The Pros and Cons of Remaster Culture
Bringing the same old argument to a new generation
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Ben Hughes
@potatoes351 Writer Bio - Is absolutely dying for a Jak & Daxter reboot. |
If you've paid attention to the website, my personal blog or my PSN profile over the last week or two you'll have noticed I've been playing a lot of BioShock. Why? Well it had been a long time since I had played any of them, and I had only played BioShock 2 & Infinite once each on release, never even touched Burial At sea until recently. So you can imagine when exactly a day after finishing Burial At Sea Episode 2 I was mildly irritated when 2K officially revealed the BioShock Collection for PS4, PC and Xbox One.
I knew it was coming, after all the leaks and references that had made to it, it seemed kind of unlikely that it wasn't going to happen sometime within the next year or so. Of course the internet lit up with rejoice over the remastering of some of last generation's most critically acclaimed games, and arguably one of gaming's most important franchises.
Myself however, I was much more excited about the launch of the System Shock Kickstarter. Now of course System Shock is the sci-fi horror series that BioShock became the spiritual successor of, but why was I more excited about System Shock coming to current generation but not BioShock? Well it didn't have a huge amount to do with having recently played BioShock, but it was to do with preserving gaming history the only way we can, remastering and rebooting.
Unlike most entertainment forms, gaming is reliant on hardware that becomes obsolete every 5 years or so. As such we cart out a new console or operating system and leave the other ones to slowly die with ever decreasing support from their creators. You could argue that film has had a similar problem in the last couple of decades, transitioning from tape to DVD and now stuck in a weird three way between DVD, Blu-Ray and various digital only forms.
But these hardware changes in the film industry are relatively uncommon compared to gaming; where this trend of every few years we welcome a new generation of console into our homes, or buy a new operating system to keep our PC up to date, and be able to play the newest games in the best possible way, is much more common.
I knew it was coming, after all the leaks and references that had made to it, it seemed kind of unlikely that it wasn't going to happen sometime within the next year or so. Of course the internet lit up with rejoice over the remastering of some of last generation's most critically acclaimed games, and arguably one of gaming's most important franchises.
Myself however, I was much more excited about the launch of the System Shock Kickstarter. Now of course System Shock is the sci-fi horror series that BioShock became the spiritual successor of, but why was I more excited about System Shock coming to current generation but not BioShock? Well it didn't have a huge amount to do with having recently played BioShock, but it was to do with preserving gaming history the only way we can, remastering and rebooting.
Unlike most entertainment forms, gaming is reliant on hardware that becomes obsolete every 5 years or so. As such we cart out a new console or operating system and leave the other ones to slowly die with ever decreasing support from their creators. You could argue that film has had a similar problem in the last couple of decades, transitioning from tape to DVD and now stuck in a weird three way between DVD, Blu-Ray and various digital only forms.
But these hardware changes in the film industry are relatively uncommon compared to gaming; where this trend of every few years we welcome a new generation of console into our homes, or buy a new operating system to keep our PC up to date, and be able to play the newest games in the best possible way, is much more common.
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Side by side comparisons of System Shock (Left) and the recent Kickstarter System Shock Reboot (Right)
As such for a long time we had no way of properly preserving the best games from our history. Games such as System Shock and Grim Fandango are some of the more well known examples of games that were simply unplayable for a very long time, until last year when both received some form of remastering, allowing them to be played on current generation machines.
Grim Fandango was given a full 1080p remastering and was available to PC and PS4 players, with the ability to switch between classic and remastered modes. System Shock was just given the ability to be played on modern PC's, but the game as a whole remained unchanged.
Of course now we have a full on System Shock reboot coming our way in December 2017, as well as System Shock 3 at some point in the near future, with perhaps even a remastering of System Shock 2. This would bring two incredibly important games out of the dark ages along with a new entry to kick the series back into action again.
That is of course a wonderful thing that should be rejoiced and celebrated by gamers everywhere. So why should the BioShock Collection not get the same? In my eyes it shouldn't, because it's not preserving history, it's a cash grab from 2K.
The BioShock Collection is not preserving history like the System Shock reboot, because BioShock hardly constitutes as history. Yes the first game will be 10 next year but the consoles it released on are all still fully supported, plus the PC version is handled by Steam who generally do a pretty fantastic job of updating older games to keep them playable on modern systems.
If I was able to turn on my PS3, go to the store and download all the BioShock games, then play them after installing the updates without so much as a care in the world, I would argue they don't need to be remastered for current gen consoles. This argument is only made more valid when you consider that the BioShock games are available across Playstation, Xbox and PC and the first game is even available on mobile devices! They even had pretty solid sales figures, with the whole franchise clocking in at 25 million copies sold as of May 2015!
Yes BioShock and BioShock 2 could do with a little visual touch up here and there to keep them pretty. But they aren't exactly ugly games. If 2K and Irrational are concerned with people not wanting to invest in BioShock because it looks like it came out 9 years ago (which it did), then I argue that them people probably aren't even old enough to buy the damn game.
Everybody who wants the BioShock Collection either already has the BioShock games or are already interested in purchasing them for last generation systems; attracting new customers is pretty slim pickings considering all the games are available literally everywhere for under £5 each.
The only draw to the remasters is that they may look slightly sleeker and perhaps even run at 60FPS. It does come with all DLC for each game which is in many ways a big bonus, but even still the BioShock DLC is hardly expensive and if people enjoyed the games when they bought them, they probably bought the DLC for it; I know I did.
Grim Fandango was given a full 1080p remastering and was available to PC and PS4 players, with the ability to switch between classic and remastered modes. System Shock was just given the ability to be played on modern PC's, but the game as a whole remained unchanged.
Of course now we have a full on System Shock reboot coming our way in December 2017, as well as System Shock 3 at some point in the near future, with perhaps even a remastering of System Shock 2. This would bring two incredibly important games out of the dark ages along with a new entry to kick the series back into action again.
That is of course a wonderful thing that should be rejoiced and celebrated by gamers everywhere. So why should the BioShock Collection not get the same? In my eyes it shouldn't, because it's not preserving history, it's a cash grab from 2K.
The BioShock Collection is not preserving history like the System Shock reboot, because BioShock hardly constitutes as history. Yes the first game will be 10 next year but the consoles it released on are all still fully supported, plus the PC version is handled by Steam who generally do a pretty fantastic job of updating older games to keep them playable on modern systems.
If I was able to turn on my PS3, go to the store and download all the BioShock games, then play them after installing the updates without so much as a care in the world, I would argue they don't need to be remastered for current gen consoles. This argument is only made more valid when you consider that the BioShock games are available across Playstation, Xbox and PC and the first game is even available on mobile devices! They even had pretty solid sales figures, with the whole franchise clocking in at 25 million copies sold as of May 2015!
Yes BioShock and BioShock 2 could do with a little visual touch up here and there to keep them pretty. But they aren't exactly ugly games. If 2K and Irrational are concerned with people not wanting to invest in BioShock because it looks like it came out 9 years ago (which it did), then I argue that them people probably aren't even old enough to buy the damn game.
Everybody who wants the BioShock Collection either already has the BioShock games or are already interested in purchasing them for last generation systems; attracting new customers is pretty slim pickings considering all the games are available literally everywhere for under £5 each.
The only draw to the remasters is that they may look slightly sleeker and perhaps even run at 60FPS. It does come with all DLC for each game which is in many ways a big bonus, but even still the BioShock DLC is hardly expensive and if people enjoyed the games when they bought them, they probably bought the DLC for it; I know I did.
BioShock: The Collection contains BioShock (2007), BioShock 2 (2010) & BioShock Infinite (2013) as well as Protector Trials, Minerva's Den & Clash In The Clouds & Burial At Sea 1&2 DLC packs. Releases September 13th on PS4, PC & Xbox One.
So why do we succumb to reboot and remaster culture? Don't deny it, we've all picked up a remaster, or a reboot of a game series at some point. Some are better than others, some were a lot more necessary than others. But why do we continue to buy into it and then complain that all we are getting provided to us this generation is remakes, remasters and reboots.
One recent examples of a reboot that was necessary and worked incredibly well was id Software's DOOM. It had been 13 years since the last new DOOM game and 4 years since the BFG edition (a collection of every DOOM game, remastered in 1080p for the seventh generation of consoles), so we were due a new DOOM. Rather than making it DOOM 4 however, the franchise was rebooted to incorporate a few modern gameplay tropes, built on top of the foundations for the original 1993 game, retaining the original charm of DOOM in all it's bloody, demonic glory; but rebooted for a new generation of gamers.
Another example of a modern reboot done right was 2013's Tomb Raider. Why was it necessary? Because the old Tomb Raider formula had been done to death about 6 times too many, so Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix decided they would have a last ditch effort at making Lara Croft relevant again by rebooting the franchise and retaining little resemblance to the original games. It only went and bloody worked, the Tomb Raider reboot was not only the best Lara Croft game since the originals, it was one of the best games that year.
Then you have games like The Nathan Drake Collection, God of War HD Volumes 1&2, The Master Chief Collection and Sly HD Trilogy that served to simply bring all entries of the franchise onto one platform. Whether the results of said collections were good or not, they served a purpose to provide a seamless playing experience which even if it's not necessarily preserving history it is somewhat acceptable for allowing ease of play between titles.
Then you get remasters such as The Last of Us Remastered, God of War III Remastered, the Bioshock Collection, Saints Row IV Re:Elected, The Handsome Jack Collection and many many more that had no reason to exist beyond making easy profit. No matter how good some of these games are, and how much the remaster may have improved the original game, they simply weren't necessary. Because they were either released too recently to even deserve a remaster, or all of their games were already on a single system and porting to another only makes moving from one title to the next more difficult.
Then there is the point about the announcement of the Final Fantasy VII remake at E3 2015. Yes whilst FFVIII is well overdue a proper remaster, it is playable on PC and PS4. Not only that but the reaction it got from the crowd when it came up on the screen was probably the most crazed and frenzied reaction to a game announcement I have ever seen. It not only stole the show, it not only stole E3 but it was arguably the most significant gaming news story of 2015...that Final Fantasy VII was finally getting a remaster. Not sure about you, but that strikes me as gamers desiring remakes and remasters far more than they actually should do.
One recent examples of a reboot that was necessary and worked incredibly well was id Software's DOOM. It had been 13 years since the last new DOOM game and 4 years since the BFG edition (a collection of every DOOM game, remastered in 1080p for the seventh generation of consoles), so we were due a new DOOM. Rather than making it DOOM 4 however, the franchise was rebooted to incorporate a few modern gameplay tropes, built on top of the foundations for the original 1993 game, retaining the original charm of DOOM in all it's bloody, demonic glory; but rebooted for a new generation of gamers.
Another example of a modern reboot done right was 2013's Tomb Raider. Why was it necessary? Because the old Tomb Raider formula had been done to death about 6 times too many, so Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix decided they would have a last ditch effort at making Lara Croft relevant again by rebooting the franchise and retaining little resemblance to the original games. It only went and bloody worked, the Tomb Raider reboot was not only the best Lara Croft game since the originals, it was one of the best games that year.
Then you have games like The Nathan Drake Collection, God of War HD Volumes 1&2, The Master Chief Collection and Sly HD Trilogy that served to simply bring all entries of the franchise onto one platform. Whether the results of said collections were good or not, they served a purpose to provide a seamless playing experience which even if it's not necessarily preserving history it is somewhat acceptable for allowing ease of play between titles.
Then you get remasters such as The Last of Us Remastered, God of War III Remastered, the Bioshock Collection, Saints Row IV Re:Elected, The Handsome Jack Collection and many many more that had no reason to exist beyond making easy profit. No matter how good some of these games are, and how much the remaster may have improved the original game, they simply weren't necessary. Because they were either released too recently to even deserve a remaster, or all of their games were already on a single system and porting to another only makes moving from one title to the next more difficult.
Then there is the point about the announcement of the Final Fantasy VII remake at E3 2015. Yes whilst FFVIII is well overdue a proper remaster, it is playable on PC and PS4. Not only that but the reaction it got from the crowd when it came up on the screen was probably the most crazed and frenzied reaction to a game announcement I have ever seen. It not only stole the show, it not only stole E3 but it was arguably the most significant gaming news story of 2015...that Final Fantasy VII was finally getting a remaster. Not sure about you, but that strikes me as gamers desiring remakes and remasters far more than they actually should do.
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DOOM (Left), a reboot of the 1993 original, is one of the most praised games this year. Final Fantasy VII Remaster (Right) is one of the most anticipated games for 2017, and a ground up remake of the 1997 original.
Every game I have mentioned previously I love, and own the remasters of. Either because I didn't get a chance to play the original versions (as is the case with God of War and Sly), or because I simply adore the original games (as is the case with Borderlands, Halo and The Last of Us).
It doesn't mean I think they were all necessary. Most could have gone without being made, they weren't serving any purpose to the gaming industry, they were just stopping the developers from making new games, or even managing to mask the release of other games because consumers were to focused on the remaster releasing.
Personally I feel that remasters and reboots should be used as a way of preserving gaming history the only way we can, remaking the games that are no longer playable because of lack support from ageing hardware, to make them playable once again on modern systems.
I think remaster culture is pretty ugly and a cash grab scheme from greedy publishers. But obviously that won't stop me, or you whether you agree with me or not, from buying the remasters of games we love or didn't get to play previously, no matter how recently they originally released.
Let us just pray that we never see a remaster of a game on the same generation of hardware it launched on.
It doesn't mean I think they were all necessary. Most could have gone without being made, they weren't serving any purpose to the gaming industry, they were just stopping the developers from making new games, or even managing to mask the release of other games because consumers were to focused on the remaster releasing.
Personally I feel that remasters and reboots should be used as a way of preserving gaming history the only way we can, remaking the games that are no longer playable because of lack support from ageing hardware, to make them playable once again on modern systems.
I think remaster culture is pretty ugly and a cash grab scheme from greedy publishers. But obviously that won't stop me, or you whether you agree with me or not, from buying the remasters of games we love or didn't get to play previously, no matter how recently they originally released.
Let us just pray that we never see a remaster of a game on the same generation of hardware it launched on.