So Konami gave a rather pathetic prerecorded press conference this evening.  All they've got are a bunch of HD collections and nothing of interest to announce other than the very vague promise of a new Contra game.  Oh, and Hideo Kojima has invented a word: "Transfarring."  Check your favorite game blog for full coverage or go to GameTrailers if you feel like torturing yourself and watching the full thing (almost an hour).

Still the most promising pieces of gaming news I've heard this year.  High def releases of Konami's very best titles from the PS2 era, including MGS2, MGS3, Silent Hill 2, and both of Zone of the Enders?  Along with redrawn art, improved audio, and Trophies/Achievements?  Plus a console release of Peace Walker with right analog stick support?  Yep, I'd let that hit me.

As for Contra, I suppose it may be too much to hope for WayForward giving us a console release of Contra 5.

we only know what one of these three things means, and it's kind of a sad thing to be excited about.

murmurs are that it's an attempt to apply the 'success' of the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow concept to the Contra series.
It also doesn't seem to be the same as the 3DS title, which may be vaporware.....?
It's kind of sad that the series never found any kind of clear direction in recent years. Igarashi's Castlevania may have stagnated, but at least it was fairly consistent.

Konami....

No one is quite sure if Rising is in limbo. Rumor has it that Platinum Games is developing it now.
There's no clear idea of what Kojima's projects (outside of the HD ports and the Fox Engine) are. Some cryptic tweets caused speculation that one project he was hoping to work on was denied.
A Japanese-designed Castlevania is a no-show, and the first DLC released for Lords of Shadow hasn't indicated any lessons learned for the eventual sequel (although I guess there's still DLC for the original to come)
Not many people are enthusiastic about Silent Hill: Downpour, and we know nothing about Book of Memories (just announced for NGP or Vita or whatever it will be called)
MIA: Suikoden, Goemon, any shooting game other than ports of Otomedius...
I guess there's Love Plus 3DS, right? And whatever music games they knock out..
Pro Evolution Soccer?

Original IPs?
I want to believe Neverdead might be cool, but I'm already reserving the same hopes for games like Shadows of the Damned and Binary Domain...
This is probably sleep deprivation talking, but I think I'm actually most looking forward to seeing how Doctor Lautrec turns out - I don't have a 3DS and won't for some time, but I'm intrigued by taking the idea of the Layton formula and using it to make a JRPG with elements of exploration/stealth.

Games are just so.... tiring now....

I'm happy enough about the ZOE collection. I skipped the PS2 and my PS3 is a slimline, so I'll finally get to play these. Looking more forward to the upcoming Ico/Shadow of the Colossus re-release though

Oh, yeah. Talk dirty to me some more, you bawdy strumpet.

Seriously, this is the best news I've heard all year. Simply amazing. Any chance of Portable Ops getting the same treatment, I wonder? I honestly could not play that game with its' castrated controls.

Peace Walker on a console is really the only thing here that excites me.  It'd be nice to have those others in HD, but I can't see myself having the time to replay any of them.

Also shouldn't there have been part of their conference dedicated to raping the corpse of poor Hudson?  Konami is now number one on my sh!t list due to what they did there...

Forgive me if I lack enthusiasm for all these ports and rehashes.  I'm just as guilty of buying them as they rest of you (looks at my FIVE versions of FF4), and I'll definitely buy the MGS HD collection just so I can play Peace Walker on a console, but I'm not excited about it.  Wouldn't you rather have something new that makes you feel the way these games did when you first played them rather than just experiencing the same old thing over and over?

I could replay the likes of MGS2 and MGS3 forever, thanks to its masterfully honed and extensive gameplay. 

And even for someone who isn't wholly obsessed with the likes of Trophies and Achievements, padding out the games with their inclusion is a potentially big incentive for replay value.  I'm getting giddy thinking about the stuff they could include: Tranq x-number of enemies with headshots only.  Perform x-number of successful CQC takedowns without being spotted.  Hold up every single soldier in MGS2.  Defeat every boss with non-lethal means only.  Collect every camo outfit in MGS3.  The possibilities are endless.

I get that, but you dodged my question.  Since there's only so many hours in the day, if you had to decide between playing something new that has the potential to amaze you as much as these games did when they were first released or simply playing something old that you're comfortable with, which would you go with?  If I had infinite time, I'd play both, but my gaming time is very limited, and I'd much rather experience something new.

Isn't the entire concept of replay value antiquated?  Why do games need "replay value" anymore?  I understand that games are expensive, but I don't see why games directed at adults need to be "padded" at all.  We're both at the stage of our lives where time is a much bigger limitation than money.  When I was a kid, I got no more than six games a year and I had a ton of free time, so replay value mattered.  Now, I can buy as many games as I want, but I only have time to finish 10-15 games a year, and I don't want to miss something new and interesting because I'm replaying something I've already finished.

By the way, I'm not just directing this at you.  I'm curious what everyone's thoughts on this are.

In the context of this thread, I'd love to be able to play Portable Ops and Peace Walker without their f---ing stupid c--t-ass controls to get in the way of my enjoyment of them way more than playing yet another entry in a series that I have to play catch-up on already.

For me, I don't think the question being asked is fair. Yes, if presented with two equally great games, one that I had already played and one that I hadn't, then I'd always choose the new one. However, that's a hypothetical scenario that doesn't exist. There's no way for me to know for sure if a game is worth my time. I just have to make my best guess based on the available data. And even then there aren't that many new games that can even come close to competing with my classic favorites.

I think a far more realistic question is this: would I rather play an HD upscale of my favorite game or a new piece of shit? I think my answer to that is obvious. :3

The bottom line for me is that a good game is a good game. It's like a movie. I rarely get tired of watching my favorite films and that's why I own them. It's also why I've never been able to get into things like Netflix or Hulu. I've tried them and they just don't work for me. They offer a lot of content and 99.99% of it is utter garbage. I'll venture out to try new things once in a while, but most of the time I'm content to spend my time doing things that I know I'll enjoy. It's safe, efficient and fun. I can't really ask for more than that. Or rather, I can, but I know I'll never actually get it.

Bring on the remakes! (Assuming they're good of course.)

Let's not forget...This is a company whose greatest contribution to the Gamecube's library was a remake of MGS1, when the game was barely 5 years old. Yay...:(

When you first played your most recent "classic favorite," how did you know it would be worth your time?  You took a risk on that, didn't you?  Are you saying your appetite for new things has diminished with age?

Replay value means a game is good, and it can't be created with collectable trinkets or trophies unless the game itself is actually fun to play. And when a game like that comes along, you'll play it again because it's good, even if you've got something else waiting. Padding and overextending the game usually leads into loss of replay value.

Not at all. I've never had an appetite for "new" things; only for good things. Finding good things demands trying new things from time to time. However, since I've discovered many good things over the course of my life, I no longer need to rush around blindly trying whatever people toss in front of me. I enjoy the things I have and use the data I've collected guide myself towards new things that are more likely to be worth my time.

This brings us back to your original question: would I prefer to replay good old games or good new ones? If there were good new ones, then new of course. The problem is that there aren't any such games. There are only good, old games and unknown, new games. Remakes peak my interest because if the original was good then there's a chance the remake might be good. That works for me.

I don't value newness, I value enjoyment.

This would be so disgustingly easy in MGS3, considering how utterly broken the cigarette spray and scented handkerchief are. Even The End, who was once the bane of my existence, fares poorly against the incredibly cheap tactics I discovered on my second big playthrough and have used since.

That's about the long and short of it.  Thank you, gentlemen.

On Konami:
Man, do I hope Dais is wrong on that Contra thing. I was willing to give a re-imagining of CV the benefit of the doubt, but if they try turning Contra into Gears of War or whatever, I'm going to backlash them upside the head.

I'm happy about the HD remakes as long as they don't muck with them. I don't want, say, redubs where Vamp and Amanda lose their accents while Gary McGolden's tell-all or Para-Medic's movie reviews get cut so that they can add more rocket-surfing or some crap...God, Twin Snakes was wretched. The ZoE set will give me a chance to actually play those, so that's good too. Silent Hill...The third game was where I stopped trying to force myself through them and just watched Youtubers finish the story, so that's out. I respect the first two games, but would never replay them. Speaking of which...

On replaying games:
In addition to what others have said, replaying games I've enjoyed in the past has the added advantage of recharging my interest in rough times. Sometimes I'll go through a period where I get bogged down with some real crap, and I'll start to wonder if I'm losing my interest in the medium. One quick jam session with a beloved favorite usually gives me the perspective I need to realize that it isn't me, it's the ho-hum piece of dreck I'm pushing myself through for no discernable reason.
P.S. replaying also gives me a second shot at evaluation. Was that game really as bad as it seemed or was I just not getting it before? Yes, the game becomes easy once I get that character, but how much harder does it get if I resist the urge to abuse his abilities?

Also, how far can I go without taking damage? This is something worth mentioning if I haven't before - organic challenges, ones I impose on myself that the game doesn't necessarily call attention to, add incredible replay to a game. In the first Klonoa, while I was randomly replaying some favorite stages, I came to realize all the stages were designed to have 150 collectible gems, and I went about getting that amount for all of them (even got a little over that amount by being slightly quicker than the devs expected with a gem-doubler), and was very satisfied. When Klonoa 2 made it an actual goal, with scrapbook awards and all, achieving that goal felt a lot less like fun and much more like work. Maybe that's the main problem with Achievements and Trophies; there is no undiscovered country, so to speak. It's like the bit in Metroid Fusion where at the end of the option and obscenely complicated Shinespark stunt, an extra bit of dialogue exists just to tell you that yup, they thought of that too. It can be fun to shoot for some of those virtual plateaus, certainly, and sometimes they can point you toward things you might not have realized you could do, but there are times, often in RPGs for some reason, where I look over a list of goals geared toward maxing everything out and just think, 'screw you, I'll get off this treadmill when I want to.'

Wow, did this all get wildly off-topic. I'll just add at the end that I hope Konami hasn't let everything out of the bag yet; a traditional Gradius to stand alonside Otomedius would be especially appreciated.

I think the primary difference here is that these are going to be more like high-def ports, and not remakes -- just like how the God of War and Sly Cooper collections turned out.  I'm guessing the core games won't change much.

In light of the so-called plagiarism issue, though, I'm curious to see if the inclusion of the MGS Main Theme will be an issue.  I can't imagine the opening introduction from MGS2 or the Debriefing scene from MGS3 having the same impact if they were changed up.

Eek.  I hadn't even thought of that.  I REALLY hope they don't take that theme out.