Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City & San Andreas Demastered

[wakka]

I get why they want to rebuild in a new engine, but it's annoying they've done it badly.

If you look at the re3 and revc projects, which sought (successfully) to reverse engineer GTA 3 and VC to be easily ported to new platforms at higher resolutions, it's really authentic. They were working on getting the game running at higher framerates, too, till they got cease and desisted earlier this year so we could get this turd instead

I lurk on Blu-ray forums and everyone on there is obsessed with creator intent, to a fault. If there's a UHD of a classic film coming out, how does it compare to the original 35mm? Is the originally intended use of colour being captured in the new version? That sort of thing. That doesn't really seem to be a thing in games at all.

[Dogg Thang]

I appreciate I might be alone in thinking this, but they're selling it for $60, so I expect a comparable level of effort that it might've required them to make a brand new entry.

But what if they put loads of effort in and this was the result? I don't think the effort is what counts. It's what came out the other side. And even if these were bare bones, $60 for the amount of game in this package is a pretty fantastic deal. But the results in this case are not up to scratch, regardless of effort.

And yes, they were likely always going to have to use a new engine and it makes sense. And it was always going to look different and I feel like people would have had to accept a level of that. But they still missed the mark by a wide margin here from what I can see.

[Asura]

But what if they put loads of effort in and this was the result?

Then someone screwed up, right? That's kinda what I mean. "Effort" might be the wrong word here but what I meant was if they're charging the cost of a brand new game, then I weigh it up like a brand new game in terms of a perception of value. I don't feel that this collection lines up with that perception.

I lurk on Blu-ray forums and everyone on there is obsessed with creator intent, to a fault. If there's a UHD of a classic film coming out, how does it compare to the original 35mm? Is the originally intended use of colour being captured in the new version? That sort of thing. That doesn't really seem to be a thing in games at all.

Totally agree with this.

[fuse]

Hi, don't mind me, just crashing the serious discussion to post a video of a funny bug.

Lols, etc!

edit: removing the embed (link to tweet is still here if you want it) on reading further and discovering this requires some degree of setup and is actually present in the original

[QualityChimp]

Hi, don't mind me, just crashing the serious discussion to post a video of a funny bug.

Lols, etc!

edit: removing the embed (link to tweet is still here if you want it) on reading further and discovering this requires some degree of setup and is actually present in the original

I really don't need to see that Hot Coffee mod again, mate.

[fuse]

By this point I think it's quite tepid.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I get why they want to rebuild in a new engine, but it's annoying they've done it badly.

If you look at the re3 and revc projects, which sought (successfully) to reverse engineer GTA 3 and VC to be easily ported to new platforms at higher resolutions, it's really authentic. They were working on getting the game running at higher framerates, too, till they got cease and desisted earlier this year so we could get this turd instead

I lurk on Blu-ray forums and everyone on there is obsessed with creator intent, to a fault. If there's a UHD of a classic film coming out, how does it compare to the original 35mm? Is the originally intended use of colour being captured in the new version? That sort of thing. That doesn't really seem to be a thing in games at all.

Yeah. And to expand on this, in what other entertainment medium could you get away with this?
A remastered album, but its missing some tracks and it sounds like it's from a cassette tape?
A movie remaster that has worse special effects than the original?

[Neon Ignition]

A New Hope!

Yep, the price is fine. Even the engine change. Barring the obvious issues the game has even the art style is fine as it's in line with trying to mimick the art style of the originals. The issue 100% lies with literally everything else around it. There's no reason that every platform isn't knocking these out at 60fps full effects, no need for fidelity modes etc. It's even worse that the difference in performance is so weak on top of it. Using the mobile ports as a basis isn't even an issue, it's that they knew the issues with those versions, still used them as the basis without fixing things then added a myriad of additional issues. Looked at as projects that may have started development just a couple of months back and were shortcut to meet a set date these make a lot of sense, if development was longer then... christ...

[wakka]

The Star Wars films are one of the few examples of this being done to a film, yeah. And they suck ballsack. 4K77 all the way.

I've gotten re3 working on my computer now and it looks very clean and runs extremely smoothly. That's how I'm going to do III, instead of this disappointing version

[Dogg Thang]

I guess some gamers have kind of brought that part of it on themselves. If a game is rereleased on newer systems and there aren’t improvements, there is often complaining. Often when there are improvements, there aren’t enough to keep everyone happy. And then there is practicality - unless it’s a ROM through an emulator, some things will change anyway. I think the film comparison might be a little unfair in that regard. Film fans will rarely shout “this is just the ROM!” Getting the right approach for a remaster might not be such an easy thing and, even if it were great, I have no doubt there would still be complaints somewhere. It’s just that, in this case, it seems we’re very, very far from great.

To put it another way, a lot of gamers seem to actually want the CG Jabba. It’s just what we’re getting is the CG Jabba from that first special edition.

[Lebowski]

I get why they want to rebuild in a new engine, but it's annoying they've done it badly.

If you look at the re3 and revc projects, which sought (successfully) to reverse engineer GTA 3 and VC to be easily ported to new platforms at higher resolutions, it's really authentic. They were working on getting the game running at higher framerates, too, till they got cease and desisted earlier this year so we could get this turd instead

I lurk on Blu-ray forums and everyone on there is obsessed with creator intent, to a fault. If there's a UHD of a classic film coming out, how does it compare to the original 35mm? Is the originally intended use of colour being captured in the new version? That sort of thing. That doesn't really seem to be a thing in games at all.

I think people do pay attention to a games art-styles,GTA 3 had its own style some of this was due to the limitations of the system yes but it had a gritty smokey look to it, that's kinda missing from the remaster as i said before the remaster is widely inconsistent and very removed from the originals look and feel, its like a fan project that's in the early stages of development where their struggling to get assets right still.

Take a few other recent remasters Halo collection got quite a bit of stick due to the changes to lighting as it altered the look and feel of a lot of the game. where as Nintendo's HD remaster of Windwaker took the games original artstyle and made it widescreen and HD but left a lot of the assets alone and that was a fantastic remaster and still highly regarded today, So to say people don't care about the visual design of games the same way as say people do in films dose gamer's a massive disservice.

[wakka]

(the below [MENTION=3144]Dogg Thang[/MENTION])

Yes, but, the people who want CG Jabba are wrong

Agreed that striking the balance for a remaster is tough.

Ideally, for me, you want to preserve the artistic choices while increasing the playability. I'd rather see changes that modernise gameplay elements and improve performance. The gold standard is to actually lift off some of the things that held back the original work, bring the best aspects of it to the fore, rather than overwrite and change lots of creative choices.

Obviously that is a massively subjective process for any development team and I recognise that it's a very difficult thing.

It stands in contrast to a remake, for me, which is a completely different kettle of fish as you are effectively making a brand new game. In that case go hog wild, put your stamp on it, make it totally your own.

With a remaster, respect for the source material has to be of paramount importance for me, though.

I think people do pay attention to a games art-styles,GTA 3 had its own style some of this was due to the limitations of the system yes but it had a gritty smokey look to it, that's kinda missing from the remaster as i said before the remaster is widely inconsistent and very removed from the originals look and feel, its like a fan project that's in the early stages of development where their struggling to get assets right still.

Take a few other recent remasters Halo collection got quite a bit of stick the games changes to lighting getting quite a bit of stick from the community as it altred the look and feel of a lot of the game. where as Nintendo's HD remaster of Windwaker took the games original artstyle and made it widescreen and HD but left a lot of the assets alone and that was a fantastic remaster and still highly regarded today, So to say people don't care about the visual design of games dose gamer's a massive disservice.

I am insulting all the gamers in the world! You're all useless!!!! You know nothing about game art styles!!!! Yeah, you personally!!!!!

Nah, I can just call it as I see it. Creator intent is the paramount concern among Blu-ray nerds. I see it talked about when it comes to games, as you've pointed out, so it's not like it doesn't happen. But it's not nearly as much of a thing. I think that's partly cultural and partly pragmatic. We do want remasters to be more playable, much of the time. So it's not purely audiovisual, like films are. That means creator intent has to go out the window a little bit, as it's not purely about making something that is exactly what Dan Houser and co designed in 2002, for example. We want gunplay better than theirs.

It's an observation, rather than me having a go at anyone.

[importaku]

Rumours are they used some form of AI to do the remastering hence the characters looking like sims trash with noodle arms. Loads of spelling errors on textures & other quite appauling quality work i'd say it looks like some unofficial mod but i would not insult modders like that as i have seen the patches they have created and it's way beyond what this release is. The original games look rough in their unchanged form & yet they still look better over what trash was put out.

Western devs really seem to be the ones putting out the jankiest crap.

[Neon Ignition]

Given there were rumours that Red Dead Redemption was the next remaster coming next year I can only imagine (given that would be infinitely more work) it's dead if it ever existed now

[wakka]

Infinitely more work....for the AI