Graphically speaking, Rockstar’s developers strived to make E&E the most stunning iteration of the game in a visual sense as possible - and as allowed by modern hardware. E&E will sport high texture quality, and support 4K, HDR, 60 frames-per-second and ray tracing as well.
Allowing players to balance these features with the power of their chosen platform and preferences, there will be three selectable graphical option presets available. Fidelity Mode will aim for the vest visual quality with a target framerate of 30 FPS, while enabling ray tracing and native 4K resolution on platforms that support it, while upscaled 4K on the Series S. This is the option for those who want the game looking as pretty as possible, and likely the go-to “screenshot setting”. If you don’t mind some concessions in the graphics department in order to achieve the smoothest gameplay, Performance Mode targets an unflinching 60 FPS, and opts for upscaling instead, with other extras disabled. On the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, there is also another option called Performance RT, which is a middle-road between the two other options. Once again targeting 60 FPS, this will push your hardware a little harder as alongside upscaled textures, it will turn on ray tracing, meaning some of those fancy graphical features aren’t being sacrificed on the altar of performance. Regardless of what graphical modes you choose on whatever console you play, there are still some universal improvements in effect. Load times, which have been a concern with GTA 5 ever since it first launched, have been reduced across the board. NPC and vegetation density has been increased, alongside with improvements to lighting, shadows and reflections. Various particle effects, like those seen during explosions, have been improved, as well as anti-aliasing for fewer jagged edges. If you are playing with controllers that sport haptic feedback and responsive triggers, you’ll get more tangible feedback from what’s happening in-game. E&E will also make use of the PlayStation 5’s and Xbox Series X|S’ respective immersive audio technologies. With GTA Online, Rockstar has revealed the first bit of content players can enjoy in E&E. Hao’s Special Works will be an addition to the Car Meet, which will bring new vehicle customization options, new races and additional tiers of time trials and Prize Ride challenges. In E&E, GTA Online is getting a major overhaul in more ways than one - it’s going standalone, which allowed Rockstar to tweak some of the elements that are blatantly linked to the single player experience. No longer will you need to complete the GTA 5 prologue to access Online, and players will get access to the Career Builder, designed to help catch up with 8 years of DLC. Instead of being dropped off into the world as a penniless, fresh faces crook with nothing in their inventory, players will be able to pick some pre-existing GTA Online businesses that they’ll automatically own, giving access to their respective missions, as well as a starting fund of 4 million in GTA$ to help with initial expenses. This will mean that brand new players won’t need to spend hundreds of hours grinding endlessly as the most lucrative content to catch up. Other changes for Online include sweeping UI updates, quality of life improvements across the entire menu system and the addition of a new, Online-specific main menu that you’ll see before loading into the world allowing you to automatically queue for heists, Adversary Modes or other specific game modes in case you don’t want to load into Freemode first. Story Mode transfers are already available - but only to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players. You can already begin uploading your story mode saves to the Social Club, from where you can transfer them to the new game when you start playing. You can only store one save though, and only for 90 days. Online transfers will begin on March 15 with the launch of the game, and will be a one-time thing for existing players. If you are already a player, you can still choose to clear the slate and put your character through the career builder, if you started so recently that the progress you made on your own is actually less than the boost this new feature provides. Grand Theft Auto 5 Expanded & Enhances launches March 15 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
