Fuck Remastered Remakes

[Soviet Heavy]

If you are going to do a remake of a game, fucking do a remake. I am sick and tired of slapdash "HD" remakes that are just upscaled versions of the original or simply new textures. Doing a remake should entail more than just updating the visuals. It should work towards fixing problems in the original game, or providing something new to the player to entice them to play it. Nostalgia can only power so much by itself.

Take the Halo Anniversary games. Absolutely no bugfixes at all, and just to show you how much they spent making it look prettier, they devote an entire button to toggling between updated and original visuals. Nevermind that the audio for both Anniversary games has not been touched, and it sounds horribly compressed. This is especially bad in Halo 2 anniversary, where the high quality Blur Studio cutscenes still use the same audio that clashes jarringly with the updated visuals.

Why not include new game features? Put Brutes and Drones into Halo 1 to spice up some sections. I imaging fighting Drones in Assault on the Control Room would be a blast, and Brutes in the hallways between the bridge spans would add a new layer of stress to those otherwise boring sections. Or why not include dual wielding and equipment for Halo 1 and 2? Why not rebalance the godawful pistol in 2?

A remake is a chance to go back and improve upon the original release. But that takes too much effort when it's easier to slap textures on the screen and call it a day. Killzone 1 could desperately use some control tuning and audio fixes, but it never happened.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I think you'd piss off more people that way than if you were to do a faithful remake.

When someone buys a remake/remastered version of a game that they've already played it's because they really loved the original, and a lot of people are going to get pissed off if the thing that they love gets messed with "unnecessarily." To you putting brutes and drones into Halo CE would "spice up" some sections, and to other people it would ruin enemy positioning and level balance.

The studios that make these remastered games have nothing to gain and everything to lose by messing with what made the original games popular, even if those games could use an upgrade in some departments outside of the visuals.

Personally if I had an Xbox One and I was buying the Master Chief collection I'd want everything as close to the original games as possible. I don't want new different games, I want the same game that I loved, but now in widescreen and with a decent resolution so that looking at it doesn't hurt my eyes when I play it on my gigantic TV. Maybe it would be cool to have a special mode with changed enemy positioning and some new enemy types included that were not present in those previous games, but I'd want it as a separate mode not part of the core experience.

 

[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.

 

[Diablo2000]

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.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, Just Add Water did a full remake that didn't just include updated visuals for an iconic and well loved game, and... that didn't pan out too well. I honestly would've prefered just a beefed up resolution in that case.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I think they would have their place as updates, provided they got fixed up properly for modern systems and came at a comparable price. Which they don't end up doing, they make it 10% better and 300% as expensive... you need to offer a whole lot more for that asking price.

Also leaving bugs in a remaster is just the ultimate fuck you to customers. "We didn't do our job then and we aren't doing it now sucker!"

 

[Evonisia]

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.

 

[mad825]

*sigh*

I guess this has to do with the recent RE announcement?

1.It's being ported from the GC
2.Remastering is an added addition for it being on superior hardware....Hopefully less compatibility issues on the PC.
3.The game itself is over a decade old. It isn't a new remake.

I have no objections for these "Remastered Remakes".

 

[verdant monkai]

If you are going to do a remake of a game, fucking do a remake. I am sick and tired of slapdash "HD" remakes that are just upscaled versions of the original or simply new textures. Doing a remake should entail more than just updating the visuals. It should work towards fixing problems in the original game, or providing something new to the player to entice them to play it. Nostalgia can only power so much by itself.

A lot of it isn't nostalgia its bringing these game to an audience wo may not have owned the consoles they originally came out on, or may not have been born or whatever.

For example I've never owned a nintendo 64 so I wouldn't have been able to The legend of play Zelda play ocarina of time or the Majora's mask remake that is coming out, if they hadn't released HD remakes of them. No one cares if guys like you get butthurt because the game is no different (especially the companies). If you want a total remake surely you would prefer that they make an entirely new game? releasing a shoddy HD remake will please fans who haven't had previous access to these games, and free's the developer up to spend more time on making brand new games.

When you start hating on HD remakes all you are basically saying is "I already have this game. But I want the developer to spend years and loads of money remaking it, instead of spending their resources on something new. All so I can pay again to play a game I already own". It makes no sense.
I already own Final Fantasy X on the ps2. But I didn't get pissed off when they re-released it on the PS3, I also didnt buy the remake because I already own the game. I would have been pissed off if they had spent ages and lots of cash remaking it and then releasing it world wide. Because that would take time away from everything else they have in development.

The list of reasons to not be that bothered go on. HD Remakes are for people who haven't been able to play the game before. They earn the company some easy money which can be put to making new games.
They aren't a problem.

 

[wooty]

Yeah, I don't mind HD rematers of games. I never played Zone of the Enders on PS2, but was very happy to pick up the two games for £15 on PS3, and the Hitman HD trilogy which has just become free on PS+ this week.

So yeah, I'm all for them, especially for if you missed them the first time around.

 

[Gali]

Some of your statements seem kinda trollish and nitpicky.

No, they re-recorded the soundtrack for CE and H2 for their anniversary versions. H2A even has new weapon sounds.

I adore the graphics change button. I can see how the original was and what modern hardware can do. That is awesome for people who can not play the original Halos or did not experience them back then. Why ***** about it? You're not forced to press it. More remakes should include that feature. IMo when it comes to CE, I prefer the old graphics in Forerunner ruins since they are mostly covered in shadows due to hardware limitations back then which creates an awesome atmosphere for me. When I turn on the updated graphics... I can see the whole room. Not very mysterious and scary.

Furthermore, shoehorning new gameplay features of a franchise into old titles is not as easy as you make it sound. There are lore and especially gameplay balancing concerns. Why change a game that was considered fun by many back then and now? The MCC was a shit ton of work for 343 already, especially when it comes to MP/online aspects - we've seen how that turned out. Dealing with different/old netcodes and a game without online feaures (CE) to work together on modern online architecture is insane.

You seem to want game remakes to be more like movie remakes. I can see how that could be benefitial to certain games, but when it comes to Halo it doesn't work. It is a franchise with beloved classics that still spawns new titles. Fans to this day argue which one is the best, but with the MCC everyone can just play their favorite and have fun. Heck, CE did not have online support back then and H2 multiplayer was taken offline years ago. The MCC is not a remake in Hollywoods sense, more a preservation of games that could only be played on old consoles and not even to their full potential (well, you could play CE and H2 with the help of Xbox Connect, but that is laggy as hell and doesn't include matchmaking). A gameplay chaninging remake of Halo would be too soon and not appropriate since fans could not easily just play the originals.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Hey, is Halo 2 still broken? What I mean is, my favorite thing to do in Halo 2's campaign was skipping a majority of New Mombasa by jumping from roofs (either after or during the first big firefight), running along a few more roofs, jumping into The Negative Zone and winding up in front of the hotel. I don't recall any other level being that broken but is that still a thing?

 

[Mister K]

Making actual remakes wil in the end lead to dissapointment from both consumers and developers. Just tale a look at movie industry. As far as I am aware remakes don't make that much money and they tend to piss off "hardcore" fans. I do believe that the same thing can happen with games.

Since we are on the topic of remakes, you know why there never will be FF7 remake? I mean actual remake, not HD version? Because as soon as the game hits the shelves/digital stores it will sell like hot cakes, but it will be followed by negative reaction of a great scale. All the forums, all YT channels, everything else will be filled with complaints about this remake. And we will be able to boil all complaints down to "that is not how I remember it" and "that is not how I imagined it". It will only cause trouble for SE.

 

[NiPah]

More often then not when they add things and change up the original game in a remake, they fuck it up.

No, clear cut remakes (even with their faults) are much better then "hey let's change this up to make it more awesome!".

(for examples look at golden axe, Daytona USA, hell pretty much any remake that comes out of capcom.

 

[asdfen]

people should demand backwards compatibility from so called gaming devices - consoles
there wouldn't be any more remasters aka blatant cash grabs. Also just play your favorites on PC in any resolution you want with any joystick / controller you want through emulator or naturally long live pcsx2/dolphin and others that actually do better job of making the game play better than any "remaster" I have ever seen.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

I'm still waiting on my Ace Combat 4, 5 and 0 remakes. Keep the games almost exactly the same (though it'd be nice if the AI would stop flying through mountains in 5 [or was it 0?]), just prettier. The mechanics were excellent, all we need are HD models, textures and resolutions. Oh and a PC release with joystick support would be amazeballs.

No, fuck it. I don't want that, I've played those games so many times, and while seeing them in GLORIOUS TEN EIGHTY PEE would be sweet, what I really want is Ace Combat 3 from the PSX era, HD-ified. I want the Japanese version with the branching storylines, not the weaksauce international version, but I want it translated into English and I want it to be beautiful.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Killzone HD actually fixed the few gripes I had with the original PS2 release. It fixed a few geometry bugs, changed how the sniper worked while zoomed and also fixed the LOD models.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

Considering that I just played the HD version of Shadow of the Colossus this past week on my PS3 and loved it, I'm heavily inclined to disagree, OP. Being able to play a classic that I've never played before on a console I actually own and with visuals / aspect ratio more fitting of the modern day is fantastic in my eyes, even if it means having to possibly put up with some old bugs or weird design decisions. To also be able to own an old-but-beloved game you've played before but may not have the original console for anymore (or in Halo 2's case, not even able to play online anymore due to Xbox Live being shut down for the original Xbox ages ago) sounds awesome as well. Lastly, some HD remasters do actually add noticeable improvements, like The Last of Us allowing for 60fps gameplay or Halo 1 allowing online multiplayer at all.

All in all, I fail to see how HD remasters are an inherently bad thing unless it's an objectively worse or broken port ala the Silent Hill Collection. Sometimes, just being able to play the original again with better visuals and maybe a couple bonuses here or there is all someone wants, not for a game they loved or have never gotten the chance to play before to be tampered with like it's the original Star Wars trilogy.