Transcription:

let’s be honest the GTA Trilogy era is
probably one of the most important
chapters in Rockstar’s history it
defined an entire generation of openw
world games gta 3 revolutionized the
genre vice City gave its style and
personality and San Andreas pushed it to
the absolute limit with RPG- like
systems and massive scale hey what’s up
what’s up man who winning who you think
huh me and modders have spent years
trying to bring these classics into the
newer Rage Engine sometimes with
incredible results and sometimes not so
much so today we’re taking a look at
three massive fan projects that aim to
remake the entire trilogy inside newer
Rockstar engines but let’s start with
the least known and sadly the most
unfinished one this is the GTA 3 Rage
Classic mod
it was first released in 2012 and when
you launch it it actually gives you a
bit of hope the intro scene mirrors the
original game you start on the bridge
with Eightball next to a Karuma just
like in vanilla GTA 3 for a second you
think “Okay maybe this could actually be
a proper remake.” But then nothing
happens eightball just stands there he
doesn’t get in the car the mission
doesn’t start and you quickly realize
there are no missions at all and what’s
even worse there are no side activities
either and I’m not going to lie the mod
feels pretty rough overall you’ve
probably already noticed in the footage
how it weirdly mixes both 3D and HD era
vehicles in traffic one second you’re
seeing a classic GTA 3 car and the next
there’s a modern GTA 4 sedan driving
next to it the styles don’t match at all
it’s visually weird and kind of breaks
the vibe and I wish that was the only
issue but unfortunately the problems go
deeper if the mod at least let us roam
around and mess with the cops like back
in the day I’d still call it worth
checking out but that’s not exactly easy
either the mod is extremely unstable
personally I couldn’t play it for more
than 20 minutes at a time without a
crash cuz most of the time it breaks
after just 5 or 10 minutes and sadly as
far as I know there’s no alternative
this is the only known attempt at
porting GTA 3 to the Rage Engine so
unless you’ve got a lot of patience and
you’re really curious there’s not much
here for a full experience but now let’s
move on to something way more ambitious
because while the GTA 3 mod felt more
like a tech demo this next one is an
actual remake and yes I’m talking about
the Vice City NextG edition this mod is
a fully remade version of Vice City
bringing back all the classic missions
side quests and iconic locations but now
running on GTA 4’s engine this mod
shouldn’t be compared to the definitive
edition it’s not a remaster calling it a
nextG edition was a smart move because
it’s more than just an upgrade it’s a
perfect blend of GTA Vice City’s classic
charm with all the technical advantages
that the 4’s engine brings to the table
the list of improvements from GTA 4 that
enhance the overall experience is truly
impressive the beloved ragd doll physics
the ability to swim instead of drowning
like in the original Vice City more
weather types and overall more realistic
weather effects the list goes on and
while not everyone will love it
especially those who aren’t fans of GTA
4’s handling mechanics I personally
think these additions improve the
experience a lot plus the ability to
take calls while driving any vehicle is
a great quality of life improvement that
feels right at home in this version this
mod is not just impressive it’s
groundbreaking for the first time in the
entire history of GTA modding modders
have managed to port the entire story
from one GTA game to another it’s a huge
milestone for the community and what’s
even more exciting is that the modders
announced the project will be open
source this means other modders can use
their work as a foundation to port
missions from other GTA games we could
potentially see full mission ports of
GTA 3 or San Andreas in the future it’s
worth noting that while the modders
figured out how to port missions to the
GTA 4 engine it’s an entirely different
story for GTA 5 even though both games
run on the Rage Engine GTA 5 uses a more
advanced iteration and so far no one has
cracked the code to port missions from
older GTA to 5 this makes the GTA 4
engine the only viable platform for
projects like this at least for now but
thanks to this project we finally have
proof that it’s possible and it opens
the door for more incredible mods in the
future on top of the main story missions
this mod brings back a ton of side
missions and activities from the
original Vice City almost everything you
remember from the original is here you
can still buy properties like the Malibu
Club and all the missions tied to them
what’s cool is that instead of
collecting money from floating icons you
now pick it up from realistic objects
like a money counter or printer the
modders even reimagined how buying
properties works you’ll find for sale
signs across the city and some buildings
even have detailed interiors you can
explore like Tommy’s Hotel or local
stores on top of all that the mod
doesn’t just bring back the original
Vice City voice lines it also introduces
something entirely new since the
Revolution team consists of four modders
from Russia they went a step further and
added Russian voice acting recorded in a
professional studio while this may not
seem like a big deal to some it’s a
significant addition for players in
Russia and neighboring countries where
the GTA Trilogy has always been
extremely popular this addition shows
how much the team cares about the
project and their audience making sure
it’s accessible and enjoyable for their
local community while staying true to
the global appeal of the original game
the visuals in this mod are on another
level the team added fullb support and
you can enable or disable it directly
from their custom launcher if you want
to stick to the vanilla GTA 4 graphics
you can turn it off but I definitely
recommend keeping it on the modders
clearly put a lot of time into tweaking
the ENB settings to perfectly match the
Vice City vibe and it shows the lighting
reflections and overall atmosphere with
the ENB enabled make the city look
absolutely stunning especially at night
it’s hard to imagine playing without it
once you see how much it enhances the
graphics of course it’s not just the ENB
doing all the work the team also
manually recreated and improved the
lighting throughout the game especially
in interiors a few weeks ago they posted
a comparison showing the differences and
the improvements are massive interiors
that once felt flat now look vibrant and
atmospheric with lighting that
completely transforms the mood of each
location all the iconic radio stations
from Vice City have been fully ported
over but what’s even better is that they
decided to use the PS2 version instead
of the PC ones this means you get the
full original soundtrack including songs
that were removed from the PC version
due to licensing issues and let’s be
honest Vice City probably had one of the
best if not the best soundtracks across
all the GTA games from the timeless
classics to the vibe setting tracks that
define the game being able to listen to
the full uncut version makes cruising
around the city feel even more special
for those who love using cheat codes the
developers have made sure to include
them in this mod as well unlike GTA 4
where cheats were entered through a
phone this mod lets you type them in
just like you did in the original Vice
City it’s a nostalgic touch that brings
back memories of scribbling cheat codes
on scraps of paper and experimenting
with them for hours whether you want to
spawn vehicles lower your wanted level
or just cause chaos the cheat codes are
fully functional and feel just as
satisfying as they did back in the day
that said the mod currently includes 26
cheats while the original Vice City had
58 some fan favorites like Seaways
haven’t been ported yet but honestly
it’s better than nothing and the cheats
that are available work perfectly plus
the launcher seems to include the
ability to update the mod so there’s a
chance we might see more cheats added in
future updates the mod isn’t without its
flaws and there are definitely some
areas that could use improvement one of
the biggest issues is the random crashes
if it happens after you finished a
mission it’s not the end of the world
because of the autosave feature but if
it happens during a long mission it’s a
huge headache since you lose all your
progress and have to start over another
noticeable flaw is with the cutscene
animations they’re not as smooth as they
could be and you can even spot the
stuttering in the official trailer it’s
not perfect but at least we’re getting
proper in-game cutscenes instead of some
loweffort pre-recorded videos so I’ll
take it then there’s the infamous
Zfighting issue which is a well-known
problem with the Rage Engine it’s hard
to ignore when you see flickering
textures on windows or buildings and
while it doesn’t ruin the gameplay it
does break the immersion a bit map
collisions are another problem you’ll
occasionally crash into curbs or objects
that shouldn’t be an obstacle and it can
make driving around feel a bit clunky on
top of that there are a handful of
smaller bugs scattered throughout the
game but nothing that makes it
unplayable considering this is the first
release and it was made by just four
modders working for 2 years it’s
honestly impressive they’ve gotten this
far hopefully they’ll get some
well-earned rest and come back later
with updates to iron out these issues
even with its flaws this mod is a
massive achievement and I’m excited to
see how it evolves in the future of
course not everything has been smooth
sailing for this project take 2
Interactive has already taken drastic
action against the modders including
deleting their YouTube channel without
any prior warning this takedown comes
shortly after the removal of another
major project the Liberty City
Preservation Project which was pulled
just 3 weeks after its release in that
case Rockstar reportedly contacted the
team directly and asked them to take the
mod down but with the Revolution team
things played out differently as far as
I know they weren’t contacted by
Rockstar or Take 2 instead just days
after releasing their teaser trailer and
right before the beta launch their
entire YouTube channel was suddenly
deleted if you try to watch the teaser
now it says it was removed by Take 2
what makes this even more frustrating is
that the team had streamed so much of
the development process and these
weren’t just casual updates they served
as a key resource for other modders who
might want to replicate their workflow
on future projects like porting missions
from GTA 3 or San Andreas with those
live streams now gone the community has
lost a valuable source of insight and
information the mod was taken down even
before its official release but the
Revolution team decided to release it
anyway what’s likely even more
frustrating for Take 2 is that they
uploaded it to torrent sites making it
virtually impossible to take down
completely of course I won’t be
providing any links as that would risk
this video being taken down as well but
on the other hand should we really be
angry at Take 2 maybe but let’s not
forget that these are their rules their
policies clearly state that no assets
from one GTA game can be ported into
another yes those rules are strict but
since these assets belong to Rockstar
and Take 2 they have the right to
enforce them however they want moders
who decide to ignore these guidelines
should already expect a takedown if they
plan to release their work publicly do I
agree with these rules being so strict
not at all it’s frustrating because
we’ve seen how other developers are much
more open about modding rockstar on the
other hand doesn’t give us the creative
freedom we deserve as a community mods
like this show the potential of what
fans can create but instead of embracing
it they try to shut it down it’s a shame
because modding has always been such a
vital part of the GTA series legacy okay
but that’s not the full story since the
release of Vice City NextG Edition
modders have gone even further adding
new graphics enhancements better
vehicles and all kinds of crazy
improvements so let’s see just how much
we can improve it first up the 80s
vehicle pack by Ben’s Mods this guy made
an entire GTA forums thread dedicated to
improving the mod and this pack is one
of the best additions so far it replaces
almost every vehicle in Vice City with
HD era models keeping everything lore
friendly while making it look way better
than the vanilla cars what makes this
pack even better is that the cars are
well optimized while the exteriors are
highquality the interiors are low poly
meaning it should work fine for everyone
not just those with high-end PCs that
doesn’t mean it’s perfect though if
you’ve ever modded GTA 4 you probably
know about its memory issues this engine
hates replacing models and textures with
higher quality versions that leads to
annoying problems like the infamous taxi
bug where almost all cars in traffic
become taxis or map textures failing to
load thankfully this pack includes four
tweaker a limit adjuster utility that
lets you set max memory usage for
pedestrian and vehicle models and fix
other common issues with all that the
pack works perfectly and I’m not going
to lie it looks way better than the
original vehicles i respect that
Revolution team wanted to keep things as
close to the original game as possible
and they did a great job using the
highest quality models of the vanilla
vehicles but with this pack the game
actually feels like a nextgen remake
it’s worth noting though that the 80s
vehicle pack only replaces the models so
it doesn’t touch any of the handling
data so everything still drives the way
Rev Team originally intended and while I
do like GTA 4’s driving physics there’s
definitely room for improvement that’s
where the better handling mod by the
Flash comes in this mod reworks the
handling for all cars and bikes tweaking
things like speed braking center of
gravity suspension and wheel traction
simply put vehicles feel much more
responsive compared to the heavy
boatlike physics GTA 4 is known for for
anyone who finds 4’s handling too
sluggish this mod is a huge improvement
cars turn quicker react faster and
overall feel more precise in some cases
though it might be a little too
responsive for example the Comet now
grips the road like it’s glued to it
which doesn’t feel quite right on top of
that all vehicles are noticeably faster
which has both advantages and downsides
on one hand exploring Vice City feels
much smoother driving between missions
is quicker making the gameplay less
frustrating especially in a full
walkthrough at the same time the city’s
small map feels even smaller with these
speed boosts and high-speed driving can
cause streaming issues i’ve already seen
palm trees suddenly loading in when
going too fast but for anyone used to
GTA 5’s handling this mod makes Vice
City NextG feel much more familiar
four’s physics are great once you get
used to them but they take a lot of
practice to master this mod smooths that
out and makes the driving far more
accessible now with vehicles and
handling replaced there’s still one big
problem with GTA 4’s driving experience
the camera the way GTA 4’s chase camera
works can be frustrating especially
during sharp turns when it struggles to
catch up with the car unless you’re
constantly adjusting it manually with
the mouse or using the right analog
stick it often fails to keep up making
it hard to see what’s ahead of course
there’s a fix for that too centered car
camera by Julion IB this mod was
released over 10 years ago which is
crazy but it still holds up today it
tweaks the third person car to keep it
more centered instead of letting it lag
behind similar to GTA 5 with this mod
installed driving feels way smoother and
you can completely forget about manually
adjusting the camera no need to keep
dragging the mouse or tilting the analog
stick on every turn it even comes with a
simple menu that can be opened with the
insert key allowing to disable the mod
or tweak camera values to match your
preference with this mod the camera is
much more responsive but it’s not
perfect there are a few issues that I
noticed while testing it first the
camera can be a little jittery if the
game runs above 60fps my game was
running at around 100 frames and you can
probably see some small jitters here and
there but the fix for that was simple i
just locked the game at 60 using the ENB
series menu another issue is that it
gets a little messy when the car is
airborne the camera movement feels a bit
unnatural but it’s not a dealbreaker the
biggest issue for me though is that it
completely disables motion blur while
driving i know a lot of people hate
motion blur and prefer playing without
it so for some of you this might
actually be a good thing but I
personally like the sense of speed that
motion blur gives and without it the
game feels more static before going any
further there’s one important thing to
mention if you’re planning to install
all these mods make sure to install all
DirectX9 versions and visual
redistributable runtimes without them my
game refused to launch with script
hook.net installed so I definitely
recommend installing everything first
links will be in the description below
now let’s take the experience even
further with something that was never
possible in the 3D era games or even GTA
4 a firstperson camera not going to lie
this mod looks incredible when exploring
on foot walking through Vice City in
first person completely changes the feel
of the game making it more immersive
than ever shootouts in first person also
look great but there’s one small issue
lowquality player and weapon models
become way more noticeable it’s not a
dealbreaker but for some players it
might be distracting driving in first
person is not the best idea though the
vehicle interiors are extremely low
quality and seeing them up close kind of
ruins the illusion it honestly looks
pretty funny at times on top of that it
doesn’t always play nice with the
centered car camera script causing some
weird glitches here and there but
outside of vehicles firstperson mode
feels surprisingly great it’s a fresh
way to experience Vice City and I’m
definitely going to play around with it
more and the enhancements don’t stop
there next up is Health Regeneration by
Hippie Communist a mod that’s basically
a relic from the past released all the
way back in 2011 but it fits perfectly
into Vice City next gen edition let’s be
honest some missions in this game can be
a bit too brutal i’ve failed plenty of
them just because I ran out of health i
mean sure there are working restaurants
like Pizza Hut where you can go inside
and fully restore your health but let’s
be real i’m not running to a restaurant
in the middle of a shootout that’s where
this mod comes in clutch it
automatically restores a set amount of
health after a short delay making
missions way more forgiving you can even
customize the max health it regenerates
and adjust the delay to match your
preference and as you can see it works
exactly as expected after getting
heavily injured my health gradually
recovered over time just like in modern
GTA games now let’s upgrade Tommy
himself the HD customizable Tommy plus
HD lore accurate weaponry mod by
Turnpike completely overhauls the player
model with higher quality textures
better proportions and more
customization than ever before tommy now
has access to a ton of different
clothing options tops bottoms shoes and
even miscellaneous gear unlike the
original model and nextG edition every
outfit is now interchangeable with
several texture variations to choose
from all the classic Vice City outfits
have been recreated in HD keeping
everything lore friendly while making it
look way sharper than before turnpike
also reverted to vanilla GTA 4
animations fixing weapon placement
issues so guns actually fit in Tommy’s
hands correctly the mod also includes
the ballot of gay Tony style Uzi
animations so Tommy now holds the Tekk 9
properly with both hands the mod even
tweaks weapon stats with a modified
weapon info file adjusting magazine
sizes to match their real life
counterparts tweaking rate of fire and
making minor balance changes to damage
and the best part is that Turnpike is
still working on updates he’s currently
recreating Vice City’s original
animations for standing running and
firearm idols so we’ll likely see even
more improvements soon now here’s
another game changanger the Time Cycle
mod for those who don’t know time cycle
is a crucial file in GTA games that
controls lighting shadows colors and
overall atmosphere nextg Edition already
did a great job with its default time
cycle especially considering it’s all
running on GTA 4’s 17-year-old Rage
Engine the lighting looks impressive and
the colors capture the Vice City vibe
perfectly but having more options is
always nice and that’s where DL’s 3D era
colors time cycle comes in this mod
brings back the lighting style of the
original 2002 Vice City making the game
look even closer to the classic version
the difference between Dale’s time cycle
and the default nextG edition one is
huge as you can see in this comparison
both versions look great but personally
I prefer Dale’s version since it
enhances the overall atmosphere in a way
that just feels right another great
addition is Taxi Reborn in NextGen
Edition the taxi feature was completely
removed but this script brings it back
now you can once again hail a taxi and
have a driver take you to your
destination
hey yo
the only catch is that the AI driving is
absolutely ridiculous the taxi driver
makes the most irrational turns possible
but somehow you’ll almost always make it
to your destination in one piece if you
don’t feel like watching the chaos
unfold there’s an option to skip the
ride entirely but don’t expect a free
ride if you don’t have enough money to
cover the trip there might be
consequences another mod adds what I
think is a muchneeded improvement sprint
inside interiors as the name suggests
this mod finally allows you to sprint
indoors when I first started playing
NextGen Edition it was pretty annoying
having to slowly jog through interiors
walking into the Ocean View Hotel and
taking forever just to reach Tommy’s
room upstairs was frustrating now that’s
no longer an issue with this mod moving
through interiors is much faster so
there’s no more wasting time on slow
movement inside buildings while running
around the map I noticed something felt
off the lack of pedestrian variety at
one point near the lighthouse I ran past
at least 10 identical female NPCs in a
red swimsuit and they all had red hair
this is actually the same issue that the
original Vice City had where certain
pedestrian models would spawn in groups
making the streets feel repetitive in
the original game a modder named RT94
fixed this problem with a mod called PED
variety now guy named Nelson has ported
this mod to NextG Edition and the
difference is immediately noticeable in
that same lighthouse area there’s now a
much bigger variety of NPCs i still saw
two girls in red swimsuits but this time
they had different hair colors and
that’s how the mod works instead of just
cloning NPCs it randomizes details like
hat colors shirt textures and other
small elements making the streets feel
way more alive what’s even better is
that it barely affects performance the
mod is almost the same file size as the
original so there’s no FPS drop or extra
load on memory so for me this is a
mustave if you’re playing NextGen
Edition another brilliant improvement
comes from Dale again who created a mod
called Mini Project Lights this mod
fixes and enhances various light sources
from the original making lighting look
smoother and more realistic as you can
see in these comparison shots the
original lights had harsh sharpedged
shadows which didn’t look quite right
with this mod the lighting is much
softer and more natural it comes with
multiple color options letting you
choose between default green orange and
white and I went with orange since it
fits the8s atmosphere the best i also
checked out Viceport one of the
locations shown in the comparison images
and the difference is immediately
noticeable the lights look much smoother
and the overall ambiance feels better
since I picked the orange option which
is pretty close to the original just
slightly warmer the change isn’t massive
but I like it as it is if you prefer
colder toned lighting you can always
switch to a white or green version to
match your preference there’s also a mod
that restores the classic Vice City HUD
but for some reason my game refused to
launch with it so I took that as a sign
that we should stick with the nextG HUD
but with a few improvements first up
classic HD weapon icons i went with the
gradient background version but there
are a few other options like beta
gradients no gradients or standalone
icons if you prefer a different style
next I added the font fix mod which
brings back the classic rage itallic and
price down fonts from the original game
the next piece of the puzzle is classic
Vice City weapon sounds check it out
the mod isn’t perfect yet and will
probably need some updates but even in
its current state the classic sounds fit
the game much better even though this is
a nextG edition there’s just something
about the original gun sounds that makes
it feel more authentic and while Vice
City’s remake is seriously impressive
let’s not forget the project that
started it all this is the first
unofficial GTA San Andreas remake ever
made the first beta dropped in 2011 a
whole 10 years before the defective
edition even launched it’s called GTA 4
San Andreas a total conversion mod for
GTA 4 that brings the entire San Andreas
map into the Rage Engine the last
version beta 3 was released in 2012 and
while it didn’t include story missions
it was still way ahead of its time the
mod starts off perfectly we spawn in
Idlewood Los Santos with the legendary a
[ __ ] here we go again from there we’re
free to explore the entire map unlike
Vice City NextG edition there are no
story missions but back then porting
missions between games seemed impossible
today modders know how to do it but at
the time this was as close to a remake
as we could get the first thing that
stands out is the graphics there’s no
advanced graphics mod applied here the
team simply tweaked GTA 4’s visuals to
fit the San Andreas world and honestly
they nailed it back in 2012 this looked
like a true nextG remake even today it
still holds up but there’s plenty of
room for improvement especially when you
compare it to what Revolution team did
with Vice City adding a custom ENB
series that made the visuals a lot
better as you’ve probably noticed San
Andreas vehicles are present in the mod
which is a great touch but they aren’t
without issues even while driving
something as simple as the Greenwood
it’s easy to see that the tail lights
look a bit off and the textures could be
higher quality another issue is the
license plates or rather the complete
lack of proper ones in the original San
Andreas plates were dynamic generating
random seven character numbers on every
vehicle but for some reason GTA 4’s Rage
Engine abandoned that system and all
plates simply read Liberty City the mod
authors used empty San Andreas plates in
vehicles but because of GTA 4’s
limitations all cars now drive around
with completely blank plates or these
saying San Andreas it’s not a huge
problem but it’s definitely noticeable
another limitation of the GTA 4 engine
is the lack of planes in Vice City NextG
edition this issue was worked around by
replacing planes with helicopters in
missions that originally used them and
honestly it wasn’t that noticeable since
Vice City’s map is relatively small but
here it’s a much bigger issue planes
technically exist here but they don’t
seem to work properly they spawn in the
world but they lack sounds and don’t
function as they should making them feel
unfinished san Andreas is massive
compared to Vice City to put it into
perspective Vice City’s map covers
approximately 3.5 square miles while San
Andreas spans about 13.9 making it
nearly four times larger not having
planes makes traveling between cities
feel way slower and while using
something like a hydra would have been
the perfect solution well it is what it
is when we arrive at Grove Street we’re
immediately attacked by the Balas even
though we didn’t provoke them at all
fighting back turns into a mini gang war
shootout which is honestly a pretty cool
feature since GTA 4 didn’t have gang
territories like San Andreas the modders
had to create this system from scratch
which is pretty impressive cj’s house is
fully enterable straight from the street
and they even kept the floating save
disc icon just like in the original game
the interior looks great overall but
it’s missing the wardrobe likely because
in San Andreas the wardrobe wasn’t
actually part of CJ’s house model
instead it was a separate interior that
loaded when stepping into a yellow
marker right next to CJ’s house there’s
a BMX and this is where things get
interesting since GTA 4 doesn’t have
bicycles the modders had to get creative
so they replace the Fagio with a BMX the
result is both hilarious and
cursed cj doesn’t pedal at all and the
bike still makes Fagio engine sounds
when moving it almost feels like an
electric BMX but considering this is set
in the ‘9s that wouldn’t make much sense
another thing worth mentioning all radio
stations are included along with their
classic radio icons i can’t show them
here because of copyright but you’ll
have to take my word for it they’re all
there just like in the original game and
as you’ve probably already noticed the
mod also includes the classic San
Andreas HUD which is almost fully
functional time money health armor and
of course the mini map radar all work
exactly as they should to be fully
functional though it would still need
the statistics list with respect stamina
muscle and the rest of the original San
Andreas attributes but even without that
it captures the classic feel really well
and while we’re on the topic of muscles
as soon as the game starts CJ is already
bulked up there’s a simple reason for
that the gyms don’t work in this mod
this is yet another feature that
Rockstar abandoned when transitioning
from the 3D to the HD era neither GTA 4
nor 5 have functional gyms and players
can’t change their characters physique
anymore there’s a good chance GTA 6
might bring it back but that’s a topic
for another video as I mentioned earlier
this project doesn’t include missions
from San Andreas which is completely
understandable but there was definitely
room for more activities to make the
world feel more alive unfortunately
that’s where the mod falls a bit short
the gang wars I talked about earlier are
in the game but they feel pretty limited
and sometimes buggy from what I’ve seen
they only take place around Grove Street
so it was probably just a preview of a
bigger feature that the authors may have
planned to expand later another activity
the mod offers is street races which
sounds exciting until you actually try
them after the countdown starts none of
the AI opponents move the cars just sit
there so instead of a proper competitive
race it ends up being more of a
checkpoint challenge where you just
drive through the course alone after one
attempt there’s really no reason to come
back to it since it just doesn’t work as
intended at this point it might seem
like this project doesn’t offer much
beyond a simple map port with working
traffic and maybe it’s not really worth
playing but before jumping to that
conclusion there’s one huge feature that
was added in beta 3 multiplayer yes you
heard that right this 2012 mod had fully
functional multiplayer it only worked on
patch 1070 but even with that limitation
it was still an incredible thing
multiplayer completely changed the
experience making the mod way more
meaningful we could role-play set up
death matches organize street races or
just mess around with other players it
gave so much more purpose to the game
even without story missions or other
single player activities surprisingly it
looks like this multiplayer still works
today i came across a YouTube video
uploaded just a few months ago showing
people actually playing deathmatch on it
at this point I plan to improve the game
with some graphics mods but that turned
out to be nearly impossible on beta 3
this version seems to be incompatible
with such mods causing the launcher to
completely stop working or if the game
somehow launched the game kept freezing
after a few seconds but there’s also
another must-h have mod a vehicle pack
by Zolica he released it a few years ago
and honestly it’s a gamecher for this
mod he noticed how inconsistent the car
models are and how it feels like each
one was converted by a different person
with some looking okay and others
completely awful zolica’s pack fixes
that issue by converting every San
Andreas vehicle to GTA 4’s engine with
the same level of quality everything now
looks much more authentic to the
original San Andreas style while also
taking advantage of newer modding
techniques the pack includes fully
working breakable glass dirt maps just
like in San Andreas and even tuning
features that work with Zelica’s trainer
planes have been adjusted for proper
taxiing meaning they don’t spin out like
crazy when turning and cop cars now
spawn properly based on the region so
you’ll see LSPD in Los Santos SFPD in
San Fier and LVPD in Los Venturas and
while there are still some unconverted
cars appearing in traffic it’s a massive
improvement over the original mod but I
wasn’t ready to give up with the
graphics improvements just yet after
some digging I found out that beta 2
handles additional mods way better so I
decided to give it a try getting it to
work wasn’t easy though official links
for beta 2 no longer work so I had to
track it down elsewhere and even after
installing it the game kept crashing
while loading and now a huge shout out
to Robert Tisam for helping me figure it
out it turns out I just had too much
leftover junk in my game folder and
after cleaning it up beta 2 launched
perfectly the time cycle is slightly
different compared to beta 3 but that’s
fine because now I could finally install
the graphics mod I wanted CryNB version
3 luckily it runs perfectly on beta 2
and San Andreas looks so much better the
lighting shadows and overall visuals
feel way fresher making the entire game
look more modern but I’m not going to
lie it’s not exactly nextG graphics and
honestly I’d say the defective edition
actually looks a bit better especially
with the fog and atmosphere improvements
added in recent updates but even with
that I still think this looks better
than vanilla San Andreas and since this
is beta 2 that means we can finally
install the snow edition which was only
released for this version for me this is
a huge throwback to 2009 when I was
messing around with the old Snow Andreas
mod for the original San Andreas with
snow edition installed the entire map is
covered in snow and while the textures
are pretty low quality it somehow fits
the game’s overall atmosphere the snowy
streets give San Andreas a completely
different vibe making it feel like an
alternate winter version of the game we
never got driving on icy roads is also
an interesting experience some cars
slide all over the place like they’re
still on summer tires while others
handle surprisingly well it’s a bit
random but it makes driving way more
unpredictable especially at higher
speeds it might not be perfect but as a
bonus feature for beta 2 it’s a really
fun addition to mess around with overall
installing the mod is pretty
straightforward as long as you have some
basic knowledge of modding GTA 4 the
most important step is downgrading your
game preferably to version 1070 once
that’s done everything else is smooth
sailing the mod comes with an auto
installer and a launcher which you’ll
use to apply the hot fix patch replaying
this mod after all these years really
hit me with nostalgia for the early
2010s that was a time when the GTA
modding scene was thriving with some of
the best mods ever created dropping
during that era mods like GTA 3 Rage
Gosstown Paradise tons of superhero mods
and many others pushed the limits of
what was possible in GTA games it truly
felt like the golden age of modding and
the best part back then Rockstar
actually supported the modding community
they even promoted fan-made mods on
their newswire and acknowledged the work
of modders and this was the era when
this project was born at the time it was
revolutionary and to be honest it still
holds up today what’s even more
surprising is that the project’s
official website is still online usually
I’d expect it to be taken down after a
year or two especially since development
stopped a long time ago it’s hard to say
why the team left the mod in a beta
state maybe they lost motivation or
maybe it was because of the upcoming
release of GTA 5 at the time we’ll
probably never know the real reason and
in contrast to the Revolution team which
consisted of three people a surprisingly
large team worked on this project
bringing together so many people for a
fan-made mod is no easy task especially
for a community-driven project after the
huge success of Vice City NextG edition
I started wondering is there a chance
that modders now with better tools and
more experience might take on similar
remakes of GTA 3 and San Andreas and of
course I’m talking about the key missing
piece that only Vice City NextG Edition
managed to include fully playable story
missions imagine if modders actually got
together to finish this project i can
already picture how it could turn out
the perfect inspiration would be the
fan-made renders by Welcome to the8s if
you haven’t seen his work he created an
absolutely mind-blowing animation of San
Andreas reimagined with modern graphics
realistic lighting and insane detail
it’s exactly what a real remake should
look like and as much as I’d love to see
that happen realistically the chances
are pretty low a mod like that would
almost immediately get taken down by
Take 2 and the creators would be at risk
of legal action the only tiny chance of
it ever happening is if a group of
passionate fans decided to take on the
challenge spend hundreds of hours
recreating these games and then release
the mod anonymously through something
like Torrance of course I’m not
encouraging anything just letting myself
daydream about how incredible that would
be so yeah that’s the unofficial Rage
Era remake trilogy kind of wild to think
modders managed to bring all three
classic GTA into newer engines even if
the results vary a lot but I’m curious
did you ever get the chance to try any
of these mods yourself or maybe you
played them back in the day when they
first dropped either way let me know
what you think and who knows maybe one
day we’ll see someone finally pull off a
full GTA 3 and San Andreas remakes that
lives up to its potential until then
that’s all for now

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfYZwIIOaFw