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Digital Foundry: "Forgotten" Console Games That Demand To Be Remastered

RedC

RedC

Member


It's honestly great to see Metal Gear Solid 4 finally escaping PS3 jail. That game being locked to one aging box for so long just felt wrong.

If I had a magic wand to free other games stuck on old hardware, here's my shortlist:

• MotorStorm (series)
  • Still some of the best arcade off-road racing ever made
  • Deforming terrain + chaotic track design were way ahead of their time
  • Emulation isn't perfect
  • Desperately needs a 60fps+ remaster collection or full reboot
• Project Gotham Racing (series)
  • The Kudos system was genius
  • Real-world city circuits had incredible vibe
  • Locked to Xbox/360 era hardware
  • A modern 60–120fps version would be incredible
• Killzone 2
  • Still one of the best-looking PS3 shooters stylistically
  • Heavy atmosphere + lighting still holds up
  • Forever tied to PS3
  • A 60fps remaster would be huge
• Jet Force Gemini (N64)
  • Fantastic game buried under 20fps performance
  • Awkward control scheme (that Y-axis flip when aiming…)
  • Would shine with proper dual-stick or mouse + keyboard
• Wave Race 64
  • Insane water physics for its time
  • Frame rate and N64 limits hold it back
  • A modern remake with current physics tech would be amazing
• Blast Corps
  • Pure gameplay genius
  • Suffers from low frame rate + hardware constraints
  • Would feel totally different at high frame rates
• Jet Set Radio (PC)
  • Locked to 30fps on PC
  • For a hyper-arcade movement game, that's criminal
  • Should be 120fps minimum
More broadly:
• The PS3 / 360 era is still weirdly locked down
• Tons of creativity, but often unstable performance
• Modern hardware could brute-force so many of those issues away
• Emulation helps, but it's rarely perfect

Metal Gear Solid 4 coming back raises another question too:
• How did Konami even port that thing?
• The original leaned heavily on PS3 SPUs
• Was there old 360 port work they built from?
• Would love a technical breakdown

So yeah — if you've got the wand, what are you freeing from hardware jail?
 
Viewtiful Joe should be on that list. It doesn't even need a full remaster, just increase the resolution and ship it.

That's truly a forgotten game that fuckin RULES.
 
Jet force Gemini is on the Rare Museum (Xbox One and beyond) and plays at 60fps with updated controls as far I remember

Wave Race 64 thou, that's a must, Killzone 2 also, but where the hell is God Hand?
 
Honestly I'd most like to see some of the early PS4 games that are stuck at 1080p or less, 30fps or less.

Games like:
  • Killzone: Shadowfall
  • InFAMOUS: Second Son
  • The Order: 1886
  • Bloodborne
  • Until Dawn (original PS4 release)
  • Ratchet & Clank 2016
  • The Last Guardian
  • Shadow of the Collossus
  • DriveClub

Many of these games would look damn-near current gen if re-released today @ 4K/60/HDR.
 
- All the greek GOWs. Now that they are being remade, the originals need to come to modern hardware as a collection. Gow 3 remaster level.

- Puppeteer. Should have been a PS4 launch title imo.

- Asura's Wrath. Such a fun game.

- The 2 3D Castlevanias for the love of God! The first one is incredible.

- Zelda TP. It's a crime there is no Switch port yet.
 
Not bad examples, but off the top of my head I'd add:
  • Infamous 1-2 + Festival of Blood (emulation performance on strong PCs still not great)
  • Fable 2-3 (2 especially)
  • Army of Two series
  • Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time + Into the Nexus - stuck at 30fps on PS3, and don't emulate perfectly.
  • Resistance 3 - same thing, stuck at 30fps on PS3, and I've had issues emulating
  • Otogi 1-2
PS3/360/Wii + N64 & DS/3DS have the most games that would benefit still from remasters.
 
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That kill confirm sound in KZ2
If you had a good home theatre set up.

Aroused The Colbert Report GIF
 
Nintendo no doubt if they did do a remaster of Wave Race 64 would tie it to a streaming service only, not make it a copy you can keep forever...these days for PlayStation owners their Motorstorm would be Forza Horizon 5...(aka a take on Pacific rift, but more of a Mexican rift...)
 
RedC said:
• Jet Set Radio (PC)
  • Locked to 30fps on PC
  • For a hyper-arcade movement game, that's criminal
  • Should be 120fps minimum
Click to expand...

Having driver level frame gen has been a convenient way to sidestep issues like this. I use NVIDIA smooth motion on games that have locked framerates as a quick and dirty way to increase smoothness when I can. I recently used it with Sonic Racing Crossworlds, which has a hard 60fps cap, to increase to 120fps and it looks fantastic.
 
nkarafo said:
Every game that used digitized/pre-rendered assets that had to be compressed, need to be remastered using the original uncompressed assets.
Click to expand...
Yeah but what assets. Square for example wiped most of it (including even the source code in the case of FF Tactics).
 
RedC said:


It's honestly great to see Metal Gear Solid 4 finally escaping PS3 jail. That game being locked to one aging box for so long just felt wrong.

If I had a magic wand to free other games stuck on old hardware, here's my shortlist:

• MotorStorm (series)
  • Still some of the best arcade off-road racing ever made
  • Deforming terrain + chaotic track design were way ahead of their time
  • Emulation isn't perfect
  • Desperately needs a 60fps+ remaster collection or full reboot
• Project Gotham Racing (series)
  • The Kudos system was genius
  • Real-world city circuits had incredible vibe
  • Locked to Xbox/360 era hardware
  • A modern 60–120fps version would be incredible
• Killzone 2
  • Still one of the best-looking PS3 shooters stylistically
  • Heavy atmosphere + lighting still holds up
  • Forever tied to PS3
  • A 60fps remaster would be huge
• Jet Force Gemini (N64)
  • Fantastic game buried under 20fps performance
  • Awkward control scheme (that Y-axis flip when aiming…)
  • Would shine with proper dual-stick or mouse + keyboard
• Wave Race 64
  • Insane water physics for its time
  • Frame rate and N64 limits hold it back
  • A modern remake with current physics tech would be amazing
• Blast Corps
  • Pure gameplay genius
  • Suffers from low frame rate + hardware constraints
  • Would feel totally different at high frame rates
• Jet Set Radio (PC)
  • Locked to 30fps on PC
  • For a hyper-arcade movement game, that's criminal
  • Should be 120fps minimum
More broadly:
• The PS3 / 360 era is still weirdly locked down
• Tons of creativity, but often unstable performance
• Modern hardware could brute-force so many of those issues away
• Emulation helps, but it's rarely perfect

Metal Gear Solid 4 coming back raises another question too:
• How did Konami even port that thing?
• The original leaned heavily on PS3 SPUs
• Was there old 360 port work they built from?
• Would love a technical breakdown

So yeah — if you've got the wand, what are you freeing from hardware jail?
Click to expand...

Motorstorm and Killzone 2 please.
 
SSX/SSX Tricky I would LOVE to see get a re-release/remaster/remake. May as well throw in the NBA Street games in there too. EA Sports BIG was so fucking good.

Also, lets get a proper remaster of the OG Silent Hill first 4 games please... I'm happy for the remakes that are out and coming, but I'd love remasters of the OG 4 Team Silent games please.
 
GymWolf said:
The infamous games had pretty terrible framerates when shit hit the fan (which was like 80% of the encounters), especially the first one.
Click to expand...
Particularly when you start destroying structures / buildings which I don't think you can do in many games nowdays. I guess CELL was put to good use on PS3.

Those games are still better now on PS3 than Ghost of Tsushima on PS5.

Gaiff said:
Motor Storm and Killzone. It would be cool if Sony had a studio specializing in remasters.
Click to expand...
Too soon man
 
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There are a bunch stuck on Saturn and Dreamcast, but nothing will happen.

Crazy Taxi 2 for example, I love this game, but it would never come back with the music and various shops and places.
Record of Lodoss War, same here, this is a licensed game, but it was awesome.
Dragon Force and Shining Force III also come to mind. But I fear of what the visual results would be.
Skies of Arcadia should be re-released too.

We did get Project Justice recently, and Power Stone 2, so things can happen.
 
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You can almost put the entire PlayStation 3 exclusive catalog in this catalog honestly.
  • Killzone 2 and 3
  • Resistance Fall of Man, 2, and 3
  • Infamous 1 and 2
  • Motorstorm 1, Pacific Rift, and Apocalypse
  • LittleBigPlanet 1 and 2
  • Ratchet and Clank Future series
  • Starhawk
  • Puppeteer
  • Folklore
I would also love some 4K 60/120 ports or just port to other platforms of the following:
  • SOCOM 1-3 and fuck it even SOCOM 4
  • AREA 51
  • MechAssault 1 and 2
  • Lost Odyssey

bender said:
PGR will never happen due to licensing issues, sadly. PGR2 is the one the my favorite racers ever.
Click to expand...
Yeah, this is a problem with racing games in general and it sucks.
Games like PGR or Gran Turismo remasters are only possible by renewing licenses not only for every single car in the game and the same for music or by removing them which with music can be done for the most part but imagine GT4 or PGR2 without the cars.

It's the same reason you see games like Forza Horizon 4 getting delisted. Microsoft doesn't want to renew the licenses

Now something like Motorstorm should be possible. The only thing getting in the way is whether or not it would make any money.
 
hououinkyouma00 said:
Yeah, this is a problem with racing games in general and it sucks.
Games like PGR or Gran Turismo remasters are only possible by renewing licenses not only for every single car in the game and the same for music or by removing them which with music can be done for the most part but imagine GT4 or PGR2 without the cars.

It's the same reason you see games like Forza Horizon 4 getting delisted. Microsoft doesn't want to renew the licenses

Now something like Motorstorm should be possible. The only thing getting in the way is whether or not it would make any money.
Click to expand...

Speaking of music, PGR2 has one of the best implementations of custom soundtracks ever as it just made them another radio station in your car. I know people liked the universal aspect of the 360's custom soundtrack solution, but it felt way less elegant.
 
There was a fantastic post apocalyptic on the 360, cant remember the name where you had some big monkey like dude and a girl and you where basically traversing across America, I remember at the time the visuals where class and the story was top tier
 
RJMacready73 said:
There was a fantastic post apocalyptic on the 360, cant remember the name where you had some big monkey like dude and a girl and you where basically traversing across America, I remember at the time the visuals where class and the story was top tier
Click to expand...

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.

Microsoft even owns the studio, Ninja Theory.
 
Decompilation / recompilation efforts will eventually make all of these dreams a reality. I'm past waiting for these companies to get a clue and re-release them officially.
 
Loved Killzone 2, even then multiplayer was super fun (including sticking bombs to a teammate and having them run into a group of enemies to get blown up).

Would still love The Darkness 1&2, InFamous (all games), and Condemned 1&2 remade / remastered. As a bit of a silly shout, a M.A.G remake or sequel would be awesome, absolutely had more fun with that than I should have.
 
Last edited:
hououinkyouma00 said:
You can almost put the entire PlayStation 3 exclusive catalog in this catalog honestly.
Click to expand...
Yeah, these are the main ones missing. 360 can be played via BC on XS and everything older is generally easy to emulate on PC or even smartphones.
Sony doesn't do remasters though (not enough ENGAGEMENT™ probably) so we are SOL.
 
RJMacready73 said:
There was a fantastic post apocalyptic on the 360, cant remember the name where you had some big monkey like dude and a girl and you where basically traversing across America, I remember at the time the visuals where class and the story was top tier
Click to expand...
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West? Never played it myself. I remembered the cover art.
 
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I'm the weirdo but the 2012 *Syndicate* FPS pivot. Obviously wasn't a patch on the proper series but real fun co-op multiplayer, style, and a fun campaign.

Of course it sold so poorly the staff went to MachineGames and Starbreeze ditched their previous genres.
 
RedC said:
So yeah — if you've got the wand, what are you freeing from hardware jail?
Click to expand...
It's wild that these guys (who care enough to go out of their way to play on legacy HW) are advocating diverting limited game studio resources towards remastering legacy games for modern platforms.
We need DF to advocate real HW gaming to keep gaming sustainable and to make game preservation less complicated.
Both Sony and Nintendo should be baking legacy HW/FPGA into their new consoles to bring their massive back catalogs into the future.
 
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