Hexen’s cinematic intro is still a delight, and it received a very nice upscale in this new collection. Sceenshot captured by the author on a Nintendo Switch 2.

Two of My Favorite Retro Games Got a Lavish New Remaster

I just wish Microsoft didn’t own them

Xbox boss Phil Spencer used to love throwing cute little teasers at the gaming community via his t-shirts. A few years ago, he appeared on an announcement stage wearing a Hexen shirt, suggesting that he’d love to bring back the classic fantasy series if he managed to complete the at-the-time still ongoing Activision purchase.

Hexen and its predecessor Heretic are fantasy-themed games made on the original Doom engine. They were caught up in a legal quagmire for years that prevented any real work from being done to them other than simple re-releases of the old DOS versions on PC digital stores. Activision published them but id Software still retained some rights to their code and IP, and they’re also often seen as old weird games with niche appeal. Thanks to the “magic” of billions of dollars of Microsoft money, they now all live under one corporate roof. Yesterday, Bethesda and Nightdive surprise-released a brand new version of both games complete with tons of new content and visual updates.

It’s hard for me to feel good about supporting these games because Microsoft owns them. In the years since Spencer wore that t-shirt, they’ve blazed a trail of chaos and destruction across the whole game industry, firing thousands of people and…