Gabriel Stanford-ReisingerHey, starting this off with a simple explanation of what Gabe’s Glance is — simply put, it’s a column written by yours. Sometimes, it’ll hammer down to one topic. Other times, it’ll be talking about stuff we either can’t talk about due to a lack of relevance for a PlayStation fan, or we have, but I want to give a more personal take on it without muddying the news.
This edition will cover a couple of topics.
Rockstar Pulls A Dev’s Blog On 20+-Year-Old Games
Rockstar Games has quite the reputation behind it, keeping its IPs very, very close to its chest, but who would’ve thought that would extend to an IP that’s dead in the water and games 20+ years old?
Long story short — Rockstar North shot an email to Obbe Vermeij, who recently started up a blog mainly focused on Rockstar North, as he used to work on the team. But it seems the dev wasn’t keen on this and effectively told him that he was harming the “Rockstar mystique.” He’s since pulled the posts, but they can still be accessed through Wayback.
To me, it feels somewhat wrong to abandon a game or, in the case of his GTA posts, jump on a former employee for discussing it without really harming the studio’s rep. He wasn’t ill-intended — he just wanted to talk about his time at the studio and give a little more insight from someone who used to be on the inside of the original development. But I guess Rockstar couldn’t have that.
Zelda Might Be Getting A Movie But It Should Be Animated… Like A Ghibli Film
In case you missed it, Nintendo’s working on a Legend of Zelda live-action movie, and not only is Nintendo all for it, following the tremendous success of the animated Super Mario Bros. Movie, but Sony is as well. That’s right, that bad blood is done and not only is Sony distributing the film, but it’s also co-financing it.
The key difference between this Zelda flick and the Mario Bros. movie is that it’s live-action compared to Nintendo’s previous partnership with Illumination. Of course, I’m more privy to animated movies, but whether this will prove successful is to be seen. Regardless, if you’re looking for a modern animated feature, a fan has spent four months working on a short film showcasing what Hyrule would look like if it were in the style of famed Japanese animation studio, Studio Ghibli.
For a team of two, with RwanLink doing everything from director duties to character animation and Mosik being in charge of the music, it’s an impressive feat. It starts actually pretty powerful — right with the death of the Deku Tree, and then seeing Link make his way to Castle Town. If Nintendo had announced a partnership with Studio Ghibli and Sony, I would be all for it and likely break one of my biggest “no-nos,” which is seeing it in theaters.
But, of course, that is a pipe dream, and I anticipate if Nintendo were ever to make another animated feature, it would be after Zelda’s done, centered around a completely different IP — perhaps Kirby — with Illumination again.
Can We Even Call The Last Of Us Part 2 Remastered A Remaster?
This has been racking my brain since day one — is The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered even a remaster? What got me thinking that? It was the inclusion of No Return.
Remasters are typically just revamped versions of already released games, games that come to mind include the likes of 2K’s BioShock: The Collection and thatgamecompany’s Journey. These are games that don’t typically add anything new but rather make the game compatible with newer hardware or generations. Maybe it’s a definitive edition that bundles in existing DLC, but that’s not adding anything brand-new.
We then have re-releases, which are just games that get ported over to a new console gen, usually with no added bells or whistles, think Red Dead Redemption for the PS4.
And then we have the remake, a game that entirely overhauls mechanics, graphics, and can sometimes be lumped into the remasters category. Games like Bluepoint Games’ Shadow of the Colossus, Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy, 2019’s The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, and Dead Space, all of which overhaul the graphics, gameplay, and sometimes even story.
Frankly, I feel like No Return is the remnants of what The Last of Us Factions was meant to have before Bungie encouraged a downsize, with it still in development, apparently. I feel like the game mode will feel a bit lacking for some because it was initially designed with more players in mind.
In the end, it doesn’t perfectly fit any of these categories — the closest it is would be a remake, as on top of graphical enhancements as small as they may seem, it also adds content and DualSense support. But I suppose Naughty Dog wanted to keep to “Remastered” in the name since TLoU Part 1.