if they weren't there.

this game is getting an absolute drumming.

Incidentally, I've absolutely changed my mind on the visuals. Now that I've seen more of them, the character models are horrible.