Rare Replay's Harsh Lesson for Other Remakes

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"With so many remakes and remasters flooding the market, Rare Replay offers a refreshingly respectful and bountiful timeline of one of gaming's most talented developers. Rare Replay should be the standard by which we judge the treatment of gaming's past."

[Macka1080]

I would be far more receptive to paying for games I already purchased years ago if more of them adopted this approach. Not necessarily the incredible value of getting so many games, but just the respect shown by Rare in building those Snapshot challenges and Milestone incentives, and putting together the documentary footage. I really hope other developers take note and start to follow suit.

[Masterchief_thegoat]

well said

[spicelicka]

This has been a standard with MS remakes lately, with halo MCC, Rare replay, and Gears Ultimate. Pure value.

[deadpoolio316]

LMAO the MCC almost a year in and its still not working the way it was meant, and the campaign had severe bugs at launch lets not pretend there also wasn't the campaign save data deleting bug also....

The Halo MCC is how NOT to do a remastered collection.....

Wouldn't call Gears a pure value either considering, NO including emulated 360 versions is not adding value when they are all under 10 bucks

[spicelicka]

^Loll you obviously have never played MCC. It's been working fine for 6 months now. Campaign has barely any issues, and just the fact that they took on such an ambitious project was worth the value.

I would want it to be cheaper sure, but I'm only comparing to what other remasters are providing, and that's jack shit for $40-$60.

[FallenAngel1984]

One thing I can never respect is selling remasters at full price like its a brand new game.

[Macka1080]

It gets even more troubling with 'Definitive' editions and the like, when they end up essentially being the PC version ported to the current consoles. The Dishonored re-release, by all accounts, is exactly that, and even at a slightly lower price point it's not the best option. You can pick up Dishonored on PC for under $10 nowadays, easily.

[Aenea]

I got the Definitive edition for 20 'cos I already had the PS3 version I got with PS+ a while back. Funnily enough I started playing it a few days before the announcement of the Definitive edition so I stopped playing it on the PS3...

[OldDude]

I have to disagree. I think you have to take it on a case by case basis. To someone like me who never got around to actually playing his copy of TLoU, it was easily worth buying and enjoying it for the first time, remastered. Yes some can also be a cash grab and for that I say vote with your wallet. Let the $ you spend be your voice for the opinion you have.

Honestly, this is probably the thing I don't understand most on N4G, saying having the option to buy something or not is somehow a bad thing. EA Access is a good example. ANY product you have the option of buying can only be a good thing as the worst that can happen is you don't buy it. If enough people such as yourself don't buy it, then the mfg. loses money. If they dont start churning out products (Some remasters for example) that ARE worth the money then they will eventually go out of business. That my friend is the value of your cash, having the option to spend it on a remaster as well as having the option to not buy it.

[blackblades]

That's where you wrong, the games are remastered as in they have to put more work into the game just to upgrade the graphics. From the prices I see they're not at full price. Full price would be $60 I see them at $40 I get them cheaper then that. I say last gen maybe not but older gen it's worth it.

[Truthandreason]

no one is saying its easy but they are charging the same as if it was built from scratch. Voice acting is done, script is wrote, etc, etc... Most if not all of the art is probably actually reused, but no longer compressed. It's not like they hire artist to make blurry PS3 graphics on purpose, thats just how the good textures end up once compressed. On PS4 you grab the same texture from your server and reuse it with much less compression. A long and tedious job for sure, but not quite the budget buster of the original work done.

They just charge 60 because, why not, since people will pay it.

[OldDude]

In my previous rant I failed to mention I bought this and have had fun playing it. It's an amazing value pure and simple. Credit where credit is due, good job MS and keep it up.

[DarXyde]

Wait a minute. So, the author says...

"Rare made the wise decision to give existing fans fresh incentives to revisit the treasures of their youth, as well as attract newcomers with a penchant for collection and completion. The milestone system threaded throughout the entire package not only adds a sense of accomplishment to even the most punishing of the included games, but more importantly it hooks into what is, for me, the greatest part of the entire collection: the unlockable videos."

And then attacks Final Fantasy VII remake? That doesn't make much sense, considering Square mentioned they will change the battle system. It will offer a fresh perspective to anyone who has ever played it. As for a penchant for completion and milestones, it'll have trophy support. I don't really understand the point they're trying to make here.

[Macka1080]

My apologies if I misrepresented my point. I am interested in the possible changes the FFVII remake will see, although the message Square Enix is giving is still vague and a little confusing. It has said that it doesn't want to jeopardise the original's appeal, while also wanting to introduce fresh elements.

Nevertheless, a revamped battle system is not necessarily going to add to the game. As mentioned in the article, it is the tertiary systems - the Snapshots , Milestones, and the documentaries - that make Rare Replay such an effective play on the past. Trophies included in FFVII could achieve similar success if they're tied to valuable rewards, but until such a system is announced, I'm not confident it will be implemented.

The information surrounding the FFVII remake is just a little too vague to be useful at the moment.

[DarXyde]

Okay, so acknowledging that information surrounding it is vague, is it not inappropriate to speak on it, positively or negatively at this point?

If you suggest we don't know enough to laud it in a manner similar to Rare Replay, it is also too soon to address it the way you did in the article.

I don't mean to come down on you, nor am I berating you. I honestly found myself confused by the point you were trying to make.

[Macka1080]

@DarXyde:

You're right that it is presumptuous to condemn Square Enix when the game is so far off, and we know so little. I may have been overly pessimistic in my predictions, and jaded a little by all the people cooing over the gorgeous new graphics.

Still, I think it's useful to speculate even when details are scarce. I really do hope I'm wrong about FF VII; I want SE to knock it out of the park. If they take a similar approach to Rare Replay, I will undoubtedly be praising them come FF VII's re-release.

Oh, and thanks for feedback! :)

[Rookie_Monster]

MS is setting the bar of how remaster of this gen should be done and also how BC should also be done as well with allowing cross platform play, carry over DLCs, and using the XB1 features for X360 games. Kudos for MS for making these things a reality.

[captainexplosion]

I was psyched to finally get to play Conker, but the graphics weren't improved and the controls didn't add non-inversed controls so I can't operate the camera. I haven't played a game with inverted controls in over 10 years.

[D2K]

I played Blast Corps and Killer Instinct Gold on there. BC was awesome and looked as good as it does on a EMU. Killer Instinct Gold was just a game never meant to be emulated. No EMU I have seen runs it smoothly, and for the Rae replay the control is terrible. Half-circle motions or quarter-circle motions are virtually impossible.

I was looking forward to playing some 'Team Elimination' on there but there is no way with those controls that would be any fun. I'll stick with the N64 version.

[SCW1982]

Nuts and Bolts framerate is unbearable.

[Hedstrom]

I like the way MS and Sony handles remakes :D

[shipnabottle]

I've never been one to jump on remakes. I'm a live in the now kind of guy and don't really see the point of replaying games I played years ago. There just isn't enough time in the world. I'm a massive fan of FFVII but I have zero interest in ever loading up that game again. I'd rather spend that time creating new future nostalgic moments while playing The Witcher 3

[TWB]

I feel that it should be said that Rare Replay is pretty much a remaster if not simply a collection and not a "remake" of any sort from what I have seen but its still pretty damn good value.

We should be a bit more conciderate about what we call these things. Some think remaster strictly means that the game should receive full graphical overhaul (in which case it is a graphical remake), some think it means that the game is simply ported and hasnt received any extra in terms of visuals (cash grab).

I think Rare Replay is a fantastic idea and if I had an XBO I would have already bought RR.

[Darkfist]

more like old game collection than remakes