GTA: San Andreas on Steam. The F***update

[K12]

Ok, first of all this isn't especially topical because this actually happened last November (based on the comments anyway) but I only just discovered the issue.

I returned to San Andreas, which I bought on steam after my PS2 died last summer, hoping to play the game with a few mods and discovered that an "update" has removed a buttload of content.

Things removed include:

almost 20 of the games songs (a huge blow as I considered this game to probably have the best and most extensive soundtrack of any game ever).

removed all foliage and a bunch of textures.

Disables and removes all mods.

Removes the option for a 1280x700 resolution

Deletes all save games.

Obviously the songs where removed because they couldn't be arsed to re-license them (and I assume the other stuff is just from incompetence). The version of the game I payed for included those songs so how is it legal to take them out of my copy of the game in a mandatory update? It might not make the game unplayable but this is a significant downgrade to the experience I payed for.

The thing I'm most concerned about is that, if it is legal, does this mean that no game I've bought on Steam is safe from being gutted further down the line with no warning?

Has anyone noticed this kind of thing happen with any other games?

 

[Recusant]

It's entirely legal; and yes, anything you bought on Steam is a target. Further, with the removal of the option to not update a game, you can't even avoid the changes. Such is the price of all-digital convenience.

 

[baddude1337]

I can get the songs thing, even if it is pretty BS. But removing textures from the game? The hell? Have the other GTA games suffered the same fate as well?

Also, how exactly did it remove all mods?

 

[Darks63]

Cant you just put the songs back via modding?

 

[Neverhoodian]

What? I knew about the music tracks and the reasoning behind it (essentially "copyright laws are broken"), but why the hell would they go out of their way to opt for a graphical downgrade and remove mod support? I thought the big advantage of the PC version was all the crazy mods you could download for it. Is this a shady attempt to boost sales of the mobile port or something?

Sadly though, they're completely within their legal rights to do this, even if it is a crock of shit. That's the downside for most digital services like Steam. According to the TOS you don't actually own the game, thus they can do whatever the hell they want with it. This goes for ALL games on Steam. Hell, Valve could theoretically terminate your account for shits and giggles, and there would be nothing you could do about it (they don't for obvious reasons, but they could).

 

[Unsilenced]

I don't know a lot about copywrite law, but that seems a little weird. Movies have been out for decades and as far as I know don't need to keep paying for songs. Are videogames different, or have they just not been able to enforce it until now? Are old movies secretly illegal? Why haven't other games gone through this?

The rest of the stuff sounds like unintentional side-effects for the most part, though the mod removal is kinda creepy, since it means valve is going onto your computer and altering stuff that they didn't put there. Then again, it's not valve's idea to make the update. They just facilitate whatever update the devs say they want. If the devs want to brick your game, valve is just the middle man.

 

[Xyebane]

Turn off automatic updates.

 

[Flammablezeus]

Turn off automatic updates.

You can't play a game on Steam unless you let it update to the current version. Even then, we had no reason to turn off updates before the update dropped. Then, once it dropped, it was too late.

I'm still really pissed about this whole thing. They never removed the songs from copies of Vice City that had been bought ages ago, they only removed them from copies sold after their license expired. The fact that they chose not to do this with SA is bull. Also, why on Earth did they remove the 16:9 aspect ratios?! It's the most common aspect ratio and they just got rid of it for no reason whatsoever.

 

[Monsterfurby]

Turn off automatic updates.

Apparently they disabled that option and you now have to actually update the game to launch it through Steam. The Silent Patch is now the only solution.

 

[CommanderZx2]

Not really steam's fault here, this is Rockstar being lazy and simply overwriting the current version of the game with a port of the mobile version. They could have simply discontinued selling GTA:SA in it's current form, leaving the currently purchased copies the same and then started selling GTA:SA HD as a separate product. They've done just that on the consoles and they could've done it on Steam too.

 

[silasbufu]

Not really steam's fault here, this is Rockstar being lazy and simply overwriting the current version of the game with a port of the mobile version. They could have simply discontinued selling GTA:SA in it's current form, leaving the currently purchased copies the same and then started selling GTA:SA HD as a separate product. They've done just that on the consoles and they could've done it on Steam too.

+1. It's Rockstar's fuck-up. You can stop bashing Steam now

 

[Rayce Archer]

I'd just find a disk copy, myself.

 

[Muspelheim]

Not really steam's fault here, this is Rockstar being lazy and simply overwriting the current version of the game with a port of the mobile version. They could have simply discontinued selling GTA:SA in it's current form, leaving the currently purchased copies the same and then started selling GTA:SA HD as a separate product. They've done just that on the consoles and they could've done it on Steam too.

+1. It's Rockstar's fuck-up. You can stop bashing Steam now

It's mainly Rockstar being wankers again, but I'd say Steam deserves a lash or two for allowing it to happen. Or rather, making it impossible to opt-out in any way.

Of course, if it were entirely Steam's fault, there could be a slight chance that it'd eventually get fixed. But we're rather out of luck under Captain Rockstar, I'm afraid.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Any 3D pre-GTAIV GTA game got their ability to mod them removed if you buy them on Steam.

 

[God'sFist]

On the one side yeah screw rockstar for fucking up your game. On my side of the fence I'm a console gamer and if I want an old game I buy the hard copy and play it on my old systems. So yeah my old games are untouchable woot! It's this kind of stuff that makes me glad I'm not a PC gamer.

 

[Doom972]

I don't know a lot about copywrite law, but that seems a little weird. Movies have been out for decades and as far as I know don't need to keep paying for songs. Are videogames different, or have they just not been able to enforce it until now? Are old movies secretly illegal? Why haven't other games gone through this?

Apparently, it's a remaster and therefore a completely seperate release. A similar case I could think of related to film is when it took a long time to get a DVD release of Heavy Metal for a similar reason. It would've been better of they just didn't release this "remastered" version on Steam. The old version works fine on new systems and looks better. Luckily, I still have the disc version.

As for you OP, I can only suggest getting the disc version. You can find it for cheap in bargain bins or ask in stores that take special orders. If you don't feel like spending any more money on it, you can always play your PS2 copy on your PC using an emulator.

 

[Zipa]

I don't know a lot about copywrite law, but that seems a little weird. Movies have been out for decades and as far as I know don't need to keep paying for songs. Are videogames different, or have they just not been able to enforce it until now? Are old movies secretly illegal? Why haven't other games gone through this?

Apparently, it's a remaster and therefore a completely seperate release. A similar case I could think of related to film is when it took a long time to get a DVD release of Heavy Metal for a similar reason. It would've been better of they just didn't release this "remastered" version on Steam. The old version works fine on new systems and looks better. Luckily, I still have the disc version.

As for you OP, I can only suggest getting the disc version. You can find it for cheap in bargain bins or ask in stores that take special orders. If you don't feel like spending any more money on it, you can always play your PS2 copy on your PC using an emulator.

From what I can gather this "remaster" is a port of the mobile version, hence the no mods and lack of PC resolution which in itself is crazy since there are phones out there now that are 1080p native.

And yeah this is a dick move on R*s behalf, they will be complaining next when everyone is using "less than scrupulous methods" to acquire the old version of the game. I really hope no one pre orders GTAV on PC given R*s track record with PC in recent times is starting to plummet rapidly to EA/Ubisofts level.