Resyncs. Reloads. Revivals. Resurrections.

…even though both games ran at 60 FPS on modern consoles… and both looked great and didn’t need graphical updates.

They’re reselling the same thing?

I’m bringing this up now since I believe we’ve hit a plateau when it comes to games; new masterpieces drop every year now, depending on your taste. Due to this, developers have stopped picking the low-hanging fruit and now have decided to grab the same fruits  polish them up and give them back to us, now demanding more money. Yet people still pay it. 

Me included. 

The Resynced Black Flag 

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag resynced came out recently, and it made me fall in love with the Assassin’s Creed franchise once more. Some people have argued that the recent Assassin’s Creed games have been lacklustre, bad, or they’ve generally run out of ideas. 

Ubisoft, in their genius, have decided to remake Black Flag for the modern console, and I must say it runs and feels way better than their previous games (notably Shadows and  Valhalla, which would sit around 30-40 fps). The story hasn’t changed drastically and overall recaptures the same feeling of sailing the 7 seas that you had back in 2013, 13  years ago. This is what remakes are for: taking an old game and revamping it for a new, younger audience with better quality of life changes being made and giving it a big facelift so it looks extra pretty. Overall really solid remake. 

BOO! New old COD sucks  

What isn’t so solid is Activision deciding that people need to shill out £40 for a game that was PORTED to modern consoles, not remade, not even remastered, which means that they put a fresh coat of paint on. Only ported, which means they’ve made it native for modern consoles but haven’t rebuilt or upgraded anything to it. The Black ops 1 & 2  ports for the PS5 have been a little bit of a mess to say the least, hackers have already infiltrated the game 5 days after going live, players having to pay another £40 to play a game that most people already own, never mind that Activision still decides NOT to use dedicated servers for their games so if you’re stuck with someone who has a bad connection unfortunately you’re all going to have quite a crap time. 

Why would anyone want to exploit a game that is literally 10 years old? These games are purely made for your nostalgia, so why would you want to exploit your childhood/young adulthood? 

All that being said, Activision has been fairly swift in their response to these hackers; they’re patching everything quite quickly, and the people who wanted to only play online were given full refunds regardless of the platform.  

Regarding the server problem though, we’ve still heard nothing. 

What’s on the horizon? 

Looking at what’s coming over the next couple of years, I think we’ve got a pretty good mix. Persona 4 Revival has a chance to introduce one of the best RPGs ever made to a completely new audience. Code Veronica is exactly the kind of game that deserves another shot because even back in the 2000s the controls were… let’s be nice and call them experimental. Silent Hill 1 has the potential to build on everything Bloober Team learned from the Silent Hill 2 Remake. Even the original God of War trilogy being rebuilt would finally let people experience those games without jumping through PlayStation’s backwards compatibility hoops, which aren’t limited but include paying £120 for a  selected few games that you are unfortunately forced to stream.  

This is really where I stand on remakes. I don’t think they’re ruining gaming, and I don’t think every old game should be left untouched either. If a remake preserves a game that’s become difficult to play, modernises mechanics that haven’t aged well, or introduces a classic to a younger generation, I’m all for it. Black Flag is a great example of that. 

What I don’t want is publishers charging premium prices for the exact same game with barely anything changed. A port isn’t a remake, and a slightly sharper resolution isn’t worth the £40 price tag strewn across it. 

If we’re going to keep living in the age of remakes, and let’s be honest, we probably are, then I’d rather studios remake games that actually have something to gain from being rebuilt, instead of polishing games that still hold up perfectly today.