New & Busted...Old Hotness - Do We Need to Re-Release Halo?
Call me an old cynic, but do we need to rerelease Halo: Combat Evolved? Do games even need remakes?
Now, if I may, I’ll give you a brief history of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Dickens thought of the ideas he would use, he wrote the book, he touched up a few sentences here and there, and it was released. That was the end of it. People read it, people enjoyed it. There were some adaptations. One had Patrick Stewart. One had Jim Carrey. Like many famous debates involving Patrick Stewart, Patrick Stewart was better.
Here’s where I’m going with this: allow me to present you with Halo: Combat Evolved’s brief history. Bungie thought of the ideas they would use, they developed it, they polished it and it was released. That was the end of it. People played it, people enjoyed it. There were sequels. There were spin-offs.
Bungie have decided they no longer want to make Halo stuff. 343 Industries has taken the reins, and are making Halo 4. This is fine. But is it truly necessary to remake the original game? Robert Zemeckis rewrote the story for his film, but he didn’t rerelease the original Dickens text with his changes. That would be an offence to Dickens’ memory.
So why is it necessary to make changes to a ten-year-old game, and re-release it? If I want to play Halo: Combat Evolved, you can get it in a store for £5. Hell, you can get it on the Xbox Live Marketplace for around the same price.
So why would you pay more for the same game, only made to look a little nicer and ever so slightly changed to make it more modern? All you get is a bizarre hybrid of classic gaming bliss and modern conventions. And it might not necessarily work.
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