So with the new next-gen consoles finally catching their stride, I've noticed a new trend coming on. That is a studio taking a game that was really popular back in the day, and just re-releasing it. It first started when the original Halo got an update for the Xbox 360. HOwever that had a specific reason behind it. That being that Halo had recently been taken over by a new studio, and understandably, fans of the series were not really sure what would happen with the franchise, since this was years after Halo 3 came out, and there were really only whispers about what would happen if and when we would get Halo 4. So the new studio decided to put our fears to rest by going back to the beginning, taking the original masterpiece that we knew and loved, and updating the graphics for the new age. It was their way of saying "listen, we know what you are all thinking, so let us show you that we are actually fans of the series, we are going to take it seriously... and we are also looking to make a ton of money" Yeah, I'm not gonna deny that it was essentially a cash grab. Though when it came out, it was sold for a reduced price than what a normal game gets priced at, so it wasn't a complete cash grab. They did something similar with the Xbox One, only this time they released all four of the original games, with 2 getting the update treatment. And again, they offered it at $60 (the typical price for one game) for all 4 games, so it didn't feel like a total rip off. And the nice part was that you could easily switch back and forth between old graphics and new graphics with the push of a button, you don't even have to pause the game. It was a nice way of revisiting the game we grew up playing online and at friends' houses while also seeing how far we've come. I'll admit, I love the way they made everybody look in the new Halo 2, but at times, I couldn't help but go back to the original Xbox graphics. There was a charming nostalgia factor to it.
But then trouble hit.
Over the past year, I've been noticing more and more game series are deciding to forgo making original material for the fans and are instead just rereleasing old titles. Only now instead of doing what Halo did and making some kind of update, there appears to be little to no change in the games. Gears of War for example, I had played quite a bit when it was on the 360, and had enjoyed it enough that I decided to get the remastered version when I saw it had come out. I was kind of expecting something similar with Halo. Yeah I'm playing the same game but I can play it with an updated look... But that wasn't the case either. I went so far as to look up gameplay from the original Gears and I noticed little to no difference in the graphics. Normally I wouldn't have been bothered because the graphics were pretty kick ass to begin with, but I paid $60 for this game! And it wasn't the whole series as was the case with Halo, it was just the first game. Needless to say I felt kind of ripped off. The same thing happened later that year with the Bioshock series. The only difference is that I kept that, because I'm a fan of the games. Well, 2 of them anyway.
And now it appears that more games are doing this. Taking a game that was already good, and just rereleasing it for the next gen consoles. From Grand Theft Auto to Elder Scrolls to Call of Duty to Assassins Creed, we've been seeing a ton of franchises putting out old games with the "remastered' label slapped on. My issue comes down to this, if we keep buying old games for new consoles, then there really wasn't a point to us buying new consoles to begin with. Many of us probably still have the games that we are buying again. I don't want a remastered Assassins Creed 2 or Brotherhood, I want a NEW Assassins Creed game. Yeah, CoD 4: Modern Warfare was awesome, but let's get a new Call of Duty (don't worry, I'll address that issue later too). If we keep buying old games with the remastered label, then studios will think thats all we want and will continue to put out less and less new material until we aren't getting anything. It's exactly what people are saying is wrong with the movie industry, except here it's even more frustrating because even less effort is being put into the product, they are just copying and pasting on a different disc.
Some of these games aren't even that old either. Skyrim was released in 2011, it's barely half a decade old. GTA 5 and Bioshock Infinite were both released in 2013. None of these games have been around long enough that people are pointing out how dated the graphics look. We could do that with Halo cause the original has been around since 2001, and the second came to us in 2004, there was enough of a gap that we could see how much time had passed.
Maybe I'm making a bigger deal of this than I should, but there is no denying that we are seeing more and more of it. If we want to justify the new consoles we all spent money on, then we need something to justify it with, and a game that I first played less than 10 years ago doesn't really warrant.
No comments:
Post a Comment