Is it wrong for fans to remake older games?

I thought about this after learning the outcome of the Chrono Resurrection project a few weeks ago. Despite being relatively four years late to that party, I’m admittedly a huge role-playing fan, and I sharpened my teeth on many Square Co. Ltd. classics on both the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II US, Final Fantasy III US, and Chrono Trigger were staples of my early years, so imagine my excitement regarding a re-imagined Chrono Trigger using an updated 3D engine.

That was the essence of the Chrono Trigger Resurrection project. Back in 2004, a talented group of individuals got together and asked “What would Chrono Trigger look like if updated for the modern PC?” With a custom built 3D engine that “…runs on GameCube, Xbox, and PC…,” the Chrono Resurrection group set out to craft one of the finest looking examples of fan remakes ever conceived, taking ten key sequences from Chrono Trigger and updating them for the modern audience.

Chrono Trigger Resurrection was set in a fully 3D world, with lighting, shadows, fantastic camera work, and the same Chrono Trigger charm that fans of the series have come to expect. But with a project this huge, it’s only a matter of time before it began garnering attention from all over the globe. After all, Chrono Trigger was one of the greatest games for Super Nintendo and one of the most cherished RPG experiences the world over. The fact that a “dream team” of developers, artists, and sound composers crafted it is icing on the cake. How could something this massive be kept secret for long?

With that in mind, the Chrono Trigger Ressurection project was fully underway, but little did they know that the dark cloud of Square Enix Co., Ltd was hovering on the horizon. In September 2004, Square Enix Co., Ltd issued a “Cease and Desist” order and the project was shut down soon after. The team scattered to the proverbial winds but not without strewing their work across the ‘net, sharing everything they’d created, aside from playable code. In that way, all of the team’s hard work would live on as one of the greatest achievements in the name of fan remakes.

But was Square Enix Co., Ltd right in asking the team to cease the project? Was the Chrono Trigger Resurrection team wrong for wanting to recreate ten of the most memorable sequences that Chrono Trigger had to offer? Considering it was non-commercial, with only the Gamecube and Xbox ports being internally playable when all was said and done, was it necessary for Square Enix Co., Ltd to step in?

Forgetting the fact that Square Enix Co., Ltd repackages all of its older content and, besides Final Fantasy III and IV for the Nintendo DS, leaves virtually the original experience untouched, what would lead the company to call for the cancellation of Chrono Trigger Resurrection? Would it be that Square Enix Co., Ltd wants to redo Chrono Trigger as a 3D world all their own? That would be nice, but it’s unlikely.

There’s a fair amount of politics surrounding anything Chrono related. The primary developers associated with the project have either left Square Enix Co., Ltd. or work under their own companies in association with Square Enix. You could fill a landfill with the amount of paperwork it would take for a re-imaging to get underway. Even with tidbits dropping once every few years concerning a possible Chrono Trigger sequel (Chrono Cross is widely considered an extension of the universe and not a true sequel to Chrono Trigger), nothing has yet to materialize. The best fans could hope for is an update of the holy grail of all things Chrono.

But it goes beyond Square Enix Co., Ltd. As the industry pushes forward with better technology, it’s becoming more expensive to craft the AAA experiences core gamers require. If a company like Square Enix Co., Ltd wants to re-release a previous franchise, then it’s easier, and less expensive, to re-release it with all previous assets intact than to re-imagine these assets. If Square Enix Co., Ltd. wanted to re-imagine those assets, then they would turn to portable systems. A redone Chrono Trigger, or any other popular franchise that has yet to find life in the latest generation of consoles, would have to be on the PlayStation Portable or Nintendo DS.

That’s assuming that major corporations want to attempt a repackaging. More often than not, companies cancel intellectual properties that don’t succeed. We have only to look at Clover Studios, which was forced to shutdown, and Capcom for an example of that. Though Okami was finally released on the Wii, the idea of a sequel or a higher resolution re-imagining for the PlayStation 3 is virtually out of the question. And what if fans wanted to create a non-commercial remake of it for PC? Capcom would most likely issue a cease and desist order, even though it would be highly unlikely that the release of the non-commercial fan remake would hurt Capcom’s potential sales for a true, developer sponsored canon remake.

Where does that leave us then? It leaves us with IPs that fans create messageboards about, trade valiant tales of victory over, and write fan fiction about that have yet to get either sequels or developer remakes. When fans wish to continue the adventure with characters that they’ve grown to love, where else is there to go?

So are fans at fault for wanting to create remakes of groundbreaking game series? If major corporations won’t do it, and as the physical game machines and physical media of the respective games dwindle in number as time goes by, are we supposed to forget these experiences? Are cease and desist orders really warranted when all fans wish to do is play the games that brought them into the industry to begin with? We’ll never know, honestly, but that still doesn’t stop us from wondering what Crono would look like with a nice splash of normal mapping and the processing power of a quad-core CPU behind him.

This is a very interesting piece on how PlayStation was launched. There are four parts in all:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

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When was the last time you stopped to think about the audio side of video gaming? I don’t mean the Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound, high speed bit rates, frequencies, or codecs, but the way sound is used as both auditory stimulation and gameplay device. Chances are, aside from the obvious rhythm games and a few revolutionary gems like Rez for PlayStation 2, you haven’t seen or played many.

A discussion came up recently about the role of sound in gaming. It’s no secret that the PlayStation 3 allows developers to reach into Hollywood’s bag of tricks. Rob Bridgett, sound designer for Scarface: The World is Yours, discussed this very idea in an article he wrote for Gamasutra entitled “Designing A Next-Gen Game for Sound.” But designing with cinema in mind is as rewarding as it is limited. Though games such as Grand Theft Auto IV will show how powerful current console systems sound capabilities are, there are restrictions; not necessarily in scope or depth but most certainly in the player’s natural ability to fully interact and control those sounds. In these circumstances, sound does not affect the way a game plays, but only how the player enjoys the experience of the game.

We live in a visual society, where higher resolutions and more on screen effects are the norm, and subtle tricks of the trade largely go unnoticed. More often than not, we turn off the audio tracks in our games, either because of the repetitive nature of the sounds presented to us or because we’re marching to the beat of our own drum. Throw on a CD or an MP3 player and away you go. What happens, though, when audio cues not only affect the way you play the game but they’re the only way you can enjoy the game? How immersive will games become then?

Let’s take a trip down memory lane to a time when the Sega Saturn still sat on store shelves; a time when the original PlayStation had not yet decimated all competition as it most surely would years later. In 1997, a little known game named Enemy Zero, which started life on the PS1 but later moved to Saturn, was released. Starring Laura Lewis, of CGI heavy game “D” fame, it took place on the AKI space station after she awoke from a cryogenic sleep. The story borrowed heavily from the Alien series of movies and featured first person corridor sequences and lots of great CGI scenes.

But what set Enemy Zero apart from everything else on the market wasn’t its 3D graphics, which were mediocre at best, or its FMV, which was surprisingly good, but it’s audio. Only by paying attention to mandatory audio cues could the player make his or her way through the game. Like the game’s title suggests, the enemy was invisible but a special device that Laura acquired in the game gave off a high frequency pitch that fluctuated based on the creatures’ proximity and cardinal direction to the player. When the creatures were further away, the device beeped slower but when they were close it became a frantic scramble to figure out exactly how much time you had before they killed you.

Enemy Zero is only one example of audio used in interesting, gameplay oriented ways. Another such title is The City of Metronome by Tarsier Studios AB, which currently as no definitive release date. Pinned as “a unique third person adventure game where sound is your weapon,” Tarsier hopes to distinguish TCoM from other adventure games through the use of audio interaction. By recording sounds, whether natural or simulated, the player, a young train conductor in the city of Metronome, will use the recordings to solve puzzles, fight, and change the mood of the world’s inhabitants. And if the player can’t find a natural sound to use, he can create his own by throwing rocks through windows, shoving bookcases down stairs, among other things, and recording them for future playback.

The push for high quality visual fidelity has driven the audio part of gaming into a limited cinematic space. Not to say that cinematic audio is wrong, but variety truly is the spice of life.

Whatever the case may be, the power of the current machines on the market leave no room for excuses. Audio-based gameplay has advantages in the current climate that it never had before. Maybe with software like the aforementioned The City of Metronome and Rez, which is experiencing a bit of a rebirth on the Xbox 360 thanks to Rez HD, the possibilities of sound oriented gameplay have never been better. Perhaps then gaming will be as interactive as it should’ve been all along, with players using their fingers, eyes, and ears to manipulate and participate in the action.

About a week ago, Editor-in-Chief Sam Bishop and I were having a talk about downloadable content and its future in the video game space. It’s been a hotly debated topic as of late, both in the console and PC markets, so I wanted to share some thoughts with him on the subject. What I found out is that we both view it as a completely different monster, as does the rest of the industry, I’m sure. Is download only the future or will physical media still have a place in our homes?

It’s no secret that hard drives are getting bigger and people are becoming more technologically astute, as well as internet savvy. Fifteen years ago, the internet was a foreign monster to many households, but now it’s a way of life. It’s even extended itself to portable devices, the smallest of which can barely squeeze a couple lines of text on the screen from our favorite website. But that doesn’t stop us.

As it becomes easier for us to connect to the internet, it only makes sense that it would be easier for us to get content into our homes. Enter iTunes. Though it was hardly the first, it is one of, if not THE largest of all the online music distributors out there. Ten years ago, the idea of downloading entire music albums, TV shows, and movies was a pipe dream, but now we can do it with the click of a button. And storage space is becoming less of an issue, whereas ten years ago we were forced to burn everything to CD-Rs.

Even with that in mind, there is no definitive way to get that content. Consumers can use a myriad of choices, ranging from the Apple TV, a somewhat elegant solution, to Net Flix, which also offers a myriad of choices for the consumer, but none offer the fullest range of content or ease of use that would truly help download only technology go mainstream. Plug and Play this is not.

There are also other issues, most notably those of the hardcore variety. For those who demand the most out of their equipment, HD over the net doesn’t come close to a Blu-ray Disc running in the PS3. High fidelity picture and sound is a must when one invests thousands of dollars in equipment that is meant to deliver an eyeball melting, ear massaging experience.

But, if the equipment were in place, would the physical media experience matter to a consumer who still awkwardly attaches composite cables to their brand new flat screen LCD or plasma?

Sam and I arrived at a crossroads in our discussion. He supported the idea of physical media, stating that the utmost quality, as well as the sleek packaging, will always maintain mindshare in the mainstream. There’s also the notion that, as a species, we like to collect “things” to show off. I, however, believe downloads will be the future, with people purchasing a few physical discs a year of their favorite shows, and downloading or streaming the rest.

Granted, in the current consumer level environment what I envision is far from possible. But the push to broadband, and even wideband, could change all of that.

Location also plays a huge part in the download push, as a country’s internet infrastructure will dictate whether its citizens have the necessary bandwith to download large files quickly. Asia, with its dense populations, have infrastructures that far outstrip those of the western world, mostly especially Japan. With China and India becoming burgeoning world economies, it would only make sense to provide high speed internet access that even North America might not see for another decade. Huge population centers, as well as spending habits, determines content delivery and China and India may affect that delivery scheme in the next decade.

Combined, we could see a download only push in a little under a decade. The possibilities are endless.

So what do you think, fine readers: will download only be the future or will physical media still maintain its place? Let us know!

The gaming industry is almost always an exciting one, but let’s face it — it ebbs and flows, alternating between superb peaks of seemingly infinite gaming goodness and, well… early 2007. Lucky for us, the pendulum seems to be swinging in the other direction. Sure, the other guys saw a few heavy hitters land on shelves: Halo 3 and Mass Effect pushed units and no doubt provided for a few unplanned days off here and there. For Sony fans, however, the thrills were constantly on the horizon: Grand Theft Auto 4 was delayed, Home was delayed, LittleBigPlanet was delayed, and… well, you get the idea.

Many claimed that 2008 would be the year of the PlayStation — but it’s easy to dismiss such claims as wishful thinking, the delusional mantra of gamers grasping at straws. As we head in to the second quarter of the year, however, it seems as if such a claim may be coming to fruition. Grand Theft Auto 4 is coming out this month. Sure, Rockstar cozied up with Microsoft and the game is no longer a timed exclusive, but who cares? You’re not going to give a damn when you’re desperately looking for a way out of a 16 person firefight in downtown liberty city. You’ll be too busy thinking of things like, “where is the nearest weapon pick up?” and “what’s the easiest way to give my boss my 2 weeks notice (and then skip the ‘2 weeks’ part)?”. Shortly after GTA4 lands, guess what else is in the launch pipeline? I don’t have to tell you, you already know — Metal Gear Solid 4. For those that can’t hack the grueling wait, the Metal Gear Online beta will be going online in just over a week. Hell. Yes.

And what of Home? Okay, I’m not going to lie: no one has any idea what the heck is going on with this beast. One thing is certain though, development seems to be nearing completion as rumors swirl of a public beta “very soon” (cue collective eyerolling), and an increased advertising presence. Make no mistake: Sony wants to get this thing out just as much as we want to get our grubby hands on it. We won’t dare to make any precise predictions, but it’s pretty much guaranteed that we’ll be seeing Home sometime this year. And it doesn’t stop there, oh no. LittleBigPlanet and Killzone 2 both arrive in September. Wipeout HD? We’re told it’s on it’s way sometime this year. If you absolutely need a racing game, albeit one of an entirely different flavor, give Gran Turismo 5: Prologue a try. You can grab a copy on the (soon to be XMB-integrated) store, or pick it up at your retail store of choice later this month.

On the hardware front, European gamers will soon see a PS3/GTA4 bundle, while America and Japan will see a PS3/MGS4/Dual Shock 3 bundle. What’s that you say? The DualShock 3? Yes, indeed. It’s been out in Japan for a while now (isn’t that always the case), but Sony is finally phasing out the SIXAXIS (rest in peace) in favor of its heavier successor with the rumble that we’ve all come to know and love.

Developers continue to pump out titles for the PS2, and although it’s age is starting to show, there’s still over 100 million units sitting in people’s living rooms — that’s a huge chunk of gamers that companies will not be ignoring any time soon.

Things are really heating up this year, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be than stuck in the metaphorical kitchen.