Articles
Remastered or Recycled
for you to delve into. Finally,
re-releases have been able to
re-release for a reason; they’re
widely considered to be great
games. Purely based on the
quality of the game itself, you
know you won’t be going wrong
when you buy such a title.
However (and it’s a big
however), for some people,
enhanced graphics really don’t
justify a second purchase of
what is essentially the same
game. A lot of people sniggered
at the VGX event when an Eidos
Montreal developer wouldn’t
stop going on about how they
improved Lara’s hair for Tomb
Raider Definitive Edition before
answering a resounding “no”
Issue 59 • September 2014
to the question as to whether
the game will feature any new
content at all. Moreover, whilst
an SD to HD remake often
creates a vast difference in the
graphical quality of a game,
there’s only so far you can go
from a technical standpoint
with a next-gen re-release,
and the limited extent to
how far you do go again can’t
really justify the asking price.
Secondly, the kind of gamers
who have already bought a
next-gen console are the kind
of people who are looking for
something new and fresh.
They’re also the kind of people
who have already played these
re-releases and are no doubt
feeling a tad of disappointment
underneath this gaming déjà
vu. A final major put-off is the
ever-present whiff of a cashgrab by the developers, no
matter how altruistic their intent
might have actually been.
The desirability of a next-gen
re-release, then, really depends
upon the eye of the beholder.
For some, they might be the
perfect way to finally try out
that game they’ve been longing
to play in all its remastered
glory. For others, however, the
next-gen re-release is a major
let-down on their hopes for the
next generation of gaming.
11 • GameOn Magazine