New Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition screenshots have appeared on the Xbox Store. The new screenshots give alternate look at the new art style and graphical enhancements of the remastered GTA trilogy ahead of the collection's release next week. Rockstar Games has released just a few brief glimpses at the remasters so far, giving only a general idea of how it will look and play.
Following its first trailer, GTA: The Trilogy's graphics were criticized, as Rockstar and developer Grove Street Games have made adjustments to the classic games' art styles. Instead of making GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas more realistic like recent Rockstar games, the developers instead opted to retain the titles' cartoonish aesthetics with visual improvements. As a result, the remastered GTA trilogy is a mix of old and new, but some claim it makes the games look strange.
Users on GTA Forums discovered a set of new GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition screenshots on the Xbox Store, which further showcase some of the new lighting, weather, and particle effects and updated character and vehicle models to be found in the new remasters. The screenshots are more or less what one may expect for a collection of games players are already very familiar with, showing San Andreas's CJ walking through flames, GTA 3's Claude in a high-speed chase, and GTA: Vice City's Tommy in front of the Ocean View Hotel. It's possible these stills leaked on the store ahead of more official news, but it seems more likely that they were quietly released by Microsoft when Xbox GTA trilogy preloads went live.
Rockstar Games still hasn't noted whether or not it will release any more trailers or information about GTA: The Trilogy ahead of release. The marketing campaign for the game has been very brisk. Rockstar was initially meant to release new ports of Grand Theft Auto 5 for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 11, but the re-releases were unexpectedly delayed to March 2022. While nothing to this effect has been confirmed, Rockstar may have intended to release the GTA trilogy remaster collection at a later date before moving up its release date to fill GTA 5's suddenly empty holiday release window.
Rockstar is planning on a staggered release for GTA: The Trilogy, possible evidence of a sudden shift in release dates. The GTA trilogy releases digitally in November, but it will also get a separate physical release on December 7. It generally takes a month or two to manufacture and distribute physical copies of a game, so if Rockstar was scrambling to fill a Holiday 2021 release back in September or October, that may explain the abrupt and relatively small-scale marketing of the remasters.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition releases digitally on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on November 11, 2021, and it will launch for iOS and Android in H1 2022.
Sources: GTA Forums, Xbox Store