I've been playing Prince of Persia Warrior Within and the no loading screens is cool until you realise the game repeatedly uses S shaped corridors with slow you down obstacles to make it work (I feel like Sands of Time hid it slightly better?)

I get nostalgia sells (to a point) but if this industry can't move on from redoing the same games every 20ish years, creatively it's doomed. it's like games are having a mid life crisis where they're trying to recapture their youth instead of seeing you can't replicate being in your 20s in your 40s

I should add I'm also sick and tired of video game "remakes/re-adaptations". Not only have there been too many, too quickly did the industry move to remaking games that were already classics, widely considered to stand up played today. It comes off pandering & creatively bankrupt to me at this point

For a minute I thought Final Fantasy VII Remake would turn the tide a bit as it's a bait and switch, actually being a new game with the subtitle "remake", and a meta story deconstructing the very idea of a "remake", but I guess the definition was so loose before that still counts for a lot of people

The argument about if SH2 can be as good and impactful if readapted is another argument (imo, no it doesn't), but it's a game that plays so differently the avg playtime is about 50% longer! That's a different experience. That's ignoring how differently some characters/scenes are performed

Levels use entirely new layouts, enemy behaviour is different, combat plays different, your gameplay perspective is different, big chunks of the script are changed/new, various aspects of character performances (Maria, Angela) are entirely different, new areas, puzzles, music, etc etc

What brought this on was seeing Demons Souls PS5 & Silent Hill 2 2024 compared as examples of what a remake shouldn't be (DS PS5) and what it should (SH2 2024)
And yeah DS PS5 is a bad remake (arguably fundamentally fails at being one), SH2 2024 isn't a remake it's a modern adaptation of SH2 2001

The very dumb analogy I use is if I have a very specific wooden table that's too worn to renovate and I ask someone to remake it for me and what I get back is now taller, wider and not even made of wood, you haven't remade the table, you've made a new table (possibly a different type of tabel even)

This I wish would at least be cleared up, I know getting a more definitive definition of "remake" is a harder sell (again, cos film also uses the term loosely), ideally if your "remake" has different level layouts, npc behaviour, base gameplay, story/script changes it wouldn't be considered a remake

You haven't remastered anything! to re-master you have to use the "masters", ie original assets. Why is gets to me is videogames are uniquely interactive, real time running media. It's not just the story, the level layouts, it's the code, the engine & quirks that come with it fundamentally

I know film has it's own issue of broad definition of "remake", but when it comes to games even "remaster" is used willy nilly. You can replace every single visual asset, run in an entirely new engine with new code replicating the feel of the OG and that will still get labelled a "remaster"

If you took a movie and made it again, redid it shot for shot with new sets, actors (with or without the OG actor's voices), new arrangement of the score, even if it was shot for shot the same and the script/scenes were >90% identical, it would be ridiculous to call that a "remaster"

I Stand Alone PALs! www.twitch.tv/johnnybaghead

Please tune into @bghof.com's Casual Monday show, I'll absolutely will be playing some and giving my initial feedback, and hey if you have it too I'll do some online as well

www.timesplittersrewind.com

One thing is I've always wanted to play the 90s Discworld point n clicks. I know they're not one-to-one retellings of specific books but does anyone recommend which books I should read before playing them?

I highly recommend Terry Pratchett's writing, his stuff was always fun, absurd, self aware but also with genuine moments, plus nerdy world/lore building. Also the author never used the series to fund a hate campaign so that's an added bonus!

Reminded myself I wanted to read through the full series as I had been collecting the books in random order before. Somehow the only book I'm missing I know I've read is Mort, not sure how that happened.
Going in release order for funsies

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You thought Ridge Racer 2 PSP's 21 Tracks was impressive?

You thought Ridge Racer 7's list of RR6 tracks + all new ones totalling 22 tracks, 44 counting reverse, 88 counting mirrored versions?

Naa kid, 1000s.
Really putting Ridge Racer Vita to shame with it's 3 on disc courses (and 6 dlc ones)