Fuck Remastered Remakes

[Baron von Blitztank]

I was quite young going into the PS2 era so naturally I missed out on a lot of titles because I wasn't even aware they existed or they simply weren't to my interest back then. Now my tastes have branched out a lot more and there are a lot of games I've been wanting to play that I missed out on the first time around and are no longer in distribution. So I'm glad that HD Remakes exist, so I can play the likes of Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3, Metal Gear Solid 3, Zone of The Enders 2, Devil May Cry 3, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X without having to search high and low for a decent copy on eBay.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Here's a question; how many HD rereleases are worked on by the original team?

Because I'm not sure that I'd want any tweak to the base game - if that were possible - done by anyone who's not the original team; because these things could happen regardless of necessity, it is *highly* subjective.

Even then, look at George Lucas. Sometimes even the director of a project doesn't know what's best for it in hindsight.

HD remakes are for people who either cannot play the originals anymore, or who never played the originals; these are perfectly valid markets to serve, and preserving the greatest games of earlier generations is something that I can get behind.

Admittedly, I don't think the jump from Xbox360/PS3-Xbone/PS4 is large enough to really bother doing this with - see Last of Us/Tomb Raider/Sleeping Dogs, which is maybe where I can agree with you, especially considering that most HD remasters I've seen include up to three games for full price (DMC, Metal Gear Solid, Jak & Daxter, Sly Raccoon, Hitman etc).

I think your example of the Master Chief Collection is an anomaly, is what I'm saying.

 

[SaikyoKid]

To add another example of graphical updates being just fine, look at what happened to Conker's Bad Fur day when it wend from the 64 to the XBox. A huge chunk of the game was now bleeped out, and I remember the multiplayer being fiddled with and not for the better.

I typically don't do the re-release scene one way or the other honestly, but basic graphic updates are perfectly fine by me.

 

[Vault101]

maybe we need some clarification?

[b/]remaster[/b]- take the exact same thing and polish it up, the intention is to be "restorative" (eg: rise of the triad)

[b/]remake[/b]- take it and make it again with whatever modern spin on you want (DMC)

[b/]reboot[/b]- take a long running franchise and start over, essentially the same as a remake but the emphasis is put on a series and/or the intention to continue your current line (Tomb Raider 2013)

 

[Xathos]

I quite liked the remasters of Kingdom Hearts (only played 1.5 so far), and found it to be very much worth my money. Actually, I think Square Enix puts out pretty good remasters in general.

My only problem with Remasters is that if it involves a collection, that sometimes more effort is put into one game than the others. Better sound, redone themes/models/textures, added gameplay tweaks, etc. Going from one version that you can tell was worked on a little longer is annoying as I prefer an even playing field for every game on the collection as much as possible.

But there are remasters out there that aren't so well done. I don't usually play them that often, so I can't say which ones are considered "bad", but I'm sure there's a list somewhere out there on the internet.

I do sort of wish more remasters wouldn't mind tweaking existing cutscenes or adding new ones/fixing some old ones. Sometimes games go on for X years, and I'm sure some of them couldn't account for the direction they would eventually go in. It'd be nice so see a better consistency. However, that's really just something of a wish of mine, and not one that really determines if I get a remaster or not. I'm sure there is a limit of how much time and money they are willing to spend on a remaster of a game/set of games.

Sorry to hear about your disappointment with Halo though.

 

[Dansen]

Halo 2 is a frankly bizarre update. Even Bungie admitted that they didn't like the Brute AI in the game and that the Brutes in Halo 3 was where they wanted them to be. On the other hand I think I would be annoyed if they changed all of the AI in the game (which they would by necessity), it's a worthy sacrifice I suppose.

The audio is recycled from Halo 4 in the new graphics, and the pre-rendered cutscenes don't add anything other than to give us sometimes interesting new camera angles (my current avatar is proof of this). Plus they changed the music. Of all the things you could fix in Halo 2, why the fuck did you go for something that wasn't broken? I had to do the Heretic Banshee and the MotA bit with old graphics because of that ear poison they put in.

Halo 2's multiplayer, on the other hand, needed updating. I was never a big fan and the shitty hit detection hasn't been fixed. Thankfully there are Halo 3 playlists in Multiplayer.

I guess fixing some bugs means that you have to fix all of them for fairness, and some bugs actually contributed to the experience.

Marty O'Donnell(composer for halo games) is as much a part of the franchise as MC. Makes you wonder why Microsoft bothered making more halos in the first place with out his help.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I think the reason you see more HD remaster versions of games than full on remakes is because they are simply cheaper and easier to make just upscale everything dosent matter that it wont be true HD just min max that profit margin.

Thats not to say HD remasters are bad they definitely have a place but you need to know what the fans of the series i.e your immediate potential costumers want if they want a full on remake a HD remaster is not going to please them especially if you big it up so to speak im immediately reminded of the recent FF7 HD announcement (I dont know why they thought it needed any special announcement or build up) and to a lesser extent Darkstalkers.

Sometimes people just want the old game pretty much but with some new functions like SC2 and its HD treatment (upscaled) I dont think anyone had a problem with the way they handled the HD part of it now the online part yeah it sucked and was borderline unplayable which cut the game time down for a lot of people as essentially a lot of people then just had a slightly prettier game many had most likely previously played to death.

But as I have said the reason publishers dont want to do remakes is because remaking a revered game requires a lot of time effort and crucially money (if the games not revered then it probably wont get remade) and slapping a HD skin on it is way cheaper and ofc you dont risk messing up the game although it still may not be something people asked for or even want. Id imagine Devs would not be fond of full on remakes because your just retreading old ground so unless you have a huge fondness for the original it probably would not be that exciting for you.

 

[kilenem]

The counter argument to not Fixing bugs, would be the OP pistol in Halo 1 was freakin awesome. Also the Multiplayer Components stay the same. I don't think the game plays the same if you rebuild it from the ground up.

To be fair, the Pistol didn't have a whole bunch of ammunition laying around, so most likely you gonna get it shot down a banshee or two and pick up another weapon.

You can setup the game so you start with the pistol. At least on the PC version.