Treading on the already charted path...

So remasters are a big thing lately, and many people are either fussing about them or telling them why they shouldn't be fussing. Some are even asking for them. Now rumors have been going around about whether or not Naughty Dog needs to do one for Uncharted, and we've been told its not off the table. However is this the right way to go about our new generation of consoles? Screw it, I'm not asking the question, I'm just going to state what should be obvious: Our generation is fine with or without it. Whoever made this a concern to begin with really needs to have their head examined, I worry they're  part of the crowd that just loves finding things to hate on like the Witcher 3 CE controversy. Can we please stop that? We have plenty of true legit issues going around, but they're far more obvious and have way less if any benefits.

Ok so lets review what these remasters are. A developer either sets aside a few months, works on porting, optimization, maybe brings out new textures and features, bundles all DLC with the game, and puts it out on the shelf for some type of price they deem worthy but the internet will surely complain about later. Then all of a sudden an old PS3 or 360 game is out on the PS4 or xbox one running at a higher performance. That's it. Unless its the Last of Us we're not looking at much press attention, not any must-haves (either because you lived so long without it or because you already played it), and its not like it hurting you for being on the shelf space. So you've lost.... nothing. Now lets see the potential of what you get out of this deal: A chance to experience a game new to you in a better way than originally intended, a more polished and refined form of a game you enjoy enough to play again, a chance to use this game with new share features of the consoles, or a chance to play it at a more comfortable framerate if you could actually bother to see the difference. So... why is this a problem again? No, really? What's the issue? Mine is only that the remasters are of more recent-ish games rather than the older, so I'm technically disappointed there aren't more done in the right places. Sure the cinematic ones like Last of Us and Tomb Raider pay off better than an old game that has outdated graphics even by last gen standards, but I'm sure I'm not the only one scratching my head over how Sleeping Dogs is getting one and yet Red Dead, Deadspace, Bioshock, Modern Warfare, and Mass effect are all left behind. Those games aren't even ones I want, I have my own personal list (Killzone 2, Souls trilogy, and Skyrim please!), but those are clearly classics worth porting by general standards.

Those death animations must be in 1080p!

Meanwhile the internet wants to complain because... well its the internet, go figure. Look if this were about recourses, I'd be worried. However the industry is digging its own grave with new crap more so than it did when it gave me Sly and R&C collections, and I refuse to believe its really powerful work to port. Ok maybe for the PS3 exclusives like Last of Us its tricky, and I commend any work and effort that goes into these ports, but it still seems like a minimal amount. Instead its pretty much just small time port jobs off to the side. Uncharted 4 is still on its way, and people like AngryJoe got to experience Last of Us for the 1st time in a totally remastered and more alluring fashion for a good deal (well I guess its pricing is another topic the internet jumped on... but I'll stay out of that). Oh but the console's identity is "in danger" according to some haters who are scraping the bottom of the barrel for a reason to be upset at a good thing. If this keeps up the current generation will just be a rehash of last.... except for a new Killzone and Infamous... and upcoming Halo, souls successor, multiple exclusive racing titles, totally superior formats of the biggest multiplayer shooters, oh and lets not forget the flood gate of indie games that were otherwise PC exclusive. Never-mind the heavily pushed share features, the millions of sold units, the twitch connection, and totally different controllers. Its all a facade, because now that The Last of Us, Journey, Metro, and more have been ported over suddenly nobody can tell them apart! Not.

Again if this is the best the complaints have, its scraping the bottom of the barrel and rushed out to try and justify a pitiful sort of negativity that many can't seem to live without in these odd times of gaming. The funny thing to is they don't say anything about the weird games being cross-gen, which I'd assume falls under the same umbrella. Heck I could even argue the flood of indie games is itself no different than just porting from one to another, its not like Blacklight retribution or Awesomenauts was anything new. However these aren't fussed about, because the argument that good games being resold somehow steals the identity of anything is nonsense! Even if they were somehow correct, I still don't care. If the PS4/XB1 lived on in memory as the consoles of rehashes, it still did its job well. It provided incredible games with new system features, new design, and it does indeed have exclusives whether or not people want to appreciate them over whatever remasters pop out. The consoles entertained me with new capabilities I didn't previously get. I haven't bought into a single remaster and see the generation as still perfectly functional and healthy, heck scroll down through my recent articles and see how much I adore the possibilities of 2015 as an incredible year for these new machines. If you treated every kind of machine with this logic where you're paranoid about its identity, and told yourself you couldn't buy classic movies on blu ray, or carry over your steam account on a new computer, you'd probably be living a very sad life. If Last of Us remastered is somehow keeping you from noticing all the fun and exciting games coming up ahead, something is more wrong with you than the game.

We have a lot of problems with this industry. Triple A has a horrible time with responsible budgets while indies have practically replaced mid-tier, retailers of all kinds have encouraged developers to slice off content as pre-order bonuses while the publishers also try to spread this further with pre-planned or disc DLC, and things are becoming more dependent on online with more restrictions and control seeming to fall further out of our own command. There's a lot of good still out there though, but we just have to sort it out sometimes. However one thing is clear to me and several others: Remasters aren't our worst enemy like some want to frame. If you don't want them, don't bother and you wont likely so much as hear about them either, they're totally harmless and just there to entertain those that would have asked for such a thing. Personally, I'm looking forward to Journey and I'll be watching for Metro Redux when it hits $20 range, and I'm excited to have that chance on my PlayStation 4. Its good to look back on the nice things of the past, but its another to have them re-enhanced and even greater and compatible for your convenience with the present. Please... stop trying to make that seem like a bad thing. Its there for you to enjoy and be a consumer like with anything else. So I hope Uncharted does get a collection some time, along with other games, so that their fans or new comers may enjoy those as well. Meanwhile I need to check again to see if Journey's port has a release date...

Some things are too beautiful to leave behind