Stop Paying for Official Remasters, Make Your Own with Mods Instead

howtogeek.com:

Sometimes, fans aren't happy with the officially-sanctioned remasters of favorite games or are waiting eagerly for one that may never exist at all. Luckily, modding communities for PC games make it possible to "remaster" games yourself.

The Limitations of Official Remasters

Official remasters of older games can sometimes feel underwhelming or not as "new" as players might like. For instance, fans maligned 2024's Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection for its shoddy multiplayer and visual bugs at launch.

While the received the update treatment to bring to up to scratch, Classic Collection's launch indicates some larger issues regarding official remasters of older video games. These issues did not exist in the original versions, instead appearing after porting the title to the latest hardware without the proper polish needed to make sure it runs correctly.

Titles like the Battlefront Classic Collection are often rushed out to profit off of a pre-existing player base, which leads to unfinished products releasing to unhappy fans. On top of this, developers are often restricted when adding new content, since the goal is to recreate the experience of the original release. This can make it hard to add anything new to make the experience worthwhile for longtime fans.

Official Remasters Can Make Modding Difficult

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is notorious for its many re-releases, with each release throwing modding communities into a panic as they scramble to update their creations to work with the newest version. The game's Anniversary update received a lot of flak from fans due to the inclusion of officially-sanctioned paid mods, and required content that made many Special Edition mods stop working entirely.

While it is hard to recommend that anyone play the original Skyrim over the remaster, the game no longer receives any major updates, which makes it much easier to mod. With the wide array of graphical, texture and weather mods available on Nexus Mods