GTA The Trilogy: The Definitive Edition (November 11, 2021)

[You]

3 hours ago, Shadiochao said:

 

It wasn't necessarily removed because people will be offended.

 

The flag has gained a lot of attention since the game was released. It could just be because it would change how the character was meant to come across. Nowadays wearing or displaying the flag sends a strong statement about what kind of person you are, and one that is now known around the world. It isn't just associated with gun enthusiasts, but racists, white supremacists, Trump supporters etc. The game was made by a bunch of British developers in 2002 who may not have known what the signfiicance of the flag was.

 

And perhaps Rockstar just doesn't want to display that flag in their games, mockingly or not. Although I'd argue there was no mocking going on here.

 

As with most censorship, these changes are pointless.

 

Who is this change helping? who is it helping to not offend? Just seems like a weird thing to worry about.

 

That flag was still inside of and on sale, in a game available only up to only few weeks ago and has been available for 2 decades and nobody seemed to flip out or got offended before now.

 

Especially since all the killing and murdering that each of these games contains, that stuff is still intact.

Are we at the stage now where words and pictures are genuinely more terrifying than actual simulated violence? Seems like it.

[Shadiochao]

9 minutes ago, enaysoft said:

As with most censorship, these changes are pointless.

 

Who is this change helping? who is it helping to not offend? Just seems like a weird thing to worry about.

 

That flag was still inside of and on sale, in a game available only up to only few weeks ago and has been available for 2 decades and nobody seemed to flip out or got offended before now.

 

Especially since all the killing and murdering that each of these games contains, that stuff is still intact.

Are we at the stage now where words and pictures are genuinely more terrifying than actual simulated violence? Seems like it.

 

I literally said it may not be anything to do with offence. That's your own assumption.

[You]

Just now, Shadiochao said:

 

I literally said it may not be anything to do with offence. That's your own assumption.

 

No, but that is literally the problem. We all know, or can guess why it has been removed.

 

These days the fear of offending someone is often worse than someone actually getting offended. Self censorship.

[Shadiochao]

15 minutes ago, enaysoft said:

No, but that is literally the problem. We all know, or can guess why it has been removed.

 

These days the fear of offending someone is often worse than someone actually getting offended. Self censorship.

 

You can guess but it doesn't mean you're any closer to the truth 

 

"We at Rockstar have gained a deeper understand of what this flag represents than we did in 2002 and want no part in having this filth in our games" is a much more realistic reason than worrying about the 5 people who will notice it and care. And it's nothing to do with censorship or not wanting to offend, but rather Rockstar feeling they'd outgrown stuff like this.

 

If you start with the idea that this censorship made to avoid offending and get angry about it, then you'll be blind to other possibilities becuse you're so focused on something that may not actually be the reason. Who knows why they removed it? I don't, and there could be reasons I haven't even thought of.

 

But also, why is not wanting to unnecessarily offend people actually a bad thing? I don't care about the flag but what value does it bring to the game that it's worth hurting people over?

[yellowwindow7]

a remaster for GTA 4 ( Without the Online Trophies Nonsense! ) , Liberty City Story, Vice City Story and Chinatown would be lovely and far more welcoming than these three that I played to death by now.

3 hours ago, RedDevil757 said:

As long as they fix the awful pop in that the PS2 versions had. I'll be happy

 

I believe the PC ports of the trilogy have fixed the pop in's.

Edited October 25, 2021 by yellowwindow7

[westersburg]

5 hours ago, BrandedBerserk said:

These games are ancient at this point so there's not much they could of done for the visuals unless it was a full blown remake which isn't the case. Doesn't look bad at all but ain't no way I'm paying 80$ for it. 

Game costs 59,99 and is even crossbuy (regarding to the ps store site)

 

1 hour ago, yellowwindow7 said:

a remaster for GTA 4 ( Without the Online Trophies Nonsense! ) , Liberty City Story, Vice City Story and Chinatown would be lovely and far more welcoming than these three that I played to death by now.

 

I believe the PC ports of the trilogy have fixed the pop in's.

I think all platforms willl have increased draw distance.

[ChecoMayor]

I would like to see this remaster sell like shit.

I don't like the route Rockstar is taking as well how videogames are devolving.

 

And it was that hard to put both Stories games on the entire package? Ffs I hate the state of Videogames

[TomataEighty9]

20 minutes ago, ChecoMayor said:

I would like to see this remaster sell like shit.

I don't like the route Rockstar is taking as well how videogames are devolving.

 

And it was that hard to put both Stories games on the entire package? Ffs I hate the state of Videogames

 

You could hope that. OR.

 

We could all hope it sells very well, and gives Rockstar a reason to remaster or remake Bully and maybe Stories  

[westersburg]

I'd rather see this trilogy selling awesome instead of another million sharkcards that have been sold for gta online...

[ziggypossum]

Physical Edition

https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Theft-Auto-Trilogy-Definitive-PlayStation/dp/B09K4W8YQQ/

 

[TomataEighty9]

I really like that cover !! 

[BrandedBerserk]

3 hours ago, westersburg said:

Game costs 59,99 and is even crossbuy (regarding to the ps store site)

 

I think all platforms willl have increased draw distance.

In Canada its 80$ which is why I said that. 

[Silver-I-Chariot]

5 hours ago, Shadiochao said:

"We at Rockstar have gained a deeper understand of what this flag represents than we did in 2002 and want no part in having this filth in our games" is a much more realistic reason than worrying about the 5 people who will notice it and care. And it's nothing to do with censorship or not wanting to offend, but rather Rockstar feeling they'd outgrown stuff like this.

 

Oh there is A LOT of filth in their games. Is luring hookers in your car to murder them not filth? Don't get me wrong, I love the GTA games but there are many people out there who find the content absolutely vile and revolting. And I kind of get where they are coming from. But drawing the line at a flag with everything else going on in their games is really funny. Besides, who knows what will be unacceptable in 10 more years? There is apparently transphobic content in GTA5 journos complained about. There is a jewish mob with lots of stereotypes in GTA4. Somebody out there was certainly made uncomfortable by that. If Rockstar stays consistent, surely they will need to remove things like that in future ports and remasters. Because why stop at a flag?

 

5 hours ago, Shadiochao said:

But also, why is not wanting to unnecessarily offend people actually a bad thing? I don't care about the flag but what value does it bring to the game that it's worth hurting people over?

 

I watched a documentary about the history of GTA recently. A really solid, 2 hours video. Anyway, before the release of one their older title, idk maybe it was GTA3 or something, there was a huge outcry from concerned parents and lots of controversy about the game in the media. But instead of rowing back rockstar decided to double down and made their PR as offensive as possible and it worked out well for them. If they avoided unnecessarily offending people then there would be no GTA as we know it today. They basically pushed the borders of what was acceptable in video games.  

[westersburg]

Unfortunately the amazon preorder is only available in America so far. It isn't listed in any EU amazon site i checked.

[Shadiochao]

5 minutes ago, Silver-I-Chariot said:

Oh there is A LOT of filth in their games. Is luring hookers in your car to murder them not filth?

 

That in particular is all in the mind of the player. You can kill any person in the game, and some of them have a role that causes them to do certain actions, like getting in your car. If you view that as luring them to kill them, that's just your roleplaying because the game makes no distinction between killing an NPC who is lured or not, or whether they're a prostitute or not. And either way you're likely to be punished for doing so, by being given a wanted level. 

 

5 minutes ago, Silver-I-Chariot said:

I love the GTA games but there are many people out there who find the content absolutely vile and revolting

 

I may be wrong, but GTA games almost exclusively portray issues like that in a negative or insulting light. Aside from things like killing and crime, which is obviously just a staple of western media and theme of the games themselves.
 

The problem here may lie with the character, who in the context of the game is a likeable guy, and ally of the main character. That could be seen as condoning use of the flag by presenting it in their game in a neutral or even positive light and without acknowledging its problems. I'm not even sure if racism is a subject that ever gets much attention in the games, and this flag kind of falls under the same category. 

 

5 minutes ago, Silver-I-Chariot said:

But drawing the line at a flag with everything else going on in their games is really funny. Besides, who knows what will be unacceptable in 10 more years? There is apparently transphobic content in GTA5 journos complained about. There is a jewish mob with lots of stereotypes in GTA4. Somebody out there was certainly made uncomfortable by that. If Rockstar stays consistent, surely they will need to remove things like that in future ports and remasters. Because why stop at a flag?

 

Who said they were stopping at the flag? I don't think there's been any indication that future remasters will remain unchanged, and we don't even know the full extent of the changes in these ones. If anything I'd expect more things in this and future games to be altered. 

 

Although I'm not really sure what it would mean to be consistent, because we don't know the reason for the flag's removal. The reason may be so specific it wouldn't apply to any other content in their games.

 

And again, what does the flag actually bring to the game that is worth offending people for, if that turns out the be the case? It's just a texture on a character's shirt that isn't acknowledged at all and not really something I'd consider to be worth keeping.

 

5 minutes ago, Silver-I-Chariot said:

there was a huge outcry from concerned parents and lots of controversy about the game in the media. But instead of rowing back rockstar decided to double down and made their PR as offensive as possible and it worked out well for them. If they avoided unnecessarily offending people then there would be no GTA as we know it today. They basically pushed the borders of what was acceptable in video games.  

 

Is that unnecessarily offending people? Seems like they were fighting back against unfair criticism. It's media for adults, and children shouldn't be legally obtaining the game. If children were able to get the game it was through methods outside of their control, since they did everything they were able to prevent that. But in any case I don't think it's the same as taking or appearing to take an offensive stance on such a sensitive issue.

[AJ_Radio]

This censorship nonsense talk in this thread is just amusing.

 

I hate censorship groups with a burning passion. Often they go beyond just shielding little children from inappropriate content, they wish to remove content for everybody, or censor it to the point where people start to fight back against the censorship groups.

 

Censorship groups are only interested in their own interests. I cannot stress this enough.

 

Basically every GTA game from GTA III going forward has had some stereotype or element that has offended people. This is nothing new. Most of you guys complaining about this crap were literally kids when these games first came out. And as far as legally obtaining GTA games according to what @Shadiochao is saying, retail stores were already restricting these games away from children back in the 2000s. The ESRB ratings were there, a lot of people were aware of the violent content the GTA games had, and children usually couldn't get their hands on it. Most children got their hands on it because an older member of their family or a friend just happened to give the game to them.

 

That being said, I'm very disappointed in Rockstar as of late. It's clear they don't care about making new IPs as much as they are remastering an old collection of games that practically everybody who gave a damn has played at this point.

 

Their business executives and publishers they got are absolute baboons. They won't re-release Vice City and Liberty City Stories. They probably will never make a sequel to either Bully or make a new Manhunt game because either game would be too controversial for today's audience.

 

Rockstar went from taking risks and pushing the standard forward to taking the easy way out. Cash in on Shark Cards in GTA Online while they decide to release GTA V yet again for the PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Edited October 25, 2021 by AJ_Radio

[Dreakon13]

I'm in on the physical for the trilogy.  I think the graphical improvements look interesting, more than I honestly expected.  It's been such a long time since I played these and the previously released direct ports weren't enough to get me on board again.  It'd be cool if they made some QOL gameplay adjustments too.

 

"Censorship" aside, it's always a double edged sword changing the look of classic games.  Most people will look at it and go "damn, that's a solid upgrade" and maybe dive in again if they feel like it.  A few pessimists will hate anything that doesn't look like the originals (which they probably also hated), but would also hate it if they just did another set of upscaled direct ports... basically just hate everything.

Edited October 25, 2021 by Dreakon13

[TheAbyssWalker61]

1 hour ago, Shadiochao said:

 

That in particular is all in the mind of the player. You can kill any person in the game, and some of them have a role that causes them to do certain actions, like getting in your car. If you view that as luring them to kill them, that's just your roleplaying because the game makes no distinction between killing an NPC who is lured or not, or whether they're a prostitute or not. And either way you're likely to be punished for doing so, by being given a wanted level. 

 

 

I may be wrong, but GTA games almost exclusively portray issues like that in a negative or insulting light. Aside from things like killing and crime, which is obviously just a staple of western media and theme of the games themselves.
 

The problem here may lie with the character, who in the context of the game is a likeable guy, and ally of the main character. That could be seen as condoning use of the flag by presenting it in their game in a neutral or even positive light and without acknowledging its problems. I'm not even sure if racism is a subject that ever gets much attention in the games, and this flag kind of falls under the same category. 

 

 

Who said they were stopping at the flag? I don't think there's been any indication that future remasters will remain unchanged, and we don't even know the full extent of the changes in these ones. If anything I'd expect more things in this and future games to be altered. 

 

Although I'm not really sure what it would mean to be consistent, because we don't know the reason for the flag's removal. The reason may be so specific it wouldn't apply to any other content in their games.

 

And again, what does the flag actually bring to the game that is worth offending people for, if that turns out the be the case? It's just a texture on a character's shirt that isn't acknowledged at all and not really something I'd consider to be worth keeping.

 

 

Is that unnecessarily offending people? Seems like they were fighting back against unfair criticism. It's media for adults, and children shouldn't be legally obtaining the game. If children were able to get the game it was through methods outside of their control, since they did everything they were able to prevent that. But in any case I don't think it's the same as taking or appearing to take an offensive stance on such a sensitive issue.

Don't defend this, it's cringe to see people defending censorship lol, it doesn't matter if it's a small change just learn to not be offended, the character it's not even a good person , i don't care if people gets offended and many people doesn't care too, this kind of people can be offended because of a  skirt lol but not with massive murder, i hope you don't complain because of China censorship  will not allow things like life is strange , i mean that will be double standard right? You defend censorship or not defend censorship, there it's no middle point.

[willmill97]

In regards to the radio stations, IMO they should put all the radios from the original 3 games all together to listen to across all 3 (if they even still have the licenses for them all), as well a few radio new stations with music released since then. 

 

To keep everyone happy they should also have the ability to choose which songs you can have in the rotation like Gran Turismo does, that way if you only want original Vice City songs on when playing Vice City then you can, and if you want everything on including new songs then you also can. That would be the most ideal situation and I can't see anyone arguing with that.

Edited October 25, 2021 by willmill97

[Shadiochao]

1 minute ago, TheAbyssWalker61 said:

Don't defend this, it's cringe to see people defending censorship lol, it doesn't matter if it's a small change just learn to not be offended, the character it's not even a good person , i don't care if people gets offended and many people doesn't care too, this kind of people can be offended because of a  skirt lol but not with massive murder, i hope you don't complain because of China censorship  will not allow things like life is strange , i mean that will be double standard right? You defend censorship or not defend censorship, there it's no middle point.

 

"I don't care if people get offended" just sums up the kind of people who are so eager for that flag to remain in the game. Or perhaps "I want people to be offended" would be more accurate. Either way, total selfishness and an utter lack of empathy.

 

And agreeing with censorship isn't just a yes or no thing, there are clearly degrees and a whole host of things to take into consideration.

[Slava]

Removing the flag because it was possibly misinterpreted by Rockstar in 2002 and didn't fit the character would be a more sensible reason than "we don't want anything to do with this filth". "Filth" has a place in videogames. Look at swastikas in Wolfenstein. Anyway, we all know the most likely reason it was removed. 

 

Edit: but there's also like 1% chance that they had some issues with the textures. Wouldn't it be funny?

Edited October 25, 2021 by Slava

[Dauersack]

9 minutes ago, Shadiochao said:

 

"I don't care if people get offended" just sums up the kind of people who are so eager for that flag to remain in the game. Or perhaps "I want people to be offended" would be more accurate. Either way, total selfishness and an utter lack of empathy.

 

And agreeing with censorship isn't just a yes or no thing, there are clearly degrees and a whole host of things to take into consideration.

Considering how low the bar for people being offended is nowadays, I'd say we are long past the point of empathy and have long since reached the point of enabling attention seeking people with a clear inability to differentiate real and fictional, which is their very own problem and nobody elses. How about we just don't change art because the new generation of people has a few radical snowflakes who are incapable of ignoring things they don't like? Would you have empathy if I selfishly demand things that I don't like being taken out or changed in some of your favorite childhood games? Where does it stop? You gonna change a few dozen things because people naturally demand more and more changes once it has proven to work?

 

Back when these games originally released it was crusty old mummies yelling at the clouds that them evil murdering simulators are going to turn kids into serial killers who demanded changes or bans, and our generation kindly told them to piss off and mind their own business since they obviously had no clue what they are talking about, and we should tell the same to snowflakes now. If someone does not want to see it he can ignore it or not buy the game to begin with. We really need to stop pandering to these radical minorities who will likely not even buy the game anyway as they just bitch about it for attention most of the time. It does not matter if its something big or something small being changed either, censorship has no place in art, this is definitely a yes or no thing, either you are pro censorship or you are against it, and people in support of censorship make me sick.

[Abby_TheLastofUs]

15 minutes ago, Nighcisama said:

Considering how low the bar for people being offended is nowadays, I'd say we are long past the point of empathy and have long since reached the point of enabling attention seeking people with a clear inability to differentiate real and fictional, which is their very own problem and nobody elses.

 

Tell me about it.

 

Four pages of people that can't cope with a video game character wearing a different T-Shirt. ?

[TheAbyssWalker61]

22 minutes ago, Nighcisama said:

Considering how low the bar for people being offended is nowadays, I'd say we are long past the point of empathy and have long since reached the point of enabling attention seeking people with a clear inability to differentiate real and fictional, which is their very own problem and nobody elses. How about we just don't change art because the new generation of people has a few radical snowflakes who are incapable of ignoring things they don't like? Would you have empathy if I selfishly demand things that I don't like being taken out or changed in some of your favorite childhood games? Where does it stop? You gonna change a few dozen things because people naturally demand more and more changes once it has proven to work?

 

Back when these games originally released it was crusty old mummies yelling at the clouds that them evil murdering simulators are going to turn kids into serial killers who demanded changes or bans, and our generation kindly told them to piss off and mind their own business since they obviously had no clue what they are talking about, and we should tell the same to snowflakes now. If someone does not want to see it he can ignore it or not buy the game to begin with. We really need to stop pandering to these radical minorities who will likely not even buy the game anyway as they just bitch about it for attention most of the time. It does not matter if its something big or something small being changed either, censorship has no place in art, this is definitely a yes or no thing, either you are pro censorship or you are against it, and people in support of censorship make me sick.

Sir you are right, and you being german knows how it is to have censorship in videogames , i don't have empathy and i don't care about that, my patience has reached a peak and i don't tolerate these people , they are creating the contrary effect, they are creating people who doesn't support that causes and it's their own blame for being such annoying.

 

Censorship it's yes or it's no, that's it. As i said i hope all the offensive content and stereotypes can be in the game and in other games.

[Dauersack]

2 minutes ago, TheAbyssWalker61 said:

Sir you are right, and you being german knows how it is to have censorship in videogames , i don't have empathy and i don't care about that, my patience has reached a peak and i don't tolerate these people , they are creating the contrary effect, they are creating people who doesn't support that causes and it's their own blame for being such annoying.

 

Censorship it's yes or it's no, that's it. As i said i hope all the offensive content and stereotypes can be in the game and in other games.

That is exactly what I don't want for international games, for games to be as mangled as the German versions, and yet it likely is exactly where the road ultimately leads to once the door is opened further for censorship. Most people don't believe me when I tell them the absurd extend of censorship in German versions of games, not just symbols being changed in games like Wolfenstein, even characters being redesigned and renamed, text being edited, big story elements changed, hell in old GTA games there were entire missions being cut out, whole features being taken out of the game, blood and limbs being severed was taken out too in a game that had the highest age rating in the country. I had to create an austrian account to even get and replay a game like Prototype because it is outright banned in Germany.

 

I don't get why people don't just mind their own business with something like this. If a game offends me or shows/does things I really don't like, guess what, I am not buying it, but I am not demanding that the people who do buy and play it stop doing it, nor do I demand that the game gets changed to my liking, a game does not have to appearl to everyone. Complaining about things you don't like in a game is fine, I know I have done it before, thats a long path away from things being censored. Also not sure how some people are so dense that they don't understand its a matter of principle, not an individual case for each case of something being changed or removed, perhaps its because they don't have any principles, or they are too dense to realize that censorship is not a one time thing, but something that escalates as far as it is allowed to.