The Mario RPG remake is as faithful as it's possible to be. They have real cutscenes and the graphics are 3d instead of pseudo 3d sprites, but everything else is exactly the same, down to the isometric camera angle.

Look at this:






I did play a RoboCop game (can’t be sure it was that one) on the Amiga.

Well, I've been on something of a nostalgia kick with some refinement. I've been replaying some classic PC games, but refined versions, whether that's a formal official remake or with fan mods, etc. In no particular order:

Portal with Raytracing.
Man, that's a fun game, and it looks gorgeous with ray tracing. The humor is still fun, too. I plan to get around to replaying 2, as well.

Black Mesa
This is a remake of the original Half Life in the Source engine with some improvements. I've played through the original a few times but not this. It was fun, but I definitely prefer the first half of the game to the end. I still remember how iconic and new the long ride in felt originally as that is the first time I recall a game being that epic in scale. From the intro to when the soldiers come in is my favorite. I recall the Xen alien world being a frustrating platforming slog originally. They redid it complete for Black Mesa by my recollection, but they were true to the vibe. It is a frustrating, tedious slog, and I was glad to be done by the end.

Command & Conquer Red Alert - remastered.
As I understand, they got some of the original team to do the remaster, and man, they did a good job. It feels like I remember, but with modern creature comforts. You can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel and there are some config options. What's neat is you can also toggle the classic and current graphics. It blew my mind when I switched to the old because the new HD graphics is how I remember it in my head, ha. I need to get back to finishing it.

Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 
This is an all-time favorite of mine that I replay every so many years. I went back through it again. I always play the Allies, though. I should get around to the Soviet campaign one day. Side note, I think this is around when RTS games peaked. It had just enough unit variety and build trees without getting excessive and unwieldy. I never did get into Age of xxxx due to said complexity. Also the cheesy acting is amazing. The original game runs fine, but I used some modern tweaks and a separate renderer to get 1080P resolution. Looks great.

Warcraft 2
Now this game is also a classic and tied/close to RA2 for peak RTS for me. I've played through the Human a few times, but this time I did the Orcs. Man, that was fun. Maybe I'm just better than I used to be, but it also felt easier than I recall the Human campaign being. I guess I will have to play through that one again while I'm at it.

Similar to RA2, I got a separate renderer so I can render at higher modern resolutions. 1080p was too small, so I used 720p and it looks great.

So Sega dropped this during the Game Awards

Very ecstatic!

I heard the end of this on the radio yesterday: the1a.org/segments/saving-classic-video-games/

Game Mode: Saving classic video games

Think back to your earliest video game memories.

As technology changes and video games become increasingly released only on digital, many of the titles you grew up on may be unplayable today. kotaku.com/classic-games-history-foundation-preservation-yakuza-1850623857

87% of classic video games — those released before 2010 — are in danger of being lost to time. That’s according to a study from the Video Game History Foundation. gamehistory.org/87percent/

Some companies are trying to rectify the situation by making more games available through subscription services, like Nintendo Switch Online. Nintendo recently announced the availability of Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games through the service. Only 25 out of a total 1,873 Game Boy games are still available for purchase. www.theverge.com/2023/7/14/23792586/classic-game-preservation-video-game-history-foundation-esa

In this edition of Game Mode, our series where we cover video games and the gaming industry, we’ll talk about the efforts being made to preserve classic video games.

GUESTS
Rebekah Valentine
senior reporter at IGN

James Mastromarino
NPR gaming lead; producer, Here & Now

Frank Cifaldi
founder and director of The Video Game History Foundation

Our son has been getting back into playing Warframe so the Xbox1 is usually being used when I get home. So I have been playing the 360, which is in our room. I just finished playing another play through of Army of Two: Devil's Cartel for the first time since I played it back with my boys when it first came out in 2013. Still holds up for a good third person cover shooter. The amount of weapon customization make it this the best of the Army of Two trilogy in my opinion. It also has the best graphics of the three. But I wasn't a fan of the story as far as the plot twist goes. But still a damn good game.

So in response to finishing that I started the first Army of Two last night (I can't find my copy of Army of Two: 40th Day, the second installment) and it, not so much holds up for me. I feel like things like switching weapons, throwing grenades and the fact that it isn't as smooth to enter cover as the third one are dated. This one came out in 2007. They are two very different games. I feel like in this franchise EA did nothing but improve it with every installment. 40th Day (2010) gave you moral choices as part of the story. Where you could choose to do the "right" thing or "wrong" thing. But even then it didn't always net the result you would expect by taking either side consistently. I don't remember much about the controls though. And it's not in the XBox market so I will have to order a physical copy if I can't find mine.

With the bit of the clunkyness of the first Army of Two I looked through my like 50 plus downloaded games and I totally forgot how many games I have on the 360. I started remembering how great of sales Xbox market had back in the 360 heyday. There's at least a dozen games of those that I bought that sounded interesting to me that I haven't even played once. I think I might be taking an extended Warframe break to play some of these games. I mean a bought them for that reason lol Also reminds me of just how small game downloads were back then or how much better storage they had. Granted I bought the 250GB hard drive separately. But I can barely download 5 games on the Xbox1 500GB without swapping around with install and uninstall. I feel like Xbox1 should have come with a standard 1TB hard drive for the same cost as what the 500GB did at launch, not charging extra like they did.

So I started to play a game called Remember Me. Which I already had a save file with 7% progress so I just started a new game. Some of it I remembered some of it is new to my memory. The only critique I have is that it isn't always obvious where to go. The traveling or parkour is almost identical to Assassin's Creed except you can't climb on just anything. I guess it's actually more like Mirror's Edge but not as good at directing you where you need to go.

All that said the story is very interesting so far. But sometimes in other interactions with characters and situations the direction is sometimes unclear. Last night I gave up on an interaction because I thought I was doing all I could but I wasn't. Chalk that up to being tired or that had a few drinks while playing but it just felt frustrating. I'll try again tonight or this weekend well rested and sober. The combat (so far) is a lot like a combo of Assassin's Creed minus a weapon (so far) and smash em up games like God of War or Darksiders, but it's hand to hand combat (so far). But it does have a skills system that you earn "points" for in battle to learn that skill. I'm interested to see if combat stays this way or changes to a shooter. The story takes place in 2084 so you'd think with the tech that has thus far been shown I could do better than melee attacks. But I'll find out soon enough I guess. So far though really interesting game.