@grognard66: "Games should be reviewed on what they are - not what the reviewer wished they were."

I disagree with some of that. Sure, games should be reviewed where you acknowledge the positives and negatives that exist of course, but also in a way where what you wish they could have been, is what you're pinpointing as a shortcoming. It depends on context, and in this case, he wishes Crackdown 3 was a better game than Crackdown 1 and did more than that game did 12 years ago.

The point here is that Crackdown 3 is too similar to Crackdown 1, and Crackdown 1 had the same problems 12 years ago of being supremely one dimensional. Some games just age better than others. When it comes to other games getting praised for being nostalgic etc. it's because those games aged well. Crackdown didn't age well and this formula doesn't work better than, or as well as it did 12 years ago, by any stretch.

Also, "This game does what it set out to do very well and was upfront about what it was trying to be."

That's false. The game wasn't as it was advertised. The destruction is an absolute joke and if you watch earlier demos of the game, the destruction in MP was shown to be FAR more intricate than it is in the final release. They deserve a knocked down score for false advertising, let alone all the other shortcomings of the game and how dated and just limited it feels. It is pretty shocking that they spent such a long time creating this.

Also, yes, before you say anything, I beat Crackdown 1 back in the day, and got a free trial for Gamepass and beat Crackdown 3 on PC recently.

@swesco: "Why would they make something with no intention of people buying it? The game will be balanced so as to pressure you to buy them."

EXACTLY this, people need to start thinking about the mentality these corporations have. They know they need to make microtransactions enticiting, how do you think they go about doing that? Make the game a grind!

I can understand both viewpoints with concerns over the new gameplay direction, and people being pretty open to it. I played all God of War games too, aside from Ascension, and was never impressed with the combat by any means. It's flashy and what not, and there's a lot of chaos, but the formula for success always felt the same, and it was mashy.

The new CAMERA I think is what has a lot of people on edge. This works for games like The Last of Us going for a more realistic and weighty feel with the controls and combat. It's definitely a change of pace for God of War though and could end up just feeling limiting. Also not a fan of having the son with you through what it seems is going to be a lot of the game.

Granted, I've never cared for the combat in previous games. This has a chance of doing something positive for me in that sense so I can't complain too much about that. We'll see how it turns out.

@Gelugon_baat: I get that you primarily want new games, but they needed to do something to win back trust first in this situation, and this was the best thing to do.

If they came out with a new Crash game, most people wouldn't give a **** as we've been burnt too many times with shit, and I wouldn't blame people either.

They've squandered the IP for years on shit that most people don't like, this was absolutely a step in the right direction, and hopefully if they do any subsequent Crash games they'll be in a similar vein.

"Remasters" in general this gen have been non-effort ports with resolution and sometimes FPS upgrades. This remake is stellar and I'm very glad to see it, it does what it's set out to do perfectly, and doesn't deserve such a low score from a guy that can't even be bothered to finish any of the games in the collection and finds them too hard.

But I guess we're destined to disagree on this forever so I've nothing more to say following this.

@Gelugon_baat: Well, speaking personally, I want it reviewed by someone who understands what its purpose was, it's not trying to re-invent the wheel, it's exactly what they said it would be and it looks incredible and is reasonably priced, it's also a proper remake, with every single visual asset re-created, which is something we really don't see enough of with these "remasters" that just increase the resolution and framerate (if that).

it's also too hard for Peter I should add, the poor chap couldn't even get over half way through each game!

So you admit you didn't finish any of the games, only got half way in each, and the main stickler for you is the difficulty, and you give the collection a 6/10.

Wow, really? I'm playing it and it's completely faithful to what the originals were and always promised to keep the original formula and enhance the visuals, they've delivered perfectly and at a fantastic price, and I am SO glad they didn't tone down the difficulty for people like you.