Marvel's Spider-Man: Remaster gives Peter Parker a facelift

Next-gen consoles always boast of more powerful hardware capable of driving higher-fidelity graphics. More often than not, launch titles try to flaunt those capabilities with new visual effects that would not have been possible on older consoles. Although not exactly a launch title, Spider-Man: Remaster is one prime example of that demonstration but Sony did more than up the graphics ante. It also changed Peter Parker himself.

OK, changing Peter Parker's face isn't exactly part of proving that the PlayStation 5 has better graphics. But if you're redoing some graphical assets, why not take a stab at redoing Spidey's human face while at it?

Of course, it wasn't really necessary to recast Peter Parker but Sony's blog post makes it sound like it was. Sony claimed that Ben Jordan's face was a better match for Yuri Lowenthal's acting as Spider-Man/Peter Parker. It's probably purely just by coincidence that the end result has an uncanny resemblance to Tom Holland, who played the web crawler in the recent films.

Beyond recasting the game's main actor, Sony also points out the visual upgrades that will take advantage of the PS5's more powerful hardware, from 60 fps frame rates to true reflections off windows. Loading time is also claimed to be near-instant but you can force it to become slower just so that you can enjoy the game's popular and comical fast-travel screens.

That's all well and good but some probably won't like how the blog post ends. It's pretty much a confirmation of the only way you'll be able to get the new Peter Parker. Marvel's Spider-Man: Remaster is part of the Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition for the PS5 but those buying the regular Miles Morales for the PS4 will have to pay to upgrade to the Ultimate Edition. And no, there still isn't a way to buy a standalone Remaster just yet.