Rockstar Finally Outlines Significant Upgrades For 'GTA 5' New-Gen Remaster

While the big Rockstar Games announcement of last week was undoubtedly the official confirmation that development of Grand Theft Auto VI is well underway, that wasn't all the studio had to share.

After rumours of yet another potential delay, Rockstar confirmed that the "expanded and enhanced" new-gen remaster of GTA V on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series consoles, and PC is on track for a March 15 release.

This second re-release of GTA V on modern consoles (it was originally available on PS3 and Xbox 360 before being put out for PS4 and Xbox One several months later) has not gone down well with fans so far. Rockstar has done little since the announcement to convince anyone that the upgrades will be worth it, which has in turn led to plenty of pushback.

Fortunately, we now have some idea of the more significant improvements being made to the new release. While we've yet to see them in action, which is definitely cause for concern following the recent Trilogy remasters, they certainly sound promising enough.

According to a new blog post from Rockstar, GTA V will pack in a number of notable graphical enhancements on the newer consoles, including upgrades to texture and draw distances, ray-tracing, and 60fps. We can also expect faster loading times, 3D audio, and platform specific features like use of haptic feedback on PS5.

Rockstar has also confirmed players will be able to transfer their story and online progress from their current versions of GTA V when the game launches next month.

While these certainly sound like welcome changes, it remains to be seen how receptive the fans who've waited all this time for a new GTA experience will be. I'm not so sure ray-tracing will distract people from the fact that GTA VI has only just been announced after eight years... but I guess we'll see.