San Andreas HD mod subtly sharpens Rockstar's classic crime sim

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Without ruining it.

GTA San Andreas HD:  The Definitive Edition Classic, a mouthful of a mod designed to sharpen up the textures of the original GTA San Andreas, has released "the last and the best" version of its graphical improvement package.

Unlike Rockstar's own Definitive Edition of the game, which radically changed the original art-style, horribly mutilated many characters, and was generally a big letdown, this mod gently sharpens up the game's base textures to look a little smarter on modern screens.

"The Definitive Edition Classic does not intend to be a UHD mod, but to keep intact the charm of the original game in better definition," writes the mod's creator flyaway888. "Nothing is changed but everything is quite visible".

Flyaway888 also posted a video featuring comparison shots that demonstrate the mod's improvements. It can be difficult to spot the changes in some scenes, but they're probably most visible in the first image of CJ at the airport. If you look at the 'Arrivals' board in the background, it's a lot more readable in the second image than in the first. In any case, it's nice to see a mod that takes a subtler approach to visual enhancement, especially considering the hash Grove Street Games made of the official Definitive Editions.

If you fancy a snazzier San Andreas, you can download The Definitive Edition Classic here. Note that you'll need to download all three parts to the mod. You'll also need to own a copy of San Andreas, which might be difficult considering Rockstar removed the original version from Steam, lumping everyone with the Definitive Edition Trilogy.

Rick Lane
Contributor

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.