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Way Too Many Remakes/Remasters

ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
They're about to nominate and possibly award Elden Ring DLC for GOTY, and this is why.

This non-exhaustive list outlines remakes and remasters that will have been released in 2024 alone:
  • Age of Mythology Retold
  • Alone in the Dark Remake
  • Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy
  • Beyond Good & Evil Anniversary Edition
  • Braid Anniversary Edition
  • Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake
  • Dead Rising Deluxe Remastered
  • Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake
  • El Shaddai HD Remaster
  • Epic Mickey Rebrushed
  • Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
  • Hitman Blood Money Reprisal
  • Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered
  • Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remasters
  • Lollipop Chainsaw: RePOP
  • Luigi's Mansion 2 HD Remaster
  • Mario vs Donkey Kong Remake
  • Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection
  • Paper Mario: The 1000-Year Door Remake
  • Persona 3 Reload
  • Silent Hill 2
  • Stalker: Legends of the Zone Trilogy
  • Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection
  • Star Wars Dark Forces
  • The Last of Us Part II Remastered
  • Tomb Raider I-III Remastered
  • Until Dawn Remastered

Previous remakes and remasters throughout the gen:
  • Dead Space Remake
  • Gran Theft Auto 5
  • Grand Theft Auto Trilogy DE
  • Alan Wake Remastered
  • Death Stranding Director's Cut
  • The Last of Us Part 1
  • Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves
  • Spider-Man Remastered
  • Live A Live
  • System Shock
  • Zelda Skyward Sword
  • Resident Evil 4
  • Yakuza/Like a Dragon: Ishin
  • Life is Strange Remastered Collection
  • Metroid Prime Remastered
  • Super Mario RPG

And the list goes on.

A mixture of rumoured and confirmed remakes/remasters:
  • Gex Trilogy
  • The Witcher
  • Donkey Kong Country Returns HD
  • Suikoden Remasters
  • Max Payne 1&2
  • Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
  • Capcom Fighting Collection 2
  • Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake
  • Splinter Cell
  • Gothic
  • Tales of Graces F Remastered
  • Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered
  • Trails in the Sky the 1st
  • Batman Arkham Asylum
  • God of War Original Trilogy
  • Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake
  • Uncharted 1
  • Final Fantasy IX Remake
  • Xenoblade Chronicles X

Not all of these are bad or unnecessary, but at this rate, the majority of the 9th gen's library will be carry overs from the 6th. And a too many of the actually new games we get border on rehashes.

Clear to see why enthusiasm around gaming is down.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
We are still getting new IPs and this year alone we got some nice new IPs.

I don’t mind getting remake and remasters especially for games that are not accessible on modern systems like Silent Hill 2 and upcoming Xenoblade X, heck I would LOVE to see Vanillaware bring Muramasa to modern systems.
 
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GHound

Member
What's going to be crazy is if PS6 is still backwards compatible with PS4 and PS4 games that had remasters for PS5 get PS6 remasters.

What do you want to play on your PS6? Game A (PS4), Game A Remastered (PS5) or Game A Reremastereder (PS6)?
Bonus points if it's RE4 Remake so you can play RE4 (PS4), RE4R (PS4), RE4R (PS5) and RE4 Remake Remastered (PS6).
 
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midnightAI

Member
Meh, who cares, most if not all of these remakes/remasters (well, remasters mainly) will be made by either a small team within the main studio or outsourced. It won't really be slowing down the production of new games but it will earn the studio money in the meantime while those new games are being made (and we know AAA games can take 4+ years to make now)

I think what you mean to say is, why arent the games I like being remastered/remade? Which I wholeheartedly agree with, there are loads of old IP's I'd love to see remade, especially games from the PS3 era (Resistance remade with modern tech could be amazing, as would Motor storm, and if course Killzone 2)

Edit: also, your initial point doesn't even come into it, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree isn't a remake or remaster. But I agree, having DLC, remasters and remakes in "The Game Awards"tm in every category is fucking dumb, it should have different categories.
 
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T4keD0wN

Member
Hitman Blood Money Reprisal
Aurora Browne Baronesscbc GIF by Baroness von Sketch Show

Youve had me excited for a second there, only to have a brief google search take it all away from me a few seconds later, not very nice to bamboozle others like that.
 
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cireza

Member
It's fine ? Some of these re-releases have been heavily upgraded. You just can't complain when you get something like Star Ocean 2R or Metroid Prime honestly. And you can ignore all the lazy re-releases.

What do you want to play on your PS6? Game A (PS4), Game A Remastered (PS5) or Game A Reremastereder (PS6)?
I think there is a possibility for :
A PS3 remaster (PS4)
A PS4 remaster of the PS3 remaster (PS5)
A PS5 remaster of the PS4 remaster of the PS3 remaster (PS6)
Pretty sure we have at least one candidate for this right now (a game that was on PS3, remastered on PS4, remastered on PS5).
 
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Mr Hyde

Member
I don't mind remakes and remasters at all. Bring em on I say. The fact that I've gotten high quality remakes of some of my favorite games of all time is a wonderful thing. Next up is Broken Sword, Legacy of Kain and Suikoden 1 & 2. What's not to love? And it's not like we aren't getting new games either. Studios are pumping out new games all the time, so I don't understand the complaining.
 

TheKratos

Member
Way too many USELESS remakes. Remakes of remakes, or remakes of a franchise that already has plenty of entries AND has still new ones coming out.

Just look at Capcom, so many REmakes of the main parts. Why not Dino Crisis, Onimusha, Outbreak (especially outbreak with how perfected online gaming is now)?

Where's Killzone 1/2 remaster? Army of Two? Why are dead franchises not getting love.
 

Hypereides

Gold Member
Some of us called this out some years ago when this trend started to emerge. The industry, especially AAA developers, are in dire need of taking our breathes away with something new and fresh. This just drops people's faith/trust in them creating some new of their own.

We used to get remakes, re-releases and remasters, but it was never at this state.
 

Boss Mog

Member
As long as they're not altered too much in terms of adding wokeness to them, then I welcome remakes and remasters. They allow for game preservation while bringing them up to modern technological standards. It certainly beats most of the woke garbage and shitty GaaS games being released today.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
What's going to be crazy is if PS6 is still backwards compatible with PS4 and PS4 games that had remasters for PS5 get PS6 remasters.

What do you want to play on your PS6? Game A (PS4), Game A Remastered (PS5) or Game A Reremastereder (PS6)?
Bonus points if it's RE4 Remake so you can play RE4 (PS4), RE4R (PS4), RE4R (PS5) and RE4 Remake Remastered (PS6).

Fuck me. Imagine if that's what we end up doing.

Buying the ps6 version of a ps5 version remake of a ps4 version but it has more settings turned on vs the ps5 one.
 

Robb

Gold Member
I agree, but I play a lot of them so I’m part of the problem I guess..

I really don’t understand the need for remakes/remasters of games from the previous gen (recent titles) though. And now it’s rumored Nintendo might re-release BOTW alongside “Switch 2”. Ridiculous.
 
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bender

What time is it?
Ace Attorney Remastered

There is no such product. I wouldn't consider Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, much like the previous collections in this series, a remake or a remaster. These are just ports, or rereleases to follow your r-based naming convention, of games to systems that didn't have access to them previously which is a good thing.
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
Blah, blah, games too expensive to make, risky investment, proven ip, existing fanbase, etc.

The "problem" is that remakes/remasters are (I presume) relatively cheap to make but can still sell in big numbers. Obviously that'll vary from title to title. The disgraceful Alan Wake Remastered will have cost around $7 to do, while the Resi4 remake will have cost significantly more, but I imagine both made a profit.

now it’s rumored Nintendo might re-release BOTW alongside “Switch 2”. Ridiculous.
I haven't heard that but if it came to pass,
and the new game represented a significant upgrade, Nintendo fans would be all over it.

"The best version of the game ever? Yes please" they'll incessantly chirp.

For Nintendo it'll be a good way to get a game for less, they'll be doing some of the work anyway to get an engine running for the next Zelda. You can imagine they might have done something like that as an internal demo a few generations ago. But it'll be more work now, owing to the complexity. I could see the business case for getting it up and running and on sale.

So, I don't think remakes/remasters are going anywhere. Not as long as they can make a good return on investment. I personally will not be buying a BOTW remake. No chance. But I must sadly inform you that I will buy a TOTK one as soon as it arrives for Switch 2. Day one. 😢
 
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fatmarco

Member
As long as they're not altered too much in terms of adding wokeness to them, then I welcome remakes and remasters. They allow for game preservation while bringing them up to modern technological standards. It certainly beats most of the woke garbage and shitty GaaS games being released today.
If remakes are made additionally, fine, but it's done at the expense of new games and new IP being developed.

Then again, developers struggle making good new stuff so maybe it's for the best they read from the recipe.

Just a shame that the current set of studios are far worse than what we had 10 years ago, and we're far out of the golden age of gaming it seems (at least from a new content perspective).
 

SweetTooth

Gold Member
I agree, but I play a lot of them so I’m part of the problem I guess..

I really don’t understand the need for remakes/remasters of games from the previous gen (recent titles) though. And now it’s rumored Nintendo might re-release BOTW alongside “Switch 2”. Ridiculous.

Nintendo has been remaking Mario and Zelda since 1986 🤣
 

ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
Meh, who cares, most if not all of these remakes/remasters (well, remasters mainly) will be made by either a small team within the main studio or outsourced. It won't really be slowing down the production of new games but it will earn the studio money in the meantime while those new games are being made (and we know AAA games can take 4+ years to make now)
You're not going to convince me that this many re-releases isn't slowing down the pipeline for new games. Simply by virtue of taking space on the calendar, they're reducing the windows where new games can be released just for marketing reasons.

Between remaking the fucking Last of Us 1 (which had been remastered from the PS3 version 8 years prior), porting it, and Uncharted 4/LL to PC, remastering Part 2 with a PC version likely in the works, a significant fraction of their staff have been spent the last 4 years on bullshit, not even counting Factions.

I think what you mean to say is, why arent the games I like being remastered/remade? Which I wholeheartedly agree with, there are loads of old IP's I'd love to see remade, especially games from the PS3 era (Resistance remade with modern tech could be amazing, as would Motor storm, and if course Killzone 2)
No, it's got nothing to do with that. As you can imagine, I'm happy to see Gex become available again. I like Max Payne and Tomb Raider, etc etc. But those games released, and if we keep doing this we're going to run out of games to remaster, while having developed very little that is truly new and significant for a whole gen.

Edit: also, your initial point doesn't even come into it, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree isn't a remake or remaster. But I agree, having DLC, remasters and remakes in "The Game Awards"tm in every category is fucking dumb, it should have different categories.
The point is that the release schedule this year has been swamped with re-releases to the point where there aren't enough genuinely good new games to fill out the GOTY roster without including said re-releases and DLC.

Studios are pumping out new games all the time, so I don't understand the complaining.
The pipeline for new AAA and even significant indie games has never been slower. I'm cool with Jonathan Blow and what he's trying to do, but he should've released a new game 2 years ago, not throwing out a Braid remaster.
 

midnightAI

Member
Way too many USELESS remakes. Remakes of remakes, or remakes of a franchise that already has plenty of entries AND has still new ones coming out.

Just look at Capcom, so many REmakes of the main parts. Why not Dino Crisis, Onimusha, Outbreak (especially outbreak with how perfected online gaming is now)?

Where's Killzone 1/2 remaster? Army of Two? Why are dead franchises not getting love.
Well, the simple answer is... They are remastering games that sells well and/or are easy to remaster. I'd prefer other games also but you can see the reasoning behind it. A good example of this is Horizon remaster, it's a very high selling game in comparison to their other franchises such as Killzone, and they can use the majority of asset swaps from FW and just use the most up to date version of Decima as both games used it.

Even though I love Horizon I'd still have preferred Killzone 2 as a remaster, however, that would have been a full remake anyway as it's not using Decima (it may have had some code similar, but the first game to use Decima as it's known was Shadow Fall). Sure they could have used 'some' assets from Shadow Fall, but not many, so it would take a big effort to remake that game so you can see why they haven't done it (yet, I still hold out hope for either Killzone or Resistance)
 
They sell well I’m guessing, hence the great number of them.
I don’t see a problem with it, and I’ve purchased quite a few myself. Hollywood does the same thing, remakes/reduxes galore.
I just wish they’d dig deeper into the games. Gimme a Crystalis or Terranigma remake.
 

Humdinger

Gold Member
It's easy money, so I can't blame them.

I'm enjoying the Mafia remakes right now, so I'm not going to complain.

I don't agree with including remakes in GOTY nominations, but that's up to Jeff & company, I suppose. I don't take the Game Awards seriously.
 

bender

What time is it?
The pipeline for new AAA and even significant indie games has never been slower. I'm cool with Jonathan Blow and what he's trying to do, but he should've released a new game 2 years ago, not throwing out a Braid remaster.

It's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario though as a lot of these remakes and remastered are outsourced or smaller internal teams/studios while the new releases are being worked on by primary development staff . It's an inexpensive way to round out product offerings between major releases.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Hundreds if not 4 digits of games release every year, that's a tiny amount you can ignore like most of those if you don't want them. The list is quite padded with stuff like Alone in the Dark, that's basically an all new game slightly based on the original, it could easily be a new IP. The same for games in IP that has loads of new titles regardless of throwing in a remaster here or there, like Yakuza or Mario or whatever else. Or bringing back games that people actually do want in significantly upgraded form like Dragon Quest III or otherwise long lost titles like Marvel vs. Capcom. Useless whining🤷‍♂️
Can't relate as I mainly play on PC
That too, many games were already readily available/sold as is so a new remaster release is often just a nice little patch to bring it up to speed with modern hardware or whatever, pleasing existing owners and making it a nicer purchase without issues for new ones (unless they fuck something up).

Also to add to that bringing back long lost titles thing, others were also platform-locked to portables or whatever else while a new release becomes multiplatform, bringing back games so more folks can enjoy them regardless of the platform isn't bad either. Idk, just buy the games you want man.
 
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NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
I can’t bring myself to think that having access to old games on modern system, and maybe with some significant QoL features, is a bad thing. It is, when the port/remaster is sloppy and/or unfaithful and somehow manages to be worse than the original, but there’s a silver lining there in the PC modding community that can make a remaster the ultimate edition of a game.

Nothing bad in remakes, when they aren’t just an excuse to inject “modern sensibilities” in old classics. REmake is one of the most loved games of all time, and it’s, well, a remake. I like the original to still be accessible somehow, though.

Let’s face it, the problems with remakes and remasters are just two:
1) they have been exploited unashamedly by Sony, especially with TLOU and Horizon. You may argue that so many Switch 1st party games are WiiU porta, but nobody bought a WiiU anyway and, lo and behold, when they released on a console people actually wanted, they turned out to be good games. No reason to keep them on a failed hardware.
2) they employ time, talent and resources that may go into making something new.

Yeah, of course the sheer number of remakes and remasters is a symptom of a lack of creativity in the industry.
But this and the fact that good games are still good on new systems are not mutually exclusive.
Nobody has played all the games, and a classic is a classic. Having those games on modern hardware can’t be a bad thing.
 

midnightAI

Member
You're not going to convince me that this many re-releases isn't slowing down the pipeline for new games. Simply by virtue of taking space on the calendar, they're reducing the windows where new games can be released just for marketing reasons.

Between remaking the fucking Last of Us 1 (which had been remastered from the PS3 version 8 years prior), porting it, and Uncharted 4/LL to PC, remastering Part 2 with a PC version likely in the works, a significant fraction of their staff have been spent the last 4 years on bullshit, not even counting Factions.
The reason ND haven't released a game yet is because they are making a new IP, that takes time. They also scrapped years worth of work on Factions 2 (I say scrapped but it's most likely paused). ND are a very big studio, as are Guerrilla and most of Sonys internal studios. They can (and are) work on multiple projects at once, doing a remaster using their current engine, using mostly already made assets does not require a big team (sometimes they actually put interns on these games to get them up to speed), nor does it take a long time to do, that's why they do it.

No, it's got nothing to do with that. As you can imagine, I'm happy to see Gex become available again. I like Max Payne and Tomb Raider, etc etc. But those games released, and if we keep doing this we're going to run out of games to remaster, while having developed very little that is truly new and significant for a whole gen.

There are loads of GOTY possibilities for this year, Keighley just wants Shadow of the Erdtree in there so he can appear cool to the gamers, even though they say remasters also (remakes should be allowed in by default) we know that this is done purely to allow SotE in there, I personally doubt any remaster will get a nomination.
 
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BlackTron

Member
Nintendo has been remaking Mario and Zelda since 1986 🤣

The first remake of either I can think of is SNES All-Stars in 1993? After that they ported old home console games to portables like a machine. But didn't get very remake-happy for consoles until Switch.
 

SweetTooth

Gold Member
The first remake of either I can think of is SNES All-Stars in 1993? After that they ported old home console games to portables like a machine. But didn't get very remake-happy for consoles until Switch.
Im just alluding that Mario and Zelda in many sequels and iterations are simply the same game, Nintendo just changes some assets and call it a day... here we go you have Mario go to a different castle to rescue Peach

In jest
 

BlackTron

Member
Im just alluding that Mario and Zelda in many sequels and iterations are simply the same game, Nintendo just changes some assets and call it a day... here we go you have Mario go to a different castle to rescue Peach

In jest

So you never really played Mario or Zelda games and joke based on youtube thumbnails, got it
 

Parazels

Member
I don't mind remakes/remasters.

But what worries me is that the remasters often are far from perfect even on the modern consoles.

For me, a remaster should run at 4k@60 with "high settings" by default. If you can't reach these numbers, so what's the reason to release a halfbaked game, which needs its own remaster after all?
 
What's going to be crazy is if PS6 is still backwards compatible with PS4 and PS4 games that had remasters for PS5 get PS6 remasters.

What do you want to play on your PS6? Game A (PS4), Game A Remastered (PS5) or Game A Reremastereder (PS6)?
Thats totally going to happen, and i bet they will still be streaming only for ps3
 

Roberts

Member
I tried to find one good reason why I would be against them and couldn't find any. They help game preservation (even if not in their original form) and introduce new gamers to old classics.

On related note, I wish MS would find a way to continue their BC program, especially when it comes to upping the resolution and framerate. It was awesome while it lasted.
 

Paasei

Member
I don’t like it in the sense that I’d rather have developers focus on new games. But at the same time not enough to be worried about that there are no new games.

Best way to deal with it for me is, is to be a hypocrite and only buy the ones that are cheap and worth another play through or the ones where I missed the original (Demon’s Souls i.e.)

Then post about how I do not like them on Neogaf again. And the circle is complete.

I do see remakes very differently than remasters, though. Albeit hard to see the difference sometimes.
 

Hypereides

Gold Member
Its like creativity stopped being a thing. I remember PS1 gen where everyone were experimenting with the added dimension. We got a lot of classics from that gen
Its honestly not too surprising this has happened. The specific culture which brought us those games has been eroded within legacy studios and the actual creators have been chased away or left for greener pastures.

This is what happens when uncreative, blank slate people, like corporate suits, step in to "improve" creative cultures because they don't comprehend or dislike the chaotic nature of pure creativity/the creative process. They begin to strap that culture and "destroy" it to establish some form of control while draining it for its uniqueness.

It took some time, but the effects of the late 00's game development culture shift are starting to appear.
 
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RCX

Member
Publishers are in a perpetual state of fear. They are too scared to spend money on new ideas and "forever" games like Fortnite and Warzone consume most of the market.

So they decide that the only thing worth roskinv money on is the stuff they've done before.

How long this can keep going is anyone's guess, but once we get to the remake-of-a-remake stage I'd say that'll be a wrap.

Smaller games, lower technical demands, lower art budget, new gameplay ideas. That's what I'd like to see a whole lot more of from the "AAA" space.
 
For games that are stuck on hardware from like 2+ generations ago, I think remasters are good as long as they aren't butchered from the original art direction. But remasters of games just from last gen can fuck off.
Remakes can be a mixed bag, generally I would rather have a faithful remaster with some QoL improvements, or include the original game along with the remaster/remake so you have more options to play it however you enjoy it.
 
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