GTA 4 gets controversial 'photorealistic' remaster

GTA IV is probably one of my favourite Grand Theft Auto games, probably because it was the first one I played so I have an emotional attachment to it.

Like many I’d love to see Rockstar Games work on an official remaster/remake, but not if it’s made like this.

There's a spooky new event happening in GTA V right now, check it out below

Recently a “remaster” of GTA IV was shared online, injecting a bit of neon colour into the grey, aged streets of Liberty City.

You can see the results for yourself on X, and while it looks nothing like what we’d actually get if Rockstar decided to remaster the game, there’s no denying it’s very visually striking.

Unfortunately, it’s made with AI, as instead of being a remaster to the game itself it’s actually just a high-quality filter instead.

Personally I’d like to keep AI tools like this as far away from my video games as I can, and it seems like many people agree as the comments were quick to point out.

“I think I would find photorealism less fun than more cartoony” said one commenter, and “after seeing this we are going to expect more from developers, and that'll be a problem for the industry” added another.

Of course there are others that simply wanted to point out how gorgeous it looks, and to be fair it does look fantastic if not completely unrealistic for a remaster.

With the GTA III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas remastered being awful in just about every way, I’d imagine fans would actually get nervous to hear GTA IV is next to get a fresh coat of paint, even if it’s not the most popular game in the series.

You never know though, maybe Rockstar plan to remake the game using some of the new tools used in GTA VI.