I'm 100% over remakes/remasters for this decade.

[dosboot]

Remakes/remasters and their associated collections have exploded last decade, and it has formed unfortunate associations in my mind whenever I hear about a new one.

The default expectation is that they will be outsourced. The default expectation is that quality doesn't matter as much, because the reputation of the main series and the main developer isn't on the line. Graphics being better is a small selling point when it is true ("better resolution"), but a bigger decrement when it is false ("can't emulate fog or lighting effects correctly"). 2D games usually look worse if the art is redone (Secret of Mana, Actraiser, Langrisser.. YMMV, I'm nostalgic for the old look in these cases). 3D models and animation have about an equal chance of looking worse if they are significantlly altered. Games often have other miscellaneous changes that are mildly annoying. Mobile UI and mobile fonts. Changing bosses or core mechanics in Majora's Mask. Bad controller sensitivity or controller mappings. Tweaking stats for weapons and items when there is no discernible need.

Old games are normally very playable without any improvements, so it is sad to see them suffer cuts and bruises by being brought forward to the present. In some cases, it's more like doing misguided plastic surgery on someone who was perfectly fine to begin with.

I know there are economic and technical reasons why they can't just "re-release" old games at a low cost. It's a barrier to faithful porting and a barrier to just re-releasing everything. But we now know what it takes to get over that barrier. Namely: a shaky relationship between how remakes/remasters are presented with lots of pride and excitement vs what they can actually bring to the table as commercial product.

The lesson for me is to be cautiously suspicious and averse by default.

Addendum: A very nice but very small part of the remake/remaster/repackage swarm are actually new games in disguise, like FF7R, RE2:Remake, or Metroid Zero Mission. It was a historical mistake not to put these "super remakes" in a separate category from the others.

 

[Sarge]

Yeah, I feel like the remakes that are effectively new games almost need a new billing - they're a reimagining more than remake, and some of them (I haven't played RE2:R but the other two are fantastic) really hit a home run.

I wanted the Devil May Cry collection for a long time, and then I saw a comparison video and some of the effects that were lost in the transition. It really opened my eyes to the fact that a remaster may not actually be superior to the original version. I know there are some that are, but I agree with you that especially today you have to be very careful - companies don't always take the care they should in the process.

 

[Sprite]

imo the crown jewel of remasters is M2’s Phantasy Star, which took a game I’d never been able to stomach before and turn it into something delightful without sacrificing an ounce of what people liked about the original game.

Though of course that’s an old 2D game. The further we get along in hardware the harder these things will be to get right. Even just a ROM in an emulator takes a lot of work to look good, as the N64 games on Switch have shown.

I’m not sure what the solution is, because “just play the original version” gets less and less practical as old hardware dies and newer hardware becomes harder to emulate. I guess the only real solution is to try and future-proof games to make them easier to port, but I’m sure that comes with its own set of trade offs.

 

[Kazin]

The problem for me is there are so few new games I actually care about, so it's mostly remasters/remakes for me or emulate the old stuff. Though I suppose that's my problem, I guess.

 

[MetManMas]

I’m not sure what the solution is, because “just play the original version” gets less and less practical as old hardware dies and newer hardware becomes harder to emulate.

This is exactly why I'm fine with remasters.

Like, I'm not thrilled by the imperfections like losing effects or screwing up lighting or whatnot, and ideally we would have perfect emulations of these games. But compared to books, audio, and recorded footage, video games have one of the biggest barriers to entry with all the different dang formats they have to be custom designed to be compatible with. Closest we've got to a universal platform is PC and even that's not perfect and still requires an upgrade every few years.

So when Pac-Man or REmake inevitably gets rereleased for the billionth time on the newest game box I'm fine with that. Devil May Cry may have messed-up lighting and Final Fantasy X may have a dumber looking Tidus model, but at least they can be played without having to acquire an old PS2 and hunt for discs that aren't too scratched up.

 

[dosboot]

I don't have bad feelings per se about playing old games via the modern remake/repackage option. When the remake/repackage is adequate and more convenient, I'm happy enough to buy it or at least consider it. Sometimes the best option is a sum of plusses and minuses -- that's life.

I'm over giving companies credit for these kind of initiatives and announcements due to gradually accumulating too many negative associations about the whole industry subcategory. If the only way to make a viable product is using a 3rd party studio that doesn't have enough time or concern, you aren't getting accolades and attention about your product announcement as if it was a real effort by the parent company. This industry subcategory needs to learn to live with a lower status.

 

[ArugulaZ]

It's all feeling rather retread at this point. Even sequels are more of the same, albeit with some tweaks to the gameplay.

This whole Smart Delivery thing offers a new wrinkle to the concept of remasters, effectively making them redundant. If you want to get a version of Dirt 5 or Yakuza: Like a Dragon that's optimized for next generation consoles, hang on to the last gen copy you've already got, and you'll automatically get the improved version when you upgrade. Definitely a better deal than shelling out for the "definitive" edition.

 

[chud_666]

Best game of the year is Mass Effect Legendary

 

[Phantoon]

I'm ok with remasters or remakes that have an iota of care, but mostly that's not what we've got. The Grand Theft Auto remaster was breath-takingly incompetent for a recent example.

 

[MetManMas]

In GTA's case I get the impression that Rockstar rushed the trilogy out the door before they were ready 'cuz they'll be damned if they're gonna miss out on those Black Friday and X-mas sales. A lot of stuff about the initial release screams "These were obviously unfinished/placeholder assets".

 

[Patrick]

Best game of the year is Mass Effect Legendary

I keep thinking about picking up ME or Dark Souls, even though I own them on PS3. My PS3 is even hooked up right now. So, even though I agree that there are way too many remasters, apparently it's a good business practice.

 

[chud_666]

I keep thinking about picking up ME or Dark Souls, even though I own them on PS3. My PS3 is even hooked up right now. So, even though I agree that there are way too many remasters, apparently it's a good business practice.

I get ya

But

ME added all the DLC, much of which I didn't play, and is somewhat essential. And updating to 4k is nothing to sneeze at. I know not all of these remasters are so hot, but having stuff playing well, or better than on original hardware is awesome.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

Yeah, I actually am all for remasters. My original Wii is broken, the PS3 has been repaired twice, I haven't turned the Xbox 360 on in many years. Remasters for current systems let me try marginal upgrades to games I wouldn't mind playing again but that I don't want to hook a whole system up for (or in the case of Xenoblade Chronicles or Skyward Sword, never really played in the first place), and save on cabinet space and cable spaghetti at the same time. I especially like them for PC, where my Steam account persists from machine to machine. Mass Effect Legendary Edition cost me less to buy than the DLC I was missing from the PC versions I already had would have cost. And it helps keep older games and series relevant.

 

[Paul le Fou]

This whole Smart Delivery thing offers a new wrinkle to the concept of remasters, effectively making them redundant. If you want to get a version of Dirt 5 or Yakuza: Like a Dragon that's optimized for next generation consoles, hang on to the last gen copy you've already got, and you'll automatically get the improved version when you upgrade.

This should become an industry standard, frankly.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

I prefer remakes to take the Criterion Collection or Shout Factory treatment. Gussy up the visuals and sound a bit, make it run well on an HD monitor, throw in some neat bonuses like behind the scenes. But don’t alter the gameplay. At least without an option to play the original version. It’s a finished work and I want to experience it like it was originally meant to be, warts and all. Don’t try to make boss fights “better” by adding new elements to them, ala Majora’s Mask 3D. There’s some humor that won’t fly now? You‘ve got to own that shit instead of trying to pretend it never happened. Art (and also video games) is messy and full of bad choices, but that makes things stand out.

 

[ArugulaZ]

This should become an industry standard, frankly.

Personally, I was surprised that Microsoft went in this direction. The video game industry has become about profit first and customer satisfaction, uh... fourth, if you're generous. The first two years of the Xbox One and PS4 were dominated by remasters, which must have been an easy way for publishers to dip their toes into the next generation without spending much money. Did it matter that gamers had already played these titles and that these very familiar experiences were only getting a 1080p spit-polish and maybe some DLC baked into the disc? Not particularly, it would seem, since they just kept coming. It was easy money.

Now along comes Microsoft and decides that last generation games should come with the next generation versions, too. What's their angle? I'm assuming they've done this for two reasons. The first is that Microsoft fudged it with the Xbox One and desperately needs to catch up to its competition. The second is that it fits with the company's recent push toward preservation and backward compatibility. Smart Delivery is just another way of strengthening the connections between console generations. If you bought the last Xbox, or the Xbox before that, or the Xbox before that, you're not going to be forced to start a collection from scratch when you buy the latest one. It's ostensibly a very pro-customer move, and one likely calculated to bring a lot of lapsed Xbox fans back into the fold.

That customer-friendly attitude could change in the future if Microsoft hires another jackass like Don Mattrick, but right now, the company's current business strategy makes the Xbox Series a lot more tempting for me than the Playstation 5. Microsoft is publicly asking the question, "Why should you have to start from scratch when you buy a new game system?," and I'm inclined to agree with them.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Doesn't Sony do this too, at least for a few of the games that are out on both PS4 and PS5?

I think one issue too is that Microsoft and its gaming ecosystem is a little more closely tied into the PC, where this has become essentially a non-issue. I can go into my steam library and play a game I got ten years ago just as easily as a game I got today. Heck, it might even look or run better than it originally did on my newer computer! Not a full remaster-level resolution upgrade or anything, but in sometimes you can crank the performance up much higher than you did before (e.g. I had to play Dark Souls 3 on low settings at first; on my new computer I can crank them all to max and run smoother than the old one did at low). In a few cases you can even get it running better than the console version's performance (depends on how they ported/developed it.)

So I don't know how universal it is or isn't, but I know you can put the Xbox games app on your pc and download games to your library, shared between PC and Xbox. If they haven't gotten to this point yet (I haven't been playing close attention), I imagine it's not long before the console and the PC are basically 100% crossplay, where an xbox becomes literally just a small specialized gaming PC. Maybe the next Xbox generation does this.

In the other direction, we also see Steam's attempts to get into the console market with their Steam Deck - the lines have been blurring for a while now, but in the last couple years they've gotten blurrier than ever.

And I gotta say, the Switch shortages around launch and the beginning of the pandemic, the apparent difficulty finding the OLED, and of course the PS5 where we're over a fucking year from launch and still scrabbling at store trackers for the chance to get one... Having a more universal platform sounds better every day. Or at least platform continuity. Gotta say that if whatever Nintendo does after Switch comes out and my library doesn't transfer over, I'm going to feel quite cross.

 

[fanboymaster]

Sony's strategy for PS4 to PS5 upgrades is to have no consistent strategy at all even for first party titles. Some games have free upgrade patches, some have nominal fee paid upgrades. For Horizon 2 they even doubled back from the initial promise of a free upgrade, claimed there would be no upgrade path outside buying the game a second time, then when people were pissed switched to "nominal fee".

 

[YangusKhan]

Insomniac's Spider-Man is a pretty egregious example of how this industry classifies "remaster" and also illustrative of Sony's PS4 -> PS5 upgrade non-policy. The PS4 game came out in September 2018, and then with the release of Miles Morales in November 2020, they also bundled in Spider-Man "Remastered" exclusively for PS5 (the PS4 version of Spider-Man has nominally better performance and stuff if played on a PS5, but it is distinct from the Remastered version). But my other point is that there's only a 2 year gap between the original release and the "Remaster" which just seems a bit silly to me (obviously it's because they want to make more money and have to call the upgrade something).

 

[Torzelbaum]

And 'greedy cash grab version' would be honest but probably not good marketing.

 

[Kazin]

I also have low expectations for these, it seems, because I seem to be the only one who had a ball with the GTA San Andreas port on Switch lol

 

[Vaeran]

(obviously it's because they want to make more money and have to call the upgrade something).

Spider-Man: Rewebbed
Spider-Man: Game of The Two Years Ago Edition
Spider-Man: Twice Bitten
Spider-Man: I Want Remasters! Remasters of Spider-Man!

 

[Torzelbaum]

He's a remenace!

 

[chud_666]

Spider-Man: Rewebbed
Spider-Man: Game of The Two Years Ago Edition
Spider-Man: Twice Bitten
Spider-Man: I Want Remasters! Remasters of Spider-Man!

Spider-Remaster Saga

 

[Ludendorkk]

I prefer remakes to take the Criterion Collection or Shout Factory treatment. Gussy up the visuals and sound a bit, make it run well on an HD monitor, throw in some neat bonuses like behind the scenes. But don’t alter the gameplay. At least without an option to play the original version. It’s a finished work and I want to experience it like it was originally meant to be, warts and all. Don’t try to make boss fights “better” by adding new elements to them, ala Majora’s Mask 3D. There’s some humor that won’t fly now? You‘ve got to own that shit instead of trying to pretend it never happened. Art (and also video games) is messy and full of bad choices, but that makes things stand out.

Honestly "upgrading" the visuals is a crapshoot half the time, prefer they not even do that

 

[Issun]

Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Does Whatever A Remastered Spider Can

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Spider-Man: The Great Puddle War

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

In the 1940s, they were remaking popular movies from the 1920s in Hollywood. In music, they've called them 'remixes' or 'covers' for longer than any of us have been alive. This is just what media has always done.