GTA San Andreas: The Definitive Edition - First Impressions

Considering GTA San Andreas is one of my favorite video games of all time, it seemed fitting that I would play the Definitive Edition upon release. I downloaded it successfully and played it for a couple hours last night, and figured I would write my first impressions here...

-The graphics and textures have received nice retouching and appear much crisper than the PS2 original. Small details such as independent fingers and clearer text on street signs really give the state of San Andreas more life. The improved draw distance looks quite nice as well.

-Many of the issues which occurred with the previous remaster (I believe this one was released around 2014 or 2015) have been fixed. There are no more random instances of the radio cutting out, no more issues with vehicles shifting constantly at top speed, and no more annoying icons taking over your screen when entering a vehicle which allows you to perform side missions (Police car, taxi, etc). I understand the reason for the latter was because it was a port of the mobile version, but failure to remedy that for the 2014/2015 console release is honestly indicative of a sloppy rushed job on Rockstar's part.

-The attempts to modernize the game are a nice touch. The "Weapon wheel" from GTA V functions well and will help you out if you need to choose a specific weapon quickly while in the middle of combat (rather than scrolling through your weapons via pressing a button and possibly dying in the process!)

-It's crazy that some of the small issues from the PS2 original still remain after 17 years... 5 minutes into the game during the "Drive-Thru" mission, the texture of the food that the characters order says "Burger Shot" but they went to "Cluckin Bell". This is highlighted ad nauseum on YouTube by other reviewers so it's crazy how Rockstar didn't notice this.

-I'm not sure some of the development staff completely understood the source material when performing the remaster. A good example is that Old Reece (the barber) now looks like he is in his 30s or 40s, while in the original game he looks like he is in his 60s or 70s!

-The game has finicky controls in some instances. Any time you lock on to someone and perform a melee attack, CJ automatically does his secondary attack (which is slower than the default one). It is still possible to use the regular melee attack, but you do this by pressing the attack button and hoping the game autolocks on to the person you want to attack. I preferred the original where you could press one button for the regular attack and another for the secondary. I haven't played around with the controls enough to see if this can be fixed though.

-Although there are different control schemes to choose from, you must choose both your driving and on-foot layouts at the same time. So if you want modern driving controls but classic on-foot controls, you're SOL.

-Some songs had to be removed due to licensing issues. This is probably being nitpicky but IMO the music in the GTA games goes a long way in establishing the setting of the game.

Overall, I'd only buy this if you are a hardcore fan of the original. If you're one of the few people on Earth who hasn't played the original yet, might as well play that version first, especially considering it is so cheap. Yeah the graphics are lousier but good graphics do not a game make.

I still plan on purchasing the entire trilogy this December when it is available on disc as I prefer to have physical media of my games when possible.

Let me know what you think below!