Update Rockstar apologizes for the GTA remaster mess, but how much can be fixed?

This time a year ago, gamers were scratching their heads over the fact that Cyberpunk 2077 had been delayed again. After all, Cyberpunk 2077, which was released on December 10, was such a disaster that Sony had to pull it from the PlayStation Store.

The state in which the game was released was inexcusable, but the limitations of the previous generation of consoles and the vast range of games at least mitigated the situation.

The same cannot be said for the remastered "GTA Trilogy" released last week, which was released with so many problems that responding to refund requests has been the primary mission of the Rockstar Support Twitter account over the past few days.

So what's the problem? Well, if there is one thing...

While some of the new lighting effects are genuinely impressive, the character models are odd in places, looking not a million miles away from Nintendo Mii. For example, look at how these two have changed:

Or how Denise has changed:

And the less said about what happens when the characters ride bicycles, the better.

And these are just the tip of the iceberg: [not to mention that it compares extremely unfavorably to 2K Games' terrestrial remake of "Mafia," which is odd considering the popularity of "GTA" as a franchise.

Bizarre art aside, some bugs seem to have been added along with the graphical upgrades. Like invisible bridges:

Strange rain that mysteriously stops when you get to the water's edge.

Most peculiar of all, a spelling error seems to have crept into the art in the game. This suggests that the upscaling of the textures is automated rather than done by hand, anyone for enchilaoas.

The Nintendo Switch version of GTA Trilogy is particularly bad, with all the problems seen elsewhere, along with weaker graphics and performance issues. As of this writing, the Switch version has a user score of 0.6/10 on Metacritic.

It also has a habit of having cars appear out of nowhere due to weak draw distances.

On the face of things, it looks angry. After all, all three GTA games came out on the PS2, and the Switch has easily supported titles from that era in the past, from "Resident Evil 4" to "Devil May Cry 3". The move to the Unreal Engine and advanced lighting is certainly too much work for the hardware, but given that it can almost run "The Witcher 3," it seems as if no optimization steps were taken prior to launch.

It's a real shame, since the Switch's ability to play in both portable and docked modes, especially with the addition of gyroscopic aiming and touch controls, should theoretically have been the best way to enjoy the remastered version. But obviously not right now.

These situations would not have been so bad if Rockstar had not pulled the original versions of the games from their respective digital stores or shut down fan remake projects prior to release. As it stands, problematic remasters are the only way to get the game without having to search for the original disc or hardware.

It took CD Projekt Red six months to get "Cyberpunk 2077" close to what it should have been at launch.

But given the huge difference between the titles, that was by no means guaranteed: CD Projekt needed Cyberpunk to sell in order to justify its years of investment. Rockstar, on the other hand, has already earned billions of dollars from the original "GTA" trilogy.

In that light, joining the queue of people asking for refunds may be the best way to remind rock star decision makers that reputational damage is important.