10 Video Games That Exploited Your Nostalgia

10. Grand Theft Auto - The Trilogy: Definitive Edition

As the best selling games system of all time, chances are pretty high that you or someone close to you had a PlayStation 2, and within that collection was likely at least one of the three classic Grand Theft Auto titles of that era. Trend-setting, industry-shaping and just downright fun; you’d be hard pressed to find many people who didn’t enjoy these games in some fashion.

And Rockstar knew this. Even as the series pushed onwards, there was a nostalgic call for the heady, innocent days of PS2 polygonal open-worlds. Development on a re-release collection of GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas took two years to complete… but the finished product doesn’t reflect this at all.

Graphical upscaling was an understandable tool to use on three decently sized games but the end result is monstrous looking NPCs and broken textures. The removal of draw-distance fog totally changed the games’ tones. The new weather effects were so obnoxious it made the game nigh-on unplayable… and that’s before even getting into gameplay glitches.

What’s most offensive about this cheap play on audience nostalgia is the fact that Rockstar knew they could sell this on the premise alone. Bully for them then, as they didn’t really have to show any footage of the games actually running... because if they did their sales would’ve severely tanked.