Thursday, November 18, 2010

Remakes of classic games.

It's nothing new, for the PS2 we had the Sega re-releases of the old MegaDrive games and that continued even to the PS3 yet these weren't remakes, it was exactly the same game simply tweaked to run on new software. The true remake didn't start until God of War.

With God of War 3 on its way and Sony having ditched any pretence of backwards compatibility the developers found themselves in the position of releasing the third of a trilogy of games with a new generation having never played the previous two and thus have little idea what's going on.

In a feat of sheer genius they thought to dig out the old games, tweak them for the new console and even give them an HD polish to release them before the third thus satisfying those who had never played them and those who wish they still could.

And they sold, they sold well. At which point a bandwagon was drawn up and other developers though to jump aboard. After all why go to all the trouble and risk of creating a new intellectual property when you could just pull a dust covered game out of the cupboard and put some fresh lipstick on it and send it out in a short skirt and low-cut top.

So following GoW1 and 2, we now see Sly Cooper's trilogy, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus; and now the Prince of Persia trilogy all on the horizon. Am I complaining? Well no not really because these games weren't only good at the time, they're still good. This is top tier stuff here and not remakes of Gauntlet, Haven, or Vexx.

Bring them on and um... any chance of the Silent Hill trilogy? You can skip the fourth if you want no bother.

7 comments:

Steve Severn said...

Kids love Silent Hill. One reckons Silent Hill 1 was really scary. Watched them playing some of the others, but these days I haven't got five minutes to spare on gaming. Was a great Tombraider fan. Used to stay up half the night trying to do some stuff. I remember about 8 years ago, maybe longer, when I finally relented to pressure and bought the PS1 and Tombraider. I think my daughter was about 9 and we had lights out and started it up. Scared us to death! Just the echo of Lara's feet running through the caves and background noise's. Then the music starting and a wolf jumping out at you. Sad really, when you think of the games and graphics now! But at that time, it was our first games console, apart from the Atari I had as a kid, so it blew me away! I think second game was Crash Bandicoot. Absalutely love CTR. In fact, my son gets angry with me, as I prefer PS1 games over PS2 and 3. They never had the same "Feel" to me. Strange I know. Maybe just more comfotable with basic graphics etc. Its like I love Wii golf on Wii sports, but hate the Tiger Woods one! You hit the ball and it does what you expect on Wii. I am sure, if I had the time, I would love all these new games and things like Combat Arms and WOW. Looking forward to the days when kids have left and I am going to spend about the next 10 years catching up on things like COD, Halo, Fallout etc.

FlipC said...

I think the first one was the scariest as they'd simply been nothing like it before really. The second had the best storyline. The third combined the two but didn't quite equal either; the fourth... as I said don't bother. The rest haven't even touched.

If you've got something that'll play it Project Zero can also induce panic mode :-)

Tomb Raider I could never get on with. I disliked the clumsy controls and the arbitrary insta-death traps that could only be avoided if you already knew about them.

I can take or leave Crash Bandicoot. On the PS1 I still play Silent Hill obviously; Myst and Riven, although graphically not brilliant compared to the PC; and Soul Reaver.

Can I rave about Soul Reaver! If you've not played this try it. Streaming world so no loading; multiple secrets; complex plot it really has it all. Seriously if it were a case of Desert Island Discs and only one (offline) game it would be this even over Fallout 3.

I've not got a Wii though I (well my parents) now have Move if you missed my 'review' I did mention I had problems with the Tiger Woods game for that - maybe it's systemic?

From the mention of Halo I'm guessing you've a 360. It's so tempting to get one if only to trounce my cousin, but I hate their marketing model. I likened it with my uncle to drug dealers. Here's a free taster of Gold membership, but it'll cost you after that. Like that Hard drive? you can get a bigger one, but only from us.

I'm going nowhere near WOW I can have a slight compulsive attitude at times and I think such things would kill me :-) I can barely stay away from Minecraft as it is without added something like that to my plate.

Which reminds me I'll take some snaps of my first spiral fortress with the underground lava power station with underwater access system; heh.

Steve Severn said...

Yes, from my kids comments, WOW ia seriously addictive. Tombraider took me months to perfect the movements. Just running straight was a battle at first, but the sense achievment when I had mastered it and could jump, dodge, shoot etc was great. Only game I have played right through in the last few years was Resident Evil 4. But I often wondered wether it could be better if you could fall off ledges etc in that, instead of the safe enviroment. That would have been a real challenge.

walkerno5 said...

Stay away from WOW.

Me and the missus gave it a try, two subscriptions and two PCs set up next to each other. We spent about £ 180 on subs and by that point it was becoming a bit like a second job.

It was great fun in parts, and is really compulsive, but in the end, unless you're playing with a big group of real life friends it's not worth it.

FlipC said...

@Steve - I couldn't get on with RE4, I liked 1, 2 and 3 and Veronica; just not 4. I think it was the combination of the updated graphics and the outdated controls. You can't move and shoot! You can't move and reload! I mean hell sure penalise me but at least allow me to steadily walk backwards while shooting.

@WalkerNo5 - Heh I think for some it's not a second job but their only job. I'm concerned about this DC Universe MMO that's coming out for the PS3 way too tempting.

Steve Severn said...

Srange that. I tried RE1 about the time I was Tombraiding, but couldn't get used to it. Done my head in that when I tried to walk forward away from camera it was ok, but then had to push down to get her to walk towards camera, when I was so use to the camera automaticaly going behind Lara or at least trying to! Then with RE4, it was just like that, so loved it. Understand about the not moving and shooting though!

FlipC said...

I suppose because I wasn't engrained to the trailing camera I accepted the fixed views. That and being used to the Alone in the Dark series helped. However combine the control set with the following camera as in RE4 and it just highlighted the outdated controls. No you can't move and shoot. No you can't just step over this ankle high gate you need to find the key.

The problem I had with the TR controls was getting Lara to do what I wanted. They required pixel precision; jump a millisecond too soon and miss reaching the other side, a millisecond to late and you run off the edge.