8 Video Games That IMMEDIATELY Gave You Buyer's Remorse

The fact that so many of us willingly bought Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition on launch despite Rockstar's suspiciously minimal marketing campaign is proof of two things - people still believe that Rockstar can do no wrong, and nostalgia is one hell of a drug.

On paper, a glossy remaster of the original trilogy of 3D GTA games - GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas - should've been one of Rockstar's easiest ever wins.

All they needed to do was update the visuals, implement a few quality-of-life gameplay changes, and keep the core of each game exactly the same otherwise.

But Rockstar evidently took their eye off the ball long enough for Grove Street Games to fumble it completely, delivering a remaster that felt more like a decent fan project than a polished experience worth your actual money.

From the uncanny art-style to the low-fi character models, and especially the headache-inducing rain effects, the game simply doesn't look good, and when you factor in the overabundance of glitches and disappointingly absent songs from the original trilogy, as a package it's just not good enough.

That Rockstar let this out the door in this state is honestly astonishing, and for those who bought in early, it served as a harsh lesson about the dangerous allure of nostalgia.

Not even the fleeting dopamine hit of reliving your childhood playing the trilogy could entirely mask the remaster's lingering stink of low-effort production and technical incompetence, though.