Ranking 2015's Remastered Games - What to Play and What to Avoid

COG Writes: There have been a lot of remastered games this year, but not all of them have been good. We take some time to go through some of the best and worst to help you figure out which ones to play.

[MercilessDMercer]

Great list! I may or may not have a few of these already

[1Victor]

Eh no sly cooper collection 😱😢 It's a must play

[hkgamer]

wasnt that last year?

[generalwinter]

Nice list!

[Trekster_Gamer]

Crap list, gears of war remastered was awesome, priced right and proof of how it should be done!!

[DaGR8JIBRALTAR]

I thought gears of war was a damn good remaster. The nice coat of paint on the single player is a welcome addition and the multiplayer is beautiful.

[Genuine-User]

Gears of War UE is proof of how it shouldn't be done. An almost 10 year old game that runs at a fluctuating 30fps with screen-tearing. And Laggy online matches.

That said, the visual upgrade was really good but also a necessity.

[OpieWinston]

Laggy online matches. Just because your internet is trash doesn't mean it's the games fault. And I had no problem wall bouncing, didn't experience a screen tear once.

Seriously do you just cry about everything you don't play?

[maniacmayhem]

I've been playing Gears of War remaster for a while and not once did I experience a laggy online match or even seen screen tearing.

Time to trade in that Zenith and upgrade from that 56k.

[Fro_xoxo]

I feel like Gears mechanics is outdated. I wasn't feeling the campaign mode. And the AI ain't the best.

The face lift is good for such an old game tho'. It needed it.

Multiplayer is solid too...

[DrumBeat]

Ain't the best? The AI is downright terrible. The classic MP still stands the test of time, though.

[TRS_Gear]

I read a really interesting interview with Rod Ferguson about some of that stuff. Apparently it was not an easy decision to go with the old AI engine, as they could have very easily went with the one from Gear 3, which is far superior. However he said that the behavior code for is completely different between the two, so they opted to game with the authentic feel of Gears 1, over a polished current feel.

I thinking the decision may have been the wrong one, as many people new the the series were just disappointed in how dated the game felt.

I personally liked it though.

[TRS_Gear]

I agree.

Gears UE was way too low on this list.

Considering the price, the fact that EVERY texture in the game was replaced, the additions to multiplayer, and that every cut-scene was re-filmed using new mo-cap. I'd say it a poor call to dismiss it so quickly, just because the author of the article felt the 10 year old gameplay now feels stale.

Gears: UE was truly "remastered" where several of the other higher ranked titles, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two versions.

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

Kingdom Hearts!!

[ClayRules2012]

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection was a great remaster for 2015 "in my opinion.
TLoU wasn't a 2015 Remastered game, but its my favorite remaster i've ever played.
GTA5 was a really great remaster as well "in my opinion"

YouTube videos don't do either of those remastered games justice.

I can't wait for Heavy Rain/Beyond Two Souls remastered, on disc for PS4.

[ironcrow2386]

Handsome collection for me..never got to play pre sequel and borderlands 2 is as great as ever 😃

[madcowzz]

This is a terribly ranked list and badly written. From the Divinity: Original Sin excerpt:

"Larian Studios somehow managed to take an excellent PC game, and made the transition to consoles a smooth one."

Isn't even a sentence. But moving on.

Since there were a lot of remasters released this year, at least replace the subpar ones (Darksiders, Dishonored, DmC) with better ones. Such as:

Resident Evil HD Remaster (released in January)
Saints Row IV: Re-Elected (January)
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (March, on PS4)
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD (March)
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (April)
Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (June)
Tearaway: Unfolded (September)
Castle Crashers Remastered (September)

[Darkwatchman]

DmC is one of the best remasters though...when 60fps has been the standard for devil may cry and all of a sudden the reboot on last gen was 30, that caused heads to turn. With the remaster, it's finally back up to the expected standard framerate for the genre and series and on top of that, it made many changes and additions. Turbo mode, increasing the game speed by 20% on top of the framerate boost makes an already tangible gameplay upgrade even more impressive. Once I tried turbo, I couldn't go back. They also did other things like nerf the damage of demon evade, added lock-on, removed the whole "only weapons of this color can damage enemies of this color", included an extra cutscene toward the end to try to flesh it out a little bit more, and added must style mode for masoxhists. That's not all the stuff that was included either. DmC as a remaster is a clear step up in terms of improvements over the Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition, easily.

[UltraNova]

I've been itching to get DMC...maybe its time now that the PS4 remaster is dirt cheap.

[Darkwatchman]

http://youtu.be/EjmlJ_8Fa-w

DmC may not be the better game, but as a remaster. As a rerelease, it is definitely better than Devil May Cry 4's special edition

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Only ones I got so far from this year are Borderlands: Handsome Collection, Dishonored: Definitive Edition and Resident Evil Remake. All of them were spectacular. I'm getting the Uncharted collection before Uncharted 4 drops so I can relive the original epic trilogy before I get to experience the amazing finale :3

[BallsEye]

Wait a minute...
So for example God of War remaster gets praised (nothing more than upped resolution), but Gears of war with WHOLE NEW ENGINE, New SFX, Multiplayer and 4 additional games (gears 1, 2 , 3 and judgement) is to be avoided??
Credibility lost.

[madmonkey01]

maybe the op isnt adolescent so doesnt favour gears of war.

[BIGBOSS08]

im probably gonna get hate for this but gears of war was always a crap game. the story and characters are an absolute joke which is why its not as popular today. nobody cares about what happens next because the characters are lame. theres no attachment to them. the franchise doesnt even have the original developers anymore.. they should have just left it at gow judgement and moved on but microsoft are going to run it into the ground first.

[voodoochild346]

Story has absolutely nothing to do with the popularity of gears. It's still one of the most popular shooters on console. The reason it isn't doing halo numbers is the fact that Rod Ferguson and Cliffy B screwed up the gears 2 launch by trying to force people to play multi-player like it's the campaign.

[FriedGoat]

@Voodoo Gears of war UE is dead online. I love how people keep saying it's one of the most popular shooters when hardly anyone is playing it. I try and get a decent game but once someone leaves that's it, nobody is rejoining because it's DEAD. Even the Gears forums talk about the lack of players <5000.

[DigitalRaptor]

Your credibility is not that great either. But this is just another examples of you downplaying a PS4 remaster (by LYING), and trying to make the Xbox One remaster game seem as good as you can describe it, by talking about added content that doesn't relate to the remaster content in question. Unsurprising. You're the biased one mate.

God of War III Remasted gets twice the resolution at 1080p. It gets a massively upped (almost doubled) frame rate that runs at a consistent 60fps. It includes all DLC and extra modes too. But nope.... hang on... it's just the upped resolution. Really?

Just sounds like you're butthurt that a game like that - it released in 2010 - is going to stand the test of time better than a game with unimproved, clunky, dated gameplay that released in 2006, and hasn't really stood the test of time, not to mention its poor online player presence.

[BallsEye]

"God of War III Remasted gets twice the resolution at 1080p. It gets a massively upped (almost doubled) frame rate that runs at a consistent 60fps."

Are you serious??? Any emulator on PC does that and MUCH MORE including better shaders, texture filtering etc. Upping resolution and framerate from a ps3 to ps4 requires ZERO effort from developer. ZERO! Do you even hear yourself? How can you defend that against gears remaster that has COMPLETELY NEW ENGINE, Completely new animations, NEW SFX, Refreshed multiplayer AND INCLUDES 4 other games in a bundle.

This isn't about liking what the game is. It's about common sense of what a good remaster should be like. I want Sony devs to put as much effort in their remasters as MS does, not just change 1 line in code for upping the resolution. You expect very little from the company you are so fond of. Also stop trying to make every post a fanboy war and stop following me. Got no games to play?

[DigitalRaptor]

None of what you said offends me, but nice try.

I often check my own comments of the past few days to see if I missed any responses from folks, which frankly is a normal thing to do on a site that promotes discussion. Stalking isn't that, and funnily enough my response to you proves nothing of the sort. What your claim does prove is insecurity, delusion and desperation to win an argument that you cannot win.

And what do I find when I scan through my comments? A comment from you, so I do the courtesy of responding here. It's called a conversation. Do keep providing yourself that self-importance though. In the meantime, I'll be waiting for a proper and on-topic response that addresses the article and not me and my "afflictions". You know THAT would be useful.
-----

"I think you take defending your beloved brand a bit too seriously"

To millions of people out there, PlayStation is a beloved brand, so not a problem, and not offensive. What that sentence of yours is though, is hugely ironic, considering your original comment was overtly defensive of an Xbox/MS exclusive game Vs. a PlayStation exclusive game. I think if that is proof of anything, it's bias and insecurity. That is indeed a sad double standard.

[BallsEye]

Stop the BS man. You take this whole n4g and sony too seriously. Just a friendly advice - find some higher goal in your life. Writing walls of text whole day explaining your devotion to the brand you like, while making sure to bash others (You keep on going on xbox one articles, I, despite havng a ps4 which I have proven many times I don't even bother to go to ps4 section as I'm not really interested in it as of this moment). If you don't ever plan to buy this system, don't waste your oh precious time on articles related to it. It will make your life easier, trust me. Cheers.

[gangsta_red]

@Ballseye

Great comment Ballseye and very spot on. I wasn't a fan of the Gears remaster but at least there was a huge amount of effort put in with modes, design and other aspects instead of just a rush job of upping the res only which we see with a lot of other remasters, GoW III included.

For remasters I would expect devs to put in that much work for them. Especially when a separate dev is handling them. For this gen not only have we received numerous remasters of games not even a decade old, but with minimum to no effort put in.

You made logical comments based on facts and all DigitalRaptor could see was a knock against Sony.

@Digital
"None of what you said offends me, but nice try."

Of course it does, which is why you were marked as immature....good.

[level 360]

Wish they would also re-master Splinter Cell: Blacklist

[DivineAssault]

I never got a chance to play DmC so i bought the remaster on sale.. Im going in with an open mind to avoid being upset with the changes.. I got a few of them like both LOZ games, Uncharted collection, & god of war when they were cheap.. I didn't mind paying for nintendos because they always provide quality products...

Is gears of war just remaster of part one or all three? I was pissed that god of war 3 didn't include ascension.. Doesn't matter anyway because i didn't invest in xb1 but thats still a rip off..

[Azzanation]

MCC not on the list? Halo 2 Remastered alone was worth the $60, adding in the entire series plus every MP map is the best collection of games iv seen even better then my beloved Orange Box.

Oh well when you rank DMC as number one sort of answers that question.

Also Gears was awesome. Great Remaster.

[BiggerBoss]

MCC didn't come out in 2015

[djplonker]

No dark souls 2 scholar of the first sin on the list?

Still hoping for a hd timesplitters 2 and a ps4 version of demons soul's.

[b3ast]

Demon's souls would be my no. 1 if it gets remastered

[JasonKCK]

Gears UE is a remake, not a remaster.