Living up to its word, Rockstar has indeed delivered a native 1080p release, and it adheres pretty closely to its target 30fps - a far cry from stuttering last-gen versions. The game's many enhancements are varied and worthwhile - however, our first impressions suggest an expertly crafted remaster with some lovely features, as opposed to a top to bottom revamp designed to exploit the capabilities of the new consoles.
. The Xbox One version's consistent update is a radical departure from the lacklustre performance of its last-gen siblings - gameplay is mostly locked at 30fps with just minor fluctuations beneath its target. Curiously, despite a consistent update, judder can manifest a little during gameplay - a curious effect. We'll need to look into this a little more, but we can rule out frame-pacing as an issue,
As it transpires, 1080p resolution is something of a doubled-edged sword. On the plus side, it's clear that the arrival of the new wave of consoles has really spoiled us. Returning to the PS3 game, the native 720p pixel-count looks decidedly sub-par in the modern era - a state of affairs not helped by the heavy-handed post-process anti-aliasing, which blurs jaggies well enough, but adds a heavy shimmer to gameplay in motion. A similar anti-aliasing technique is in play on Xbox One, but the good news is that the far higher pixel count makes for a much cleaner presentation. That said, the stark resolution increase highlights the lower poly counts though, and while the lighting model remains frequently stunning, it's not really on par with the materials-based lighting seen in next-gen engines.
Overall, our first impressions of this spruced-up GTA 5 are positive. Technologically, the game demonstrates its last-gen roots quite clearly, but the quality of the original work still stands up overall. It's also great to see that Rockstar has gone the extra mile with this version, revisiting the game and improving the base assets considerably while adding a compelling new gameplay option. Quite where the PlayStation 4 version fits into the equation remains unknown at this precise moment. While we were able to acquire the Xbox One version ahead of time, we'll be buying the PS4 version on release day along with everyone else. We'll report back with more analysis and some initial comparisons as soon as we can.
