Should older games be remade?

[aleph]

I'd like to have MotB and SoZ remade in a decent game engine. The Infinity Engine would suffice, even.

This.

As a nice side effect MotB and SoZ would then be playable with the superior 2e ruleset.

 

[Qwinn]

The Gold Box games are still playable as they are. A remake might be nice, but it isn't really required to keep the games playable.

What -desperately- needs a real update is Wasteland. Keep it -exactly- the same in terms of options, dialogue, turn based combat, etc., but update the graphics and interface. That would really rock, cause it was an awesome game, but the interface is so painful I really can't bring myself to play it again.

Qwinn

 

[Jasede]

And Avernum/Geneforce while you're at it.
Also Ultima 4-6; I can't play those.

Might and Magic 1-3 too. Wizardry can stay; wireframe is for some reason not as bad as crappy graphics.

 

[Jasede]

Fallout

 

[Wyrmlord]

Might and Magic 1-3 too.

Remake them with World Of Xeen graphics. :D

 

[Spectacle]

I'd like to see a remake of XCom, with more varied, fully destructible environments. Imagine how cool it would be if the game would simulate the impact path and destruction caused by each crashing UFO! 3D graphics and physics engines can be good for something.

I sometimes think that a remake of Alpha Centauri would be a good idea, but they would almost certainly dumb it down and fuck it up. Just the thought of AC's faction leaders rendered in Civ4's cartoony style makes me want to puke.

 

[Tails]

I'd like to see a remake of XCom, with more varied, fully destructible environments. Imagine how cool it would be if the game would simulate the impact path and destruction caused by each crashing UFO! 3D graphics and physics engines can be good for something.

Believe me, it wouldn't be the same, the all atmosphere of the original would be lost with 3D graphics but psychics like in Apocalypse could be nice. As a remake I would see same X-COM with no bugs, a bit more detailed graphic but still the same (though it looks very nice with hq2x), and with music from Amiga version (imho much better then PSX one). Also there could be some cosmetic changes, like mixed civilians gender in terror missions or adding animated doors to Lighting aircraft.

 

[delgrodel]

Fallout

The combat in Fallout could be greatly improved by simply providing the option for manual control of companions. The same holds true for Arcanum.

 

[Serus]

I'd like to see remake of Darklands one day. REMAKE - not some first person bethesda style clickfest.

Arcanum does not need any remake imo - only the combat system is broken.

 

[St. Toxic]

Hay guys I just got a great idea. Why don't they remake all the new games and make them good this time around eh?

Discuss!!!

 

[denizsi]

Dungeon Hack

No. The emphasis in Dungeon Hack is all on the wrong things. I've found it interesting upon first learning about it, but quickly found out they're approaching the whole project as if they're making a mod for MW/OB. Here are some new models. Here are some new skins. I'll be very surprised if they manage to make anything that's a fraction of Daggerfall's depth.

Also, if the assets used so far is indicative of anything, art direction will most assuredly suck.

A guy who called himself Interrupt, running dfworkshop.net -also the former host of Dungeon Hack-, was working on an engine update for original Daggerfall, hacking the game, documenting everything about file systems and data management in Daggerfall, and reusing the original content in a new renderer. That was something. Sadly, either he died, or he called it quits, as the website hasn't been online for over a year.

<edit>Ah, yes! Interrupt's back, and so is dfworkshop.net: http://www.dfworkshop.net/ </edit>

Fallout

Source code, so improvements can be made? Damn right. Remake? Fuck no.

 

[Black Cat]

@ Denizsi

You made a couple of points in the wall of text, and so i will change my official line to "To just think about the genre being resurrected with intact gameplay, modern UI, and Mass Effect's graphics makes me want to cry."

In my defense i will mention that i was more, like, talking about fan-made remakes by means of mods or modules, anyway.. Because it will never happen otherwise, really.

And just sayin', but it seems a bit weird to call someone who knows those games and is not your granny "Next Gen".

 

[Dark Elf]

http://www.lucasarts.com/games/monkeyisland/

 

[Wyrmlord]

Actually, the topic is "Should older games be remade?" not "Which older games should be remade?"

Answering that question, no, it's not a healthy thing. As much as I like old games, to come into an era where we live in the shadows of what was already made would be just as bad as this era where good ideas of old games are completely dismissed.

That's why I liked MotB. It didn't try to be in the shadow of older pausable real-time D&D RPGs, nor did it try to emulate them. It carved its own niche, in a game with a pretty unprecedented level of interaction and a dynamic gameplay-bound system of making your choices. This is the game where sating your spirit hunger turns you into an ethereal creature who gets the attention of a cannibal tribe that teaches you to devour entire souls and not spirits, thus letting you devour even pivotal characters and change the outline of the story.

None of this was there in Infinity Engine games or even subsequent Bioware/Obsidian story games. Now, the idea of instead trying to do things as well as those games, and polishing their existing formula may well have been appeaking, but I am glad they did not do so. It would have been terrible if the best modern RPGs could achieve is to get back to where they already were 10 years ago. That may be a relative improvement, but that's not a real improvement.

 

[Captain Rufus]

There are good reasons to update classics. To make them available to modern consumers/new hardware. To fix critical flaws in the gameplay and interface. To fix things that were stupid in the original. To make the graphics palatable to modern audiences.

If a remake is not doing the above, don't bother.

If its a "spiritual sequel/reimagining" its probably just namewhoring and can be ignored too.

Though the PS2 Wizardry game ended up being the latter and its actually the best Wizardry out there overall. Accessible, true to the classic gameplay, graphics that aren't CGA, refined game systems as opposed to Wiz 1-4 that actively hated the player, (5-8 just didn't approve of you.) and available on a system almost everyone has and in a time where RPGs are played by more than a couple of nerdshoes.

But that sort of game is rare. Thankfully it does happen. Some of the Defender of the Crown remakes/updates did a good job of being either a reimagining or remake.

The Sierra VGA updates were pretty solid.
Ultima 1 was apparently a vast improvement over the Apple 2 basic version.
Bionic Commando Rearmed was excellent.

Sadly, the RPG genre doesn't get many remakes outside of the console arena. (How many times has Final Fantasy 1 been revamped now? How many times has Dragon Quest 1? Course those 2 franchises combined have close to 130 MILLION units sold and have the rabid fanbase to support remakes that keep the core gameplay intact.)

Id love to see the Ultimas all redone in nice graphics, with a solid interface, automaps, note taking, and a unified storyline that didn't get retconned into being stupid with each new release.

Bard's Tale deserves it. Something like Magic Candle should get one. While not really an RPG, I would resub to Xbox Live right now if I could play Warlords 2 Deluxe online. X Com with a little less abuse and map repetition, and some of the stuff later games had like close combat weapons.

Tons of these games were really before their time, or skewed too close to the Gygaxian BE SMART OR DIE TO BAD LUCK/EVIL GM concept.

I know this place isn't console RPG friendly, but Final Fantasy 7 really did bring the genre to the masses.

The problem is getting or playing a lot of these classics which at their core blow away the bad manga story with lots of random combat out of the water.

Trying to play some of them is too difficult for many, too annoying for others, and new folks are just gonna take one look at stuff like Might and Magic 1 and go running for the hills!

These days we can remove lots of boring level grinding, we can have nice interfaces. We can have the options for automaps, more guided storydriven adventuring, and less of whatever pee got into the Wizardry 4 developers' Corn Flakes the morning they wrote up the design document.

I mean, imagine a high res version of Adventure Construction Set. Given online communities the amount of tiles that would be made is astounding. (Yeah lots of them would be sprite rips of Final Fantasy. Ignore those sets.) It was still the easiest and most fun RPG maker out there. Yet nothing has come close since. They all seem to expect people to program and write scripts and such while being MORE difficult to use and more limited.

Imagine one that allowed for multiple players/party members. Options for Ultima 5 styled combat screens, or Bard's Tale/Dragon Quest styled first person views. Either 3d dungeons or top down/isometric. Conversation trees.

I'd like to say I am going somewhere with my thoughts but I am not and am just rambling now and dreaming of games that won't happen.

 

[FeelTheRads]

The combat in Fallout could be greatly improved by simply providing the option for manual control of companions.

No.

First of all the fun in Fallout's combat doesn't in any way come from it being tactical, and simply adding the possibility to control the companions would only make it boring. Instead of just sitting in one place shooting with one character you'd do the same with all of them. Sorry, no improvement here.

It's actually more fun with the companions doing their own stuff, based on their personality and it gives more variety to the combat situations. If you could control all of them you could, for example, always make sure you have direct line of fire to the enemies.

 

[delgrodel]

First of all the fun in Fallout's combat doesn't in any way come from it being tactical, and simply adding the possibility to control the companions would only make it boring. Instead of just sitting in one place shooting with one character you'd do the same with all of them. Sorry, no improvement here.

It's actually more fun with the companions doing their own stuff, based on their personality and it gives more variety to the combat situations. If you could control all of them you could, for example, always make sure you have direct line of fire to the enemies.

There's some truth in this, if only because the combat in Fallout is neither particularly complicated nor challenging. Still, having the option to assume complete control would at least provide a suitable alternative in fights in which companion competence is crucial.