Jade Empire for sure, maybe Need For Speed Underground 2.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005) remaster with all the bells and whistles and full raytracing and everything would hit like crack, I forgot about that one for my list.
Heretic and Hexen, give them the Doom 2016 treatment. I would play the hell out of that
Damn! I was thinking the same just last week. Saw there was a new version of Heretic and checked it out. Unfortunately it’s not as modernized as I had hoped.
A proper Morrowind remake a la Oblivion Remastered would be awesome. It’s a fantastic game but painfully dated. A fresh coat of paint and some modernizations (not too many though) would be amazing.
That looks amazing. I’m super hyped now.
Final Fantasy VII. Fans have made beautiful new models with better textures on Nexus, and it makes me wish Square Enix had bothered to do more than just up-res the graphics and backgrounds before calling it a day. That’s the only remake I ever wanted.
Reminds me of Square’s announcement of Final Fantasy 7 for the Playstation 4 in 2014, the one that everyone was expecting to be the remake, but it was just the same PS1 game with nothing new.
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Deus Ex - I love it, and the concept, story and writing would hold up well, it just feels old and clunky. The voice acting is beyond bad. It was an ambitious undertaking to have FPS, RPG and stealth all in one game but as a result the game doesn’t excel at any of them. A Nightdive style remake would be absolutely incredible.
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Dark Souls - This will be controversial and I know it was already remastered, but a full on proper remake would be very intriguing. The first 2/3rds of the game are phenomenal, but in the latter stages it often feels like the levels are just thrown together and rushed. Going back and fixing these - as well as modernizing the bosses - would be my dream ideal FromSoft game.
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Jade Empire - The most forgotten and underrated Bioware game, but one I really love. I have no expectations as there probably isn’t a market for something with that little brand recognition, but it would be amazing to see it introduced to a new generation of gamers. The combat has a very solid foundation and could probably be refined too into something really excellent. One can dream.
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No One Lives Forever 1&2 - I tried playing this recently as it’s a known classic and critic’s darling, and while the setting and style is amazing and the writing is kinda fun it plays like absolute ass. And of course certainly shows its age visually. It’s too bad no one knows who owns the rights to it so it will never happen.
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KOTOR 1&2 - The prince that was promised. So sad the remake was killed off, if any game needs a remake it’s KOTOR, especially the mess that is the sequel.
If they modernized Dark Souls and fixed the last third of the game it might be the greatest game ever made. I adore Dark Souls but it is so dated. It’s hard to recommend it to someone honestly. After Shadow of the Erdtree came out and I beat it a few times I decided to revisit Dark Souls, and holy shit it felt old. I still love it to death but it was kinda brutal. The DLC is considerably better but still very dated. Compare Kalameet with Bayle and you’ll see just how far they’ve come. No hate on Kalameet though, he’s the OG tough as nails dragon boss. Still a highlight of the series for me, just very dated.
If we’re talking about new FromSoft content in general though I’m still holding out for more Sekiro content like a sequel or DLC (shut up, yes, I know, just let a man dream). Give me some Tomoe content. I wanna fight or learn more about her. And I want more gameplay with that fight system. It remains my favourite gameplay of any game ever. I still prefer Elden Ring + DLC as a game in general, but purely gameplay-wise Sekiro remains #1 and we need more like it.
I still think DS1 is the best place to start if you’ve never played a Soulslike. It’s really your only chance to get the full best impression as coming back to it after playing Elden Ring or something your reaction to most of the bosses will be “… that’s it?”. If it’s your first soulslike they’ll feel epic. And it’s really not that unapproachable, just tell people to take it slow and use a shield, and ask you for directions if they get stuck somewhere.
I still have yet to play Sekiro, I need to tackle it some day but it honestly intimidates me. Several parts of DS3 and ER already felt like it were pushing against my skill ceiling in a way that was unfun and in Sekiro you can’t even cheese or grind or rely on gimmicks. I’m fairly certain I’ll not be able to finish it, and I won’t enjoy bashing my head against it until I give up and feel like a useless sack of shit.
If someone plans on playing the whole series then yes, start with DS1. But if they just want to pick up a game and heard Souls games are really fun, I don’t think the first one would convince them to check out the rest of the series unless they really enjoyed it, and I think later games are more approachable for beginners.
That’s totally fair, it’s not for everyone, and that’s okay. It used to be my favourite game ever, and is probably my #2, but I find it difficult to recommend to a lot of people because it is definitely a steep learning curve and is even harder if you’re used to Dark Souls. There’s no dodging (well there sort of is but it’s more of a repositioning) and instead you need to rely on parrying everything. And like you said, there’s no gimmicks or anything, you simply have to get good at the very specific playstyle or you won’t have a good time. But if you do get good at it, it feels amazing to play. Just out of curiosity, what pushed your limits in DS3 and ER?
What makes the later games more approachable? I could maybe see an argument for DS3 being more accessible since it’s essentially linear, but at the same time it’s significantly harder. Basically anyone can beat DS1 in my opinion, absolute worst case you can wear full Havel’s and just facetank everything and flask through the damage. You can poise tank Manus’s full wombo combo and just outheal the damage.
I’ve never been great at rhythm games and I feel like I’m getting on in years and my reflexes aren’t going to get any better. Knowing I have no recourse but get good is scaring me off Sekiro. In Elden Ring of course Malenia was a slugfest, I hated Valiant Gargoyles and Godskin Duo. In general I hate gank fights in FromSoft games, they’re almost never done well. I needed some time with Hoara Loux and Radagon and Elden Beast was an absolute fuckfest. I played on release so couldn’t use Torrent, no idea if that made it better or not.
In DS3 nothing in the base game felt bad, all the bosses felt fine and some of my favourite FromSoft bosses are in there. Dancer might be my favourite but Soul of Cinder is such a fun fight - although way too easy for a final boss. (EDIT: and Abyss Watchers of course.) Sister Friede however almost took my sanity and I never finished the Ringed City DLC because after Demon Princes I decided I needed a break as I wasn’t having fun and just never got back to it. I assume Midir and Gael are too hard for me anyway if I struggled with Demon Princes.
I feel like DS3 before you reach Irithyll is pretty tame for a Souls game. Once you reach Irithyll it definitely gets harder than DS1 ever was, but by that point you probably are at least okay at the game. The beginning of DS3 is a lot easier imo than the beginning of DS1, plus it’s a more polished game in general and looks and feels nicer so I could see a newbie pushing through more with 3. ER is definitely the easiest to get into as a newbie though. Spirit summons make fights a lot easier since aggro is split between you and the boss, without increasing boss health like you’d get with NPC summons, and the open world lets you just fuck off and do whatever to avoid a boss until you’re better, or skip the boss entirely depending on who it is. It definitely ramps up the difficulty end-game, and the DLC is probably the hardest content they’ve ever released (though it’s also the best imo), but the first portion of the game is way easier and more beginner-friendly than DS1.
Fair, you need pretty good reflexes to get good at Sekiro. The nice thing about it is once it clicks it gets far easier, but it’ll probably take several hours to reach that point and up until then, it’s going to be a very steep learning curve. Not to say it becomes an easy game by any means, but it’s no longer an uphill battle anymore. It’s still a FromSoft game and has their signature difficulty, and the final boss is still one of the hardest fights they’ve ever made, but it becomes a fair challenge at that point. The first part before it clicks for you will feel unfair and brutal.
I’ve always been better at humanoid bosses than monster bosses so I didn’t actually struggle that much with Malenia, plus I usually use the biggest weapon I can find in any game and she has practically zero poise so I staggered her a ton, but I agree on gank bosses. Godskin Duo can fuck right off, that’s one of the worst bosses they’ve ever done imo. Just trying to recreate what O&S were in DS1 while apparently forgetting what made that fight so good. Weirdly enough my hardest and most hated boss in ER (other than Duo) is Astel, which sucks because it’s a cool design and blocks progress of Ranni’s questline, but any time I die it feels unfair and any time I win it feels like luck. I don’t get that feeling with any other fight. As for Elden Beast, most of my wins against him were before they added Torrent in that fight and I agree, it wasn’t great. I have fought him with Torrent though and it makes it so much better. It’s seriously night and day. It’s still not a good fight, but it’s far less terrible now. I wish it was a better fight, it’s such a cool design and the lore is really interesting.
Dancer is my favourite from DS3 too. She was my favourite boss fight ever until Shadow of the Erdtree, which holds my top three favourite bosses now, and brought Dancer down to #4. Sister Friede is another favourite of mine, though I never found her as tough as most of the community. I’ve only played that DLC twice though so maybe I got lucky both times. Demon Princes weren’t very fun for me, but the DLC bosses got better. Gael is awesome, though I had the same situation as with Friede, finding him a lot easier than the community, but Midir is tough as nails and is the only boss I’ve never beaten. I still can’t get him even past half health. Like I mentioned before I find monster bosses harder than humanoid bosses so that could be part of it, though I found Bayle to be tough but fair.
DS3 is smoother and more polished, and the linearity means you don’t risk going Catacombs or New Londo first, that’s true. But I think DS3 gets hard way before Irithyll. All the bosses are harder than anything in DS1 and Iudex Gundyr could be a roadblock right off the bat. (Oh I forgot to mention, I really liked Champion Gundyr too as a boss.) Anyway I guess Asylum Demon could be a roadblock too if they don’t realise you are supposed to run past him at first. But the first couple of areas really aren’t that bad. Take it slow and keep a shield up when you round every corner and you’ll be alright through almost all of it. The only real problem I see early on is Capra Demon. I guess the basilisks are a bit of a gotcha.
I personally found a lot of challenges in the early areas of DS3. Felt like there were lots of roll catches and annoying enemies, like the Lothric Knights. Road of Sacrifices into Farron Keep felt like absolute ass and were awful areas, those crow enemies were hard to deal with and unfun to fight, and likewise the jumping goats in Farron Keep.
If by monster bosses just oversized bosses count then I can get behind it. There are several that come to mind where you fight the camera more than the boss and get hit by things from offsceen while exasperatedly yelling “I can’t fucking see anything Miyazaki!” at the screen.
Sister Friede was just incredibly hard and also having incredibly long Phase 1 and 2 which made trying to learn the difficult Phase 3 take forever and felt like just disrespectful of my time. Felt like every attempt would take 10 minutes to get through the first two phases only to get one-shot instantly in phase 3. Absolutely hated it.
If even you can’t beat Midir I might just keep postponing it. I still have my save lying around but it’s been a while and I’m kind of on a Ninja Gaiden kick at the moment as difficult games go.
I feel like if you can beat Gundyr you can at least struggle through the first part of the game. I agree the Road of Sacrifices to Farron Keep is pretty rough but it’s also pretty easy to run straight through. Even if you don’t know the way it’s not too convoluted. Once you reach Irithyll though it gets considerably harder, especially boss-wise. Pontiff is a nightmare if you can’t parry. Conversely, all the bosses before him are relatively straightforward, even if a little hard. But with a few attempts I don’t think it’s a severe challenge quite like Pontiff is. From that point on it’s pretty tough the rest of the way though, with a couple minor exceptions.
I’d say Midir and Gael are kind of like Kalameet and Artorias. Whichever you found harder in DS1 will probably carry over to DS3. I found Kalameet way harder, and I also find Midir way harder. Artorias, while challenging, was a lot easier to me, just like Gael. You can also challenge Gael without fighting Midir. Midir is completely optional, just like Kalameet.
If you haven’t already, you should give the ER DLC a try. It’s probably their best content to date. It’s definitely harder than the base game, but like the base game, you can cheese it if you need to. The only exception is the final boss, who is only really possible if you cheese it, and even then is tremendously difficult. But the rest of the DLC is a fair challenge and really fun.
Another vote for NOLF 1/2!
Back in the day those games were an absolute delight. A fresh lick of paint and some modernisation would be amazing.
You can go back and play them again right now if you want, they’re available on nolfrevival and since nobody knows who owns the rights to them nobody is bothering to contest the copyright.
The gameplay does not hold up well. I still have it installed and will make another attempt to get through it at some point but it was not particularly fun to play. Many old FPSes do feel terrible nowadays in truth, we’ve come a long way in that particular genre and such a large part of the enjoyment of those games is in the feel of the gunplay itself - which has typically aged like milk.
That’s essentially what I was referring to - mechanically they could do with learning some of the lessons from the intervening 20+ years of iteration.
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Megaman Legends.
Incredibly well made for its time and a modern remaster would help breathe new life into the basically dead megaman franchise.
- Golden Sun Trilogy
- New Vegas
Golden Sun would really benefit from a remaster. A higher resolution and better sound quality will make it more enjoyable.
As for New Vegas, I like it, but I like Fallout 3 more for the atmosphere.
Thief 1 and 2
- Final Fantasy 6
- Chrono Trigger
The latter had an awesome fan made 3D remake called Chrono Resurrection and then Square sent a C&D and shut it down.
FF6 would be amazing as a 3D remake as long as they didn’t try to do the “let’s divide it into 3 games and change things up!” Like they did with 7.
FF6 is my favourite but I will personally travel to Japan and fight to the death before letting the Nomura-Najima “dream team” get their hands on it.
“Proper” remaster is the important qualifier, here. Also, we will know Final Fantasy 6 has a proper remaster when everyone realizes that 6 was a masterpiece that 7 only overshadows in length. Final Fantasy 6 packs so much into each moment and has such a diverse lineup of characters that 7 feels more drawn out with more filler to compete. Also 6 has better combat. I said it.
If such a 3D remaster ever happens, I really wish they make an exclusive animation for Sabin suplexing the ghost train
You will hear no disagreements from my side. FF6 is the absolute peak of the series.
Freelancer
I would love to see a remastering of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.
Pong. It’s got no unlocks. No achievements. No ranks. And it only supports 2 players. At least add a bot.
Is a round ball too much to ask?!
That would unironically make Pong more interesting to me.
Pong: The Next Level?
Pong 2025 Plus - now a MMORPG. With loot boxes, skins and other amazing NFTs. For a subscription fee you can even skip the ads!
• Bubble Bobble (original NES)
- Fable: The Lost Chapters (no, the anniversary edition does not count)
- The Last Story
Why doesn’t the anniversary edition count?
The jump in visual fidelity isnt that big and I don’t like what they did with the faces of the new models :(
Descent: Freespace, The original Heavy Gear, Tribes 2, Mechwarrior 2.
Descent: Freespace especially. At the time that thing was awesome and so easy to mod. I remember someone was making a fantastic Babylon 5 mod for it that I dont’ think ever saw the light of day.
FreeSpace Open is still a thing if you are interested in an updated FreeSpace game. It’s not a remake, but the graphics updates are pretty substantial
had no idea this existed, thanks i’ll check it out.
These, specially Descent amd Heavy Gear, loved those.