Resident Evil. The gamecube remake still has the same wacky tank controls, which means that every remaster of it (none of which I've played) probably also have the same wacky tank controls. The biggest reason though to avoid the original isn't the inferior graphics as I play old games and am not put off by inferior graphics.

It's entirely the voice acting and dialogue lines. Okay. This is Resident Evil, so there will still be wacky dialogue. It's just less wacky, with no weird over emphasis of certain words or Jill Sandwiches. This alone makes it better than the original.

Dialogue Comparison - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQjpPnQymHc


Also IGN posted a video comparing the PS4 HD remake vs the Gamecube version. While the PS4 version looks better, the Gamecube holds up quite well for an old game. This is what the Resident Evil was always meant to be in the first place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITGNvv6r7G8

Someone must agree with me on this because they did a comparison of the Gamecube remake versus the PC HD remaster. However they label the Gamecube remake as original. Let's not even acknowledge the actual original Resident Evil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jvYaUEu8SM

I would say that Daggerfall Unity improved the Daggerfall experience in every way. No downsides to it that I can see.

Freespace: Silent Threat.

Not just because of FS2_Open, which is the best way to play any Freespace now. But because the fan remake, Silent Threat Reborn, is a massive improvement over the frankly terrible original.

Thought immediately of Caesar 3, Xcom and RCT2 but you mentioned them already :)

I could add thought openttd over transport tycoon deluxe.

The Ur-Quan Masters, a remake of Star Control 2. Version 0.8 seems to have been released last year, a fact that I had missed. Fun game but learning how to fight takes a while.

Uplink. I wouldn't like to play with outdated and clunky original UI when there is nice, slick and convenient UplinkOS mod.

I've been curious about UQM, but I'm not fond/keen of time pressure games.
So how exactly was Freespace 2 a disappointment? How could you bodge up what I thought was a direct evolution of Descent?
I thought about mentioning it, but I also felt it had outright displaced TTD.

Nobody said Freespace 2 was a disappointment. Silent Threat, though, was a mess. However, Silent Threat aside, there's also not much point playing the originals of Freespace or Freespace 2 either, when you can use FS2_Open for both. Not that the originals are bad, it's that FS2_Open is far more modernized.

The phrasing you used was a little confusing, pardon begged, etc.

It wasn't my phrasing. ;)

My reading of said phrasing.

Still waiting on a good Dark Forces source port.

Tricky. Isn't that one of the more complicated games?

None, I have found the first of a series is usually the best