Last June we reported on inXile Entertainment's announcement of a Wasteland 30th Anniversary Edition bundle, which includes the Wasteland 30th Anniversary Edition remaster by Krome Studios (who also remastered The Bard's Tale Trilogy). Back then, the expected completion date for the remaster was early 2019, which is now overdue. We recently saw an official trailer for Wasteland 3, as well as the announcement of a release window set for Spring 2020. Yesterday Brian Fargo also announced on Twitter that the Wasteland 30th Anniversary Edition remaster is coming to Xbox.
https://twitter.com/BrianFargo/status/1138902345050230784
When inXile Entertainment acquired the rights to the Wasteland franchise they managed to rerelease the "The Original Classic" on Steam and GOG, which already included a new coat of paint for portraits, some voice over and music tracks, but it looks like the remaster by Krome Studios is going all-in to make Wasteland play much better on modern systems. Fargo also included a side-by-side graphical comparison of the remaster with the original game, which we include below in full size.
As we can see, it looks like the Journal has been incorporated into the game, whereas with the original you either had the print copy or a PDF to peruse while you play. This looks like a great new feature that should significantly improve the general atmosphere and gameplay, though I'm kind of hoping there's a feature that would just include the paragraph 2 into the text panel instead, making the Journal completely incorporated into the game. I guess we'll see what it plays like when the release is out.
I'm also curious as to how this will play on Xbox, either Xbox One or Project Scarlett, but it's to be expected, and studios have been making tremendous leaps in porting games that were previously limited to PC (see the classic Dungeons & Dragons games now being ported to consoles), so it just might work out fine. I'll stick to PC myself, but it's good that console players get the option.
What do you think of the Wasteland remaster? Will it stand up to a modern gaming experience? Let us know in the comments below!
