Topic: Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition - out now

I'd be curious to discover what'll be on the cartridge. At least all of III? Or bits and pieces of each game making the physical release worthless like the Bioshock Collection?

Firstly, @JaxonH I have a lot of respect for you. You make a lot of posts on the forum and you generate a ton of conversation. I like you.

But cancel culture has always existed when it comes to media. From back in the 1930s with the Hays Code for movies to the 80s with the PMRC. Heck, there have almost always been restrictions on what games can actually depict. If anything it's less intrusive now than before (the games I played as a kid didnt have tits in them). It's not new. It just wasnt as well documented as it is now. Now a game company changes the image on an NPC's t-shirt and people get immediately defensive. I'm not condoning PC culture changes, this shouldnt be a "you're either with us or you're against us" but I think some perspective is needed. If we find out that entire characters or missions are cut/alterted I'll be first in line to complain, but I think for right now this is no different than removing crosses in SNES games.

@Losermagnet
I don't really think we're in disagreement, and you make some fair points.

But we are regressing due to cultural pressures, and seeing that trajectory go backwards is the issue, and indeed something to be concerned about. And I don't think that's a divisive or polarizing opinion to have.

But I also think one doesn't have to take an activist stance against every little t-shirt or pair of socks, even if one disagrees on principle. I try to avoid extremes and absolutes. The fact so many ppl are extreme and absolute is precisely the problem in the first place. So I try to be careful to not respond with that same rigid-mindedness.

@Magician
Seems San Andreas is on the cart, with part of the other two (likely enough for the main menus at the very least). This is based on eShop file sizes. San Andreas is the only one with full file size.

And that's good because frankly, it's the best one, and the one I actually care about the most. Second would be Vice City, but even just having San Andreas is a win. It's one more GTA game on cart than we had before the announcement.

That said there is someone claiming both San Andreas and Vice City are on the cart, with just GTAIII being a download. Not sure I buy that though.

@JaxonH well said. Sorry if I came on a little strong. Had to rush that message 😅And yeah, despite my optimism I worry too about things regressing.

Anyway! I am excited for GTA. It's been a looooooong time since i've played so I'm really looking forward to getting back into it. Do they still have all the songs and talk radio stations? Thats the kind of thing that licensing usually complicates.

That's a good question. Idk.

They'd have to pay to re-license the songs, but on the other hand, if they wanted to save money by not doing so, they'd have to fill it with something. Which would mean licensing new music which would probably be even more expensive.

So my bet is on original music. But who knows.

It's popping up at Australian retailers now and there doesn't seem to be a download warning on the box, interestingly enough.

@JaxonH Actually if San Andreas and Vice City are both FULLY on the cart I might consider it But time will tell.

I do not get the physical release delay if they are going the half-baked DRM key route :

Seems like Vice City isn't on the cart according to VGC.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/the-physical-version...

@GamingBread Well 2 out of 3 is still ok.

That doesn't mean anything. Most retailers won't show the box art with the download warning on it because they would rather bamboozle unsuspecting customers and it's bad for business.

EB/Amazon etc. still show non-banner covers for L.A. Noire and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit.

@Silly_G Fair enough. Hadn't noticed because some games do show the real boxart (Tony Hawk for example). That's pretty dodgy false advertising if they're deliberately hiding that, really shouldn't be allowed. Defeats the purpose of the warning in the first place. Not that I'm really planning to buy GTA either way.

@BenAV : I wish they had left the banners as big and garish as they used to be in order to - in some small way - punish miserly publishers and also deter them from indulging in this extremely anti-consumer practice. It's almost unbelievable that such rubbish is considered acceptable nowadays.

Meanwhile, my PC discs do not require any additional downloads, and my copy of Chinatown Wars is still perfectly and wholly playable regardless of what DS/3DS console I choose to play it on as it is not reliant on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection for patches or a required download.

The fact that they're delaying the physical release only to come out with this partial-cartridge garbage only makes their conduct even more irritating.

@Silly_G Yeah it's annoying. I'd definitely take bumping the price by $10 to put it on a 32GB cartridge over cutting corners like this.

Two weeks from Thursday!

I'm all digital and don't care about downloads anymore barring collector items. But the way I see it, even if Vice City isn't included, its still 2 GTA games on cart. That's 2 more than we had before. Just pretend it's a collection of those two games and there ya go. Pretend VC wasn't even announced. Ppl would be happy with having a 2 game collection all on cart.

So ya. It's still GTA3 on cart. It's still GTA San Andreas on cart. That's two full Remastered GTA games on cart. Which is still pretty good imo. It would be different if it was one game split in half, but even getting 1 game on cart is a win. Getting 2 is even better. Consider the 3rd a digital only bonus for buying.

All that said, I'm so glad I finally embraced digital and stopped carrying about stuff like this. It allows me to actually be excited for the games again, keeping the games front and center rather than the medium of exchange.

@Losermagnet not to jump in but thank you for mentioning harmful restrictions like the Hayes Code (or the daughters of the confederacy that pretty much made learning history in america a circus) which has influenced so much of american media and perception. I personally just wish everyone would leave everyone else alone but that isn’t how humanity works so I stay it of it unless voting but I always find it hilarious that now cancel culture is “bad” when the narrative is no longer a certain way. Many of those that rally against it either wielded some form of it or have had their belief system established by the version their “team” used to wield. On topic I find it hilarious that the lack of a shirt ( for a side that lost) is enough to boycott a game already chock full of violence and anarchy.

@JaxonH I agree with a lot of what you wrote especially that last bit about digital. It's just too hard to avoid what modern game development is. There's so many people, companies, policies, etc. involved in making the games we love. When games were developed for these classic consoles, developing games was different. One example would be update patches. Back then there was no practical way to patch games already released, so developers were kind of forced to get it to as near perfect as possible before shipment.

I find it better to just enjoy my experience playing games I love and now I share that experience as a streamer. As much as a part of me wants to preserve these experiences I love, all is temporary, all things end. It's not my job to preserve these games, but I can preserve and create new memories through my channel. Generally, what I'm saying is, us as gamers should just enjoy our culture that is video games.

@Ryu_Niiyama
Per your comment on cancel culture…

I would say any culture of getting ppl fired, harassed, ruining their life prospects, etc for having an opinion the culture disagrees with… is bad, always has been bad and always will be bad, regardless of whatever the narrative of the day happens to be. Maybe there are some ppl out there that only started caring when it affected certain ppl, that’s certainly possible, but even if that’s the case I say better late than never. Doesn’t matter how one comes to stand against it, as long as they come to stand against it. Don’t care who you are or what your opinion is. You should have the freedom to speak your mind and express yourself without fear of such repercussions. And that’s something I would hope everyone agrees with. It shouldn’t be a polarizing stance to hate a culture of destroying anyone with an opinion disagreed with.

Real freedom isn’t defined by how much one can say. It’s defined by one’s willingness to tolerate others whose opinions they sharply disagree with to say whatever they want, regardless of how evil or wrong one believes them to be. Literally everyone believes in freedom of speech for themselves. The question is, do they also believe in it for those they vehemently disagree with? Unless the answer is yes, such a person is not actually in favor of free speech

I think most people against cancel culture haven’t actually been affected by it, and aren’t against it because of any supposed “teams” (most ppl affected aren’t even political in the first place- it’s comedians, singers, actors, ppl at companies, pretty normal ppl being targeted, not to mention, it bares mentioning that cancel culture affects everyone of all teams, creeds and group membership- it’s a beast that cannot be tamed and when it’s hungry, it eats, no matter who you are or what doctrine you follow). They are against it because they find it morally reprehensible seeing and observing people targeted and harassed and losing their jobs and systematically erased because they said something the harassers deem a capitol offense (which is basically any opinion that doesn’t agree with their’s nowadays, and that particular standard changes with wherever the wind blows- ppl cancelling others for Twitter posts they made when they were 17 yrs old, for no apparent reason aside from the endorphin rush of a power trip, or perhaps used as a tool to conveniently dispose of a fellow employee someone has a grudge against, or is jealous of, or sees as competition). And maybe that’s been going on for longer than I knew, but I don’t recall seeing this sort of thing at this level even just 10 years ago. There seems to be a pretty drastic uptick (certainly in severity and pettiness if not sheer quantity, and I might add, seemingly correlating with the rise of social media and the radicalization of academia) and that, I believe, is what has gotten people so against it lately.

I would think it’s hilarious that someone would boycott a game over something so trivial, but, I understand it’s about more than just “a shirt” for them. It’s about the principle of the matter. Would I? No. Honestly I don’t really care one way or the other. Life is too short. But I do completely understand someone standing on principle, and against censorship (plenty did it in the Wii U era with Nintendo’s heavy handed approach- did ppl really boycott TMS over cleavage? Probably not. I imagine it was the principle of the matter also). But ya, the thing that’s actually hilarious to me is a game like GTA, with all its violence and sex, even with parents petitioning Congress against it at one point, managed to avoid censorship all these years, but a shirt is what ended up ultimately being too much for ppl to handle, or at least deemed so by Rockstar.

@tekoii
Ya, aside from LRG and the rare Nintendo 1st party game (and games where devs don’t care and just abandon the game at v1.0 even though it needs updates), the overwhelming majority of games get multiple patches. It’s nice when, once in a blue moon, you get a game that’s fully complete out of the gate that doesn’t need any patches. But at this point it’s a novelty. I’m not here to judge anyone else and their priorities, and if someone values physical I say more power to them, do what you enjoy. But for me it’s a hassle not worth the headache. The harder I fought against it the more frustrated I became.

Once I embraced digital, it was like the chains were broken. Freedom! And you make a fair point about all things being temporary at the end of the day. Good luck with your streaming!

@JaxonH Right! Even LRG can be a hassle too with their ship times and exclusive time frames and all. It's really becoming hard to collect full cartridge games. Absolutely here you on that bit about valuing physical cause I too still do but also am very open to the digimon lol. I was there during the battle of hassle and headache over it too ><. That's the whole reason I'm now just trying to adjust to the future and not be so specific about it all. "Good luck with your streaming!" I really appreciate that. Bit of a rough day and hearing that bit of positivity in my direction helps man thanks! Oh and heck yea 2/3 games on the cart, lets frickin go!

@JaxonH hmm I’ll agree to disagree and leave it at that; your response doesn’t really address what I was saying anyway. But either way I doubt that the people up in arms about a shirt are really going to boycott the game. People only tend to stick to their principles of hurting others but when it comes to self indulgences like games, they cave eventually while shouting very loudly.