Tomb Raider - The Quandary

With yesterday's official announcement of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, I had a brief thought about picking the game up with my own Playstation 4 purchase, since January was the intended get of that as well.  I thought about playing through the game for a third time, but on this new console, and partaking of all the same things which I was already aware of, that I'd already tasted of.  I thought of how good the game would look during particular scenes in 1080p rather than...I guess 720p on the PS3?  I honestly don't know what resolution it was.  Really, I thought of every moment of fun I had with Tomb Raider and the possibility of doing so again on the PS4 for a price.

I'm....not sold.  It's a weird barrier of entry that I didn't know I had, especially since I have gleefully partaken in so many HD Collections thus far into my gaming life with the advent of them on the PS3 and Vita.  But thinking about 100% completing Tomb Raider -again-, but this time on the PS4 where it looks better but has all the exact same content with nothing added on....just gets me thinking about paying the PS3 version again since I already have that.  I can try to validate it by saying that enough time has passed for the HD Collections, that they routinely offer a bit more content (at least trophies for all the 'ugh' you can throw at me for that, but also "Making of" and sorts of things that I don't believe were in the originals) or even that it's simply harder to hook up my PS2 instead of just playing it on my PS3, as lazy as that sounds.  It's certainly why I bought Persona 4 Golden for my Vita (extra content) rather than the version of Persona 4 that I owned for my PS2 for years prior and never played.

Part of the problem is simply how off-guard Squeenix was caught when it came to Tomb Raider and the expectations thereof.  For some odd reason, Squeenix anticipated the Multiplayer of the game would be a huge hit and that's why the DLC was staggered towards that rather than having at least a few people working on Single-Player DLC to add more tombs to the game or something along those lines.  The Multiplayer was, as we know, awful by most stretches and definitions of the word and thus the inclusion of the Multiplayer-centric DLC in the Definitive Edition has almost negative value to me and most people.  Not only is it unwanted, but it's almost representative of the fact that we never got, nor will we ever get single-player DLC for the game that was by and large fantastic in single-player.  It's not fair, of course, but that's just how it falls sometimes.

By all accounts it seems that the game will retail for $60 rather than....$40 or so, as a re-release might generally run at.  Most will just say "Well, duh, Squeenix" and some will claim that adding TressFX and native 1080p and all that, as well as inclusion of the DLC necessitates the 'extra' $20, but the fact remains that many, many people bought Tomb Raider for $60 already  Some are more than happy to do so again and I tip my hat to those people because even though I loved Tomb Raider, you clearly love it more than I.  And that's great!  It's a great game and deserves all the support in the world, it's simply that I cannot justify throwing another full price at it.  I'm not sure I could even justify it for Metal Gear Rising:  REVENGEANCE, even with all the DLC on-disk.  I would be tempted - I own the game and the DLC (but haven't downloaded it) - but I think I would even refuse that at $60, perhaps even $40.  And you all know how much I loved REVENGEANCE.

That is not to say that I won't eventually own Tomb Raider for my PS4 - I will.  I will be compelled to eventually for the lush visuals and the engaging gameplay and the wonderful character progression of Lara herself.  I will be compelled to once again 100% the game and, if there's a separate trophy list, potentially even bother with Platinuming it as I intend on doing with the PS3 version.  (The opposition, of course, is the dregs of Multiplayer)  I just won't be doing it Day-One.  I won't be throwing down $60 for Tomb Raider again until there is a 2 or a subtitle after those key words.  Even a single bit of new single-player content would have had me questioning this decision but Squeenix has made it easy to stand firm.  Though I still do find myself regretting that.

I really do kinda wanna play Tomb Raider all over again though

Final Fantasy X & X-2 HD Have Release Dates!...For PS3

Stretch your memories all the way back to September 14th, 2011 when Final Fantasy X HD was annoucned for the Vita and PS3 (in that order) and realize that it's been over two years between then and now.  Keep in mind that the PS3 version of the game was sort of announced as an "Oh yeah, that too" deal.  Keep in mind that X-2 was added later on.  Just consider all of that for a moment, as the only version of the game that we have a release date for at this point in time is the PS3 one.  March 18th, 2014, a full two and a half years after the original announcement of the Vita game, is when the also-announced PS3 version is getting released.  With no news on the Vita version, as in the version of the game that was originally planned and announced.  I'm not sure that I'm harping on this enough.

Of course, in Japan, the games have a singular release date of December 26th, just before the end of this year, making the time between announcement and release...well, not really all that better, no.  There's something to be said of the type of release over there, however, as the PS3 version is releasing with both games on one disk, as it's planned over here, but the two Vita carts will be bundled together in one box for the exact same price.  One might take this as a hopeful sign for the Non-Japan releases, but then again, one probably hasn't dealt with Squeenix all that much if they take it as a sign of anything at all.  As we know by now, Squeenix just does things and the less sense we try to make of it all, the better we'll all be in the long run.  Though, I suppose -some- rationalizations could be made.

Releasing a digital-only game in Japan, I suspect, is just short of a death knell for any potential sales you hope to see from it.  One of those little 'secrets' of the game industry as a whole is that Japan, by and large has a certain approach to video game releases.  Games are bought up on release or a little after, beaten and then resold to the retailer in much greater numbers than such a practice sees here.  This is generally why you see re-releases of popular games that only have a few alterations made to it, because you're trying to sell this version of your game with new stuff to the people who already bought it, played it and sold it back because it was finished.  Kill the ability to resell and recoup some of that money on the consumer-side is simply something that is not on in Japan, so despite them being one of the world leaders in Internet availability and speed, they are just not having that Digital Future bullshit.  Which...I could make something of, but another night.

The issue most at hand here is that it's been widely thought that outside of Japan, FFX HD and FFX-2 HD would be digital-only on the Vita because fuck you.  I say 'because fuck you' since...well it's kind of obvious.  Space is something we're constantly fighting for because the largest memory stick available, the 32 gig, is simply not enough space for most Vita owners.  Both FFX HD and FFX-2 HD will not fit on the same Vita cart.  I don't know the full size that a Vita cart can offer, but some Vita games are already in the 3 Gig range.  So if you figure on both games, combined, being ~6 gigs, then that's already too much for half of the Vita memory sticks out there.  (4 and 8, I'm figuring the 8 only actually has ~7 gigs available and I don't know how much of that would then be OS stuff or what have you)  Basically what I'm getting at is that FFX/X-2 HD being Digital-Only is not merely bad as it is most of the time, but it's downright unfriendly to the consumer since they're just projecting the image of not caring about what the consumer is going to do for the 'privilege' of buying and playing your game.

Hopefully the delay is simply attributed to the logistics of bundling the two carts together outside of Japan and making a shiny package with it, or maybe even setting up some sort of wacky Limited Edition specifically for Vita buyers.  Hell, maybe they're just waiting to announce that every copy of the Vita version comes with a download code for Type-0.  Also Chocobo/Moogle plushies.  I'm being facetious because I figure it's better to imagine wild, never-going-to-happen scenarios and be disappointed when -they- don't happen, rather than looking at the reality of the situation (in which it's honestly not too much of a fucking hassle to release goddamn Carts) and being ultimately let down (as I always anticipate Squeenix doing anymore).  So I'll just be over here with my delusions, thank you very much.

I'm kind of stuck buying the games no matter what because I want Squeenix to acknowledge the Vita, but I'll be damned if I'm happy about buying something digital-only from them