Whats the deal with remakes?

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josemlopes

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So, recently there have been a lot of remakes announced, Halo CE, Metal Gear, those games from Team Ico, and the recently launched Zelda: OoT. And I think to myself, "WHY?".

Look, these games are still perfectly playable, and even if they werent these remakes arent fixing those issues. They are just releasing the same exact thing with a visual upgrade (well, some of them) and unless they look ugly enough to ruin the experience I dont see the point of doing a remake.

Deus Ex, for example, as aged quite a bit

Lets take Halo for a moment now, the original game still looks great, it has those simple graphics that never try to be incredibly realistic, its like the Unreal games, even though they are old they still manage to look good. Its like most Nintendo games, their visuals are simple but yet they manage to not look ugly.

It changes everything

What is the point of this remake? This particular remake only has one strong point, and even then it could be solved with DLC. Playing the original multiplayer maps online is the only strong point that I see on this particular remake. The original game didnt had online (the console version at least).


And now the Zelda remake, it got a lot of positive reviews and a good reception but I dont know why. Should we praise the work of a team that basicly only copied a game that was made a long time ago.

Yes, now I can enjoy that game that I enjoyed many years ago

Should we really like the fact that instead of having people come up with new things (even if they are from the same franchise) we have them doing things that were already made.

Maybe its just me but it seems that remakes are starting to become famous nowadays and I just dont see the point of such things.

Remakes should be about turning the original product (that would be outdated) into to something up to date. It isnt a reboot, just fixing what was making the game unplayable now (if the graphics are ruining the experience then they could think of making a remake to make the experience good again by fixing the graphics).

What are your opinions about this?

EDIT

A lot of people came up with the argument that "it brought the game to new players", but I still feel that only in those remakes where it actually improves the experience (like the Resident Evil remake that the user Wayneguard pointed out) could use this argument in their defense.

If a game is outdated then new players will have a hard time adjusting to the game, thats for sure, but if the game is not outdated (like Psychonauts, which I recently bought and played for the first time) the player will feel confortable with the game, the game itself will feel like it was released recently (with the exception of graphics of course).

Why is there a reason for those new players to become interested in the remake if they werent interested on the perfectly playable original version? What I see is that most of the people that will buy the remake are going to be the people that bought the original one unless the remake changes what was before a deal breaker for the new players.

I dont believe that the graphics (that like I said, are still good) are enough to become deal breakers.
 

Simple Bluff

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I don't see any harm in it really. Especially for those who weren't lucky enough to play the origonal and/or they don't have the console for it anymore.
 

tlozoot

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Hmm. Well it offers classic games to newer audiences, which can only ever be a good thing. I think it's harmless really, though I do agree that there seems to be an awful lot of remakes around recently.
 

Erana

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Well, first off, its guaranteed money.

Second,
tlozoot said:
Hmm. Well it offers classic games to newer audiences, which can only ever be a good thing.
This, which is great,

Third, it offers the option for ret-cons. Not always, but in some story-heavy games, you can ret-con things to make better sense with the current status-quo of the game. I can't remember which game I'm thinking of at the moment, just mind's eye visuals of the stills.

Still, looking at that Halo:RE image, I'm glad to see they haven't spoiled it with so much godddamned brown.
 

Wayneguard

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Your comparison pics are fucking hilarious. Fucking... hilarious. You're right about this latest crop of remakes; however, some games desperately beg for a remake. The Resident Evil 1 remake on the gamecube is THE finest example of remake quality. It brought the "so bad it's good" resident evil into the modern age while simultaneously fixing EVERYTHING that was wrong with the first game (mainly graphics and voice acting). They added new content (new areas and the trevor sublot) as well. Now all we need are remakes of 2 and 3 :D But you're right, halo: CE remake... seriously?
 

scorptatious

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I don't mind them personally. I mean there are a bunch of original games out there to make up for their existence. Also, they give people who haven't had the chance to play the original experience it for themselves.

OOT I could probably understand, as you can simply buy the original for $10 on the Wii's virtual console. I do have to say though, the polished environments and new character designs in the 3DS version look absolutely fantastic. They almost make want to get a 3DS. Almost. Plus I heard with the touch screen, it makes selecting items a lot easier. So I would say that's a bit of an improvement.
 

josemlopes

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Wayneguard said:
Your comparison pics are fucking hilarious. Fucking... hilarious. You're right about this latest crop of remakes; however, some games desperately beg for a remake. The Resident Evil 1 remake on the gamecube is THE finest example of remake quality. It brought the "so bad it's good" resident evil into the modern age while simultaneously fixing EVERYTHING that was wrong with the first game (mainly graphics and voice acting). They added new content (new areas and the trevor sublot) as well. Now all we need are remakes of 2 and 3 :D But you're right, halo: CE remake... seriously?
I guess that would be a good remake, the first couple of Resident Evil games are very outdated and there are a lot of stuff that could be fixed
 

Simeon Ivanov

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tlozoot said:
Hmm. Well it offers classic games to newer audiences, which can only ever be a good thing. I think it's harmless really, though I do agree that there seems to be an awful lot of remakes around recently.
Agreed. I'd love to play some Mario or Megaman or Castlevania (I´ve never had a Nintendo console)

And also yes, there ARE a lot or remakes these days ... are we running out of ideas?
 

G-Force

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A remake gets to "set right" the wrongs that the first game did. When Atlus released Persona 1 and 2 both games were censored and Americanized at laughable levels. Persona 2 only had one of the two games translated meanwhile Persona 1 had the cast get name changes and one character was edited to be black. In addition to these changes the titles were very difficult to find so the only way you were able to get the true experience you'd have to download the game and install a translation patch.

When Persona 3 came out people finally started taking an interest in the older titles. What Atlus did with their remakes was to put them out in the way they were intended to be that way players would get the true experience.
 

josemlopes

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Simeon Ivanov said:
tlozoot said:
Hmm. Well it offers classic games to newer audiences, which can only ever be a good thing. I think it's harmless really, though I do agree that there seems to be an awful lot of remakes around recently.
Agreed. I'd love to play some Mario or Megaman or Castlevania (I´ve never had a Nintendo console)

And also yes, there ARE a lot or remakes these days ... are we running out of ideas?
Your case isnt solved with remakes, if you want to play Mario you have to buy a Nintendo (it doesnt matter which one, there are Marios everywhere lol), Megaman games I dont know for sure, I think that they are still being made, they are new titles and not remakes. Castlevania recently got a new game (not a remake) for the XBLA (and maybe PSN, dont know).

Either way, the games that you said have sequels instead of remakes and its not that I love sequels but I do prefer them over remakes, unless the original game is a pain to play due to out dated features like I said on my first post.

I also think that for those games that can only be played on an old console the solution would be porting the game instead of remaking the whole thing. You can play Zelda on the Wii so it isnt that the game isnt open for new players. Halo CE is on the XBL Marketplace too, if anyone wants to play it they still can, they dont need the original Xbox. I recently bought Psychonauts for the Xbox 360, they didnt need to make a remake for me to buy the game, it is still perfectly playable and I enjoyed it.
 

Simeon Ivanov

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josemlopes said:
Your case isnt solved with remakes, if you want to play Mario you have to buy a Nintendo (it doesnt matter which one, there are Marios everywhere lol), Megaman games I dont know for sure, I think that they are still being made, they are new titles and not remakes. Castlevania recently got a new game (not a remake) for the XBLA (and maybe PSN, dont know).
If I had enough money I would't be having this discussion right now. I don't own a console. I wanna play Castlevania 3 HD on my PC, or the new Sonic on my PC! Why does it always have to be consoles -.-
 

SammiYin

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Is it so bad that classics are being brought out to people who may not have played them, lost their original or their older console no longer works?
 

josemlopes

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Simeon Ivanov said:
josemlopes said:
Your case isnt solved with remakes, if you want to play Mario you have to buy a Nintendo (it doesnt matter which one, there are Marios everywhere lol), Megaman games I dont know for sure, I think that they are still being made, they are new titles and not remakes. Castlevania recently got a new game (not a remake) for the XBLA (and maybe PSN, dont know).
If I had enough money I would't be having this discussion right now. I don't own a console. I wanna play Castlevania 3 HD on my PC, or the new Sonic on my PC! Why does it always have to be consoles -.-
Ah, I see, but that is a diferent issue, it still sucks though.
 

lvl9000_woot

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I've already played/beaten/enjoyed Halo and Zelda 64. I'm NOT paying to play the same game again. Hell, I even have an original xbox and a working N64 to play them on.
 

josemlopes

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SammiYin said:
Is it so bad that classics are being brought out to people who may not have played them, lost their original or their older console no longer works?
Most of these classics that are having the "remake" treatement are available right now.

Halo CE is on the XBL Marketplace for 19.99$, the remake will be more expensive.

Zelda Ocarina of Time is on the Wii (or something like that, I dont have a Wii so I dont know for sure how it works but look at scorptatious comment) and it costs around 10$. The remake is more expensive.

Dont know about the other ones but you get my point, a lot of these remakes dont have a lot of justifications to exist, other then the money of course.
 

SammiYin

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josemlopes said:
SammiYin said:
Is it so bad that classics are being brought out to people who may not have played them, lost their original or their older console no longer works?
Most of these classics that are having the "remake" treatement are available right now.

Halo CE is on the XBL Marketplace for 19.99$, the remake will be more expensive.

Zelda Ocarina of Time is on the Wii (or something like that, I dont have a Wii so I dont know for sure how it works but look at scorptatious comment) and it costs around 10$. The remake is more expensive.

Dont know about the other ones but you get my point, a lot of these remakes dont have a lot of justifications to exist, other then the money of course.
That's a fair point, I guess a lot of these don't have any real justification then.
I think we may be entering a decade of remakes, in all mediums. Just look at spiderman, barely 10 years and we're getting that remade.
 

josemlopes

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That's the postmodern crisis, or really to be more fair the fear: That all the great ideas have already been thought, all the great songs have been sung and books have been written. We're all just stuck on a hamster wheel of intellectual regurgitation. Break the cycle!
 

Tsaba

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It's been said before and I'll say it again:
 

Thaluikhain

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Same reason movie franchises are forever being remade, rebooted, and otherwise rendered down. It's a quick easy way to make money, with only the minor drawback of pissing off the fans, who will still buy the next half-arsed franchise killer anyway.