Another day, another bit of information leaks out from Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition. This time, dataminers have dug into files found in the Rockstar Games Launcher on PC and retrieved a full list of achievements players can attain in the remakes when they release later this year. Some of them include fun references to memes and San Andreas’ long-sought-after Bigfoot. Others seem to be connected to speedrun tactics and fan-favorite exploits.
Kotaku first reported on the rumored GTA Trilogy remasters back in August of this year. Then on October 8, after foreign rating information leaked the game’s existence, Rockstar Games finally officially announced the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition with a short teaser, confirming that the package will contain GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas. Since then, Rockstar hasn’t revealed anything else about the upcoming collection, beyond some vague information shared by the publisher in a newswire post, where it explained the trilogy will contain updated visuals and “modern gameplay enhancements.” Kotaku has heard from sources that Rockstar is aiming to release these games in November. (I’ve also heard that Rockstar has now changed plans again and will release physical versions of the games, though these likely won’t be out until after November.)
But while folks wait for Rockstar to show off more of these soon-to-be-released remasters, datamining GTA fans have been able to locate what are assumed to be all the achievements for each game in the collection. GTA Forums user alloc8or posted the full list of awards on October 13. The same user posted art for all the achievements on October 8.
Most of the achievements are what you’d expect, rewarding players for finishing missions, doing side activities, and killing a certain number of gang members. Fairly standard GTA stuff. But a few caught my attention.
“81 Years Too Late — Spend 24 hours on foot in the countryside (looking for Big Foot).”
This appears to be a direct reference to Red Dead Redemption’s famous Undead Nightmare DLC expansion. In that game, players could find and kill the last Bigfoot. Doing that would award you with the achievement “Six Years In The Making.” This itself was a reference to GTA: San Andreas, released six years before Red Dead Redemption. Players had spent years looking for a rumored Bigfoot in San Andreas. (It doesn’t exist, sorry.) So Rockstar made a joke about it in Undead Nightmare. Now, the joke has come full circle, with San Andreas’ upcoming remaster apparently referencing the fact that the last Bigfoot died 81 years before the game started, which would be 1911, which is when RDR 1 is set. Does that make sense? Moving on.
A different achievement found in GTA: San Andreas seems to directly reference the popular meme of C.J. from the start of the game saying “...Here we go again.” I’m usually not a fan of memes getting shoved into video games—as can be seen in Halo Infinite—but I’m fine with this because the meme is literally from San Andreas. To unlock this one, all you have to do is 100% the game and then start a new game. Super easy…not hard at all…
A few achievements in this collection seem to directly reference faster and easier strategies that players have developed over the years to complete missions that could sometimes be annoying.
A great example of this is the achievement “Got This Figured Out.” To unlock this one, players will have to use a bus to deliver eight prostitutes to the police officer ball in GTA III. This is a fairly early mission that proved tricky for a lot of players as it required you to deliver at least four prostitutes located around the city to a single location—the Liberty City Policeman’s Ball— in a short amount of time. Because most cars in GTA III can only hold three passengers, you had to make multiple trips, and a few crashes or getting lost at any point could lead to you failing the mission. However, some crafty players realized that if you grabbed a bus before doing the mission, parked it near where you start, and then used that instead, you could transport all eight women in one go. Rockstar will now reward players for using this classic exploit.
The full list of achievements is a nice mix of normal progression rewards and accolades for more odd or non-standard shenanigans. Oh, and because this has been a debate among many players for months now, the achievements suggest that Rockstar officially considers these games remasters, not remakes.
For those wanting more information or a first look at the remastered games in action, I expect a trailer for this collection is coming soon. Perhaps on GTA III’s 20th anniversary, October 22. Seems like a perfect date to me.