With the first Serious Sam game now hitting the virtual shelves in a graphically-updated ‘HD’ version, we got thinking about what other games would benefit from a re-release with all the latest visual trickery.
First of all, an honourable mention for Half-Life. It would have been on the list if it weren’t for the impressive Black Mesa mod doing exactly what we’re talking about here. Way to take the wind out of our sails, guys.
Deus Ex
Warren Spector’s cyberpunk masterpiece still hangs around ‘Best PC game ever’ lists and won an embarrassing amount of Game of the Year awards back in its day. An epic conspiracy thriller RPG/FPS, Deus Ex’s gameplay options are still impressively varied, but the graphics from the very first Unreal Engine are starting to show their age.
deus ex helios
The solution? The new Unreal Engine 3 kit Epic has kindly released, so let’s see some fans take the project on. The newest version of the engine used originally seems ideal, and we know how well UE3 can handle sci-fi and noir settings from its use in Mass Effect and Batman: Arkham Asylum respectively.
A perfect fit – and it would be nice to see Fallout 3 put to shame in the shady government/moral ambiguity stakes.
Adidas Power Soccer
The FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer games keep tweaking themselves to try to provide a more realistic experience but they’re missing the point. We don’t care about 360-degree runs – we want to pull our opponents shirts when they pull away from us. We don’t want better off-the-ball movement, we want to karate kick people who annoy, Cantona-style.
Yes, Adidas Power Soccer let you do all this, and more. It was the only football game we ever played where the computer opponent hit would hit player with a flying kick to the chest while the referee had his back turned.
Add in some online play and ragdoll physics and you’d surely have a guaranteed hit. It might even cut down on aggression during matches if players and fans get to assault each other virtually.
That’s right, it would be doing a national service.
No One Lives Forever
no one lives forever
What do you mean you didn’t play this? What’s wrong, you don’t like top-notch open gameplay? Superb characterization? Inventive weapons and gadgets? Hilarious dialogue? Gloriously immersive use of sound?
Don’t you like fun?
Sorry, it’s not that we’re angry. Just disappointed. NOLF was everything we’d like from a new action game, just to cut through the sea of brown, grunting, cover-based shooters. So let’s re-release it with up-to-date graphics.
Perfect Dark
Rumours say that this is, in fact, coming. Leaked screens here and there seem to indicate that Joanna Dark’s silly-yet-brilliant first outing is on its way to Xbox Live Arcade. But until it is definitely coming, we’ll lobby hard to make sure it’s on the agenda.
If Perfect Dark Zero was your first experience of our heroine Joanna, then we feel sorry for you. Perfect Dark’s excellent campaign mode had crazy weapons, weird environments, bizarre characters and yet felt perfectly grounded.
It was also pretty much the high point of console multiplayer to date. Co-op campaigns. Numerous multiplayer modes. Special multiplayer challenges. Bots that put up a genuinely good fight. It borrowed and improved on just about all the best parts of the multiplayer modes of its predecessor, Goldeneye. Actually…
Goldeneye
Dear Nintendo,
We can be perfectly reasonable. We can also be quite insistent. If you do not actively work together with Rare and Microsoft to make a re-release of Goldeneye happen, we will kidnap Princess Peach myself.
We are less easy to beat than that incompetent clod Bowser. We are also far more motivated to succeed. We don’t want to cause any trouble, but we will if we have to.
Sternest wishes,
Everyone who ever played an N64
P.S. When you do acquiesce to our demands, get online multiplayer sorted for it too. Please.
Shenmue & Shenmue II
The first two God of War are getting a lovely graphics upgrade and Blu-ray release just in time for Christmas. Let’s see that same happen with these two Dreamcast classics.
The Shenmue games would be ideal for a technological upgrade because they were all about immersion in a completely real world. Let’s see Sega licence the engine that Quantic Dream is using for Heavy Rain and really make everything look convincing.
Oh, and Sega, you know what else Shenmue would be ideal for? A third game so that it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, you insensitive masochists.
System Shock 2
Imagine a new game with resurrection chambers, scarce ammo, mild super powers, a focus on hacking and audio logs and ghostly visages to tell the story. Hold on, that sounds familiar… Ah yes, that was it. HD remake achieved.
Bioshock has arrived.
There have been thousands of games released before the HD era that would even amaze us now. What are some games you’ve played through out your life that could use a HD remake in today’s gaming industry? Please comment below and let us know. No registration required to post.
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Mario Cheated On His Own World
Explaining Starcraft to FarmVille People
The Cake is a Lie!
The original Resident Evil maybe? Kinda like REmake just RE5 graphics
Baldur’s gate 1 and 2.
X-Com
Silent Hill (i know they have the wii version, but its not a remake its re-imaging)
Silent Hill 1-3, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Devil May Cry 1 and 3 (not 2), Jet Set Radio Future, GTA 3/Vice City/San Andreas, Tony Hawk 1-3, SSX 1&2, Aggresive Inline
Shit list.
Better List:
1. Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross
2. Ocarina Of Time/Link to the Past
3. Shadow of the colossus (although a more innovative sequel would be much better)
4. Super Mario World (3D style like SM64)
5. Pokemon Red/Blue (3D world, stop the GBA nonsense)
6. Final Fantasy 7?
7. Guardian Heroes (One of the best games of all time that no one knows about)
1) Gunstar Heroes
2) FFVII
3) Sonic 3 and Knuckles
4) Shadow of the Colossus
5) Super Smash Bros. Brawl
6) Turok 2
7) Shadowgate
Hey I know it’s not exactly the same as a full on remake, but the guys over at http://goldeneyesource.net/ are working on a fully featured Source version of Goldeneye! It’s still in Beta as far as I know, but it’s lookin’ great and the gameplay that’s out so far brings the nostalgia factor up a notch!
Check it out…
Perfect Dark is coming, there’s a theme for it on XBLM and everything.
I havent played any of these so my list would be:
7. Killzone
6. Star Wars Battlefront
5. Kingdom Hearts
4. Ico
3. A Link to the Past
2. Kingdom Hearts 2
1. Shadow of the Colossus
I dont care what you guys think and i would love to see these remade with HD Graphics.
call of duty 1
ico would be great too
World of Warcraft
you cant make super mario world 3d idiot.
Everybody who suggested last-gen games:
From last generation to this, I don’t think an entire remake is required, what would be more efficiant would be a simple port to ps3/360 code with added anti-alliasing and less compressed assets.
Everybody who suggested Wii games:
Wii games can easily be played on a pc in HD with an emulator, leaving no real need for it to be remade in anyway; upressed textures or higher polygon-count objects may add to the ‘HDness’ of the game, but high quality Wii games are essentially on par with 360 and ps3 games with the anti-aliasing and upressing in emulation.
People who wrote almost any pc game to come out in the past few years: PC games are scalabale, any PC game could be ‘HD’, though older games remain jaggy, anything released since 2003-2004 is basically, HD…that’s around the Doom 3/Far Cry/Half Life 2 era. Par exampla: Counterstrike can technically run in HD, but Counterstrike: Source added more detailed assets and some features on a more powerful engine. The same goes for Serious Sam HD, it’s a remake, but the original is basically in high definition, the HD tag is really an Xbox Live/PSN fad that got slapped on the pc version, as well.
/rant
Personal choices:
1.Vagrant Story
2.Street Fighter Alpha 3
3.Final Fantasy VI
4.Panzer Dragoon Saga
5.Super Metroid
6.X-Com
7.Deus Ex
How you managed to miss Final Fantasy VII (Or any of the FF games 1 – through – 9) is beyond me.
The First Metal Gear Solid game would look nice in HD as well.
Cadillacs and dinossaurs
Streets of rage …
Devil may cry
onimusha…
power stone
Magic Carpet
Sonic The Hedgehog (2D)
Kirby
Theme Hospital
A full remake of Xardion would be brill, they would have to fix the xp, levelling system and sound but it’s the basis for a brilliant game!
they already did an hd remake of the original resident evil for the gamecube, its called Resident evil, it still has the same crappy controls and way better graphics