For me, the definitive way to play any game is always the original version/original port that the creators intended. Any remasters or remakes doesn't usually have the same creative minds behind it, so a lot of intent or unique elements, whether or not they be jank, is often lost. That doesn't mean I don't play remakes or remasters, I just treat them as separate entities.
Biggest example for me is Resident Evil 4. When I played the original Resident Evil 4, it was and still is, a unique game. It is a mixture of over the shoulder camera and tank controls, and you don't move while aiming. For some people that's the sign of "it not aging well", but for me, it was something unique and refreshing. How many times do I have to use the right stick to control camera and press l2 to aim and r2 to shoot. Way too many times. So playing something different like that, where I had to press A to shoot and the camera always stayed behind the character model, something that was made with intent like, was a refreshing experience. Sure, it took me a while to get used to the controls but when I did, it was really an amazing experience and again, a very unique one. There was nothing like it that I had played, and that was a good thing. Same thing goes for Cold Fear. People just diss it as an RE4 clone, but I liked it. I am yet to finish it, because the last time I was playing it, my computer got corrupted and I lost save, but goes with saying, it too was a very unique experience when it came to playing the game. It was somewhat like RE4 but it also had its own elements. It was janky. It was imperfect. Its controls were a bit hard to get into. However, when I got used to both them, it felt like I had this unique understanding of the games, and again, they felt like something I had never before.
RE4 remake, I have respect for. Remaking a game and still making it competent and also adding your own unique flair of artstyle is no small feat. I have respect for RE4 remake and I also enjoyed my time that I played with it (I am also yet to finish it because at that time I dropped it out of RE fatigue, as I had played too many games one after another) and would play it further in the future.
But I would always consider RE4 remake to be its own thing. Just like how I consider the original RE2 and the RE2 remake to be separate things. I don't like treating one as a replacement of another. They both are their own things that are to be enjoyed separately, and they both have unique and talented artists behind it.
So, if I am able, if it is possible to, I always, always, would choose the original version of the game on the intended platform that the creators worked on, and once I am done with that original intention and feel like I am interested in some of its reinterpretations, then I play them as that...reinterpretations, and not replacements.
That's just me though. That's just me.
- no hate against...
