On video game re releases and remakes

everyone has their own thoughts on things. Something you've no doubt noticed in the past few years is a high numbers of re-mastered games being released on current generation systems. With Gears of War getting a remake in a few days, I think it's interesting to talk about this matter.

This can easily be broken up into to 2 groups; remakes and re releases, lets begin with remakes. I generally have no problem with remakes of games, but what I may have a problem with is the motive of the remake. Let's take Halo as an example, 10 years after being released on the Xbox in 2001, Halo Combat Evolved got a remake, the original Halo being one of my favourite games ever, I was pumped. I bring up that I was excited because I think that was the main propose of CE Anniversary, it was fan service, a product created for fans of the original Halo. The game was practically identical the original, while the updated graphics were hardly jaw dropping, they weren't bad either, and the option to switch between classic and updated graphics was awesome. The motive of the anniversary of Halo was fan service, which can not be said as plainly of Halo 2 anniversary. While there was demand for it, the sequel's 10th anniversary is not as big a deal as the original, but what really bugs me about Halo 2 anniversary is the MCC; it was a cash grab, and I say this for a few reasons.

I don't like games that get HD re releases on current gen after not even being on last gen for that long, games like Tomb Raider and Sleeping Dogs, Though admittedly I love Metro Redux. What matters here is demand, Games like The Last of Us on PS4 were highly demanded, same for the Uncharted trilogy, but who wants to relive the glory of Darksiders 2 or Prototype in shiny HD, especially Prototype, since Darksiders 2 was decent. Halo MCC was like this, the inclusion of Halo 1, 3 and 4 looked very cash grabby, and then the game was broken at launch, in my opinion crushing any argument the MCC was fan service, because how many fans were left when they finally got the game working, my reasons for thinking MCC was a cash grab and nothing more. Taking it back to remakes though, Gears of War is a game franchise I love all 4 instalments of, I'm cautious about Gears 4, but I'd like a remake of Gears of War, demand is important, but so is your taste.

A problem for re releases now though is backwards compatibility, with the Xbox One adopting backwards compatibility, this trend will certainly die quickly. because now say Sleeping Dogs is backwards compatible, people who rebought it on current gen are screwed over, but it won't be, because it's been re released already, so now people with the last gen version are screwed over. This is what will kill the trend, at least on Xbox, now there is no need for re releases, but the ones already out there are a hindrance to people who have the last gen versions of those games. Maybe how long those games are not backwards compatible will depend on the age of the re release, and maybe this will apply to games released on both generations, though this obviously won't last, as the older systems are eventually forgotten by developers and publishers.

Motive matters to remakes and re releases, a remake for the fans is fine, a cash grab is not, the same applies to re releases with games like The Last of Us and Uncharted, 4 games I myself love, but games that aren't as highly demanded are a bit more greedy, and should really be left alone, especially when the re release is broken at launch, 343 Industries, I was talking about you there. Expect a review of Gears of War sometime either this week or next week.