Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Definitive Edition came out recently, and it was anything but well-received. It currently has a 0.6 user score on Metacritic. Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas are riddled with bugs while being highly scrutinized for odd omissions and design decisions that developer Grove Street Games (operating under Rockstar Games) believed would be best. While only time will tell if the development studios behind these games will iron out the bugs, many of the worst aspects of the GTA trilogy were deliberate, and many gamers do not believe these changes are in the spirit of the original game.
Thankfully, the modding community is already on the job, restoring and reworking everything they feel is wrong. Here are the 6 best mods for Grand Theft Auto that can fix the Definitive Edition of the game.
List of the Best Grand Theft Auto Mods to Improve the Definitive Edition
1. ALL Radio Songs Restored
Kicking off our Grand Theft Auto mods list is the crucial ALL Radio Songs Restored mod. The removal of so many licensed songs that gave life to the worlds in Grand Theft Auto is a huge shame. GTA games are known for their killer soundtracks that stay ingrained in our minds many hours after turning off the game. This mod restores all the missing songs in San Andreas so we can sing along to Hold The Line and keep cruising around Los Santos to Nuthin But A ‘G’ Thang.
Download this mod at Nexus Mods.
2. Fixed Character Models
Strangely, every character in the remastered trilogy has taken on a very cartoonish look, which many fans find is a choice that betrays the original games' semi-realistic art style. While some gamers might not mind it, and some may even enjoy it, there is room for improvement in these character models, especially if you’re playing on a 4K screen.
This batch of mods serves to make the character models for Claude, Tommy, and CJ all look more high definition while staying true to their PS2 counterparts.
Download the mods to fix Claude, Tommy, and CJ at Nexus Mods.
3. The Uncompressed Sounds of Grand Theft Auto
Sound is more important than you think. There is a stark contrast between the crisp, high-quality visuals in the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition and the compressed audio retained from the original editions. We are no longer bound by the limitations of the PS2, meaning that audio compression is unnecessary. As a bonus, the modding team behind the uncompressed sounds is restoring the cut songs from the radio stations!
This is the definitive, uncompressed audio mod for all three Grand Theft Auto games.
4. Original Menu Sounds For GTA III and Vice City
Rather than use each game's original menu sounds, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Definitive Edition uses only the menu sounds from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Personally, this is one of my least favorite changes from the original games. It feels like a shortcut that developer Grove Street Games took, which strips some of the character and individuality from GTA III and Vice City.
The following two mods restore the original menu sounds for both of these games while also fixing some sound placement in San Andreas.
Download the menu sounds for GTA III and Vice City at Nexus Mods.
5. Make Los Santos Great Again
When it comes to Grand Theft Auto mods, this is one you really can’t afford to skip. The original San Andreas was a tremendous technical achievement on PS2 thanks to its open-world that is twice as big as GTA III and Vice City combined. Rockstar's clever use of fog throughout the world created an immense sense of scale while also hiding how the PS2 was at its limit due to having to render such a massive world.
Unfortunately, the Definitive Edition has done away with San Andreas's fog entirely, and the result kills the illusion of a vast open-world should CJ find himself high up in a plane or even simply atop one of the game's many mountain peaks. Moreover, the San Andreas definitive edition did away with a lot of the original game's grungy, hazy color toning. Make Los Santos Great Again rectifies these mistakes, adding back the sense of scale and tone of the initial release.
6. Better Rain
The rain effects might be the most egregious issue out of everything terrible in GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition. You really cannot see anything while it rains, and if you fly downwards in a plane at just the right angle, the rain stops altogether. It looks so awful that Rockstar should warn about the rain effects potentially causing eye strain. Maybe even eye-bleed!
If there is one mod that you should get for Grand Theft Auto, it is Better Rain. Your eyes and sanity will thank you for it.
Closing Thoughts
These 6 Grand Theft Auto mods should make the Definitive Edition much better while we wait for Rockstar to fix up the trilogy. Take Two (Rockstar's parent company) constantly sues and threatens the modding community, showing disdain for people that do nothing but love their game. Still, the modding communities surrounding Rockstar games are some real heroes. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Definitive Edition is one of the sloppiest releases of the year, no doubt about it. However, out of love for these games, the modding community has picked up the pieces to create a much better GTA experience with respect for the original games, and they have done it faster than Rockstar themselves.
Thank you, modders and hackers; keep up the great work!
