So, after the game and all the overpriced, broken and pointless DLC, and after pre-order DLC for DLC... it is no longer sufficient to buy a game once.

I can't say it isn't a logical next step for Paradox's "bleed 'em dry" bizdev strategy.

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It does seem to really be just an engine remaster, but hey, at least it is reasonably priced. And owners of the original get 30% off, allegedly, which is always nice.

Plus that launch discount on top, and I'm still considering refunding.

What you're getting here is an engine patch (which should've been free considering the game has issues running on modern configurations and they still have no qualms selling it despite those), and an upscale that clearly wasn't supervised as well as it should've been that was obviously supposed to have provided the illusion of value added to the package. Players caught that immediately, Relic sheepishly added some plans to tweak that to the patch roadmap.

What you're not getting is fixes to issues that have existed for decades. I'm baffled this has a positive Steam rating, frankly.

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This remaster is pretty much the minimum that needed to be done. Widescreen and... I guess functioning where the original game no longer wasn't.

Beyond that the quality of the upscale is questionable, so best not to inspect the game too closely, and ancient bugs remain unfixed. Loaded a saved game? Enjoy ye olde no music bug. Clearly, early buyers are funding the development that should've taken place prior to release. Common practice, yes, but still not great for your reputation, Relic.

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So, Eurogamer is slightly disappointed (this, incidentally, by the guy who hailed Veilguard as a masterpiece), and IGN isn't rocking the boat with a deeply non-committal "hoping this is going to be really special". Then there's murmuring behind the scenes, in private, how terrible it is, with some local (non-English speaking thus far, from what I've seen) outfits daring to say that outright.

It's shaping up to be an entertaining launch.

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This is probably the end for this dev. They're not owned by Paradox, so there will be no firing squad to send a message to others like we've seen with Harebrained where Paradox decimated the staff months ahead of release, but I can't imagine how they survive the fallout on their own (recent buyout).

Early buzz is starting in media on a demo making the rounds. It's a catastrophe, apparently.

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I hoped for some new levels, but Disney clearly wants these done on the cheap(er than id/Bethesda/Microsoft).

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So you're playing a fairly specific character, there's plot, and what looks like... crappy action set pieces? Probably decent thinking to distinguish the game from ETS/ATS, but it also looks like pure slop made out of confused priorities. Not really my bag.

Makes you think. SCS had the luck of not having the kind of budget to hang themselves with, so they designed the game to cut certain corners which in turn lead to ETS2 becoming this really immersive experience.

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Carmack had to fight tooth and nail to get that last source code released. No chance Microsoft is letting go of anything ever again. Especially since they're using idTech.

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Heart of the Machine, Zephon, Distant Worlds 2 (Slitherine, so maybe not literally independent, but still not exactly a major operation like, say, SEGA), Aurora, the still worked on Emperor of the Fading Suns that just hit Steam... Off the top of my head, there's probably some more around these days.

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Hopefully, we'll get Hexen 2 and Heretic 2 before we get a Q3 remaster, and possibly other games as well. RTCW? Not that I don't have fond memories of Q3, but it strikes me as the single most unexciting game of this catalogue to do such a re-release of.

To break it down a bit... For any of the singleplayer games we get a nice new sp campaign extension, new enemies, thus far remixed music, just cool stuff all around. For Quake 3 we'd possibly get some consolidation in terms of the additional maps available in the console ports, models, some entirely new maps perhaps, and maybe some of those consoles modes, which aren't a massive improvement over the OG sp mode from the PC... and with some basic modern functionality and accessibility options that's kind of the extent of what you can do. Better bots? From what I recall Q3 bots were basically about superhuman aim and UT bots seemed more human, more pleasant in gameplay, so in a way we might be talking about nerfing the Q3 bots for a more natural experience. Doesn't seem like a good idea if you're largely targeting the hardcore Q3 players, and if you're not then... who's this game for? It doesn't strike me as a great gamepad game, either, so new player influx will more likely than not be minimal. I'm just not sure how to make it a decent package with broadish appeal, save for bundling Q3 with Q4, and that's two different engines to work with for a single release, so maybe not the greatest idea from a project management point of view.

Then again, if Night Dive has ideas to make a Q3 remaster exciting for the crowd outside of people who both still play Q3 AND cannot stand Quake Live... sure, bring it on.

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