Horizon Zero Dawn is getting a remake/remaster for PS5! I know we’re all totally excited and thrilled about this absolutely necessary update of a game that only came out five years ago. It was starting to look and play like total shit so I’m relieved Sony saw sense and decided to finally fix the damn thing up before it was too late. What a relief.

Following in the footsteps of the also very exciting and necessary release of The Last of Us Part 1, it appears that Horizon Zero Dawn will take advantage of the updated hardware with improved visuals, gameplay mechanics, and a bunch of other cool features that just weren’t possible on the previous generation. You know, the one that also got a version of Forbidden West which uses the same gameplay engine and mechanics as the first game. See, I told you it plays like shit. But soon, thanks to the power of corporate greed, it definitely won’t.

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In a world filled with remasters and remakes designed to mine our nostalgia for all its worth as the industry shrivels up into a creative husk, there are still so many games deserving of another chance at life, or could gain so much from a new audience made possible by a new generation of players on updated hardware. So, here are some of my top picks.

5 - Horizon Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West

This one is a bit of an underground classic, so I totally understand if you haven’t heard of it before. Released in 2022 for the PS4 and PS5, this underappreciated sequel was a breath of fresh air for the open world genre and a bold step forward for Guerilla Games. It built upon the sequel and took great advantage of new hardware, despite the fact it also launched on old consoles with a predecessor that is rumoured to receive a huge update it absolutely needs. I feel like this game has been forgotten, and enough time has passed for a remake.

4 - Knack

The PS4 came out in 2013, so I think that officially categorises it as a retro console. Knack is a platforming classic that can stand alongside the likes of Super Mario 64 and Psychonauts, and was responsible for ushering in a new generation of gaming goodness for us all to enjoy. Except it was arguably too ambitious for Sony’s new console, and suffered from clear performance problems as a consequence of our Ron Perlman-esque hero’s myriad bits.

Imagine a remake that not only added more bits to the transforming mascot to make him even bigger and more complicated, but tanked the framerate even further. I want it to look amazing while simultaneously feeling awful to play, and better yet, Sony should tease a bunch of mechanical improvements while refusing to show any of them in trailers because they don’t actually exist. That’s what I really love when it comes to remasters - deception.

3 - Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes

Twin Snakes

I know a comprehensive remake of Metal Gear Solid has been rumoured for a long time, but imagine if we decided to remaster a remaster. Hideo Kojima has always been a pretty meta bloke, and he’d totally be into the idea of updating an update with more updates. You could even fold it into the storytelling or have a villain who taunts you by scanning how many free PS5 upgrades you currently have installed on your hard drive. He even empties your bank account at the same time because he knows you don’t mind pissing it all away.

2 - God of War Ragnarok

GodOfWarRagnarok-1

We all know that Sony loves to be ahead of the curve at all times, so why not announce a remaster for a game that isn’t even out yet? We all know it’s coming, and the sting in its tail would be far less damaging if the company was simply honest about its intentions right away instead of selling us down the river to make a few extra pennies. Maybe they’ll even throw a jazzed up version of the first game in for good measure. It worked for Marvel’s Spider-Man.

1 - Bloodborne

Bloodborne Lady Maria artwork

Jim Ryan will need to sacrifice his firstborn child to the gaming gods before we even stand a chance of seeing a remake or remaster of Bloodborne. Unlike the other very serious games mentioned on this list, FromSoftware’s masterpiece actually deserves a revival, and would benefit from even a few slight improvements given how flawed the original game was on native hardware.

But it feels like exclusives such as this are few and far between nowadays, with Sony instead wanting to focus on cynical reissues and predictable sequels that all fall into the same line of expectations. PlayStation used to be a source of ideas you couldn’t find anywhere else, but games like Gravity Rush, Folklore, The Last Guardian, Concrete Genie, Siren, Sly Cooper, Resistance, Ape Escape, and so many others have fallen away as the platform ignores its own legacy.

It sucks for everyone - and daring to update a game like Horizon Zero Dawn which is still viewed as a visual benchmark by so many is not only lazy, it’s a crass admittance of your own hollow vision of what games are capable of.

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