Any reason to play the original?

[Himitsu]

Was just about to get round to playing it, and now there is this version also..

[Cynical Nerdist]

The remaster contains slightly improved visual fidelity, audio and narration, and developer commentary.

You wouldn't actually be gaining anything by playing the original, as the original has less content, in the form of the newly added commentary.

[MrMuffinz]

If only just to see the changes between the original and this one.

[AnAIAgent]

Yeah, mostly just to see the minor changes.

There are really subtle changes throughout the game I've noticed so far. Mostly due to the engine transition I'm guessing.

Lighting is slightly different in places. Foliage is different (better for the most part?). Water is noticeably different (not sure if for the better or not). Instance(s) of a half-life 2 character model was replaced by a more featureless character model.

Seems like there were changes to the sound in some places, too. And, I noticed some weird clipping/z-fighting? When looking down from the top of the ascension area, just before the caves.

[argoon]

IMO everyone should still play the original, not only because, is the original, the one really made by The chinise Room, this one was ported by another company, but also because the original looks diferent in some places, specially the caves, don't get me wrong both look fantastic, but i did find the caves in this one sligtly darker and less dream like, but i also consider that perhaps is nostalgia talking.

McQuiggle IMO visuals outside are pretty much the same, the grass looked the same to me, the water, did felt a litle diferent, but i'm not sure, the sky looked the same, etc, i only saw obvious diferences in the lighting really, but that is expected because this is made in Unity 5 and the original was made on the Portal 2 engine and the HDR system is very diferent between them and that is sure to change the visuals.

Edit: Played a litle of both now, the new one is definitly darker, the rocks near the shore look wet and reflect light, in the original they don't, the water looks almost the same, the only diference, in the original the foam has a blue tint on the new one is white, the grass looks pretty much the same, i've still to play more to really see the extent of the diferences, specially in the caves, but if at face value i can already see obvious diferences then the caves will be interesting to see.

[sbN]

The visual changes aren't even minor. Yes, there are improvements in some areas, but there's a lot of graphical fidelity lost because of Source Engine's unique lighting system and landscape manipulation (Any BSP surface can be converted into terrain allowing some really great looking soft surfaces). Oh and the water. I'm sorry, the water looks great in the original. Barely any game engine aside from Cryengine has captured the natural feel of water.

[Sublustris]

Originally posted by s.b.Newsom:

The visual changes aren't even minor. Yes, there are improvements in some areas, but there's a lot of graphical fidelity lost because of Source Engine's unique lighting system and landscape manipulation (Any BSP surface can be converted into terrain allowing some really great looking soft surfaces). Oh and the water. I'm sorry, the water looks great in the original. Barely any game engine aside from Cryengine has captured the natural feel of water.

I'll sign at everything this man says and explains here. That's just how things are.

[Himitsu]

Thanks, I'll play both.

[Stheo]

The only thing I really noticed was the water looking different (worse) than how I remembered it. Also the lighting is slightly different (woulnd say worse really) . Can't really avoid that when you change engines.

I was worried about performance issues since I've had some bad experiences before with the Unity engine, but they nailed that part. Ran at a locked 120fps with no drops even with 8x AA on my ageing gtx 970 and i7 3770.

[Ray Pizzazz]

Originally posted by Stheo:

The only thing I really noticed was the water looking different (worse) than how I remembered it. Also the lighting is slightly different (woulnd say worse really) . Can't really avoid that when you change engines.

I was worried about performance issues since I've had some bad experiences before with the Unity engine, but they nailed that part. Ran at a locked 120fps with no drops even with 8x AA on my ageing gtx 970 and i7 3770.

I was getting over 500 fps with my gta 1080 and i7 6800

[BlueStinger]

Originally posted by Infekt:

I was getting over 500 fps with my gta 1080 and i7 6800

You should cap your framerate to whatever your monitors refresh rate is. Anything more is wasting electricity and increasing heat and noise needlessly.

[Cynical Nerdist]

Originally posted by BlueStinger:

Originally posted by Infekt:

I was getting over 500 fps with my gta 1080 and i7 6800

You should cap your framerate to whatever your monitors refresh rate is. Anything more is wasting electricity and increasing heat and noise needlessly.

Plus no screen-tearing! ^_^

[BlueStinger]

Originally posted by Cynical Nerdist:

Originally posted by BlueStinger:

You should cap your framerate to whatever your monitors refresh rate is. Anything more is wasting electricity and increasing heat and noise needlessly.

Plus no screen-tearing! ^_^

Yes that too :)

[`rotane]

They also finally fixed the moon in the LE! No more weird looking distorted egg when it moves towards your screen's corner.

[argoon]

Now that i played both i most say that they both look fantastic and in some ways IMO the Unity version does look sligtly better, specially on the caves and near water, but i did find two spot's where they where really diferent, both inside the cave, one is the hole of water with the coins, the one with the big hole in the cilling, in the original we see the hole and the sky reflected in the water, that as a blue tone, giving it a very nice look, in the new one we only see a darker water surface with almost no reflex, i most say imo it is more realistic that way, but loses the dream like quality, the other spot is when you walk on the waterfall's edge, at the end there's a passage and a candle, on the original near the entrasse of the passage there's obvious red paint or blood on the floor, on the new one there's nothing. I also seam to notice that on the new one some voice overs sound diferent, somehow, like the voice actor is diferent or his voice changed?

[- ThePಠnz -]

Originally posted by argoon:

I also seam to notice that on the new one some voice overs sound diferent, somehow, like the voice actor is diferent or his voice changed?

noticed that too..
it was.. unsettling..