4 years into this generation, how do you feel about remasters?

[Jota typeZERO]

Pretty much indifferent. Honestly, I have hardly played any HD/3D remaster of all those what were released since the PS360 days; the only one I played was OoT 3D, and it was very well remastered, given that it is still the most glorified Zelda game to date. No offense about the "glorified" part, I'm not being subjective at all.

I just got the impression that the only kind of players who had a grudge with the remaster trend were those who already played them on their original release window, hence the discussions about The Wind Waker HD or similar treatments. Of course, some remasters could have tripped by some reason (for instance, Twilight Princess HD and RE4 HD Edition for the graphic changes, Majora's Mask 3D for major gameplay and artistic changes), but they are isolated cases at most. Unless we talk about just laziness -mostly unconfirmed, but still plausible- like with the ZOE and Silent Hill remasters.

In a more personal level, I didn't have a PS3 until 4-5 years ago, when I was finishing my High School studies. At first I was at fire with it (FC3 Blood Dragon, Vanquish, DmC), but as time passed and university was more harsher, I didn't touch the console for a very long time. I could rebuy another one, but I am more declined towards the PC and I'm neither very interested on PS4, so I'd prefer to see some PC remasters of those PS3 games I bought and haven't ever beaten (Tales of Xillia, Resonance of Fate).

 

[Kromeo]

The more of them the better

 

[FRANKEINSTEIN]

I love them. But for fuck's sake, price accordingly. I would have loved to play Bulletstorm again. $60? Fuck off! I see it's $20 now at Best Buy ($16 w/GCU), I'll buy now.

 

[ClintStevens]

I'm weird. I hate replaying games outside of a select few favorites, but I love remasters because it makes me feel like I'm experiencing something I love again for the first time. I understand they aren't for everybody though.

 

[Borshay]

why, if i may ask, exactly?
unless you just really enjoy paying for things you already own again.
dead space BC more than satiated my will of replaying the series, had a great time with zero expense. wouldn't buy a remaster, honestly (specially not from DS3)

reminder that remakes are different from remasters. good remakes, then maybe we agree on

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I don't mind buying games again. I have my PS3 & 360 still, so simply replaying the exact same game doesn't really interest me that much. I'd rather play it with a facelift, more trophies to unlock (sometimes improved becaused multiplayer doesn't get remastered.)
Another plus to me is that they're not that expensive. I have AC Ezio trilogy, Batman RtA, Borderlands, Dishonored, FFXhd, FFtype0, GoW3, Gravity Rush, Last of Us, Tomb Raider, Uncharted collection. I paid roughly $10 a game. Plus a lot of these are titles I never owned last gen. Or I bought 10-15 years ago.
If each Remaster was $60 per title I would say its bullshit.

So to me...
Remasters:
+ Improved visuals
+ Improved performance.
+ Additional or all new trophies
+ Improved controls
+ Chance to play a game I missed on
+ Most are inexpensive
+ All DLC typically included
+ Can play old games in new ways. (Console games on portable devices)

- Buying again
- Some shitty remasters (Silent Hill..)
- Some are too expensive

Backwards Compatibility:
+ More games available
+ No need to buy games again

- Same game as before, warts and all
- DLC needs to be purchased, most likely at full price.
- Same trophy list. Which may be impossible to 100% if servers aren't up. Or already been 100% completed

 

[AzureMagnus]

I like remasters. Sometimes having a remaster available can help prevent you from having to buy the original system just to play that particular game.

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Ditto. Due to my PS2 kicking the bucket when I was a child, I never had the chance of actually trying to finish FFX.... Low and behold, FFX + FFX-2 remaster is on Steam, and now I have it in my library for whenever I get that FF itch. Never had a chance to play FFX-2, so an extra bonus for me! And since .hack//G.U Last Recode is now a thing, that's another series that I now have a chance to enjoy playing without having to dig for a PS2 and a copy for Vol1 - 3

Only thing I'm waiting for now is the Kingdom Hearts remasters to be on Steam.... Does anyone remember the reason that SE haven't put them on yet?

 

[Baliis]

I've been thinking a lot about this lately in regards to how stories are told in games. Very few series are willing to commit to a long term plan for a story and instead tell a singular story that starts and resolves within the game. You might have returning characters or references in a sequel, but in general you can pick up any of the games and have a concise experience.

Contrast that with say, a book series like the Wheel of Time which has a consistent story over 14 novels + a prequel. The way characters are developed changes entirely. A character might do something suspicious in book 2, but their motivations aren't revealed until book 12, a character dies mysteriously in book 5, but the characters are left to wonder about the truth until the killer is revealed to the reader in book 13. One of the core reasons this works is that you can largely expect the reader to have started at book one and read the series from beginning to end. This is easy because a book is a book, it might be a paperback or hardcover or ebook, etc, but the technology is never really outdated and all of the books are readily available.

Contrast this now with the Trails/Kiseki series which is now 8 core games long with a 9th on the way. Unlike just picking up a book however, the games are spread across multiple platforms. XSEED has made good strides here in getting all three Sky games and Cold Steel 1 on PC, but you still have Zero and Ao stuck behind a language barrier, but even then there isn't really a good PC version of Ao, and Sen III is PS4 only. At minimum you need a PC, a psp or vita, and a PS4 to access all the games plus knowledge of two languages, or a willingness to jump through a lot of hoops (emulation, following line by line translations, barely literate machine translation patches, etc.) to at least play most of them. There's also the sheer time investment of playing through all the games. Even at 40 hours a game, that's over 13 days off play time just for the currently released games. That's about 70% already of all the WoT audio books with 60% of the entries. 40 hours is even probably unrealistic for most people, 60-80 hours depending on the game is more likely.

Remasters, remakes, and ports can be great help for this style of story telling because it ensures that players always have access to every entry in the series. You'd be crazy to tell someone to start Lord of the Rings with Return of the King or ASoIaF at a Feast for Crows, but Trail of Cold Steel is a potential starting point for the series 6 games in and the story suffers notably for it in my opinion (and for other unrelated reasons, but that's for another thread). The strength of Zero and Ao's story is how it built and expanded upon the foundation laid out by the Sky games, especially 3rd. The series as a whole suffers by not having all of the games readily available to play.

For remakes specifically, it can be helpful for keeping the games up to date and feeling modern in a way that books don't have to deal with. Again, XSEED have been pretty good here, adding QoL freeware like turbo mode, animation skips, wide screen resolutions, etc that help the games feel less outdated than they might seem at first impression, but I imagine a lot of people still might look at Trails in the Skys graphics or Cold Steels janky animations and not give it a second glance, further diminishing the number of people that might play the series from start to finish.

 

[AuthenticM]

Still waiting on remasters of every first-party Wii U games for the Switch!

 

[shimon]

Definitely on-board with remasters. Some games are just asking for it...

 

[Deleted member 21996]

I voted No because there's very little I haven't played during my long history of gaming.

My broader concern though is that with a release schedule already littered with sequels we end up with even fewer original games on the AAA calendar. If the microtransaction saga has taught us anything it's that pubs will always chase the easy buck. Send them the signal that remakes are popular and we'll see even less big budget, risk-taking projects. Not good for creativity, and ironically, will dry the well for the remakes of tomorrow!

 

[eXistor]

Personally, I don't see the point. I understand people like them and I certainly aren't against them, but for me: I have them on the original hardware and imo that's the only way to play. If devs go the extra mile and make sure the games are significantly upgraded (60 fps instead of 30, stuff like that) I'm all for it. Some games would really benefit from an HD upgrade (Mario Sunshine, both Galaxies), but for the most part, I'll just stick to the originals.

 

[TerryLee81]

Btw, what was the first game that got a remaster?

Was it SMB3 on the Super Mario All Stars cartridge? The other games on there seemed to be emulated, but SMB3 looked different.

 

[itshutton]

FF12 is my GOTY

 

[2112]

The only one I've bought is the Uncharted collection, most of them are upressed cash grabs.

I just play my older PC games at 1440p 144fps and boom, there's your remaster, free of charge.

 

[Brerlappin]

I'm sick of remasters. At first they were a welcome novelty, and it's nice to have updated versions of classics, but this gen has almost focused more on old games than new ones.

 

[CyrilFiggis]

I like them mainly because I "jumped ship" this generation by getting a PS4. Having missed out on the last couple of PlayStation generations I dig being able to play updated versions of all their big hits. Just to name a few I went through the God of War, Uncharted, and Gravity Rush remasters/HD versions.

 

[giancarlo123x]

I love them. Keep them coming please.

 

[v_iHuGi]

I love them if they are well made of course, good examples are :

Last of Us
Uncharted Collection
Devil May Cry
God of War 3

I'm forgetting some but those were pretty great, specially the 60fps.

 

[Barrel Cannon]

I don't mind remasters but prefer good backwards compatibility. The Xbox one X has filled a huge void and now way less people need to go shopping for new remasters as old games will play much better than ever before. There's less of a need for a true NGB or Gears of War 3 remake anymore for example because their visuals have aged well and scale well. Some games look rough even when upscaled due to low resolution texture work or engines that can't deliver a proper experience. In cases like those then yes it makes sense to do a remaster. As long as the core artstyle isn't destroyed in the process I'm ok with it.

 

[Famassu]

I voted No because there's very little I haven't played during my long history of gaming.

My broader concern though is that with a release schedule already littered with sequels we end up with even fewer original games on the AAA calendar. If the microtransaction saga has taught us anything it's that pubs will always chase the easy buck. Send them the signal that remakes are popular and we'll see even less big budget, risk-taking projects. Not good for creativity, and ironically, will dry the well for the remakes of tomorrow!

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Remasters have very little effect on new projects, other than maybe positive (encouraging sequels if something does REALLY well, more games in the same genre etc.). Most of them aren't even made by teams that handle those AAA games you yearn for and, ultimately, they are ports. It's not like they take significant resources to make even in cases where it is some developer like Naughty Dog doing it.

The reason why AAA games are more rare is because they simply take more time nowadays. Gone are the days when anyone is capable of churning out top level games with a 1,5-2 year development schedule (with a team of reasonable size).

 

[Deleted member 14400]

I really want a Burnout 3 remaster. Still my fav arcade racer ever

 

[Voke]

Nothing wrong with them. It's a huge bonus if it runs better too.

 

[cosmickosm]

While the majority of games being remastered I don't have an interest in, there's a few great ones out there. I mean, if it weren't for remasters I would have never known how great The Last of Us is and how amazing Resident Evil 4 is.

 

[Deleted member 8852]

Not really a fan, but it very much depends on when the game was first released.

Remastering older games is cool, the PS3 -> PS4 / 360 -> One stuff didn't really do anything for me.

 

[2112]

I love them if they are well made of course, good examples are :

Last of Us
Uncharted Collection
Devil May Cry
God of War 3

I'm forgetting some but those were pretty great, specially the 60fps.

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Wasn't GoW 3 just the PS3 version at1080p 60fps? or was that a different GoW remaster. That's as lazy as they come.

 

[v_iHuGi]

Wasn't GoW 3 just the PS3 version at1080p 60fps? or was that a different GoW remaster. That's as lazy as they come.

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Didn't play it on PS3.

 

[2112]

Didn't play it on PS3.

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Fair enough but to me good remasters have enhanced effects, high res textures etc.

On PC you can upres/increase FPS any game for free.

 

[Deleted member 364]

I like being able to access older games on the new platforms available.

 

[Ukyo Of Atmos]

I clicked on " I bloody love them" but thinking "Remake " in my head. Lol

I'd rather have BC for sure.

And full blown Remakes on the titles that deserve it.

 

[Metal Slugger]

I like them if it's been like 10+ years at least. Remasters of stuff that came out within the past 3-9 years is pointless with me since I have the original.

 

[Strike]

I get another chance to play generally better versions of games I may have missed out on plus it may help spark renewed interest towards long dormant IPs.

 

[kc44135]

I love 'em, and consider them both a great way to replay classics (or games I missed out on), and essential to the preservation of the history of this medium. I will continue to feel this way until a certain company decides to follow their competitor's lead with Backwards Compatibility, assuming they ever do...

 

[Deleted member 21996]

I clicked on " I bloody love them" but thinking "Remake " in my head. Lol

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Yeah had remake in mind too when posting.

Interesting gamesindustry.biz article discussing remasters and how they can actually offset some of the development costs for new, original titles.

 

[mrpookles]

I don't see why it's an issue with people, really. I loved GTA5 and The Last of Us even more in their remastered forms.

 

[Ukyo Of Atmos]

Yeah had remake in mind too when posting.

Interesting gamesindustry.biz article discussing remasters and how they can actually offset some of the development costs for new, original titles.

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With Capcom specifically I'm all for this. Anything to keep them around. I've bought so many of their remasters, it's like a addition lol

RE4 on PS5 I'll buy it
RE4 on PS6 I'll buy it

 

[Ukyo Of Atmos]

I don't see why it's an issue with people, really. I loved GTA5 and The Last of Us even more in their remastered forms.

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Great point, those were both amazing.

 

[phlpp]

(Gently hums the Maiden Astraea melody) Sigh.

 

[KLonso]

I love them because there are a lot of games I haven't played, and remasters allow me to experience games for the first time at their best. I don't think I've ever bought an hd remake or remaster for a game I've already played through

 

[leng jai]

To be honest the first batch of X1 enhanced 360 games have been more impressive than half the remasters we've been paying $30-50 for.

Good remasters for top tier games are amazing though, alwaysaa good excuse to replay your favourite oldies.

 

[Wrighteous86]

I wanted backwards compatibility but Sony didn't give it to me because "nobody wants to play old games".

So now I pay them for the privilege to play uprezzed versions of my old games on PS4 so I can eventually get rid of the old console while maintaining my ability to play the games I like from the past.

Lucky me.

 

[jroc74]

When you get the scaling up of games for free on the Xbox one x it makes the need for remasters nil imo. Look at assassins creed, halo 3 etc remarkable. The only reasons for remasters for original Xbox games now is for achievements

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That only applies to multi platform games.

I dont mind remasters since everyone wasnt lucky enough to have all platforms from previous gens.

Seeing as how many switched from MS to Sony this gen, and the ones that went the other way, remasters were a good idea.

 

[ITSMILNER]

I love remasters, having improved versions of my favourite games on my latest console is great

 

[mindatlarge]

I'm cool with them and buy them if the remaster is good. If we're talking like Silent Hill HD quality, then nah, I'm good.