5 mods to start replaying GTA Vice City Definitive Edition

The recently released Grand Theft Auto (GTA): The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition brought back three of the most beloved games in the series with enhanced visuals and gameplay. As much as fans loved revisiting Grove street, Vice City, and Liberty City, the entire experience was still found to be lacking in a lot of areas.

The enhanced visuals in the game were found to be quite limited, with many of its elements still looking obsolete. Modders have been bringing better renderings and high-res visuals to most of the old games in the series for a long time now. Hence, playing the official Definitive Edition has disappointed many players.

GTA: Vice City is one such game that's been re-fixed to be played in higher resolution using the latest tech available these days. So, when the Definitive Edition dropped with average visual upgrades, modders had to step in to make things look better and match fans' expectations of what a remake should look like.

Note: This article is not ranked in any order and contains the writer's opinion.

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Mods to be tried and used with GTA: Vice City Definitive Edition for a better experience

1) Weapons

Weapons in the GTA series have always been memorable. "Tear Gas Restore" is a mod that restores the tear gas grenade that was removed from the original GTA: Vice City and in the Definitive Edition as well. This mod brings it back for players to pick and use.

Previously, some patches replaced explosive grenades with smoke grenades, but with this, they're both available for use. One of the locations it's available at is behind the police station.

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2) Textures

A couple of texture mods can make things look even better than in GTA: Vice City Definitive Edition. The mods are called "Less Stars On Sky" and "Snow Conversion" and add to the game's details, bringing it closer to a more realistic feel.

The first mod reduces the number of stars to make the sky look better at night. The overall night sky texture is improved and smaller sized stars are added with improvements made around the skyscrapers as well.

The Snow Conversion mod transforms Vice City's season to winter, with snow covering entire stretches of roads and walkways. While no snow-fall effects are included, the roads being covered with snow brings a unique look to the game.

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3) Characters

Character skins improve the overall look for the side characters as well. (Image via mixmods)

Along the lines of the points mentioned above, improvements have been made to the in-game characters as well. The mod named Characters by BRONXBOX (skin pack) improves the overall texture of these character models in the game:

• Ken Rosenberg with new texture based on classic Vice City.
• Lance Vance based on GTA Vice City Stories.
• Ricardo Diaz with the head of GTA Vice City Stories.
• Victor Vance with the GTA Vice City Stories head, with the GTA Vice City hairstyle.
• Kent Paul with the head based on GTA San Andreas.

The mod even has the skin packs saved separately for players to use all at once, or only for the preferred characters.

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4) Tommy Vercetti HD

Tommy Vercetti looks much better in the modded version. (Image via mixmods)

"Faithful Characters" by DoctorMike is an excellent mod that makes Tommy look much better in the game and less cartoony. It features updated textures, which makes the characters look more realistic, and more similar to the original games.

Facial features and the overall look doesn't differ much from The Definitive Edition, but texture improvements help a lot in improving in-game realism.

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5) Better FPS

This mod helps players with a low-end rig play the game with an improved FPS. (Image via mixmods)

The mod called "Grass Remove" is pretty self-explanatory. It removes grass in the game which, as a result, increases FPS (frames per second). It can be quite useful for players who game on lower-end PCs. Shrubs and rocks have also been removed along with grass to improve the visuals and the resolution.

Another similar mod named "Tree Remove Mod" removes trees and any vegetation found in the game, assisting in better FPS. The mod does have the option to leave palm trees while removing the rest, for those who might not like an environment without any green.