I'm feeling conflicted about these current HD collections

[elmuerte]

what's wrong with it?

[Tanukitsune]

Really? You're the first person to say anything bad against the Sly series I know of!

[miffy495]

I have only played Sly 1 so far, but I absolutely loved it and that experience is the main reason I want to buy the collection. I finished the entire game, and while the last level is very meat-circusy, overall I thought it was great. I too am curious what is so wrong with the HD collection?

[pabosher]

It's not the package I dislike - if you liked Sly 1, then it's obviously a worthy purchase for you -- but god I hated that game. It's full of old game design tropes, one hit you're dead, and the companion characters are some of the most annoying I've ever had the misfortune to meet.

As far as platformers go, there are better, and as far as stealth-based heist games go... Well, Sly itself doesn't even fit into that category, despite claiming to. What I've played of 2 seems to fix this latter problem, but then there's a bigger emphasis on that bloody pig and turtle bastard, so swings and roundabouts.

[Tanukitsune]

It's not the package I dislike - if you liked Sly 1, then it's obviously a worthy purchase for you -- but god I hated that game. It's full of old game design tropes, one hit you're dead, and the companion characters are some of the most annoying I've ever had the misfortune to meet.

As far as platformers go, there are better, and as far as stealth-based heist games go... Well, Sly itself doesn't even fit into that category, despite claiming to. What I've played of 2 seems to fix this latter problem, but then there's a bigger emphasis on that bloody pig and turtle bastard, so swings and roundabouts.

So you're saying an old game has old game tropes in it?

The only other stealth based heist game is Thief, I never played Sly, but it looks like it's trying to be the Ratchet & Clank/Jak & Daxter of thieves?

The most annoying companion characters? More than Na'vi? More than the 10.000 Sonic companions? (I actually don't mind them, but apparently everybody else wants them to die in a fire...)

So... where you expecting something less... "Blue sky in games" or something?

[elmuerte]

oh... so it's not a platform game like Ratchet & Clank? Because I liked to games on the PS3, and I'm really interested in "HD" versions of those PS2 games.

Sly looked to be similar, so that's why it tickled my interest.

[pabosher]

So you're saying an old game has old game tropes in it?

The only other stealth based heist game is Thief, I never played Sly, but it looks like it's trying to be the Ratchet & Clank/Jak & Daxter of thieves?

The most annoying companion characters? More than Na'vi? More than the 10.000 Sonic companions? (I actually don't mind them, but apparently everybody else wants them to die in a fire...)

So... where you expecting something less... "Blue sky in games" or something?

The fact that it's old, and therefore has old design decisions, doesn't really affect my enjoyment of the game. A good game is a good game always, right? I just can't bear the old design decisions. Just because I can say "Well, it's an old game so I should expect these things" doesn't mean that I enjoy it any more.

No, it is ostensibly a platformer. Similar to Jak and Daxter, but I far preferred J&D. And the first game really has nothing to do with thieving; it suggests that it's a platformer with thieving elements, but it's really just an average platformer.

Yes, I hated the pig and turtle more than any other character I've ever encountered in a video game. Sly is a cool character, so obviously his companions are a big, fists-first, brawny idiot, and an incredibly geeky computer hacker that sounds remarkably like Chris's impression of an enraged internet geek. The number of times I expected him to say "Well, I've just got to hack through this SUCKBOX to get to the GAYSTATION nyarrrgh"...

oh... so it's not a platform game like Ratchet & Clank? Because I liked to games on the PS3, and I'm really interested in "HD" versions of those PS2 games.

Sly looked to be similar, so that's why it tickled my interest.

It is like them, but it's not them. It's a game with average platforming levels surrounded by annoying characters and annoying game-design decisions. There's a reason games don't have one-hit kills anymore.

I sound like I'm dumping on this game, and I am, but I did like the character of Sly -- he's the only well-realised one of the lot, I reckon -- and the art style is pretty nice.

[miffy495]

The art style was fantastic, the platforming felt good, if a little magnetic (Cole in inFamous moves almost exactly the same way, if you've played it), and I never found the companions that irritating myself. They're very overplayed in the way that characters in a children's movie would be, but not particularly awful. If you see them as the goofy sidekicks from an animated film, they're not dramatically better or worse than any other. Sorry to hear that you didn't enjoy the game though, Speedy. Personally I only played Sly 1 about a year ago and I immediately made it a retroactive top 10 game of the previous generation.

[syntheticgerbil]

I haven't finished Sly 3 yet, but I finished 1 and 2. There was some stuff to dislike about them, but I found them all immensely more enjoyable than Infamous.

Sly 2 was especially good except for the collectothon parts in the stupid Sandbox hub. That was lame. Then Infamous took that part and made it almost the whole game. Idiocy.

Sly 1 was just sort of boring, but it got better as it went along. The one hit kills I suppose were annoying, but that one was so easy that I wasn't bothered.

If you are not into the Sly series, SpeedyDesiato, I'll buy your free copy for cheap!

[Vorlonesque]

Hilariously enough...my parents ordered the new Mario All Stars for the Wii (which is the same old Mario All Stars for the SNES with a soundtrack CD and stuff)...and the company they ordered it from apparently had it backordered but reported it as shipped...so just recently they checked and it turned out that it was backordered (and I don't think Nintendo is sending them more) so they're going to cancel the order but they need 7 days. Meanwhile the price everywhere on the thing doubled. I told them not to feel bad about it and found a place where the price wasn't too bad (at the time...I think they're out of stock too now) and just ordered it for them (to give to me).

I was more or less happy that they just thought about getting me something enough (they did ask if I was thinking of getting that, and when I said "yeah" my mom was like "well don't...because we're getting you that for your birthday then" which worked out pretty well sort of except for the whole side-issue). This whole thread made me think of that. That and the huge pile of old 16 bit era controllers I have on my computer desk (mostly used with various adapters for Wii VC games).

Edit: Oh and I really am looking forward to the HD'ing of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus...hopefully in anticipation of the sequel; Shadow and the Colossus: Back in Action. And the windmill one.

[Tanukitsune]

I actually bought the Wii Super Mario All Stars just for the soundtrack... which is kinda disappointing.... it only has ONE theme from each game and some sound effects! How lame is that? The soundtrack for Sonic's 10th Anniversary had every Sonic song they could fit into one CD!

[miffy495]

I too am Nintendo's bitch and an owner of Mario All Stars Wii, despite owning all 4 games that are on there on VC already. I suck at life, but love Mario games so much. The SNES-ified graphics are enough for me to feel good about this purchase. I didn't get an original NES until mid gamecube era, so the SNES versions of these games are the ones which I am nostalgic for. I've been wanting to play them in this way for a long time, and am happy to have spent the $30 to indulge myself. I have already spent hours giggling and playing that disc in my Wii. Good times.

[Tanukitsune]

I owned the original games... and sold them to buy the SNES compilation...

I was young and stupid back then....

[Tanukitsune]

I finally played Sly 1 HD and... I LOVE IT!

And no, you don't have only one hit before you die, you can collect horseshoes that can protect you!

I rather like the stealth part, if you mess up, things just get harder, it's not an instant death like in most older stealth games....

Anyway, I just found Japan has three PC Engine collections:

-Star Soldier Collection: The most popular shmup series on PCEgnine after Gates of Thunder.... WANT!

-Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Collection: 2 visual novels and a Shmup that's very rare based on the visual novels.... from what I've heard it's worth it for the shmup alone?

-Tengai Makyou Collection: 3 RPGs and fighter based on the same series, I've never played a JRPG in Japanese only, but the fighter looks cool... they do have guides for the game so I wouldn't be playing blind....

[syntheticgerbil]

Started the Sly Collection today (received another free Amazon gift card from the survey company, the easiest way to make me buy a game), and I'm really annoyed. I just wish people developing HD or Special Edition versions of games could get things 100% right. I find it so frustrating that there always seems to be something that is missed.

It seems the commentary you get from completing the time trials is completely missing from Sly 1. It was nice to hear and I was sort of wanting to hear them again, but I knew something was up after completing the trials on multiple levels and not getting any notification (from what I remember, not all levels had commentary in the original PS2 version). Also looking for a solution to this issue, I found others complaining that Sly 2 is missing three of the unlockable movies as well. Why are they removing the extras? That sucks.

Apparently Sucker Punch didn't port the games themselves, so maybe the new company did not want commentary of other developers? Maybe these things are still on the disc and just broken? The turtle tells you to play the commentary, but you can't.

On the rest of the nitpicks, some of the 2D or drawn graphics are scaled up and pixelated, while others are not. This just seems lazy. Like, even if Sucker Punch could not provide the original files for the art, almost everything Sly related is somewhat simplistic vector art. Could not one person at Sanzaru Games spend time remaking the vector tracing the old graphics then just to make sure all graphics are uniform? These are HD collections, so why not make sure to represent that 100%?

There's a somewhat similar problem with the cutscenes, they are presented in a letterbox within fullscreen, very tiny compared to the rest of the game. I don't know why at the very least they couldn't enlarge the cutscenes to fit a 16:9 frame if they couldn't rerender all the original screens. All of the movies look like either Flash or After Effects, made with still vector art, so potentially you would output a higher res movie I would think? I was sort of hoping to see those neat little 2D cutscenes remastered. That was disappointing.

Otherwise, besides those things that really bug me, it's a great looking collection. The polygons don't appear to be improved or smoothed, but the textures are much higher resolution and the game runs at a smoother frame rate. The intro screen allowing you to select from the three games is also really awesome.

[JonCole]

Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia HD trilogies coming March 22 on PS3 Blu-ray disc

The following bolding is for the sake of anti-tldr:

Despite being a franchise that's all about sneaking, it comes as no surprise that the first three Splinter Cell games are getting HD facelifts for PS3 -- after all, the Prince of Persia trilogy already has (on PSN, at least). Ubisoft has announced today that both "remastered" series will hit retail on Blu-ray disc March 22 for $40 apiece.

Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy HD will include the original Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, all three offering 3D modes for compatible televisions. The Prince of Persia Classic Trilogy HD disc contains Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. While the games run at a higher resolution, they're identical to their original releases underneath the HD sheen, meaning any bugs that plagued them are present, too.

The Splinter Cell collection will also be released on March 22 on PSN for the same $40 price tag, along with a digital Prince of Persia trilogy "bundle" for the same price. Currently, the three PoP classics are going for $15 a pop as separate downloads on the PlayStation Store.

I'm pretty excited, actually. This might be the way for me to play the Splinter Cell series at this point, since I just never had an interest at their initial release.

[Orv]

And of course we won't be getting those on PC, even though Pandora Tomorrow essentially doesn't exist on PC anymore.

Jackasses.

[Patters]

Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia HD trilogies coming March 22 on PS3 Blu-ray disc

The following bolding is for the sake of anti-tldr:

I'm pretty excited, actually. This might be the way for me to play the Splinter Cell series at this point, since I just never had an interest at their initial release.

At this point it's probably only worth playing Chaos Theory. The previous 2 titles simply don't control as well, it's worth going for the PC version if you do this as it has much better textures than the console versions.

[syntheticgerbil]

Guess I won't have to import the Prince of Persia Trilogy from the UK then.

[Tanukitsune]

Would it be a bad idea to get the Splinter Cell collection as test to see if I like the series? It sounds like playing the older games will only make not want to play anymore?

[Patters]

Would it be a bad idea to get the Splinter Cell collection as test to see if I like the series? It sounds like playing the older games will only make not want to play anymore?

Chaos Theory removed a lot of aspects of the previous 2 titles (Splinter Cell and Pandora Tomorrow) which were a hindered gameplay. There were a lot of interesting ideas in PT and SC, but they didn't work particularly well, or would only work in specified game areas. The ideal play order would be:

Chaos Theory

Splinter Cell

Double Agent (Xbox)

Pandora Tomorrow

Double Agent (360)

Conviction is omitted as it's not a Splinter Cell game, despite being part of the story. The Xbox version of DA is pretty much a mission pack for Chaos Theory, minus Clint Hocking as creative director.