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Square Enix delays ‘Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles’ remaster (again)
If you've been patiently waiting to play Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered Edition, you'll have to wait a bit longer to get your hands on the remake. Publisher Square Enix has delayed the launch of the game to summer 2020.
'Command & Conquer' remaster is shaping up to be a huge visual upgrade
Petroglyph, Lemon Sky and EA are finally ready to offer a glimpse at the Command & Conquer remaster, and it's evident the game won't veer far from its roots. A newly-posted first peek at the real-time strategy game shows that it really is just the original 2D title redone with high-resolution artwork. Lemon Sky re-modeled the visuals as closely as possible, and lined it up frame-by-frame with the original. You can even switch between the original and remastered graphics with a key press when you're playing campaign missions -- it's like taking your glasses off for a brief moment.
NVIDIA will remaster more games with RTX ray tracing
Quake II RTX is far from the last game to receive an NVIDIA ray tracing upgrade. DSOG has discovered that NVIDIA is hiring a producer for its Lightspeed Studios unit to lead work on a "game remastering program" that will add RTX ray tracing to more classic titles. The GPU maker is unsurprisingly shy about just which games are in the pipeline. The next project is a game "you know and love" -- not a real clue, but promising nonetheless.
'Spyro Reignited Trilogy' heads to PC and Switch on September 3rd
You won't have to stick to the living room to play the revamped Spyro Reignited Trilogy. Activision and Toys For Bob are bringing the pint-sized dragon's adventures to both PCs (via Steam) and the Nintendo Switch on September 3rd, 2019. That's nearly a year after the revamped classics came to the PS4 and Xbox One, but you probably won't mind if you've either wanted to play Spyro on the road or take advantage of your custom gaming rig. It's certainly a big leap for a series that was best known as a PlayStation exclusive in its early days.
'Final Fantasy VIII' Remastered is coming out on September 3rd
Were you disappointed to hear that Square Enix merely remastered Final Fantasy VIII instead of remaking it like it did its predecessor? We hope you can take solace in the fact that you don't have to wait years for its release. The developer has revealed that FFVIII Remastered will be available on September 3rd for the PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Steam.
'Final Fantasy XII' arrives on Switch and Xbox One
Final Fantasy fans have a new option with which to get their fix on the go as Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age has arrived on Nintendo Switch as well as Xbox One. The remastered edition of the expanded JRPG debuted on PS4 in 2017 and it came to Steam last year. Meanwhile, Final Fantasy X and X-2 landed on Switch earlier this month.
Fan uses AI to remaster 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' in HD
Unfortunately, you're highly unlikely to see an official remaster of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Its special effects were shot on video rather than added to film, making an already daunting remastering process that much more difficult -- and since it's not a tentpole show like The Next Generation, CBS might not consider it worth the effort. Machine learning might make it easier for fans to fill the gap, however. CaptRobau has experimented with using AI Gigapixel's neural networks to upscale Deep Space Nine to 1080p. The technology is optimized for (and trained on) photos, but apparently works a treat for video. While you wouldn't mistake it for an official remaster, it provides a considerably cleaner, sharper look than the 480p original without introducing visual artifacts.
EA will remaster the first two 'Command & Conquer' games in 4K
EA recently hinted that it would hop on the real-time strategy revival bandwagon and remaster Command & Conquer games, and now we know just what that entails. The publisher has confirmed that it's remastering both the original Command & Conquer and Red Alert (i.e. the best games in the series) in 4K, with all the expansions included. And no, these won't be excuses to wring out a steady stream of cash from nostalgic gamers. Unlike C&C Rivals, EA is promising that the remasters will go "without microtransactions."
'Warcraft III: Reforged' modernizes another real-time strategy hit
Blizzard isn't about to stop its trip down memory lane with a remaster of the original StarCraft. The studio has unveiled Warcraft III: Reforged, a top-to-bottom refresh of the landmark real-time strategy title and its Frozen Throne add-on. As Blizzard is updating a 3D game this time around, there's a lot of room for improvement: the company has redone all the characters and environments in much greater detail, complete with reworked in-game cutscenes. You'll also find a modernized interface (including an updated World Editor), up-to-date multiplayer match creation and "hundreds" of gameplay tweaks.
'MediEvil' PS4 trailer previews a reinvented hack-and-slash story
Everything old is new again in gaming these days, including a game about resurrecting an old hero for another adventure. Sony and Other Ocean have released the first trailer for the PS4 remake of MediEvil, the PS1 classic that puts you in the boots of revived knight Sir Daniel Fortesque as he saves the realm from his arch-nemesis Lord Zarok. Much like the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro remakes, the core gameplay and plot are about the only things left untouched. The visuals, sound and cutscenes are much better -- Sir Dan looks more like the skeletal knight you saw on the box than the bundle of polygons from the original.
Sega started and cancelled a 'Shenmue' remake
Did you play the remastered versions of the Shenmue games and wish that Sega and d3t had done more than port the titles largely unchanged? So did the developers, apparently. Digital Foundry has discovered that the team had originally been working on remakes that included dramatically improved graphics. While the characters and locations were extremely familiar, virtually everything had much more sophisticated geometry and higher-resolution textures -- flat roofs and blocky people suddenly popped with detail. There were also more advanced lighting effects, such as ambient occlusion (how objects interact with ambient light), more realistic reflections and shadow maps.
PS2 classic 'Onimusha: Warlords' will be remastered for modern platforms
Stop me if you've heard this before: One of Capcom's defining series during the PlayStation 2 era is getting remastered for modern hardware. No, it's not Resident Evil (again), this time it's Onimusha: Warlords. The port features widescreen display options, fixed camera angles, countless sword fights and remastered visuals throughout (characters, cinematics and environments, according to the PlayStation Blog). So, a bit of the new with the familiar.
Marvel Studio's 10th anniversary movie festival is IMAX-only
Marvel is going all-out to mark the 10th birthday of its Cinematic Universe, and that includes upgrading the quality of the movies themselves. It's hosting a 10th Anniversary Film Festival between August 30th and September 6th, and you'll have to visit "select" IMAX theaters across North America if you want to join in. To that end, it's promising digital remasters of every movie to take advantage of IMAX's picture and sound quality, including movies that have never been shown in IMAX before. This will be your first chance to watch Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Captain America: The First Avenger in the premium format.
'Batman: The Animated Series' is coming to Blu-ray in 2018
Batman: The Animated Series is finally getting the remaster treatment it deserves. From this weekend's New York Comic Con Warner Bros. announced that "later in the year" in 2018 it will release the influential animated show to high-def formats. As Polygon notes, the specifics are a bit fuzzy at this point. Will the 85-episode show come out all in one boxed set, or in volumes like the DVDs before? At this point that's up in the air. However, any package will likely look and sound better than streaming the show on Amazon Prime. Plus, every episode will almost assuredly have the iconic opening credits sequence attached.
'Resident Evil' will haunt the Nintendo Switch this fall
Before Resident Evil 7 came along and blew everyone's expectations of what a survival horror game could be out of the water, the franchise was in a bad spot for awhile. The Revelations sub-series was a more back-to-basics approach to RE, existing alongside the increasingly awful numbered sequels leading up to this year's first-person adventure. Well, if you missed Revelations on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and are looking for something scary for your Switch, later this fall you'll be all set.
Campy horror game 'Night Trap' arrives on PS4 August 11th
Do you miss the days when full-motion video was the biggest deal in games? When just seeing a known actor in a cutscene was enough to work everyone into a frenzy? You're in luck. A couple of months later than promised, Screaming Villains and Limited Run Games have announced that Night Trap: 25th Anniversary Edition will arrive on August 11th. You'll have to buy a physical PS4 copy to play on day one, but digital releases will be available on PS4 and PC (via Steam) on August 15th. And don't worry, Xbox One owners -- you're getting a version too, although there's no release date just yet.
'Close Encounters' returns to theaters with a 4K remaster September 1st
Jaws wasn't the last classic movie of legendary director Steven Spielberg's to be remastered; Close Encounters of the Third Kind will get some modern love too. And best of all the 4K digital remaster is coming to theaters, too. Come September 1st you can experience one of Spielberg's first movies about aliens the way it was intended: in a dark room full of both people and the smell of overpriced popcorn.
The (re)making of 'Crash Bandicoot'
Facedown in the sand, a figure wakes up on a desert island. The tide has been dragging him up the shore. He looks over his shoulder, before disappearing into the jungle.
'Full Throttle Remastered' will tear up the road this April
It's been almost a year and a half since Double Fine announced it was giving Tim Schafer's classic motorcycle adventure game an HD makeover, but title is finally almost ready. Today, the company announced that Full Throttle Remastered will be available on PS4, PS Vita and PC on April 18th. Its been a long wait, but for fans of the classic game, it could be worth it. At GDC earlier this month, Schafer described the remake as a sort of preservation project -- detailing the painstaking lengths the team went to recreate all of the game's graphics in HD quality, and the gold mine it found in the original reel-to-reel voiceover tapes.
'Final Fantasy XII' remaster comes to PS4 on July 11th
Final Fantasy XII, the last in the franchise to grace the PlayStation 2, is getting the remaster treatment on PlayStation 4. Today, at a special event in Tokyo celebrating the series' 30th anniversary, Square Enix announced two release dates for the game: July 11th for Europe and North America, and July 13th for Japan and other parts of Asia. Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age comes with updated environments, characters and cutscenes, running at a smooth 1080p, a newly recorded soundtrack in 7.1 surround, and a trial mode where you can battle monsters in up to 100 successive rounds.
