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Remastered, Remake and Reimagining. Both we and the media need to start being more clear about these terms.

Strategize

Member
We need to stop being so confusing about what's a remake or not when there's a very easy and clear way to explain to the differences between the re-releases of games by simply adding an extra term. Too many put everything into remaster or remake.

Remastered
A port with higher frames/resolution, and slightly higher textures.
Examples - GTA5, Nathan Drake Collection, Spider-Man Remstered, TLOU Remastered, Bioshock Collection.

Remake
A game faithful to the original, but completely remade in a new engine. Vastly improved visuals and tech, QOL improvments, touched up but not completely reinvented gameplay.
Examples - Demon Souls, Shadow of the Colossus, Crash N Sane Trilogy, TLOU Part 1, COD: MW1/2 Remastered (This is the part of the confusion, because MW is a remake in everything but name.)

Reimagining
A game that uses the original as inspiration, but vastly changes the entire thing. Gameplay, levels, music, story moments, VA, visuals...everything. Too many people call these remakes thus unfairly comparing them to more faithful that change less.
Examples - Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2/3, Ratchet and Clank 2016
 
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We need to stop being so confusing about what's a remake or not when there's a very easy and clear way to explain to the differences between the re-releases of games by simply an extra term.

Remastered
A port with higher frames/resolution, and slightly higher textures.
Examples - GTA5, Nathan Drake Collection, Spider-Man Remstered, TLOU Remastered, Bioshock Collection.

Remake
A game faithful to the original, but completely remade in a new engine. Vastly improved visuals and tech, QOL improvments, touched up but not completely reinvented gameplay.
Examples - Demon Souls, Shadow of the Colossus, Crash N Sane Trilogy, TLOU Part 1, COD: MW1/2 Remastered (This is the part of the confusion, because MW is a remake in everything but name.)

Reimagining
A game that uses the original as inspiration, but vastly changes the entire thing. Gameplay, levels, music, story moments, VA, visuals...everything.
Examples - Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2/3, Ratchet and Clank 2016
Your remastered definition is wrong, all of their games you mention are Just simple ports

Games Who run The original code but The audio, textures, etc are much much better and make it look like a modern game, are The correct definition of remastered

The remastered games examples are: ocarina of time 3d, halo 2 anniversary, wonderboy, wind waker HD, etc
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Didn't Bioshock have all 3 games remade in UE4.
They wasn't simply ported with higher resolution and framerate those games was rebuilt from the ground up in UE4
Wouldn't that be more on the line with The Last of Us as everything was changed.

A Arkangelus0
20 years ago the all would have been just called ports
 
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Heimdall_Xtreme

Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
We need to stop being so confusing about what's a remake or not when there's a very easy and clear way to explain to the differences between the re-releases of games by simply an extra term.

Remastered
A port with higher frames/resolution, and slightly higher textures.
Examples - GTA5, Nathan Drake Collection, Spider-Man Remstered, TLOU Remastered, Bioshock Collection.

Remake
A game faithful to the original, but completely remade in a new engine. Vastly improved visuals and tech, QOL improvments, touched up but not completely reinvented gameplay.
Examples - Demon Souls, Shadow of the Colossus, Crash N Sane Trilogy, TLOU Part 1, COD: MW1/2 Remastered (This is the part of the confusion, because MW is a remake in everything but name.)

Reimagining
A game that uses the original as inspiration, but vastly changes the entire thing. Gameplay, levels, music, story moments, VA, visuals...everything.
Examples - Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2/3, Ratchet and Clank 2016

Remastered the best magic is Gravity rush Remastered of PS4

Remake, The best is Shadow of the Colossus, Resident evil 1

Reimagining The best Are Resident evil 2, Silent Hill Shattered memories

You forgot to say Reboot, Zelda BOTW


The last of us Part 1 It is not a remake, it only has advanced graphics.

As much as Sony and Naughty Dog want to wash our minds, it is definitely not a remake of The last of us 1
 
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Belthazar

Member
The concept of a remaster doesn't even make sense in the context of a game, most of those should just be called ports. But then again, people wouldn't care without the buzzwords so who can blame them for using what consumers obviously gravitate towards.
 
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Fbh

Member
Yeah your definitions seem about right but I think you are underselling remasters.
It's not just slightly better textures, it can often be a notorious upgrade with new effects like ray tracing or other changes to lighting, denser foliage, better draw distance, etc. I'd also argue changes aren't just limited to visual elements but can also include improvements to gameplay as well as completely new features like the first person mode in GTAV.

A remaster is essentially an enhanced port.

Your remastered definition is wrong, all of their games you mention are Just simple ports

Games Who run The original code but The audio, textures, etc are much much better and make it look like a modern game, are The correct definition of remastered

The remastered games examples are: ocarina of time 3d, halo 2 anniversary, wonderboy, wind waker HD, etc

Half the games he mentioned have "remaster" in the title, so even the publishers are agreeing with him.
They are all doing what you are saying and aren't just 1:1 ports. The only difference with your examples is that the games you mention are much older, and thus the visual upgrade is more notorious
 
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Husky

THE Prey 2 fanatic
We really don't need to be clear about these at all. The term used isn't going to influence purchases, the changes shown in gameplay videos will.

But if we are going to set strict terms then let's come up with a goofy one for "Definitive" editions.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Nonsense. we dont need to start adding new words in our vocabulary to appease lazy devs and lazy remakes. There are just two definitions just like there are in movies. a remaster which is basically an HD or 4k port of the game or a movie. Or a remake which has completely new visuals, gameplay, bosses and level design. Nowadays we settle for simply a visual remake but they typically came at a cheaper $40 price tag like Ratchet and SOTC because they knew just the visuals were remade.

RE2, RE3, FF7, MGS Twin Snakes are true remakes. TLOU and Demon Souls are also remakes since they clearly remade the assets from scratch, but they are literally running the same codebase underneath the newly ported engine. They simply arent as exhaustive a remake as RE2 and FF7, but they are still remakes and I detest the fact that we have to create a new term just because Sony decided to change their minds and make them from budget $40 titles to $70 full priced games.
 

Rykan

Member
Remakes and reimagine are the same thing. Aside from that, I really don't think there is that much confusion regarding each term.
 

NahaNago

Member
a remaster is a port that has been updated. A remake is a game that has been remade from the ground up with some upgrades. A remake is a game that doesn't use the original code. A reimagining is a reimagining of that world I guess.
Remake and reimagining mean the same to me.

Remastered is a carbon copy with updated visuals, modern updates, etc.
I'm the opposite on this. I think a remake and remaster can mean the same thing to me. It would be like someone else making tetris would be a remake but a studio just porting it with updates would be a remaster. They can pretty much look and play the same.
 
We do need to be more clear because even you're using it wrong. Demon's Souls is a remaster. Resident Evil 2 is a remake. A reimaging is a remake.
 

GametimeUK

Member
Not even all remasters are created equal. At what point do all the changes made to a game take it from a remaster to remake? I've seen remasters that are simply resolution and framerate bumps. The Uncharted Collection you mentioned has entirely new assets included in Drakes Fortune. Quite a few assets were remade actually.
 

ZoukGalaxy

Member
That's already clear, but media, publishers and devs are playing with those words in order to deceive people.

That's it.

Comedy Reaction GIF by CBS
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
The term remastered lost it’s meaning, and simply became a label to push sales the moment we started seeing Switch ports.

Otherwise it’s pretty easy.

Remastered: Used to capitalize on console players.

Remake: Fully recreate the assets of the game.
 
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Knightime_X

Member
Your remastered definition is wrong, all of their games you mention are Just simple ports

Games Who run The original code but The audio, textures, etc are much much better and make it look like a modern game, are The correct definition of remastered

The remastered games examples are: ocarina of time 3d, halo 2 anniversary, wonderboy, wind waker HD, etc
Those are enhanced remasters.

For a standard remaster, it's the same as a VHS movie formatted for Bluray.
They call it "remastered for HD"
It's basically a clean-up job.

What's annoying is calling the game the wrong thing.
Ducktales Remaster is not a remaster but a complete remake
Nr1Ldvg.jpg


And by Ducktales logic, Resident Evil Remake should also be a remaster.
DrfK3Id.jpg

No, Resident Evil is a remake, NOT a remaster.

Final Fantasy X Remaster is an ACTUAL remaster
It's the source title with a few enhancements but nothing too dramatic.
In most cases a remaster consist mostly of better resolution, performance, image quality (IE. anti aliasing. etc.)
ywDQPK1.jpg
 

Strategize

Member
We do need to be more clear because even you're using it wrong. Demon's Souls is a remaster. Resident Evil 2 is a remake. A reimaging is a remake.
The point is, it shouldn't be. Not seperating the definitions creates confusion. In no way does Demon Souls deserve to be put into the remaster catagory, it has too much obvious work put into it to be compared to glorified ports.
Aren't the words clear enough?

Remaster is the same game with better performance and some added bells and whistles.

Remake is the game completely rebuilt from the ground up to get it up to current standards.

Reimagining is a Remake with a new twist.
They are, but people don't use them correctly.
 
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Denton

Member
I dislike the word "remake" for games like RE2 or Mafia DE, since these games are not remade in new tech...they are completely different from the originals. So yeah I would call them reimaginings or something like that.

Demon's Souls, TLOU P1, Shadow of Colossus...these are proper remakes.
 

kikii

Member
Those are enhanced remasters.

For a standard remaster, it's the same as a VHS movie formatted for Bluray.
They call it "remastered for HD"
It's basically a clean-up job.

What's annoying is calling the game the wrong thing.
Ducktales Remaster is not a remaster but a complete remake
Nr1Ldvg.jpg


And by Ducktales logic, Resident Evil Remake should also be a remaster.
DrfK3Id.jpg

No, Resident Evil is a remake, NOT a remaster.
its a Resident Evil HD Remaster :p
 

Cryio

Member
Didn't Bioshock have all 3 games remade in UE4.
They wasn't simply ported with higher resolution and framerate those games was rebuilt from the ground up in UE4
Wouldn't that be more on the line with The Last of Us as everything was changed.

A Arkangelus0
20 years ago the all would have been just called ports
You clearly haven't played the originals or the "remasters".

They're all Unreal 3, same as before.

Infinite on 8th gen consoles is basically the PC version, with better visuals and 60 fps compared to the 7th gen console release.

BioShock 1 and 2 are the ones that actually got remasters. New textures, higher rez textures, higher rez shadows, more props (bushes, objects) in the world, higher polygons for a lot of stuff, new artwork for the hacking game in Bioshock 1.

For PC, Bioshock 1 got Steam Achievements, Very Hard Difficulty, NG+, the Trials DLC and the Museum DLC. All of these never actually reached PC until the Remastered release.
 

Airbus Jr

Banned
Demon's Souls is a remaster. Resident Evil 2 is a remake. A reimaging is a remake.
Absolutely not that is more than just higher frames/resolution, and slightly higher textures.

Completly new asets built from the ground up

Oh yeah reimagining is not a remake

Try compare ff7 old vs new one

Too much difference to be called remake more like a alternate game

If Aerith made it out alive in this new version then its a completly different game
 
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Corndog

Banned
We need to stop being so confusing about what's a remake or not when there's a very easy and clear way to explain to the differences between the re-releases of games by simply adding an extra term. Too many put everything into remaster or remake.

Remastered
A port with higher frames/resolution, and slightly higher textures.
Examples - GTA5, Nathan Drake Collection, Spider-Man Remstered, TLOU Remastered, Bioshock Collection.

Remake
A game faithful to the original, but completely remade in a new engine. Vastly improved visuals and tech, QOL improvments, touched up but not completely reinvented gameplay.
Examples - Demon Souls, Shadow of the Colossus, Crash N Sane Trilogy, TLOU Part 1, COD: MW1/2 Remastered (This is the part of the confusion, because MW is a remake in everything but name.)

Reimagining
A game that uses the original as inspiration, but vastly changes the entire thing. Gameplay, levels, music, story moments, VA, visuals...everything. Too many people call these remakes thus unfairly comparing them to more faithful that change less.
Examples - Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2/3, Ratchet and Clank 2016
Just porting to a newer graphics engine is not a remake. It is a remaster. The game hasn’t been remade.
 
Your remastered definition is wrong, all of their games you mention are Just simple ports

Games Who run The original code but The audio, textures, etc are much much better and make it look like a modern game, are The correct definition of remastered

The remastered games examples are: ocarina of time 3d, halo 2 anniversary, wonderboy, wind waker HD, etc
Remastered vs enhanced port is a grey area it seems.

I figured a port is just a game that is optimized to run on different hardware, yet sometimes that entails added features, extras, fixed issues, and enhancements due to the extra time and/or better hardware.

Remastered, like a remastered song track or movie rip, entails mainly making everything higher fidelity? Yet, this seems to overlap with porting a game to more capable hardware.

Remakes and reimaginings seem pretty straightforward. I'm still on the fence on what constitutes a remaster.

What would we consider the second version of Ridge Racer on the PS1 to be? The one that runs at 60fps vs 30fps.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
I don't find it that confusing.

Remaster -- Anything that is still principally based on the original assets and code. New models and textures are still in bounds, as are improvements to rendering or resolution. Examples: Mass Effect Trilogy, Powerslave Exhumed, TLOU Remastered
Remake -- Uses new assets and code base, without using much of the original directly, but may still use the same level layouts, and can still be reasonably considered "the same game." Examples: Crash N. Sane Trilogy, System Shock (2022), Metal Gear - Twin Snakes, Resident Evil 2
Reimagining/Reboot -- A game inspired by the original, and perhaps using the original story, but does not use the original level layouts or content directly. Examples -- Doom (2016),
 

Ozzie666

Member
All I know is, I think Mass Effect was a great package and worth every penny and one of the best examples of this stuff done right. Electronic Arts isn't known to be overly consumer friendly, but somehow they put together a good package. 3 games, consisting of enhancements, improved visuals, DLC and much more.

One of the better remakes for a great price and amazing value. The games were mostly relics of the PS3/X360 era, with the first game being console exclusive on the OG Xbox. I know you could play them on Gamepass as enhanced titles, but not the same thing really.

But then you have the Mafia trilogy, with partial remake, partial remasters. Mafia games make sense considering the generation they are from.
 
The terms are irrelevant; they are essentially pushed by marketing based on current sentiments and or focus tests. What's really important is for us to judge the "upgrades" vs. "price" on a game-by-game basis. This is especially important for multiple-dippers because most of the time the upgraded version should be the best version for newcomers to the title.

Ex: What are the TLOU1 upgrades? Visuals for sure. Some upgrades to AI..yes. What about gameplay mechanics/systems? Encounter designs, are those unchanged and pretty much play the same? Audio, QOL changes etc etc have to be looked at . In the end, one has to weigh those changes against the USD70 asking price. What they actually call the version is irrelevant.
 
We need to stop being so confusing about what's a remake or not when there's a very easy and clear way to explain to the differences between the re-releases of games by simply adding an extra term. Too many put everything into remaster or remake.

Remastered
A port with higher frames/resolution, and slightly higher textures.
Examples - GTA5, Nathan Drake Collection, Spider-Man Remstered, TLOU Remastered, Bioshock Collection.

Remake
A game faithful to the original, but completely remade in a new engine. Vastly improved visuals and tech, QOL improvments, touched up but not completely reinvented gameplay.
Examples - Demon Souls, Shadow of the Colossus, Crash N Sane Trilogy, TLOU Part 1, COD: MW1/2 Remastered (This is the part of the confusion, because MW is a remake in everything but name.)

Reimagining
A game that uses the original as inspiration, but vastly changes the entire thing. Gameplay, levels, music, story moments, VA, visuals...everything. Too many people call these remakes thus unfairly comparing them to more faithful that change less.
Examples - Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2/3, Ratchet and Clank 2016
Final Fantasy VII isn't a remake or a re-imagining. It's a sequel initially disguised as a remake
 

01011001

Banned
We need to stop being so confusing about what's a remake or not when there's a very easy and clear way to explain to the differences between the re-releases of games by simply adding an extra term. Too many put everything into remaster or remake.

Remastered
A port with higher frames/resolution, and slightly higher textures.
Examples - GTA5, Nathan Drake Collection, Spider-Man Remstered, TLOU Remastered, Bioshock Collection.

A Remaster is a port with improved visuals and/or small Gameplay/Gamedesign touch-ups.

Remake
A game faithful to the original, but completely remade in a new engine. Vastly improved visuals and tech, QOL improvments, touched up but not completely reinvented gameplay
Examples - Demon Souls, Shadow of the Colossus, Crash N Sane Trilogy, TLOU Part 1, COD: MW1/2 Remastered (This is the part of the confusion, because MW is a remake in everything but name.)

MW 1 and 2 are not remakes, they are remasters, they use the same code of the original game and are touched up visually. they are not "remade" they are "improved", as in "remastered"

Shadow of the Colossus is the same. that game runs the original game code and engine underneath a new graphics layer running on Bluepoint's engine.
this is the same way Halo Anniversary functions, which is also a remaster and not a remake.



so we need a completely new term for clear cut definitions.
that new term should be "Graphics Remake". Halo Anniversary, Halo 2 Anniversary, Modern Warfare Remastered, Modern Warfare 2 Remastered and Shadow of the Colossus are not remakes, they are graphics remakes.
the game code is largely the same, it just has a new sheen of graphics layered on top of the original game code.


meanwhile an actual remake is a game that has been RE-MADE, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 for example is a remake. it doesn't use the original code of the older games, it is coded from scratch with gameplay based on the first 4 games, with levels of the first 2 games.


if Shadow of the Colossus is a remake then Halo Anniversary automatically also would need to be considered a remake... which would bring us into a weird situation wouldn't it? because you can actually turn off that new Graphics layer done in the Saber 3D engine that runs on top of the Halo CE engine (Blam Engine)... but as long as that layer is turned on it's literally the same situation we got in Shadow of the Colossus or Modern Warfare 2 🤔 turn it off and it's literally just Halo CE ported to Xbox One 🤔 clearly not a remake right?

we can't categorise Halo Anniversary as a remaster if we categorise Shadow of the Colossus as a remake, the only difference between the two is that you can't turn off that graphics layer Bluepoint's engine runs on top of the original engine
 
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EDMIX

Member
But, Resident Evil on PS4 IS a remaster. It's a remaster of the remake.

They know this to be true.

If it helps, I understood your point Captain lol Regardless, I think their original point was that RE2002 was a remake on GC (anything else after being a remaster like the PS3, PS4 versions)

01011001 01011001 tbh, I find the whole thing of using the same code or graphics and nothing else changed a bit silly.

Enough is changed for it to be a remake. Leave it at that.

Port, simple transfer with minimal to no improvements
Remaster simply a up-res or better frames
Remake, changing the gameplay, graphics, different engine etc regardless of how many of those bullet points they check off.

Some titles are worse off then others as to why they might need to get rid of the past code, lets stop trying to define a remake based on that as its just silly at this point. Enough is changed that clearly its not 100% the original title enough not to call it a port or remaster.

SO more then enough is changed with Demon Souls, SoTC, Halo MCC to clearly see its not a remaster like you saw with AC1 and 2 or something or like you saw with Bioshock collection or even Skyrim...any version lol They simply can't be lumped into that, thus they are remakes regardless if you think they look good or not as a major element was remade.

Using this fucking logic, we can argue NO game is a remake by saying "OHHHH they JUST remade the engine and gameplay and graphics, but that sound of the gun is the same, story is the same, oh that button on the shirt is the same" etc Developers will pick and choose what to keep and what to do over, but in this process, that is a remake...once they start that, the remake has started and keeping the gameplay or the code can't really just mean its a remaster by default, some games are so old no elements can be kept other then the story or something, but even then it argues no remake has ever been made with such a fucking ridiculous definition.

So if the graphics, gameplay etc are put in different engines, i think this is more then enough to say its a remake as it can't be a port or a remaster, those are simply transfer jobs or up res jobs with minimal changes, not entire fucking gameplay changes or completely different graphics engines. I think we have enough to show how that can be defined and where all games can fit in that. Keep in mind, I mean either or too, as in you can have a graphical change, yet keep the gameplay code, alter some elements with sound or keep the same sound etc, but if you have to pick and choose what to keep and throw away, that is the act of remaking something..... remake doesn't mean 100% get rid of every last element, it simply means REDOING those elements, some of which might be kept. I get why Halo would keep the code or even Demon Souls, they are after all games based on feel.
 
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