New-gen remasters. They can be great. Or they can be something of a rip-off. We’ve nothing against playing a better looking version of a last-gen game and it’s a great way to invite gamers that may have missed out last time.

But some of these re-releases are really starting to take the piss and are treating gamers like morons, or ripping off those that don’t know any better. We’re always looking at the value for money on offer by looking for the very cheapest game prices for you. So, when we see Sony and retailers trying to charge $40 (or £49.85 in the UK!) for a five year old game with slightly shinier graphics, we struggle to see how they can get away with it.

The regular deal with most of the new wave of remasters is that you’ll at least get two games for your money or only pay a cheap price for one – DmC Definitive Edition was available to pre-order for as little as £20 in the UK. Given Sony has already released two God of War collections (at £25 in the UK), one for the PS2 games and one for the PSP ones, you’d think this would be the norm again. But no, Sony Santa Monica recently confirmed that there are no plans to remaster GoW: Ascension too. $40/£25 for the pair? We wouldn’t have had any problem with that bundle, although we’re not expecting a huge improvement in terms of graphics seeing as the originals were amongst the PS3’s finest looking games. Hell, you could always track down the original god of War III for about $5/£8. Or you can pay through the nose for a version that looks, well… wetter.

Publishers can sometimes get away with over-pricing these remakes by including DLC. But seeing as GoW III didn’t have any, we can’t see the incentive at all. Maybe they’re going to include Ascension’s multiplayer mode for a laugh, along with the extra DLC (no thanks). If you do want to pick up this remastered entry though, be sure to do one simple thing. Wait.

As we’ve seen with the likes of Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs, The Last of Us, Metro Redux and Saints Row IV, you really don’t have to wait that long before the prices start coming down by at least a tenner. Except for you GTA V, people are still throwing top-dollar at you every week since release. Stop!

If we as gamers continue to pay full-price for half-assed re-releases, then publishers will continue to pump them out. And if we persistently support releases with extremely limited extra content or just the one game when a double-pack would have been as better option, we only have ourselves to blame that we’ll continue to see physical and digital stores packed with games we’ve already played years ago.

Isn’t it time we forced publishers to get off their backsides and bring us some new classics already as we’re in this generation’s second year with little to show for it. For example, why when I pick up a copy of PlayStation Official Magazine UK are their top two PS4 Hall of Fame games (the highest rated games in their opinion) GTA V and The Last of Us Remastered? For f*ck’s sake, let’s move forwards for a change.