Remasters: Remarkable or Retarded?

[WickedLiquid]

So with God of War 3 being remastered for the PS4 it got me thinking about remasters in general. Are they worth it?

God of War 3, The Last of Us and GTA: V are all games I own for PS3. There was once a time where these here vidya games were backwards compatible and I could pop it into a PS4. But if I want to do that now, I have to buy the remastered PS4 version. Yes it looks all shiny and pretty but it's still the same damn game.

There was also a time when instead of simply remastering games and giving them an HD face lift companies actually remade the entire game. Resident Evil comes to mind on the GameCube (which, ironically, has a remastered version now). Why don't we see more of that? Why not completely remake a game from the N64/PS1 days for a current gen?

So what do you think of Remastering? A cheap cash grab from money hungry developers or a much needed refreshing update for last-gen games?

 

[MattAY]

I personally love it. It gives me a reason to play through games I've enjoyed again. It's the nostalgia and the good memories of playing that game that make me want to experience that again!
And when it's one I love with added trophies I get quite excited. Not gonna lie, the trophies in these remasters are half the reason I buy them!

I can understand it's absolutely a cheap move in getting more money. That's why I'm a fan of the "Collector's remasters" Devil May Cry, Silent Hill and MGS to name a few - a bit more worth for your pound. I'm looking forward to the FFX-FFX-2 remaster for PS4 (I didnt have a PS3). But I recently got DmC Definitive Edition for PS4 when I completed it on every difficulty on the 360, and I dont regret a damn thing - I love the game.

It's also a sign that everyone is running out of ideas...you get a gem of a game every now and then, but all the big games nowadays are shooters, third-person sandbox games, everything trying to look as realistic as possible. With to me what looks like limited imagination and a borderline good story.

In terms of actual results, there's hardly any fucking difference in all honesty. They dont do the backgrounds, just animated objects, which can sometimes make things look a bit rushed and lazy. But whatever, still looks better than a few years ago!

I would love to see more PS1/N64 games remade, but I think half the fun of these is the going through the nostalgia as I mentioned before. If Crash Bandicoot was remade I know I wouldn't enjoy it as much as I did 15 years ago, I'm not a carefree kid anymore...just an immature adult! I'd still buy that though - Oh yes!

 

[UghRochester]

To me it depends on whether it's a console exclusive. Seeing so many people jumping from Xbox 360 to PS4, It's great for people getting the remasters such as The Last of Us. Those who haven't gotten to experience those games could and have a better experience as well. Same with people jumping from PS3 to Xbox One and enjoying Halo: The MC Collection.

There are some exclusives that don't need to be remastered. God of War 3 is the game that comes to mind. They've already remastered GoW and GoW 2, and bundled it as a PS3 collections, but remastering just GoW 3 is moronic. I haven't played GoW 3 yet, but I'm going to take a guess it gives a brief rundown of GoW 2 and not GoW. It's great for those who need to know the background and that's why GoW 3 is a dumb decision.

Remastering a game that is third party title like Tomb Raider and Injustice: Gods Among Us is something I can't see myself getting behind. There's no reason for those titles to get upgraded in visuals. To me, that's not only a cash grab, but just a test to see what they can work with for the new gen of consoles.

I do wished the new consoles would develop backwards compatibility, but I feel if that ever happens, there would be companies wanting the share of money from a game being sold used.

 

[Master_Craig]

It really depends. Some remasters in my opinion are stupid, like when they re-released Resident Evil 4 for the PS3 and X-Box 360. No effort was put into that, it was just a PS2 port stretched out to try and look "HD".

I have a few remasters. I have the MGS3 remaster because it's multiple games in one. I have the Devil May Cry trilogy remastered because again, it's multiple games I enjoyed. I have The Last of Us: Remastered because it was actually quite cheap for me ($59 AUD) and it came with all the DLC, including Ellie's story Left Behind, which I hadn't actually played yet because it was so expensive on the PS3.

When Batman: Arkham Asylum/City comes out remastered, I may get those games because I really enjoyed them, but in saying that I believe remasters are only really worth it if the visuals and overall presentation is upgraded and if it includes any released DLC.

I'd love to see more games from the past re-released with crazy visuals and presentation, e.g. like Resident Evil (REmake - why can't they do that with RE2?) but I do agree, all these remasters kinda show that they're running out of ideas.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

Necessary evil to the new gen for Sony. They keep jerking their developers around with changing code.

 

[WickedLiquid]

I would love to see more PS1/N64 games remade, but I think half the fun of these is the going through the nostalgia as I mentioned before. If Crash Bandicoot was remade I know I wouldn't enjoy it as much as I did 15 years ago, I'm not a carefree kid anymore...just an immature adult! I'd still buy that though - Oh yes!

In a way I agree. I'm not a big fan of Twin Snakes on GameCube, it was too over the top while the original MGS on PS1 remains a true nostalgic classic. However if done right I think our childhood and teenage years could be remade into something quite enjoyable. For example Mortal Kombat 9. The story mode was a remake of Mortal Kombat 1-3 and it was pretty damn good... OK that ending was pretty bad, but regardless it had me more invested in a Mortal Kombat game than ever before.

You look at something like P.T. (Silent Hills) and it just makes me wonder how awesome a Silent Hill remake would look. Or Final Fantasy XV makes me wonder how incredible it would have been if we ever got that rumored FF7 remake.