Tomb Raider I-III Remastered from Aspyr - for real this time

[Lemming42]

There's no way to fix that while using the old texture pipeline and having hd textures. Core had to work with limited memory to run these games on PS1(and Saturn) so if you look closely you'll notice that same textures are constantly being roated around y-axis(90 degrees) on faces to avoid geometry having too much of a copypasted look - with lower res textures it's way less apparent and looks seamless but with HD it's more apparent. There's no way around this since Remaster just makes existing texture palette high res and doesn't add new ones, even the new geometry on the level uses existing texture palettes

don't look a gift horse in the mouth because these games probably would have never gotten a finished source port otherwise and there's only so much you can do with PSX geometry

Maybe they should have gone for a full remake; I'm legit having trouble seeing the point of this one as it stands (controller support is a fair point I suppose). I guess it's good to get these games on modern consoles at least so the kids can check them out.

What makes it particularly annoying is that there's a few areas where they have clearly tried to go beyond the HD Texture Pack cat meme - like, London (which looked truly abysmal in the original TR3) now has 3D streetlights and shit like that in a heroic attempt to make it look more like a real location and less like something the developers shat out as fast as they could to meet Eidos' demands. Parts of the top of the cliffs in The Great Wall have new foliage too, which pleasingly masks the jagged geometry and makes the location look a lot more natural. It's like they sort of flirted with the idea of doing a proper redesign in some areas but ultimately half-assed it and just slapped the new ill-fitting textures in, changed the character models to Sims 4 characters, and called it a day.

The Sabatu's TR1 and TR2 mods show some cool ways to dress up the world to make it look more pleasing while still having it be made out of blocks, and those were in the original engine.

 

[Robber Baron]

The Sabatu's TR1 and TR2 mods show some cool ways to dress up the world to make it look more pleasing while still having it be made out of blocks, and those were in the original engine.

Sabatu's are custom levels, the Remaster is built upon the existing level geometry UV maps(that's literally the problem), if the devs ditched the old geometry entiertly(so no way to play in classic mode) they could touch up the levels to have better UV mapping and whatnot.
But, I guess, the idea here is that it's a classic gameplay with a facelift

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

What a bunch of fuckin queers. Games are fine. If you need blocks and squares just buy a PSX, ya fuckin retards. This wasn't made for you.

Seriously why are you buying a remake when you want the old graphics?

*SLAP*

 

[soutaiseiriron]

Maybe they should have gone for a full remake

and risk anniversary again? i'm good. this is perfect. a remake would just take away the unique gameplay of the original and water it down to some boring linear uncharted type of shit.

I'm legit having trouble seeing the point of this one as it stands

they can sell outside of GOG again for a price that isn't pennies, since people outside of GOG expect games to work instead of needing 5 fanpatches from 3 obscure fansites to get the game to maybe-kinda run. it's also cheap to make while cashing in on nostalgia.

 

[kangaxx]

The more I play this the more annoyed I am. What's the big idea in capping the framerate for original graphics, seriously. Rather than offer the definitive way to play the originals, they've instead offered a version that's not really preferable to the existing Steam/GoG versions, beyond having the action tooltip that you might not even want. The new control scheme blows as well - I like tank controls but I assume a lot of console-based newcomers will go straight for the "modern" scheme and conclude that the games are unplayable.

As for the modern graphics... not to harp on about it but what the fuck is this? Look at this rocky outcrop in TR2:

Look how fucking harsh the join between the wall and the floor is! And because they've turned it into a photograph (or AI render, whatever) of stones, the stones just randomly end halfway and jarringly turn into grass. The original texture, which is so blurry and muddy that you can barely even tell what it denotes, is somehow way less distracting.

Check out this wall as well:

The seam! The fucking seam! It doesn't tile at all! Yeah the seam is there in the original, but since the original isn't literally just a photograph of plants applied badly to a low-poly environment, it doesn't look batshit surreal like the new one does, with a visible line right down the middle that separates two different parts of the photograph.

I mean, as it stands, you're buying all three Tomb Raider games in one package, which is nice... but it's costing you more than just buying them individually would, and your only bonus is a a new graphics mode which looks like a half-finished mobile game. Again it's just annoying when you compare it to the likes of N Sane Trilogy and Reginited Trilogy, and you think about the kind of treatment that TR1-3 could have gotten.

Half finished mobile game... really...?

 

[Lemming42]

and risk anniversary again? i'm good. this is perfect. a remake would just take away the unique gameplay of the original and water it down to some boring linear uncharted type of shit.

I'm explicitly arguing against a change in control scheme; you can do a remake that's 95% cosmetic. Again, the Spyro and Crash remakes offer an example of how to do it effectively. The tank controls could (and should) remain, the level of environmental interactivity could be preserved, and the level layouts could be essentially the same, all while still giving the games a huge visual upgrade.

As people said earlier in the thread, a perfect way to do it would have been to lean into the pulpy comic book feel the original TR1 concept art suggests, which would allow for surreal environments but presented with a greater and more consistent stylistic touch than this remaster, which seems to veer wildly between photorealistic textures, very oddly stylised character and enemy models, and parts that just straight-up look like the PS1 versions. It gives me the same feeling as that old Morrowind all-in-one graphical "overhaul" where it was five hundred different conflicting art styles at once and looked abominable.

I don't think these games need remaking, but if they were going to do a project like this, I don't get the point of just slapping bad HD textures and wonky new character models onto the old games, randomly placing a few 3D assets that look like they're from the Unity store, and doing not much else.

 

[Sibelius]

Still no obvious way to exit the game without alt-tabbing. Neat.

Why is this shit so dark? I keep switching to the classic mode to see where I'm going.

Go to the passport and press right on the d pad twice to get the exit to main menu option, select the passport in the mian menu press right d pad twice to get the exit game option.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Turns out they did altered the some content in "Original" mode.

edit there's a fix
https://www.nexusmods.com/tombraidertrilogyremastered/mods/42

lame

 

[cvv]

If this remaster is successful. Peak player count was 6k and it's 3k now. I'm not convinced it's enough to make waves.

Well it's a 28 year old game that barely looks 26. This is not exactly a chart-buster material, especially when even full-on remakes of old games like Mafia rarely make any major waves either.

 

[Tel Velothi]

I don't know how about you, but I dig those old pixelated textures more - they have more "soul" in them and are kind of mysterious. Where those newer ones in remaster are kind of just photos of plants/stone and other AI enhanced "textures" PHOTOS just thrown onto an 3d object...

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Crystal Dynamics haven't even created the original TR games (that was Core Design), yet feel the urge to apologize and patronize me?

They aren’t apologizing. They just really want people to know they don’t agree with something they had nothing to do with. If I was Aspyr I’d be pretty pissed off at such a stupid bullshit grandstanding move being dropped into something I was doing from another studio that didn’t even make the original games to begin with.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Larson comparison

Spoiler

New Game +

His new model reminds me of the art style of Galleon, that game Toby Gard was working on for years after Tomb Raider.

 

[Paladino]

Speaking of Toby Gard, they could have asked him to consult on the first game.

 

[std::namespace]

so its a leftist sjw garbage eh, no wonder [current_year]
https://streamable.com/2yqocs

 

[Lacrymas]

I got to the South Pacific islanders in TR3 and yeah, they are in full oonga boonga attire attacking Lara with spears. Since they have 0 chance against Lara, I question their inclusion as automatic enemies in the first place.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

I don't know how about you, but I dig those old pixelated textures more - they have more "soul" in them and are kind of mysterious. Where those newer ones in remaster are kind of just photos of plants/stone and other AI enhanced "textures" PHOTOS just thrown onto an 3d object...

The PSX/N64 era visuals are literally the fugliest things in existence. Pick any era in gaming history, it's far superior to that god awful 90s console crap.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

You can insult me for my opinion or disagree all you want. It wont change my opinion. Those games all look like dark bloody stool. Ugliest damned things I ever set eyes on. Yuck!

 

[Baron Dupek]

Nexus removed a mod that removes warning at the start.
who could see dat comin' ?

 

[cvv]

Yeah, nostalgia for early 3D engines is weird. Still remember many of the charming, hand-drawn adventure games transitioning into 3D - Monkey Island, Broken Sword, Gabriel Knight etc. - what a fucking shitshow that was.

 

[janior]

Nexus removed a mod that removes warning at the start.
who could see dat comin' ?

 

[Darkwind]

Nexus removed a mod that removes warning at the start.
who could see dat comin' ?

They are woke AF SJW lefty lunatics and have been for a while. Place is pozzed out the ass, its unfortunate they are really the only game in town for decent mods.

 

[Robber Baron]

its unfortunate they are really the only game in town for decent mods.

this particular mod is already on BasedMods
although it's far easier to just remove the intro sequence with -nolegal

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

Y'all are fuckin queers. Here I am enjoying these lovely updated tiddies and swimsuits that just barely cover the b-hole and here comes the retard brigade crying about a missplaced pixel here, or a random thing that nothing else in the universe would even imagine let alone notice. I want you all to die in a fire. The remakes are frabjous and your childish whining is only drowned out by the sound of your mom dumping your shit/piss bucket out back. Crawl into a hole and die. And fester. Seriously.

 

[flyingjohn]

Y'all are fuckin queers. Here I am enjoying these lovely updated tiddies and swimsuits that just barely cover the b-hole and here comes the retard brigade crying about a missplaced pixel here, or a random thing that nothing else in the universe would even imagine let alone notice. I want you all to die in a fire. The remakes are frabjous and your childish whining is only drowned out by the sound of your mom dumping your shit/piss bucket out back. Crawl into a hole and die. And fester. Seriously.

 

[Lacrymas]

Y'all are fuckin queers. Here I am enjoying these lovely updated tiddies and swimsuits that just barely cover the b-hole and here comes the retard brigade crying about a missplaced pixel here, or a random thing that nothing else in the universe would even imagine let alone notice. I want you all to die in a fire. The remakes are frabjous and your childish whining is only drowned out by the sound of your mom dumping your shit/piss bucket out back. Crawl into a hole and die. And fester. Seriously.

A real man can jerk it to triangle titties too.