@Misery, I recently pre-ordered Spyro reignited trilogy and WWE 2K19 on Xbox One. I played the original Spyro on the PS1 20 odd years ago and it was rather good.
Aye, but that has no bearing on the new version.
I can think of multiple "remasters" that were, frankly, crap. And some that were okay, but that were NOT worth the price paid. Old games are one thing... there are loads of older games that are fantastic. I'm very into retro games myself, going all the way back to the outright ancient 2600 console. Old games altered or ported by very bad or really lazy/cheap companies in some way are another matter entirely though.Remember, a "remaster" is actually a port (and ports in general are notorious for bugs and other problems). Nothing more. You are paying for a very small amount of work done by the "devs" compared to the original product.
To bring up one of the most famous recent examples: You might have heard about the NES mini or whatever it was, right? People went freaking BONKERS to reserve that thing. All these old classic games from their childhood, brought back to life with new technology, making it easier than ever to play them! Nintendo had total control of those consumers, and they went wild, doing anything they could to get their hands on it. Sometimes spending ridiculous amounts without really understanding the product. And.... it wasnt very good. Inaccurate emulation, lack of features, lack of game selection... they couldnt even get the freaking color shading right for the emulated games (no, seriously. It's enough that anyone really into those older games would spot it instantly). It was not even close to being worth the price. For those that use real emulators, the comparison was completely ridiculous. And for anyone else? Buying an ACTUAL NES console and the related games (and the related adaptor for the TV) would have been a muuuuch better investment (particularly the top-loader model, which is nearly indestructible) and would often have been MUCH cheaper.
That's just one example, a particularly well-known one. There have been MANY others, typically software releases that do not involve a device like the Mini.
One thing companies like these do to get you to pay for something that doesnt yet exist is to capitalize on nostalgia. This becomes more and more frequent as time goes on. It's an easy way to get people to obsess over the upcoming product (thus being more willing to pay for something that isnt even finished yet), while ALSO allowing the company to create a product that takes minimal effort/budget. Ports or re-releases of older games are in some cases (many, actually...) actively WORSE than the originals. Like with the NES Mini, these companies are banking on consumers not being able to spot the problems (or spotting them, but "remembering" them as always having been there). And in almost all cases, they are not actually worth the retail price upon release, even when done fairly well (again, this is very low-effort "development", even when the job is well-done the resulting price usually doesnt match what went into it). There are exceptions of course, but this is rare.
As I said, my rule of never pre-ordering contains no exceptions... not even one. With no practical spending limit and literally nothing but free time, all the time, I've had ALOT of experience in being a consumer for this industry, but I've also had connections to the industry myself, as well as having done some development (and way, WAY too much testing over way too many years). I'm not just pulling these ideas out of the air here. This comes from both personal experience, as well as alot of knowledge of how the industry *actually* operates. I learned the hard way quite a long while ago to always, always, ALWAYS wait for actual evidence of the quality of a game before buying it... and that cannot appear until it releases.
Well, I hope that your purchases turn out well, then, regardless. One way or another, it's your money, after all... if you're pleased with the results, then all is well in the end, yeah? (and I'm well aware that the original Spyro was indeed quite good, way back when... what they did to the series in recent times irritates me. I'd love to see a genuinely new Spyro, but it's never going to happen).
My points remain, though (I typed this out not just as a response to you, but for any others that might read it too, so that's why it's this wordy. Also I'm always wordy.)
