The Remake Boom

[CritialGaming]

Jim Sterling dropped an interesting video this morning about Remakes and why they are not only so popular lately, but how they also seem to be overshadowing much of the "new" game releases that the AAA game's industry is pumping out like viscus pus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZcHLliNjI4&t=0s

It got me thinking that maybe he is right. As you all are aware by now, I am unhealthily excited for the FF7 Remake. A big part of that is my decades long love for the game, but after watching Jim's video i looked through the rest of 2020's releases. Sure there are games I am interested in and games I want to play, but none of them are of a level of interest as even RE2 was last year let alone FF7.

Maybe I am excited for FF7 and RE3, more because the majority of game releases don't scratch those same itches that games used to scratch anymore. I mean, after playing the Demo, The remake is NOT the FF7 I know and love, but I can be sure that the game will hit that JRPG itch that not many other games can scratch.

So my question to ya'll is this.

Are you excited for one of these remakes? If so are you more excited for a remake over a brand new game or sequel? Why?

 

[Yoshi178]

old games are better than the majority of the new crap developers like to shit out these days which is why i'm way more excited for W101 Remastered and Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition over new stuff like Animal Crossing and Bayonetta 3

 

[Trunkage]

old games are better than the majority of the new crap developers like to shit out these days which is why i'm way more excited for W101 Remastered and Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition over new stuff like Animal Crossing and Bayonetta 3

Some old games are better. The vast majority were shite and totally forgotten now. It's like movies. People pretend that a certain decade was awesome for movies, while completely ignoring the vast majority of movies that were just the worst. Or worse still.. mediocre

Have you heard of Series 7? Frailty? Day of Wrath? Fallen? Because those are just the ones I can quickly remember and there are probably plenty more that fit into this category.

 

[Hawki]

Are you excited for one of these remakes?

RE3.

If so are you more excited for a remake over a brand new game or sequel?

I guess - if I had to rank my level of anticipation for games I've either pre-ordered or have set money aside for, it'll go:

1) Resident Evil 3

2) Doom Eternal

3) Halo Infinite

Why?

Because RE3 looks to be the best of the bunch. I have too many misgivings about Doom 2016 to be hyped for Doom Eternal, and I'm gambling on the game to fix those issues. Halo Infinite, conversely, is a game I have misgivings about due to knowing practically nothing about it less than a year from release (and what I do know concerns me), coupled with reported behind the scenes drama at 343. RE3 is the 'safest' of those games, but coming off RE2, which was far better than I expected, I have hope for it.

That said, I think a distinction needs to be made between remakes and re-releases/remasters. RE2/3 and FF7 are 'proper remakes' in the sense that they've been built from the ground up into distinct entries in their series. Stuff like, I dunno, the Crash and Spyro trilogies, while neat, are still just reskins. And if you think remakes automatically trump current stuff, let me point you in the direction of the clusterfuck that was Warcraft III: Reforged.

 

[BrawlMan]

old games are better than the majority of the new crap developers like to shit out these days which is why i'm way more excited for W101 Remastered and Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition over new stuff like Animal Crossing and Bayonetta 3

Some old games are better. The vast majority were shite and totally forgotten now. It's like movies. People pretend that a certain decade was awesome for movies, while completely ignoring the vast majority of movies that were just the worst. Or worse still.. mediocre

Have you heard of Series 7? Frailty? Day of Wrath? Fallen? Because those are just the ones I can quickly remember and there are probably plenty more that fit into this category.

Exactly. It's just another case of 90% of everything is crap. Speaking of remakes, y'all got to play Ninja Warriors Once Again! There are physical version online you can but on PS4/Switch (without importing, if you wish). This is how you do a remake of a 16-bit game! It adds two new characters that play completely different from the original trio.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I'm not really excited for most of these remake unless they are games I haven't played yet. I played RE2 Remake because it was new to me (I only ever played RE4 in the series), I'm not really looking forward to RE3 because it'll probably be more of the same really.

I want NEW GAMES, NEW IPs for the most part. I really only care about sequels to games I absolutely loved.

old games are better than the majority of the new crap developers like to shit out these days which is why i'm way more excited for W101 Remastered and Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition over new stuff like Animal Crossing and Bayonetta 3

You gotta leave to the AAA landscape to find good games, there's quite a few of them out there.

Have you heard of Fallen?

How could you have NOT heard of Fallen, Denzel and John Fucking Goodman...

Time is on my side, yes it is
Time is on my side, yes it is

 

[Yoshi178]

old games are better than the majority of the new crap developers like to shit out these days which is why i'm way more excited for W101 Remastered and Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition over new stuff like Animal Crossing and Bayonetta 3

You gotta leave to the AAA landscape to find good games, there's quite a few of them out there.

Such as...?

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

old games are better than the majority of the new crap developers like to shit out these days which is why i'm way more excited for W101 Remastered and Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition over new stuff like Animal Crossing and Bayonetta 3

You gotta leave to the AAA landscape to find good games, there's quite a few of them out there.

Such as...?

So many...

Disco Elysium
Outer Wilds
Divinity series
Shadow Tactics
Return of the Obra Dinn
Baba is You
Shadowruns
What Remains of Edith Finch
Stardew Valley (better Harvest Moon)
Temtem (better Pokemon)
Cities: Skylines (better Sim City)
Shovel Knight
Hollow Knight
Hotline Miami
Superhot
Celeste
A Plague Tale
Invisible Inc.
Factorio
Journey
Undertale
Rocket League
Videoball
And probably every single game listed in the Roguelike thread here like a month back...
And tons more...

And you can count stuff like the new Hitmans and Senua's Sacrifice of former AAA devs making better games on non-AAA budgets.

 

[Yoshi178]

^ i lol'd

 

[Squilookle]

old games are better than the majority of the new crap developers like to shit out these days which is why i'm way more excited for W101 Remastered and Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition over new stuff like Animal Crossing and Bayonetta 3

Some old games are better. The vast majority were shite and totally forgotten now.

The difference is, back then there was far more variety. Way more developers bringing out all sorts of varied games that tested new ground. Some of it worked, some didn't. But even the flops informed everyone how to avoid those mistakes and make better games.

These days, you've got the mega corporations so frightened about their bottom line they make safe, bland games that don't innovate on anything (especially because they're just copying the same game from the year before), the creative but shoestring budget indie scene, and a huge gulf inbetween where the AA game market used to be, where most of the best games used to come from.

Jim is right. the popularity these remakes of older, quality, complete games is a downright embarrassment to the current game industry in general.

 

[Yoshi178]

Also things like Shovel Knight and Baba is you are indie titles. Not AAA titles

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

^ i lol'd

Also things like Shovel Knight and Baba is you are indie titles. Not AAA titles

I LOLed that the most highly rated game on the Switch last was year was Divinity Original Sin 2; not, you know, Fire Emblem.

I said you need to LEAVE the AAA landscape for good games. Trying new things is good.

 

[Hawki]

These days, you've got the mega corporations so frightened about their bottom line they make safe, bland games that don't innovate on anything (especially because they're just copying the same game from the year before), the creative but shoestring budget indie scene, and a huge gulf inbetween where the AA game market used to be, where most of the best games used to come from.

I think the AA market is still there - PlatinumGames, THQ Nordic, Ninja Theory, Team Ninja, Obsidian, etc. There's plenty of stuff that exists in-between the two sides of the spectrum, or at least is cited as doing so.

I said you need to LEAVE the AAA landscape for good games. Trying new things is good.

I know this isn't directed at me, but the whole "try new things" argument either forgets or ignores the facts of life at times.

Here's some facts - one, videogames are, in general, a huge time investment. They're not cheap either. So if I'm given some money with the proviso that I can buy either Original Sin or Three Houses (for argument's sake, let's assume I have a Switch), I'll probably go for Three Houses. Why? Because these are both RPG series (RPGs are amongst the most time investment genres there are in the medium), and I already like Fire Emblem, while Divinity is, for me, an unknown quantity. So I can either spend that money on a game I'll probably like, or a game that I have no idea if I'll like. Yes, Divinity might be the better game, it might have stellar reviews, but in this context, I'm taking a huge risk in hedging my bets on it.

Point is, I'm wary of harping on people for going to the familiar, regardless of medium. Variety is great and all, and good media would ideally be rewarded, but in the real world, time and money are limited assets. And speaking personally, it's why I'm very wary of RPGs these days because while I generally enjoy them, they're a huge time investment.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I said you need to LEAVE the AAA landscape for good games. Trying new things is good.

I know this isn't directed at me, but the whole "try new things" argument either forgets or ignores the facts of life at times.

Here's some facts - one, videogames are, in general, a huge time investment. They're not cheap either. So if I'm given some money with the proviso that I can buy either Original Sin or Three Houses (for argument's sake, let's assume I have a Switch), I'll probably go for Three Houses. Why? Because these are both RPG series (RPGs are amongst the most time investment genres there are in the medium), and I already like Fire Emblem, while Divinity is, for me, an unknown quantity. So I can either spend that money on a game I'll probably like, or a game that I have no idea if I'll like. Yes, Divinity might be the better game, it might have stellar reviews, but in this context, I'm taking a huge risk in hedging my bets on it.

Point is, I'm wary of harping on people for going to the familiar, regardless of medium. Variety is great and all, and good media would ideally be rewarded, but in the real world, time and money are limited assets. And speaking personally, it's why I'm very wary of RPGs these days because while I generally enjoy them, they're a huge time investment.

There's also diminishing returns in playing the same type of game over and over again. I played COD4 quite a lot but in a few months, I had my fill and haven't played a COD since. You're first of [insert game series] is probably your favorite because it was fresh when you played it.

I get people don't want to waste money and they like familiar things, but I've gotten to the point where playing the same type of game is wasting money and more importantly time to me. I don't mind trying games even day 1 that look interesting because I can sell it if I don't like it (if you buy Divinity on the Switch, play a few hours and don't like it, you can sell it). There's also dev walkthroughs of games on Youtube prior to release usually that give you a great idea on how the game plays. I can already tell Baldur's Gate 3 is going to be great from a gameplay perspective because I watched the dev walkthrough of the game. Or just watching the 1st 5 minutes completely sold me on Disco Elysium.

I'm also very wary of RPGs because they are indeed the longest games while also having the lowest percentage of quality content. Just think about it; the quality of the combat is usually poor and you're usually fighting enemies for way more time in an RPG than a Platinum game and writing in games is really poor so the story is probably not the reason to play an RPG either. So many RPGs are not really RPGs, not about the role-playing, they're really just bad combat games that you play for 50+ hours hoping the story is something special, which is really low-percentage. The genre is at its best outside of combat yet devs focus on combat because it's easier than making great non-combat content. And Disco Elysium has no combat, it's all RPG [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSmZcN7AgHQ&feature=youtu.be&list=WL&t=2105] and that's why it's great.

 

[SupahEwok]

I don't watch videos, so maybe Sterling brings this up, maybe not. The game industry's growing preferences for remakes/remasters/reboots is only a part of the popular media landscape, all of which have been mining the past for the future as a growing movement since the turn of the millenium.

It's not a games-centric problem, but a broader cultural pattern.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I can't say I'm terrible excited for FF7, but then I don't have any nostalgic feelings for it. I'll still wanna check it out, but the demo didn't leave me as speechless as it seemed to have most other people. It was cool and all, but it generally felt like typical Square stuff, down to the awful voice acting.

I feel it's a bit presumptuous claiming FF7 and RE3 remake are the most anticipated games of this year because older games were better. Not only do we have games like Cyberpunk and Last of Us 2 drawing as much attention, but the fact that these remakes actually appear like they've had the work put into them is what I think has people the most excited. Even more so the fact that they look super cutting edge and shiny. I mean, would FF7 remake be as anticipated if it had a way more cartoony artstyle?

I don't know, maybe it's because I haven't been gripped by the FF7 remake hype that I feel this argument is a bit lost one me. Even RE3 remake, which I am very much looking forward to, hasn't gotten me as excited as Last of Us 2 or Ghost of Tsushima.

 

[Hawki]

You're first of [insert game series] is probably your favorite because it was fresh when you played it.

In my experience, that isn't really the case. Sometimes, yes, but sometimes, if not more times, no.

Just think about it; the quality of the combat is usually poor

Again, in my experience, not really.

It's usually incorrect to say I play RPGs FOR the combat, but combat in RPGs can still be fun. Actually, most of the time, it IS fun. Heck, there's RPG sub-genres that are arguably based mainly ON combat (e.g. ARPGs and SRPGs).

 

[sXeth]

You're first of [insert game series] is probably your favorite because it was fresh when you played it.

In my experience, that isn't really the case. Sometimes, yes, but sometimes, if not more times, no.

I literally just tried to think of games I've played in series, and I think Bioshock is the only I could think of where I liked the first one (which i Played first) over one of the later ones. (And depending how we construe "series", I'd take Bioshock over System Shock 2's janky mess anyday)

 

[Yoshi178]

You're first of [insert game series] is probably your favorite because it was fresh when you played it.

-Mario Sunshine > Mario 64 > Mario Galaxy 2> Odyssey> 3D World >>>>> Mario Galaxy
-Metroid Prime 2 > Metroid Prime 1 >>>> 3

those are just 2 examples where a sequel was better than both the older game in the franchise AND also better than the newer games. so no your statement isn't true.

 

[Hawki]

Ooh, we're doing lists? Okay.

Checks franchise list...

Spoiler

ADVANCE WARS

First Game: Advance Wars
Favourite Game: Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising

ARMY MEN

First Game: Army Men: Sarge's Heroes
Favourite Game: Army Men: Sarge's Heroes

BATTLEFIELD

First Game: Battlefield 1942
Favourite Game: Battlefield 2

BIOSHOCK

First Game: BioShock
Favourite Game: BioShock

CALL OF DUTY

First Game: Call of Duty
Favourite Game: Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

COMMAND AND CONQUER

First Game: Command and Conquer: Tiberian Dawn
Favourite Game: Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars

CRASH BANDICOOT

First Game: Crash Bandicoot
Favourite Game: Crash Bandicoot 2 or 3 (I dunno, they're just both better than 1)

DIABLO

First Game: Diablo II
Favourite Game: Diablo III

DOOM

First Game: Doom
Favourite Game: Doom 3

FIRE EMBLEM

First Game: Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword
Favourite Game: Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword

GEARS OF WAR

First Game: Gears of War
Favourite Game: Gears of War 2

GOLDEN SUN

First Game: Golden Sun: The Broken Seal
Favourite Game: Golden Sun: The Broken Seal

HALO

First Game: Halo: Combat Evolved
Favourite Game: Halo: Combat Evolved

HOUSE OF THE DEAD

First Game: The House of the Dead
Favourite Game: The House of the Dead 2

KILLZONE

First Game: Killzone
Favourite Game: Killzone 2

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

First Game: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Favourite Game: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

MARATHON

First Game: Marathon
Favourite Game: Marathon

MASS EFFECT

First Game: Mass Effect
Favourite Game: Mass Effect

METAL GEAR

First Game: Metal Gear Solid
Favourite Game: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

POKEMON

First Game: Gen 1
Favourite Game: Gen 2 (I mean, I like Gen 1 more, but Gen 2 is objectively better)

PRINCE OF PERSIA

First Game: Prince of Persia
Favourite Game: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

RESIDENT EVIL

First Game: Resident Evil (original)
Favourite Game: Resident Evil 4

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

First Game: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)
Favourite Game: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles

STARCRAFT

First Game: StarCraft
Favourite Game: StarCraft II

STAR FOX

First Game: Star Fox 64
Favourite Game: Star Fox 64

SUPER MARIO

First Game: Super Mario Land
Favourite Game: Super Mario 64

WARCRAFT

First Game: Warcraft III
Favourite Game: Warcraft III

So, that's not every franchise, but first game being my favourite is true about...33% of the time.

Huh. That's actually higher than I expected.

-Mario Sunshine > Mario 64 > Mario Galaxy 2> Odyssey> 3D World >>>>> Mario Galaxy

Okay, so, the last main Mario game I played was Sunshine, but out of curiosity, why is Galaxy 2 so much higher than Galaxy 1?