10 Craziest GTA Trilogy: Definitive Edition Bugs And Glitches
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VOICE OVER: Aaron Brown
WRITTEN BY: Caitlin Johnson
The newly remastered Grand Theft Auto Triogy has been a massive disappointment to fans of the franchise. Riddled with bugs and glitches and at times looking worse than the PS2 originals, it's hard to know where things went wrong. In this video, we're counting down the 10 craziest bugs and glitches from the GTA Trilogy: Definitive Edition, from growing cars to invisible bridges.
Script writtne by Caitlin Johnson
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at the wackiest bugs yet found in the “GTA Trilogy – Definitive Edition”. Just how big does a car need to be?
Some of these bugs have been patched out, but they all appeared at one time or another.
Grove Street is on the way to do a drive-by against some of the Ballas, with CJ in the driver’s seat. Sweet is telling CJ the plan, but there’s something strange going on with Big Smoke and Ryder’s mouths. Ryder’s mouth doesn’t appear to open when he’s talking, while Big Smoke’s is opening and moving erratically when he isn’t saying a word. We’re not sure what’s happened to cause this, whether it’s a bug with the skeletons or the animations. Or maybe Big Smoke is getting in some jaw exercises to recover from that gargantuan amount of food he ate earlier on.
This strange bug has been seen in viral videos largely in “GTA III”, though “San Andreas” has an underutilized subway system as well. What seems to be the issue is that NPCs don’t know the subway train has actually stopped. It comes to a standstill and opens its doors to let people on, but when they try to board the game thinks the train is still moving, thereby making the NPCs behave as if they’ve just been hit by a fast-moving train. So, you have a group of NPCs running into a train and immediately dying. All the mayhem scares the other NPCs and makes them also run towards the train, in an endless cycle.
Fans intimately familiar with the world of San Andreas will know that there’s supposed to be a bridge in Flint County crossing the river – a bridge that is indeed visible on the mini-map. However, it’s not rendered in-game – not visibly, at least. If you know it’s there you can actually cross it, but it’s still pretty immersion-breaking to just have an invisible bridge in the middle of the map. And “San Andreas” isn’t the only game with bridge issues, either; in “Vice City”, a wooden gangplank onto a boat was added, even appearing on the map, but when you try to walk up it onto the ship Tommy will fall through and immediately drown.
Another big issue particularly plaguing “San Andreas” are problems with character rigs. Ryder seems to bear the brunt of these issues because there’s just something weird going on with his shoulders most of the time. Images have been making the rounds of Ryder on a bike with his shoulders stretched apart as if none of the bones in his arms are connected – worse, he’ll then make fun of CJ for looking ridiculous. Also affected are fingers, with Cesar’s fingers sometimes getting stretched out so much he looks like Edward Scissorhands. If Ryder thought CJ was bad, he should be glad he didn’t have to see whatever this is.
This bug was also patched out within a few weeks, but for a while, it was one of the funniest bugs we saw from the trilogy. While all three games are intended to be played in third-person, while driving you can change the camera angle. On a bike in “San Andreas”, if you use the first-person camera and then look backward, you’ll get an extreme close-up of CJ’s face as he rides around Los Santos. Thankfully, this isn’t a bug that’s going to break the game – who’s driving around in first-person in “GTA” anyway? – but it will still ruin your immersion if you come across it by accident.
There are a lot of issues with the vehicles in this trilogy, but a few people have posted videos of a strange glitch where, upon getting hit, cars will spin wildly out of control and go flying through the air. At the end of this journey, the cars may or may not explode – but considering the cars are pretty fragile in this remaster, they’re more likely to do so than not. Your best bet is trying to bail as soon as possible and hope you don’t blow up. Other vehicle problems include car pile-ups and explosions, as well as planes randomly crashing into buildings while you’re just trying to go about your business.
One of the weirdest and funniest bugs appears in “GTA III”, where players discovered that if you gently wobble your car from side to side, it will inexplicably grow larger and larger and larger. Any long-time “GTA” fan will know, however, that this glitch is actually present in the original game that came out two decades ago. It’s always tricky to fix bugs because often, doing so will cause different bugs to appear somewhere else, so this could be the reason why the giant car glitch has remained. Alternatively, it could just be that the small development team working on the remaster didn’t know about or find the glitch, hence why it’s still here in all its massive glory.
AI upscaling is a vital tool, especially in remastering any older piece of media; it’s used in movie remasters all the time, and was used to great effect in BioWare’s “Mass Effect” rerelease. But while many of the textures do look a lot nicer in this collection, the upscaling has led to many more issues. Chief among them are the NPCs: most of the characters who aren’t major, particularly in “San Andreas”, look terrible, because they’re been bizarrely smoothed out by the AI that doesn’t understand what human beings are meant to look like. But another more subtle effect is the typos: those typos you’ve been seeing aren’t the result of humans who don’t know how to spell, but texture upscaling not being checked properly.
This was the first major glitch that went viral when the trilogy was released in November. Across all three games, the rain texture would glitch completely and would not be translucent, so you’re seeing bright white bolts of rain falling directly in front of the camera. And as many have noted, the rain effect is attached to the player character and you can clearly see that just a few feet ahead, no rain is falling. Other water effects have issues, as well, like large bodies of water rendering in front of the rain, making for some extremely trippy visuals. Modders quickly stepped in to fix the rain on PC, but finally, a patch was released to make it look more like actual weather.
The performance of the entire trilogy has left much to be desired across the board. The first warning sign is the fact the collection has “fidelity” and “performance” modes. This is something we’re used to now, but you usually see it employed in big, demanding, new games, not remasters of games that came out three entire console generations ago. And if you did play in fidelity mode, particularly at launch, you may have run into plenty of frame-rate issues, with games often totally unable to run at even 30 frames-per-second consistently. It goes without saying that games that look like this shouldn’t be struggling to hit 60, let alone 30. As well as that, though, the games have some severe frame-pacing issues, which causes frustrating stutters.
Top 10 GTA Trilogy Bugs and Glitches
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at the wackiest bugs yet found in the “GTA Trilogy – Definitive Edition”. Just how big does a car need to be?
Some of these bugs have been patched out, but they all appeared at one time or another.
Chewing the Fat
Grove Street is on the way to do a drive-by against some of the Ballas, with CJ in the driver’s seat. Sweet is telling CJ the plan, but there’s something strange going on with Big Smoke and Ryder’s mouths. Ryder’s mouth doesn’t appear to open when he’s talking, while Big Smoke’s is opening and moving erratically when he isn’t saying a word. We’re not sure what’s happened to cause this, whether it’s a bug with the skeletons or the animations. Or maybe Big Smoke is getting in some jaw exercises to recover from that gargantuan amount of food he ate earlier on.
Subway Deaths
This strange bug has been seen in viral videos largely in “GTA III”, though “San Andreas” has an underutilized subway system as well. What seems to be the issue is that NPCs don’t know the subway train has actually stopped. It comes to a standstill and opens its doors to let people on, but when they try to board the game thinks the train is still moving, thereby making the NPCs behave as if they’ve just been hit by a fast-moving train. So, you have a group of NPCs running into a train and immediately dying. All the mayhem scares the other NPCs and makes them also run towards the train, in an endless cycle.
Invisible Bridge
Fans intimately familiar with the world of San Andreas will know that there’s supposed to be a bridge in Flint County crossing the river – a bridge that is indeed visible on the mini-map. However, it’s not rendered in-game – not visibly, at least. If you know it’s there you can actually cross it, but it’s still pretty immersion-breaking to just have an invisible bridge in the middle of the map. And “San Andreas” isn’t the only game with bridge issues, either; in “Vice City”, a wooden gangplank onto a boat was added, even appearing on the map, but when you try to walk up it onto the ship Tommy will fall through and immediately drown.
Rig Glitches
Another big issue particularly plaguing “San Andreas” are problems with character rigs. Ryder seems to bear the brunt of these issues because there’s just something weird going on with his shoulders most of the time. Images have been making the rounds of Ryder on a bike with his shoulders stretched apart as if none of the bones in his arms are connected – worse, he’ll then make fun of CJ for looking ridiculous. Also affected are fingers, with Cesar’s fingers sometimes getting stretched out so much he looks like Edward Scissorhands. If Ryder thought CJ was bad, he should be glad he didn’t have to see whatever this is.
Back Camera
This bug was also patched out within a few weeks, but for a while, it was one of the funniest bugs we saw from the trilogy. While all three games are intended to be played in third-person, while driving you can change the camera angle. On a bike in “San Andreas”, if you use the first-person camera and then look backward, you’ll get an extreme close-up of CJ’s face as he rides around Los Santos. Thankfully, this isn’t a bug that’s going to break the game – who’s driving around in first-person in “GTA” anyway? – but it will still ruin your immersion if you come across it by accident.
Spinning Out
There are a lot of issues with the vehicles in this trilogy, but a few people have posted videos of a strange glitch where, upon getting hit, cars will spin wildly out of control and go flying through the air. At the end of this journey, the cars may or may not explode – but considering the cars are pretty fragile in this remaster, they’re more likely to do so than not. Your best bet is trying to bail as soon as possible and hope you don’t blow up. Other vehicle problems include car pile-ups and explosions, as well as planes randomly crashing into buildings while you’re just trying to go about your business.
Growing Pains
One of the weirdest and funniest bugs appears in “GTA III”, where players discovered that if you gently wobble your car from side to side, it will inexplicably grow larger and larger and larger. Any long-time “GTA” fan will know, however, that this glitch is actually present in the original game that came out two decades ago. It’s always tricky to fix bugs because often, doing so will cause different bugs to appear somewhere else, so this could be the reason why the giant car glitch has remained. Alternatively, it could just be that the small development team working on the remaster didn’t know about or find the glitch, hence why it’s still here in all its massive glory.
Upscaling Issues
AI upscaling is a vital tool, especially in remastering any older piece of media; it’s used in movie remasters all the time, and was used to great effect in BioWare’s “Mass Effect” rerelease. But while many of the textures do look a lot nicer in this collection, the upscaling has led to many more issues. Chief among them are the NPCs: most of the characters who aren’t major, particularly in “San Andreas”, look terrible, because they’re been bizarrely smoothed out by the AI that doesn’t understand what human beings are meant to look like. But another more subtle effect is the typos: those typos you’ve been seeing aren’t the result of humans who don’t know how to spell, but texture upscaling not being checked properly.
The Rain
This was the first major glitch that went viral when the trilogy was released in November. Across all three games, the rain texture would glitch completely and would not be translucent, so you’re seeing bright white bolts of rain falling directly in front of the camera. And as many have noted, the rain effect is attached to the player character and you can clearly see that just a few feet ahead, no rain is falling. Other water effects have issues, as well, like large bodies of water rendering in front of the rain, making for some extremely trippy visuals. Modders quickly stepped in to fix the rain on PC, but finally, a patch was released to make it look more like actual weather.
FPS Drops
The performance of the entire trilogy has left much to be desired across the board. The first warning sign is the fact the collection has “fidelity” and “performance” modes. This is something we’re used to now, but you usually see it employed in big, demanding, new games, not remasters of games that came out three entire console generations ago. And if you did play in fidelity mode, particularly at launch, you may have run into plenty of frame-rate issues, with games often totally unable to run at even 30 frames-per-second consistently. It goes without saying that games that look like this shouldn’t be struggling to hit 60, let alone 30. As well as that, though, the games have some severe frame-pacing issues, which causes frustrating stutters.
