Of the three games in the collection, this is the one I hoped that the quality of life improvements would justify its existence.

The Pros:

-Native controller support with the option for a modern or classic control scheme.
-Aiming and camera controls vastly improved.
-Radial menus for switching weapons and radio stations.
-An actual map of the city in the pause menu.
-Checkpoints that let you restart failed missions without having to reload a save and drive back to the mission giver.

The Cons:

Sprint is completely busted. In the original GTA III Claude would gain more stamina each time you hold the sprint button. In this version he runs a shorter distance before losing his breath, and gains no extra stamina over time, making the on foot sections miserable. In the original version you could also tap the button to sprint infinitely, which I always assumed was an unintended bug so I don't mind it being removed, but never being able to sprint longer than 3 seconds unless you complete the paramedic side missions first is an unforgiveable game breaking gimp in my opinion.

The AI will bug out and cause automatic mission fails on occasion. After failing the mission 'Chaperone' three times in a row because Maria would get stuck running to the limo while the police show up, I put down the controller and decided to write this review. The original GTA III was never exactly known for being smooth and intuitive, but it was also never so sloppy that fail states occurred out of the players control.

The new graphics look like ass, come at me all you want for that take, but the muted gray color scheme from GTA III was a signature look. The high contrast colors in this version suck the gritty atmosphere out from the world.

Several songs are missing from the radio stations. There's a mod that fixes this.

Final ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and moaning:

I'm bummed and I don't know if I'll finish this playthrough. GTA III more than deserves a proper remastering and I'd like to think someday Rockstar will still make good on that, but I'm not holding my breath anymore.