The recently announced HD remastering of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for Xbox 360 appears to be a port of the iOS and Android edition, according to Digital Foundry on Eurogamer.
DF examined the beginning of the game across four platforms: Android, PlayStation 2, Windows, and Xbox 360. The new Xbox 360 edition was nearly identical to the Android port, developed by War Drum Studios, sharing its higher-resolution 2D art and improved UI over the earliest versions of the game. The draw distance is notably improved, but other than that and the addition of achievements, the two versions appear to be functionally identical.
Related: Rockstar games gave Grand Theft Auto: San Andeas an HD remaster for Xbox 360
“Unfortunately, aside from the inclusion of Achievements, there’s very little love given to this new edition,” DF went on. “Certainly, the mobile release on which the 360 game is based appears to lack effects, such as the screen distortion designed to emulate heat haze while radio station music is pared back, presumably because of licensing issues. This 360 port also suffers from glaringly obvious bugs, like audio cutting out completely during some cutscenes.”
The report also noted DF’s disappointment in finding that, at its touted 720p resolution, San Andreas‘ frame rate is capped at 30fps, but doesn’t manage to hit that consistently. Performance occasionally stutters and drops to 15fps. We reached out to Rockstar for clarification, but the studio had no comment at this time.
While the new version may disappoint some, no one can argue with the low price of $3.74 on the Xbox Store, undercutting the emulated version available for download on to PlayStation 3 for $4.
