HD collections

[KHCast]

We all know about em'. HD collections are a pretty popular trend as of late. What, seeing your favorite gaming series remastered isn't awesome?  As great as HD collections can be however there are some things that can hold them back. The laziness many companies could take by simply just porting the game with slight changes or adding changes that could make the game worse are a few examples of these things developers have to consider. What are some things that you feel game developers should consider when creating a HD port or collection? What are some things you liked about the HD collections you played? What about didn't like?

[Nix]

HD collections offer the chance for people to play some of gaming's greatest classics if they missed it when it first came around.  It also offers those who didn't miss it the chance to revisit it (with some new bells and whistles if they're lucky), so I'm generally all for them.  I'm thinking about picking up Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ReMix (a collection of 1, Re:Chain of Memories, and 358/2 Days in cinematic form) because it seems Square really went the extra mile with a few gameplay tweaks, new additions, a graphical update, and from what I hear a remastered soundtrack?  I've played Kingdom Hearts 1 and Chain of Memories to death, and the collection still sounds pretty enticing, especially with all the Final Mix stuff in it.

 

Then I play shit like the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai HD collection.  Which forgets about Budokai 2 and replaces almost the entire goddamn soundtrack, effectively killing my childhood.  Don't get me wrong, Budokai 3 is still fun to play and it looks pretty damn good in HD, but the new soundtrack (ripped from Ultimate Tenkaichi iirc) just takes out the game's soul.  I don't care if there was plagiarism involved, I want my bitching "get your shit pumped" songs back!  They even changed the song for Budokai 3's opening cinematic.  You won't fucking believe how hard I raged when I didn't hear that first guitar riff.

 

Also, why the fuck isn't there a Viewtiful Joe HD collection?  It's practically begging to be made.

Edited March 21, 2013 by Nix

[Autosaver]

Some are good.
Some are bad.

 

Zone of Enders somehow made the PS2 game run like shit even though its running on much more powerful hardware.

 

Kingdom Hearts on the other hand updated the game to more modern models, remastered the music, and added tons of goodies.

[Solkia]

...

 

Does Okami HD count? That's the only HD remake I've played.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

I never played any of the Sly games until they remastered the trilogy in to the Sly Collection. Same with God of War. With trophy support. XP I'm soon getting the Ratchet & Clank Trilogy.

 

I'm glad Sony took this approach. If they didn't, I would have never gotten the chance to play these games. Even if PS3 had PS2 backward support, I still don't think I wouldn't play the games.

[KHCast]

This game is probably one of my favorite HD collections. Like ever. They did a excellent job with remastering the games andthe tiny little bonuses were cool. It hit the sweet center for me. Oh, and Peacewalker actually was pretty fun and looked pretty amazing even though it was a PSP title ported. 

 

The Kingdom Hearts HD collection also is looking amazing with updated visuals and character  models, re-mastered music,bonus content, I'm amazed. HD collections need to take a cue from these titles.

 

And I'm with Nix, WHERE'S VIEWTIFUL JOE HD?!

[SoniqUpdater]

i would like to use Halo Combat Evolved anniversary as an example of what people should do to create HD games. Ill explain, in Halo combat evolved anniversary, they made it so that you can transition the graphics to make it look more modern, and what not. The game play still was the same, which really is perfectly fine with me. again this idea should be taken up a bit where you can transition the graphics. Also i think the game i can only think of to get an HD remake in the sonic series is one of the sonic riders game, due to the fact free riders was a HUGE LET DOWN.

Edited March 21, 2013 by SoniqUpdater

[Nintendoga]

It's time for another Good Idea, Bad Idea

Good Idea

HD collections

 

Bad Idea

HD Collections

HD Collections are always good for updating old games and making them playable for a new generation. It's only when they clearly make said collections just to gain a quick buck and end up hurting the games by doing so is when we got a problem.

[Autosaver]

I think Silent Hill had an excuse though. I think they lost the source code to the game so they had to rebuild it. Then again, they shouldn't have tackled it then. Sonic 1 GBA...

[Tornado]

Ratchet and Clank Collection is very good, though very lazy at spots (especially in the first game) and glitchy (second game).

 

Metal Gear Collection is pretty much God Mode for the things, and pretty much is the best way you can spend $40.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Budokai collection blows.

[KHCast]

You know, one collection I was always really curious about was Jak and Daxter. I've heard mixed things about it. Is it better than the original games?

[Teoskaven]

You know, one collection I was always really curious about was Jak and Daxter. I've heard mixed things about it. Is it better than the original games?

 

 

Don't.

Touch.

The second.

Game.

 

It's for your mental sanity.

 

 

Anyway, on topic: since i didn't have the chance to play the original games on PS2, i'm a huge collector of HD Collections. By far, the worst of all that i found is the first one, the God of War bundle, (GoW+GoWII) because it really doesn't use the HD potential this much. Also, i already stated that in the PS3 version of DMC1 and DMC3 HD there's a bug that makes the voice tracks going faster then the cutscenes.

Right now, the game i desire most to be made in HD with trophies is Rogue Galaxy (maybe in a bundle with Dark Cloud), but it's up to Level-5. The same goes for Namco with a Xenosaga HD Collection (the occasion to finally release all the 3 games in europe).

Edited March 21, 2013 by Teoskaven

[iDEATH]

I want the Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and Ico ones. I think they'rea good idea but seeing as I already have all of these games I'd rather just have had backwards compatability on the ps3 (i know certain models have it).

 

It bugs me when the collections are incomplete though, Jak and Daxter misses out Jak  X, and the psp games. ratchet and Clank is missing some too. Those two I can accept but then there's the MGS collection which starts with MGS 2, the original metal gear games and metal gear 1 must have been small enough in size to include on the disc, I wouldn't have cared if they'd not updated the graphics or anything, I'm a completist. I hate missing out massive chunks of story like that.

[Cortez]

I don't like the weird craze of sticking a trio of games on a HD collection. If there's 4 or more games why not just stick the whole lot on there instead of missing some out. It's not exactly a collection if its incomplete, looking at you Metal Gear Solid.

[Marcello]

MGS HD has the original two Metal Gear games as part of Subsistence. Portable Ops and MGS1/Twin Snakes are missing. I'd love a second collection of 1 and PO to come out, though. Also 3 is missing the Ape Escape minigame.

[TheOcelot]

MGS HD Collection

 

Just to add to some of the previous posts. This is by far and above the best HD collection out there. A collection of remastered ports which contain three brilliant games with the addition of the original MSX titles; Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.  

 

The games have been given a face lift so that they almost look like they were originally made on the PS3. There are no bugs in the ports and the games play exactly as I remember with the added bonus of 60fps. £40.00 well spent, plus I got a chance to play Peace Walker which I hadn't done before.

 

The slight tweaks to the in-game menus are very nicely done. A lot of love and effort has gone into these games which look beautiful in proper widescreen.

 

That said, a few things from the original versions of the games had to be left out. In the port of MGS3 you don't have Boss Survival, Snakes vs The Monkey missions, Secret Theatre (a shame) and the online mode (which is understandable). In MGS2 you don't have the skateboarding missions. It's a shame but it's not a big deal. The main core of what made the games great in the first place is still there.

 

It really is a HD collection that sets the bar very high. I can't help but compare all future HD releases to this.

 

-------------------

 

It's unfortunate that when old games are ported that some things have to be left out - like music tracks, in game brands used - due to legal rights. It's a shame because if you've played the original then you at least expect the full original experience, just with a fresh coat of paint.

Edited March 21, 2013 by -Bender-

[Dobkeratops]

Some of them are the definitive versions of the games (GoW/SotC/MGS/KH/Okami). Pretty much all of the Sony published ones are great, along with a few good third party efforts like Tomb Raider and DMC. They're a nice way for people to catch up on stuff they missed last gen or entice fans to revisit old games. It's not just having better framerates, AA, content or trophies - last gen games look abysmal on HDTVs. Just fixing that alone is a huge leap to me.

 

You gotta be careful with some, however. ZOE ended up poorly and the silent Hill collection is amazingly bad. Like, holy fuck Konami. What are you doing with the franchise. Stop.

 

Also add me to the VJHD petition bandwagon.

[Scott]

Doom 3: BFG Edition and Halo Combat Evolved: Anniversary for me.

 

With Doom 3,  they slightly updated the brightness, made the textures a little more detailed and made it so your flashlight was attached to you instead of choosing either gun or torch. It would have been nice to give the option of original or new torch method, as BFG Edition eliminates the survival horror atmosphere of Doom 3. Regardless, I still find the game really enjoyable, the fact it gave people a chance to play the online multiplayer again along with adding Doom 1, 2 and the Resurrection of Evil add-on as well as a new add-on cut from the original was just the icing on the demonic cake.

 

With Halo CE: Anniversary, it was a great way of bringing a classic to the modern era. With Halo still being popular ten years later, what better way to celebrate than porting the original in HD to the 360? It was more of a port and pretty much 50% original and 50% New. Saying that, nothing was changed at all from the campaign, except for textures. With another engine running on top of the original game, added textures of the same quality as Halo Reach, making the enemies and marines look consistent to Reach, which is great since they are both directly connected in story. The games original multiplayer was aborted in favour of making fan-favourite maps for use in Reach instead of the games original dose of maps. The game came with the Reach maps, which could be played from the disc along with a code to redeem the same maps from Reach so you weren't constricted.

 

Lastly a new feature added to Halo CE: Anniversary is probably the most overlooked feature for obvious reasons; the scan mode. Players with a Kinect plugged into their Xbox can catalogue the various enemies within the game using the scan mode. With the use of voice commands, you access the "Scan-screen" which is similar to Promethean Vision in Halo 4, in this screen mode, you can highlight an enemy, dead or alive and scan them. In my opinion, using this feature was such an awesome and fresh take on the franchise and gave me a Metroid Prime-like feel in a Halo game. I felt pretty bummed out when it wasn't in Halo 4, especially with all the new enemies available.

[Tornado]

I don't like the weird craze of sticking a trio of games on a HD collection. If there's 4 or more games why not just stick the whole lot on there instead of missing some out. It's not exactly a collection if its incomplete, looking at you Metal Gear Solid.

 

Twin Snakes sucks (and Nintendo paid for its development so it was probably never an option anyway), and the original game is too old to fit in with the other ones. The only reason the first two Metal Gear games are included is because they were already included with Subsistence.

[Gabz Girl]

I like the idea of HD collections simply because it gives people (like me) a chance to play games that we never got a chance to play on the previous console, just with tweaked graphics. I'm definitely getting KH 1.5 ReMIX once it comes out, since it's one remake that Square-Enix have given lots of care and attention and even though I played the first game on PS2 many years ago, it'll be great to revisit it again in a new light.

 

I think Nintendo should start doing some HD collections for their Wii games. Imagine the already great looking Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 in HD!

 

 

 

There's one thing stopping me from getting this HD collection: no MGS1.

 

I thought this would be a great introduction to the MGS franchise for me, but if I don't play the very first game how am I going to follow the complicated plot and characters?

[Tornado]

Just play the second game instead.[/Metal Gear humor]

[TheOcelot]

There's one thing stopping me from getting this HD collection: no MGS1.

 

I thought this would be a great introduction to the MGS franchise for me, but if I don't play the very first game how am I going to follow the complicated plot and characters?

 

Have you got a PS3? The original Metal Gear Solid (PS1) can be purchased and downloaded from PSN.

Edited March 21, 2013 by -Bender-

[Gabz Girl]

Have you got a PS3? The original Metal Gear Solid (PS1) can be purchased and downloaded from PSN.

 

No I...haven't actually. D: I'm asking for one for my birthday though, which is in a month. I was always going to get the PS3 version anyway, so I'll just have to get MGS1 there!

[iDEATH]

Didn't realise that MGS3 in the HD collection was the subsistence version, I already mave MGS1 so I could get the whole collection......interesting *flees to amazon*

[Tornado]

Didn't realise that MGS3 in the HD collection was the subsistence version, I already mave MGS1 so I could get the whole collection......interesting *flees to amazon*

 

Well... it's the Subsistence version minus a few things for licencing reasons.