Many GTA fans were hoping to rekindle happy thoughts and warm feelings of nostalgia when they heard Rockstar were releasing the original PS2 GTA games in a remastered trilogy. For those who'd played GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas on the Xbox or PS2, it was a chance to step back into those pioneering worlds, but in glorious high fidelity and remastered visuals, on modern consoles and TVs.

Unfortunately, the remastered GTA trilogy didn't turn out to be the definitive editions as hoped, with a plague of issues affecting the ports. These remastered editions, which were led by port specialists Grove Street Games, have suffered from numerous glitches and bugs. Players have expressed their disdain by giving the "Definitive Edition" trilogy very negative reviews. The remasters currently have Metacritic reviews of below 1.0 on every platform they have launched on.

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But perhaps this sorry state of affairs inspired GTA fans to start playing a Grand Theft Auto that offers the possibility of nostalgia but with the luxury of high resolution visuals. Because it's GTA 4 that has seen an unexpected boost in players, since the remastered trilogy launched, for whatever reason.

We at TheGamer think GTA 4 is pretty great. The story of Niko Bellic, and the distinctive atmosphere of the revamped Liberty City that GTA 4 is known for, is a high point of the series. The driving was weighty and realistic. The era in which the game is set, the mid 2000s, offers a window into the near past. And the game should be remastered itself.

There are those who seem to agree as GTA 4 has seen a a significant rise in player numbers. At the time of writing, the fourth-numbered GTA title was on a gain of 28 percent in players over the last 30 days. These numbers are tracked by SteamDB, meaning only players of the PC version of GTA 4, via Steam, has been recorded.

But it's a big boost for the title considering the game came out on PC all the way back in December 2008. GTA 4 on PC didn't have the best reputation itself when it launched but modders came up with fixes. So maybe mods aren't so bad, after all.

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