No, lets not do that. That sounds awful.

The minecar can drive in the lava.
The lava is at the bottom of the cave.

The ice areas should bring snow with snow stroms and evasive ice + holes in the ice, leading to deadly cold water.

The desert areas should have the feel from arabic egypt with pyramids and sandstorms.

The water can be compared to lakes and seas. A shark will eat and kill Abe, if Abe dives too deep. Don't expect to see underwater caves with slig submarines.

wow lorne got old

I'm still glad that they're doing an Abe's Oddysee HD remake because it was one of the first games that I played and thought was really amazing.

Most of the fans seem happy, I guess that's a good thing. I really hope JAW will do it right even if that's a hell of a challenge. IMO the gameplay "feel" should be 100% the same.

And I really hope they are also working on something NEW!

I agree with what Paul has said I also bought and completed the 2 Abe games on PSN over the summer of last year and then even bought a second hand X-box from my local gamestation for £15 and bought the other 2 just to complete the series. I know everyone is excited about it but we have been waiting 6 years and all we get is remakes of the games we have already played? Surely as strong of a fan base as we are they should show us something that we haven't seen before!

I'm surprised everyone is a bit disappointing with this. I don't know why?

Yeah okay its not a new Oddworld game and sure they've just released the OddBox with AO in it but I mean come on! its a re-make of one of the greatest games with HD graphics? I myself is very happy with this and i can't wait for more.

I think I remember (don't quote me on this) one of the mods saying a HD remake is unlikely. I think it was Max. but i don't remember what thread

And what's wrong with (probably) Max answer? Even Alf spoken about "crash chance" to make remakes.

I support this fully.

Y'all need to push them thar negative thoughts out of your head. I'm sure it'll be just fine, if it is different, maybe it will be such in a good way?

I agree with Dixandu,
Why moan about a remake of one of your favourite games? They might still need to gain more profits to make an entirely new game, it's like, nothing since 2005 and now all this new amazing crap and people are moaning...you don't have to buy or even acknowledge this remake right?

I have to agree with Nate, it does seem like a lot of effort to remake an old game, and I would definitely prefer to see something new.

Still, no point in dwelling on it - as long as they capture the original's atmosphere, I'll buy and love it.

EDIT: I want to see the inevitable 1:1 comparison video between the original and the remake.

Because now we have an indie game company that has proven itself to be clumsy with something as simple as a port working on 3 projects at once, all of which will take a significant amount of resources. To have this all happen at the same time, I can't help but feel the quality of the end products will suffer.

That being said, I'll still end up buying it all because I'm a consumer whore.

High five for consumer whorism.

I reckon they can pull it off, these guys aren't six year old's and I reckon they might have done a better job of the ports if they hadn't been so rushed with stupid release dates which they obviously couldn't meet...so they had to push for 'as soon as possible' instead.

I really hope they get the right atmosphere in the remake... It's a lot more work to achieve it. I just hope they keep the same camera (like 90 degree) as in AO and AE, not like many of the remakes position it just a bit above the player that it looks down...

I think Stewart Gilray said on the Steam forums that the quality of the SW port suffered because they had to port a game built entirely around the Xbox's hardware/software to a VERY different platform.

He then said that this wouldn't be a problem with future projects because they were being built from the ground up with middleware software, so platform compatability wouldn't be an issue.

Mudokens can't swim.



Ok. So after I thought about it a little bit more, and let my dad read the information, I've actually grown really excited for this. It'll defiantly give the older and newer fans alike another chance to play the game that started the series, especially if they aren't able to get their hands on the 1997 AO.
Just hoping his voice won't sound AE-like and the music stays the same. :)

Why can only the humans swim?

I'm really excited for this :D on ONE condition- Abe doesn't end up with a health bar! :fuzmad:

To everyone wondering why they're focusing on a remake, I believe it's probably to 'begin again' for a new generation of gamers. Its been nearly 14 years since AO came out and people have a fascination with new and shiny things. I imagine many wouldnt play AO simply because its an old game, and they want to play the latest thing. Perhaps an HD remake then would introduce that new generation of gamers to the series from the beginning?

Btw, for some time i've been remaking the first Rupturefarms level from AO in LittleBigPlanet, screen for screen! Now that LBP2 is out, there are much better ways to approach the obstacles (Sackbots for Mudokons etc), so i'll keep at it and let you guys know when its done- maybe the wait for a 2.5D remake isnt that long after all ;)

This is just a AO HD remake. I don't think they'll add anything new to the game.

Those news gave me an orgasm.

Oh, no...when they said "Abe will be reappearing", was THIS what they were referring to?! He'd better be in new things as well!!

I wonder if they're going to redo the cinematics as well. Would be a little embarrassing to let the engine's 3D look better than the movie's 3D.

I hope this is done right... The original game was beautiful, and it doesn't necessarily need HD graphics to make it any better, and I think that with most things. Some things have that charm and it can't be restored by giving it up-to-date graphics.

The cinematics should be sequenced with scripts using 3d graphics instead of bink video.

Nope, I really wish the cinematics to be real masterpieces again, not some generic in game stuff.

Lorne Lanning has gone the way of George Lucas.
Riding on the coat tails of his former masterpieces as opposed to making new ones.
Except, you know, Lucas has money.

I'm willing to wait a bit longer for a *new* Abe game, because this recreation of Abe's Oddysee will definitely keep me busy for a while!

Here's hoping the 2.5D follow-up to Abe's Exoddus will come to pass in the near future, then we can finally complete the trilogy of Abe games.

Trilogy of Abe games? This is news to me.

Always happy to see more Oddworld. No release date? No problem. Don't give us one unless your sure, cause you've got another chance to let us down...

...and we wont be happy

I agree, I'm buzzin on seeing abe in new games rather than remakes.

I'd also like to add, since AO remake HD is getting done, cue a AE remake in HD also in 2012. So more time used on 2 projects. I understand that this is probably to reel in old people who played the games years ago going "Oh I remember that game that was awesome, but I didn't complete it all since it was hard, but I'll give it another go since its re-done again." Just wish they had more faith and made a new game for the fans who have been waiting ages for one. Good things come to those who wait though :D

I can personally see both sides to this... but a good move, in my opinion. I'll explain why in addition to my view of both sides.

See, on the one hand, it's releasing an old game, a remake. Remakes are kinda lazy in a way, even if they're from the ground up... because you're using the same creative content. And if you don't, people will complain that you're not being true to the original (a la Pokémon remakes).

Logic dictates that more of the same thing can lead to oversaturation of the market (hello Rock Band and Guitar Hero!), but at the same time consider that the current generation of young gamers probably haven't even heard of Abe. Heck, I know a lot of people in my generation or a bit later who don't know who Abe is.

Admittedly the sidescrolling 2D/2.5D platforming game market is starting to saturate (hello indie gaming), but Abe is still pretty unique compared to those because of things like GameSpeak and the combination of potty humour and dark humour.

On the other hand, it's a rerelease of a game that not everyone got to experience, in formats that allow for a great deal of experience. As far as I can tell, OWI and JAW are releasing this game for every platform they damn well can. Previously it was PlayStation and later PC exclusive.

A HD remake will not only introduce new fans, but allow old fans to relive the game in a new way, and not have to worry about things like resolution and control issues - as everything will be updated for the current generation consoles. I have had a wonderful time trying to configure a comfortable and understandable set-up for AO on my laptop for the X360 controller, and resorted to the fairly poor response of the keyboard when I screwed up the configuration.

Due to the artistic view being taken on games more and more nowadays, Abe has more chance to shine in this climate because it is very much a game that makes you look and think: the creators definitely intended to convey a message with it, and it is definitely an artistic game because the cutscenes are seamless with the gameplay and everything is beautifully rendered and styled.

I'm not sure if I'll buy it, since I get annoyed about buying the same game multiple times (I have now bought Sonic Adventure THREE TIMES. GRRRR)... But I'll certainly give it a look-in.

And now I'm going to shut my ass. :P

That was in response to the suggestion that they could simply up-res the original AO and put out an HD version with the same engine and models and stuff.

Because remaking AO in 2.5D will cost almost as much as a completely new game; they still need just as many artists and programmers and modellers and animators. The only thing they'll save on is puzzle design.

While I agree that it'd be easier for them to use existing resources, and cheaper too, the problem is if they no longer have those existing resources. Which is full possible considering it's been a while, although, apart from acts of God and other unpredicted unpreventable disasters, I imagine they wouldn't have had anything happen that would lose said resources.

Of course, it depends which models they scale up too. Scale up the ones used in the cinematics and you're peachy.

I liked the dirty, gritty look of the original, but this will be undoubtedly awesome.

I'd like to point out that once the basic characters and props are redone and the new engine is running they will be able to do new stuff as well quite fast after the release of AOHD. This means perhaps AEHD or even SOMETHING NEW.

Oh and am I the only one to think there has been some major cock up going on with this announcement and that it should have been announced at the E3?

I hope they do. I really don't want just the same game in HD, there's no point. They should just change the levels around and make you able to posses scrabs and paramites.

This would probably change the way certain puzzles are done. I liked how you couldn't possess Scrabs and Paramites in AO, it gave you a sense of Abe's development into what he can do in AE compared to in the original game.

How many projects are JAW developing for Oddworld again? because if we only have 2 left after SW and AO we are screwed ,you know its just going to be remakes of MO and AE.

I know but they'd have to make SOMETHING different in the remake otherwise it would be completely pointless.

I realllyyy hope that's not the case!

I get the feeling this isn't going to be the last Oddworld HD re-release; we're already getting SW and AO, and like you said the resources from AO would make it easier to build an HD AE too. After that, only MO would be left to remaster.

I also can't help but wonder if this is going to be how they reintroduce the Quintology to people - start with a remake of the Abe games, then redo Munch, and then move on to Part 3.


JAW's "cut [sic] out the bag" tweet combined with the "announcement" being a Facebook page definitely makes me think this is the case.


I think they mentioned five or six projects? I'm not sure, but that's what I remember.