It’s 2015 now, and we’re talking about games which might have originally launched in 2013. Since there were quite a lot of remakes, re-releases, and remasters with the first year of this new generation, we decided to not include these in our overall pool of voting for our Game of the Year. You didn’t want to see The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto V at the top again, did you?
Instead, Mario Kart 8 took our crown, but we still thought these games should be praised again somehow, so here we go with our first bonus round, focusing on those super HD remixes that proved quite popular this past year.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection – in third place – is perhaps the biggest remix of the year, taking all of the content from the four mainline Halo games and putting them onto one disc, while also remastering Halo 2 with some absolutely stunning new cutscenes. The fact that you’re able to play around a hundred maps in the multiplayer mode – which did admittedly suffer from matchmaking issues upon launch – is truly quite wonderful, and a new approach to the remake, rather than simply upgrading the visuals.
On PS4, The Last of Us was even better than before. Yet, despite winning last year’s Game of the Year, the remaster only managed to reach second. It’s true that the game is not as effective the second time around, though the inclusion of the DLC as well as visuals reaching new heights of 1080p and 60fps is truly a sight to behold.
But GTA V on the new generation of systems is a technical marvel; it completely changes the game for the better, and while it came second last year in our overall voting, you can see why it’s managed to destroy the competing remastered games in this category. It’s a game which is appreciated all the more the second time around, and one which offers much more to enjoy outside of a story which you’ve played before. All that without the mention of a “remastered”, “definitive”, or “super turbo ultra” on the box.
Grand Theft Auto V is TheSixthAxis’ Remastered Game of the Year 2014.
Tony Cawley
Much deserved, I never played it on ps3 but absolutely loved it on ps4, definite return to form for the series after the ever so slightly boring gta 4. TLOU was also an outstanding rremaster, some good competition there for top spot.
wonkey-willy
Don’t get me wrong, the last of us was a great remake,but apart from a bit of extra polish,not much was added to the game play.I am so tempted to get grand theft purely because I’ve only played about a third of it on ps3.there are a few games I would like to see remastered.imagine half life or quake that would be right up my passage..
stonyk
Would love a hl2 remake but hl3 would make me happier….
Starman
I think I’m one of the few people who find GTA really boring! The only ones I’ve ever liked were the top down earlier ones. Gave up on GTA4 quite early as it bored me, did a fair bit of 5 but just didn’t get the urge to play it over anything else.
Halo multiplayer is still pretty bad. I’ve read this article and typed all this and its still searching for a game.
JustTaylorNow
GTA is boring as hell, As for TLOU can never get bored of that. Even sleeping dogs if it wasn’t for the awful controls they messed up it still would be better than GTA.
Ouninpohja
It was my game of the year again.
I don’t think they really treated it as a remastered version to be honest.
It’s had more effort put into it,to make it (as you say) a completely overhauled game. Not that it really needed it.
More,in fact than most devs put into their titles from the outset!
I think most people who purchased it again,would have been happy enough with (and probably expected) just a remaster.
But the sheer amount of detail they’ve added is absolutely outstanding.
psychobudgie
GTA V on the new consoles is an absolutely remarkable achievement. Playing through the entire game again in First person mode is a total joy. This for me is why it is the winner by a distance as they not only upgraded the visuals substantially but they added a whole new dimension to the gameplay. The Last of Us is a wonderful game in it’s own right but for the sheer audacity of actually adding stuff to the updated version Rockstar show again why nobody does it quite like them.
Now looking forward to seeing if Volition can hang on their coat-tails with the upcoming Saints Row IV update.
colmshan1990
I haven’t played the PS4 version yet, the PS3 game was painful at times (I maintain the ‘character’ of Trevor is the single worst I’ve been forced to suffer in gaming). That said, it was great in other bits (mainly Michael, but Franklin had some moments too).
That said, I’ll probably pick it up at some point- it’s the biggest game on PS4 in terms of things to do and everyone else seems to have it.
In comparison, The Last of Us Remastered was a day one purchase for me. I also picked up Diablo 3 and Tomb Raider from the list- Tomb Raider was a fine PS3 game but added little on PS4, even in terms of graphics. It’s still an Uncharted clone without the humour and charm and along with FIFA 14 the only PS4 game I’ve traded in so far. Diablo is great fun with local multiplayer, although LBP, COD, NHL and Lego Marvel get used more often in our house for that.