StarCraft Remastered / StarCraft 1 free

[ZellSF]

Pretty huge news from Blizzard. While I'm of the opinion that there are RTS games that are more worthy of remasters, and were more worthy of shaping the RTS genre, Blizzard have announced StarCraft Remastered:

https://starcraft.com/en-us/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ypU9j4w3_w
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/brood-w ... remastered

It's going to be net code compatible with the original StarCraft, which will be available for free (the Remaster is not free). There's some great news (basically the same game, option to zoom in/out, widescreen), some meh news (I'm sort of conflicted on the redrawn graphics) and some really concerning news ("The original soundtrack and dialogue, re-recorded and rejuvenated.").

There's also a fairly extensive patch for StarCraft that coincides with its free release:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/brood-w ... on-for-scr

[reckon luck]

Brood War might be my most played game ever. I'm sure I'll be getting this.

[soprano1]

Oh, very interesting news indeed. South Korea will fill the streets with thundering cheers, i'm sure.

[Durandal]

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Mod Edit: Huge Image

[ZellSF]

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Mod Edit: Huge Image

I think Protoss looks OK. Not bad or good, just OK. Terran looks pretty good, but Zerg sort of loses that organic feel.

That screenshot hopefully tells another story though: notice how the resources are cut off in original graphic mode? Maybe telling that we're getting widescreen (and hopefully zoom) even with original graphics.

It makes sense, since it's just new graphics over the original game engine. Like Halo Anniversary or The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition

[Obscura]

Widescreen and zoom would break the game, though. Starcraft 1 is built around the concept of having to divide your attention and screen-time in any given area being as much of a resource as minerals or gas.

[reckon luck]

My assumption is that widescreen and zoom are for replays and observers. My hope is that Blizzard is adding functionality to the map editor that will allow people to make custom games with these and other modern features (unlimited unit select) for maximum UMS fun.

[BryanM]

>> Widescreen and zoom would break the game, though.

Eh, I don't think so. Even if you can pull it all the way out, it's nothing you can't see on the minimap. And so much of the game is about the micro.

Is it really just going to be upscaled graphics for the retail product? The Diablo 2 community talks about an HD version all the time, too. But as a commercial product, it always seemed... meh. Unless there's a massive overhaul or an almost completely new game using these assets, it's just nice for the hardest of hard core fans.

[Udderdude]

I still have my original Starcraft, Broodwar CDs and keys. Do I get a discount .. ?

[Dochartaigh]

Forget StarCraft! I want WarCraft III remastered!!! (StarCraft was ok, but WarCraft was my thing!)

[ZellSF]

Widescreen and zoom would break the game, though. Starcraft 1 is built around the concept of having to divide your attention and screen-time in any given area being as much of a resource as minerals or gas.

I think StarCraft has enough depth that it would work very well even with modern conveniences.

My assumption is that widescreen and zoom are for replays and observers. My hope is that Blizzard is adding functionality to the map editor that will allow people to make custom games with these and other modern features (unlimited unit select) for maximum UMS fun.

Maybe zoom will be limited for players (I hope not), but there's no chance in hell widescreen is an observer only feature in a remaster released in 2017.

[Udderdude]

You're supposed to be able to play against players using the original, so I doubt they'll let you zoom out or have widescreen during multiplayer.

[ZellSF]

You're supposed to be able to play against players using the original, so I doubt they'll let you zoom out or have widescreen during multiplayer.

There's a reason the latest patch is so very extensive, they're not planning to keep the original and remaster as entirely separate entities. They're building the remaster on top of it and any features they don't want to sell (for competition reasons or monetary ones) they'll likely make available to players who haven't forked over the money. So chances are anyone who keeps their game client up to date, which you would have to if you want to play online, will have access to widescreen (and hopefully zoom).

At any rate, thinking they're doing a HD Remaster without widescreen on a game where it's easily possible in 2017 is delusional.

[soprano1]

https://starcraft.com/en-us/articles/20674424
It's available now. You download a 3mb setup file, and it installs the full game with the new update.

[MintyTheCat]

Paying $12 for Starcraft was the best use of cash I ever made - we still play it to this day. I have never played SC2.

[Udderdude]

So apparently the PTR version had more features like key remapping but people complained it unbalanced the game, so they removed it. Does that mean Autohotkey key remapping is officially banned now .. ?

[BryanM]

It's interesting how this was done 100% because Korea never adopted Starcraft 2 in any big way.

So apparently the PTR version had more features like key remapping but people complained it unbalanced the game, so they removed it. Does that mean Autohotkey key remapping is officially banned now .. ?

jesus, really...

That memorization and distance of bad build keys, chronic nightmares. I don't think I ever hit the "m" key to build the 60,000 marines I've built back in the day. I'm supposed to move my left hand miles and miles and blindly paw at some general location and hope to god that I hit it? When I can just wiggle my right hand (still an enormous amount of effort beyond what should be required) a couple inches and click the mouse?

Why even bother having a freaking hotkey in that case. Argh.

At least in Diablo 2 you can change the horrible idea of using F-keys to the sane qwe asd zx system.

[ZellSF]

They haven't stated they're removing hotkeys for any specific reason. Might just be that the implementation was bad (it was) and it's coming back when they can do a better job of it.

I finally got around to installing the newest patch (Blizzard's servers are having troubles). First thing I noticed was that loading up the game took like two seconds more than usual. Second thing I noticed were that the menus were in higher definition and mission briefings had better text as a result.

Starting a campaign game I saw some interesting new options. Video options now allow you to turn on or off bilinear filtering and allows you to choose between windowed, windowed fullscreen and exclusive fullscreen. There's also a framerate limiter. The exclusive fullscreen mode forces bilinear filtering though.

Controls were very problematic, I heard it had mouse acceleration issues, I didn't notice that but the edge mouse scrolling felt very wrong for some reason.

I'm guessing this is just a first step though and that any control issues will be sorted out by the time the remaster will be released (which I'm still assuming will be practically the same as the base game with the new visuals as DLC). Can't wait.

[cave hermit]

Just downloaded it from soprano's link, seems really neat (never played RTS before).

Couple questions:

-How would I patch the game for future updates? Do I just use the launcher in the install directory? Every time I open it it claims there's a new update, but accepting it does nothing.

-Do I need to make a classic battle net account to log in, or will my modern one work? If I need to make a classic account, is the email required?

[Ruldra]

Downloaded and tried it, but the screen goes black while the sound keeps playing. Hope I don't need a video card to play this...

J-How would I patch the game for future updates? Do I just use the launcher in the install directory? Every time I open it it claims there's a new update, but accepting it does nothing.

I think the launcher will take care of all updates from now on. You already have the lastest version so I guess that's why nothing happens when you try to update.

It's interesting how this was done 100% because Korea never adopted Starcraft 2 in any big way.

I thought SC2 was super popular over there?

[BryanM]

I thought SC2 was super popular over there?

Comparatively, no. It's like asking someone to change their favorite sport from Football to New Football. They had to pour oceans of money into it to get it as much play as it did.

There was also quite a bit of resentment about how heavy handed they tried to be over all this back when SC2 came out, too. You might remember how Blizzard demanded a cut of the $ for SC tournaments, no LAN play for SC2, etc. Just a lot of trying to force the game on people.

SC2 is a great demonstration that you can't really hope to build something and assume it'll catch fire as an "eSport". It's all dependent on a future huge audience that may or may not form. More people just liked Brood War and League of Legends, is all.

[Leader Bee]

Won't launch on the windows XP machine i bought my friend and i to play classic games over lan. Can't remember the exact error right now but something along the lines of being unable to initialize openGl?

[BryanM]

Won't launch on the windows XP machine i bought my friend and i to play classic games over lan. Can't remember the exact error right now but something along the lines of being unable to initialize openGl?

Not surprised, considering how Blizzard has intentionally broken almost everything on XP. $60 to have your Diablo 3 suddenly require a new $200 operating system. Good thing there's an offline mode so you don't have to.... ... ... : (

The requirement is something like OpenGL 3.0 now. If your video card doesn't support it, and doesn't have a driver that supports it, you're boned and will need to get a $20 video card. Even if you did meet the OpenGL requirement, there's a non-zero chance something else will fail because they don't support XP anymore even on games that are 20 years old.

The joys of PC gaming.

[austere]

some really concerning news ("The original soundtrack and dialogue, re-recorded and rejuvenated.").

I don't know if you guys heard this but...

https://soundcloud.com/starcraft-ii-off ... 01/s-WeHPk

Holy s*#t what have they done to you Terran 01? It sounds like a parody of the original. You can almost see the marines dancing to it in clown suits. They better allow you to select the original soundtrack or I think a lot of people will stick to the original SC. This is awful.

[BryanM]

Yeah I caught that. It's been pointed out they've already remastered all the tracks.

[austere]

Doesn't that sound a million times better to you? That's what I call a remaster.

What the hell is going on over at Blizzard.

[BryanM]

It's like their zillionith version of the same song.

What's going on at Blizzard is that there isn't any pressure on them for small failures or falling a bit short of what their hardcore fans want. Nepotism* and incompetence can take root under these conditions. The kind of secrecy and yes-manning that goes on there; it's all political.

After all, if you work for Blizzard you're the crème de la crème king fuck of shit mountain.

Probably the best example of their hubris was during the Warcraft 3 days. The developers would bad mouth and disparage DotA all the time. I'm an asshole too, but if a single fan map was getting over 10 times as much play time as the game I had made, it'd give me some pause about my life choices and I'd probably try to make something to rip it off a little more quickly than waiting 12 years.

Remastering an ancient game made by exiled devs that aren't even part of the company anymore, that's got to be like eating glass to these guys~


* Bill Roper has got to be a fantastic example of that. Can you imagine a voice actor starting off in 2017 being able to become CEO of Marvel Games this day and age?

** Hellgate: London is also a great example of a ton of bad ideas and mediocre execution allowed to go through thanks to friends being unable to tell lifelong friends something they came up with wasn't good.

[ZellSF]

So StarCraft remastered is out. I bought it since I really like strategy games, but I can't really play multiplayer any longer. That said some impressions of it in singleplayer:

• The new art looks really good. The only things I don't think are improvements is the filler in the UI between the UI elements in widescreen. Watching early screenshots I thought they were placeholders. Aldaris and Jim Raynor's portraits are also bad, like really bad. The rest is all good though.
• Real Time Lighting makes everything way too shiny and removes too much color from things. 2GB- GPU owners: you're not missing anything. Thankfully it's optional.
• Environment effects adds more random crap to the landscape. It looks bad at best, some of it looks like it was just ripped from another game, it does not fit in at all.
• You can't zoom out. At all. They've made a huge deal about their zoom feature and never mentioned it was observer only. I feel that was intentionally misleading. I wasn't expecting unlimited zoom or anything, but maybe an option for something a bit larger than the claustrophobic 640x480 of the original. It would be possible to limit it in multiplayer. The game actually looks worse because of this, the new art isn't perfect so zooming in closer than you want to isn't ideal.
• You can't play with classic graphics in widescreen (why the hell not?) and the UI is blurry in classic graphics mode.
• Options are randomly assigned when you start the game. No really, I can't find any meaningful pattern in how it constantly changes varying amounts of options I have set.
• Save games are equally well respected. They have a habit of just disappearing.
• The online check (because invasive online only DRM is just what StarCraft needs) was supposed to be once every month but at launch you had to connect online every time you launched the game. I had a bit flaky internet connection and couldn't play it a while after having purchased it.

It feels a lot like Heroes of Might and Magic III HD. It looks better, but they've screwed up everything else in ways you thought wasn't possible.