Look at the games on your shelf. I'm sure they're great games, because you're reading our website, and if you're reading our website, you're evidently a being of taste and discretion. Want to know something depressing about the games on your shelf? Well, at some point in the next couple of years you'll probably buy them all again for Xbox 720 with subtly improved graphics, a few bolt-on collectables and (if you're lucky) a download code for an Xbox Live copy of some hopelessly dated spiritual precursor.
This is the way the world works, and you'd be foolish to fight the flow. Come now, cease your struggles, spread those arms wide and embrace our munificent overlords in the publishing biz - being careful, of course, not to get your filthy consumer grease on their gleaming spats and ivory-tipped canes. If it helps, the industry's predilection for remastering IP does occasionally result in a tempting deal - a new lease of life for a cult classic, for instance, or new content that's actually worth a second purchase. I've listed a few of this generation's better remakes, HD editions and mega all-time compilations below.
A day will come when I don't find it necessary too bang on about Ubisoft's peerlessly compressed Zelda-a-like in list features, and that day will be when I am dead and cold. Whether you focus on the refreshing absence of silly gender stereotypes or the sheer variety of tasks and activities tucked into that tightly realised open world, Beyond Good & Evil is as playable today as it was 10 years ago. The Xbox Live Arcade version adds nothing save sharper edges, but it's an absolute steal at the price. Your enjoyment glands will thank you.
In hindsight, firing up DICE's multiplayer-only XBLA remake of Battlefield 1942 after two Bad Company titles is rather like going from Far Cry 2 to Far Cry 3. That's to say, it's a much goofier, brighter and less consequential kind of shooter, though still a game that gets immensely savage at times. 1943 revives and overhauls four 1942 maps, including the cherished Wake Island, and applies a big dollop of Frostbite's trademark terrain deformation. If Battlefield 3's techno-realism leave you thirsty, take a swig of this.
5 comments so far...
PonderingWalrus on 15 Feb '13 said:
I knew Halo: CE would be in this list but have to admit it didn't really do anything for me.
It was a good game but is probably my least favourite Halo game of all time. I'd heard so many people saying the campaign was awesome, I might have just set my expectations too high.
Can't say I can really argue with the brilliance of its visual upgrade though and the whole switching between old and new graphics feature with a button press was ingenious.
Droidsbane on 15 Feb '13 said:
Loved MGS HD, I remembered in primary school a friend used to go and on about this guy named Snake (but not having internet or money to buy gaming magazines) I never found out, then towards the end of secondary school another friend talked alot this series called Metal Gear Solid and this guy named Snake and how the series was finally coming to XBOX like he always wanted.
I bought the MGS HD collection shortly before Mass effect 3 released, played a small chunk of MGS2 was put off by Raiden then never played it agin for a while... until about a week after I finished Mass effect 3, I didnt want to go back to that game again and it ruined my appetite for some of my favourite games in my library I was in small video game depression, so after hearing how brilliant Snake Eater was from the same friend I decided to try and finish MGS 2 again and move onto 3, the graphics may look a bit dated but it was one of the most memorable (for the right reasons) games Ive played in years, it got me out of that depression Mass effect 3 put me in and i could move onto some of the other great that would come out in 2012.
And that just reminded me Il need to finish Peace Walker at some point before Ground Zeroes is released.
terry cheyne on 16 Feb '13 said:
where's Nights HD
and dmc HD collection DMC 3 in HD is way better than the new one
SadCheesecake on 16 Feb '13 said:
Am I the only one who wants the old Prince of Persia games in HD on 360? The main reason is the second two games don't work, only the first one does, and I don't really care about the HD, I actually liked the old looking graphics on the first game.
Bezza89 on 16 Feb '13 said:
Not sure I'll bother with PW myself, it's hard to play. But seeing as both of those people you're on about telling you about snake and metal gear are probably actually me I might tell you Kojima is showing it (GZ) off at GDC in march... maybe get some light shed on the phantom pain too.