They offered a discount on the OG through May 8th, and announced the delisting/discount back in April I think. So, people had a little while to buy the OG Prepare to Die for $20, and then get the remaster for $20 as well later if they wanted to own both at the same time.
I also played the network test. The visual changes are hit and miss.
Things like bloodstains are overly saturated and bright to the point they're distractingly jarring. There's something of a motion blur (on PS4 at least) when camera panning quickly that's kinda distracting as well. There's a UI percentage slider that lets you size it up/down, though it applies to all elements at once, and doesn't change their positions. It seems like they could've done more with that, and/or possibly added a smart-HUD feature to fade out certain elements not currently in use like they added in later games.
The upscale on textures and lightning doesn't seem *bad* in the sense of it being performed poorly, but it's still oddly jarring like it kills some of the look of the original game. It reminds me of playing PS1/PS2 game on an emulator with the models upscaled and sharp, but they were never really intended to look quite like that. It makes a dark world that formerly looked a bit muddy, and made elements of it overly clean and bright. I can look and say: "Ah yes, those textures/models are cleaner and sharper now." - but it's not necessarily a better look?
Hit and miss though, like I said. Somethings do look really nice cleaned up (that is, not all armor/etc. looks as detail-stripped as those shots of knight gear from the Asylum).
...
As an aside unrelated to performance, because the network test was apparently taken from the old trade-show demo: Witch (sorcerer) is an incredibly gimpy option for demo/test players. You get a Sorcerer's Outfit, Dagger, Wooden Shield, Staff, 30 Charges of Soul Arrow, and 5 charges of Magic Shield. You need to clear the Parish with that. I can only imagine being some journalist that knew nothing about the series getting wrecked as I tried to clear the whole area with 30 spell charges and a dagger.
There's an interesting contrast with the Black Knight option, who one-shots just about anything you swing at.
