http://www.gamespot.com/articles/batman-arkham-duo-remastered-for-ps4-and-xbox-one-/1100-6426085/

These consoles are getting way too many remasters of games that aren't even that old.

My disgust for this gen only grows. Least Bloodbourne is almost out, just a few more long hours hours. As someone who likes GoW 3 I was actually considering buying it but now I know buying it only hurts us. Gotta vote with our wallets.

I don't like it, but a lot of people buy them.

This trend really, REALLY needs to end. That, or they should be, like, $10 downloadable games. I'd be totally cool with it then, just make this stuff all super budget priced. But I can only assume it'll be like, $40 or $50 for the games (the rumor I saw elsewhere made it seems like it wouldn't include Origins).

As someone that played most of these games getting released on PC at 60FPS 1080P and still waiting on a reason to buy a current gen console, I really hope E3 has some exciting news or something to look forward to or I just might be done with consoles.

@alanm26v5: i agree, im not saying consoles are bad, but i just spent the money on a half decent pc and have been running games at 1440p 60 for a while now. there hasn't been any reason to make me want to get a new console...

I just... why? What in the serious fuck is going on with these developers, man?

Oh for fucking out loud. Know what games still look awesome? The first three Arkham games. (and God of War 3, for that matter)

I was fine with Last of Us and GTAV, since they both brought something to the table to justify crossing gens, and they both suffered a bit on the older consoles. And also because it hadn't quite grown apparent to me at the time that this generation is extremely slow to really get rolling. It's all the more annoying to see "remasters" everywhere as we starve for a healthy lineup of new titles and IPs.

Also, the Arkham games will run on a potato, which makes this feel even more unnecessary.

More than likely it's publishers pushing this and not devs but yeah. :(

I'm not against remasters in principle, I bought several last gen, but with those I could at least say: "well, these games are fairly old, several of them are classics, it's their first time in HD." But with several of these "definitive editions" what's going to be new? 60 FPS? These consoles are only one and a half years old, some of the games they are rereleasing are less than 2 years old. This is nuts.

Somebody at some point in a developer's office needs to grow a pair and say, "You know what? Let's do something crazy and fucking make games!" This is going being idiotic.

Can you really blame them? They have the carts. The carts show that remasters are selling nearly as much as new games. That's already reason enough to do it since it's a safe bet. But you can add in the fact that remastering a game is infinitely cheaper than creating one from scratch too.

I'm not so much bothered by this as long as it doesn't hurt the development of new games. Also, Origins is the best in that series so far, hidden opinion inserted ha!

I bet £10 we'll be getting either Far Cry 3 or Bioshock Infinite next.

@gunstarred: Assassin's Creed Unity: Remastered

I wouldn't mind it so much if there was new shit coming out. Since new shit is lacking in our future currently, its just frustrating to see this trend. Now I'm far more interested in these Arkham games than GOW3, an excuse to play Asylum and City again isn't a bad thing and I literally did a saga playthrough of the GOW games 6 months ago, but this is sad to see. The only remastered games I would want to see is a Gears trilogy, I might actually buy a xone for that, and Uncharted trilogy would be fun to have. If you are going to remaster, go all the way and have an awesome package of games, just one game remastered is a bummer.

What?! No Origins? But that's the best Batman game.

I mean I wouldn't mind playing through Arkham Asylum again with a fresh coat of paint. I can always play that again. Arkaham City, while I love it( just not as much as AA ), I don't have the same desire to play though it again for $60

I had fun the first time through. These remasters aren't for me. Also in a recent thread another user put it very well: Many of these games aren't even remasters. They're just ports.

Back in my day, we called a remaster a "port".

No thank you, I'm over ports and re-releases. Bring on the new games, thank you very much.

I personally have no problem with remasters, as the remasters so far have been majority great games.

but this is just too soon, this should come at like midway through this generation.not at the very start

Given the delays of the new Batman I'm not totally surprised the publisher wants to see more $ from the devs

I feel like it's kind of hilarious that Arkham Origins isn't in this when it would benefit the most from getting ported. Also this port isn't going to stop other games from coming out and you don't have to buy ever fucking video game product that gets put out.

@thephantomstranger said:

That was my thought on the subject. Kinda funny, that.

This might be the first "remaster" I buy for my PS4. I really, really love the Arkham games.

I'm not surprised, nor am I upset. It is quite possible that there are a ton of people who have never played the Arkham games that just bought current gen consoles. Giving a larger number people the opportunity to play great games is not a bad thing. Before I got a PS4 I never had the opportunity to play The Last of Us. Thus, I'm glad that the remaster came around because I may never have experienced the story and atmosphere that the game had to offer otherwise. Just because "you've" already played a game on last gen hardware it does not mean everyone else has. If you don't want a remaster don't buy it.

Also, I get the argument that the time and money spent on remastered titles should be funneled towards new games but if you look at the seemingly astronomical size of development costs at big name studios these days maybe remastered titles are a means for developers to get huge returns on the relatively small investment of remastering an already successful game to build seed money/ good will to make a new game. Maybe the publisher only gave Rocksteady the publicity and funding for Arkham knight on the condition that remasters of the game had to be done. It could be they have no choice but we can only speculate.

I'm holding out for a 3rd console version of Half-Life 2.

I feel like if that were a primary concern for either of the major console companies, these machines would have simply been backwards compatible from the start.

I'm not offended by these on principle as some of you are. Yes, it's lazy and exploitative but when the current AAA business model is so fucked the way it currently is, can you really blame them? And I sincerely doubt any major resources are being diverted away from new projects to port these over.

In an alternate reality this generations consoles launched with backwards compatibility and no one has to put up with this shit.

I'm not offended at all, and I don't really think it's lazy or exploitative.

If you don't want it, don't buy it. Publishers want money, fans of these games might want to play them again only a little shinier, and new people might want to give them a try. Nobody loses.

Yeah but did you hear about the rumor of them bringing Pong to the PS11? At this rate, my grandkids will be able to experience Mario in glorious 128K resolution, whilst never actually playing anything new. Ow well, at least this way the kids can chat about games with the grown-ups, since the whole family's been playing the same damn things for 3 generations anyway.

Except for the folks who bought a shiny new console in hopes of actually getting to play something new. But hey, who am I to complain, I play all my games on the PC anyway.

Everyone's releasing these ports too fast, what are they gonna spit out at the end of this gen? Super HD collections of PS2 games?

OLD?! who are you calling old?

@sparky_buzzsaw: I wonder if this is a publisher choice or a developer choice. Publishers may be having trouble developing for the new consoles or maybe are scared to. I'm sure most developers would rather be making new games but work is work.

I can assure you that this port is not the reason that the new Batman game was delayed.

@ajamafalous: That is not at all what I meant. I merely meant that there are plenty of people who bought a new console, thinking that there would be new games to play on it, Batman or otherwise. So far, I can see how people like that would be disappointed to see plenty of remasters coming out, but very little new stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I am not intrinsically opposed to remasters, and some of the titles they've chosed to HDify are genuinely great games. But when trying to justify a several hundred dollar expense for a new console, while those remasters seem to make up a large part of what you can actually play on it, let's just say I can understand holding off on buying next-gen for now.

@finaldasa: Developers, publishers, at some point, someone has to sit down and say, "You know what? Fuck it, I feel like making Pac-Man RoguePG." Or whatever. Good on the indie developers for picking up the slack this generation.

Forgive my ignorance, but if the consoles were backwards compatible, that doesn't mean that 360 and PS3 games would enjoy performance boosts does it? They would be emulations of sorts?

Regardless I would probably end up buying such a package if it were ever released; Origins was a bad game, and would end up as un-played fluff if it were included, and the original 2 being so exceptional would compound that inadequacy. As silly as it sounds, I am nostalgic for those games, they've fundamentally altered my idea of what a "good" game is. The same notion struck me as I replayed MassEffect for achievements: sometimes you just need an excuse to lose yourself again for these experiences to be meaningful, even if those excuses exhibit unsavory intentions.

Why are people throwing temper tantrums over this?

There are plenty of people who, like myself, don't have high powered PCs, which meant there's no way we could play the definitive versions of our favorite games. These remasters allow us to do just that.

Some of you fools are acting like you're personally paying for development

Couldn't disagree more! Keep em coming.

I would love a trilogy if it was well priced. Would happily replay the first two remastered but I never played Origins (sucks it isn't included actually, even though people say it isn't great).

Either way would make a KICK ASS BAD ASS super gift for my half brother who just got a PS4, is 13, and never played the previous games. Like all young boys he has realized that Batman is the coolest thing ever, and should totally play these games.

Hopefully it's actually locked at 60fps. I don't know who to blame, lazy developers or stupidly weak consoles, when a minor resolution bump means an old game can't even hit a locked 60.

It's unreal engine 3, i'd be extremely surprised if it didn't.

Maybe if people play them side-by-side then they'll stop claiming that Arkham City is anywhere near as good as Arkham Asylum.

Yeah, they'll finally realize that the combat and stealth improvements in City blow Arkham Asylum out of the water!

(If they took the gameplay engine from City and put it into Asylum that would be the greatest game in the series)

The problem is not that there are so many remasters coming out. It's the fact that remasters are damn near the only things coming out on these new consoles.

More remasters?? Really?! Where are the new games? Sigh.

I kinda agree with this. Origins had the best story out of them all. I loved that it wasn't a Batman origin story but an origin story of Joker and Batman's fucked up relationship. Lots of little nods to comic fans as well.

I think this remaster train has a long way to go. Any major release from the last few years is almost guaranteed to get a remaster on new consoles at this point.

New games are so passé.

I figure this endless remaster trend is a sign that money is tight at developers.

Perhaps the ultimate low risk thing they could do.

I bought Tomb Raider because I love it, and I bought Last of Us because I needed to play Left Behind and got it for $5 more than the DLC alone. Each time a new one gets announced, though, it's become really hard to justify another purchase. Although my gut reaction is always "that game's cool and this is a better version of it!!" But the game I already own continues to be cool and readily available.

So this is a weird thing. DMC4, which initially seemed like the least necessary release of all time, somehow became my most anticipated remaster because they're adding a ton of stuff. So there are ways to do it right.

Problem with that is... there are enough remasters to have a most anticipated list.