Blizzard Announces 'StarCraft: Remastered,' Coming This Summer (Update: Freebies!)
Update, 4/19/2017, 1:00pm PDT: The original StarCraft and its Brood War expansion are now available to download for free. Blizzard also updated the game with a new patch. You can download the game and read the patch notes on Blizzard's website.
Original article, 3/1/2017, 1:00am PDT:
Blizzard’s StarCraft (plus its Brood War expansion) is one of the most notable games in history. It's the definitive real-time strategy genre, and its sequel continues to garner fans and players in the esports scene. This summer, you can revisit the classic title with StarCraft: Remastered.
To bring the new version up to today's presentation standards, Blizzard updated the game’s visuals and audio. Specifically, the game will now support up to 4K resolution. In terms of the overall campaign, the studio will also add new illustrations throughout cutscenes in an effort to “enhance storytelling.”
Those who prefer online play will find a new matchmaking feature in addition to the ranked ladder system. That means the game will be connected to Blizzard’s current online network so that it takes full advantage of additional updates. Other features include support for eight additional languages (on top of the five languages included in the first game) and cloud saves for keybindings, replays, custom maps, and your overall campaign progress.
Blizzard also announced that the original game and expansion will receive an update later this week. On top of fixes and improvements, version 1.18 will add an observer mode, the ability to create your own keybindings, “modern anti-cheat measures,” and improvements to the game’s overall compatibility with Windows 7, 8.1, and 10. As a final treat, Blizzard’s StarCraft Anthology, which includes the original game and the expansion, will be free to download and play when the update is released.
Blizzard hasn’t announced a specific release date for StarCraft: Remastered, although it did say that the game is set to come out this summer. It will be playable on both Windows and Mac OS.
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| Name | StarCraft: Remastered |
|---|---|
| Type | Real-time strategy |
| Developer | Blizzard Entertainment |
| Publisher | Blizzard Entertainment |
| Platforms | Windows, Mac |
| Where To Buy | N/A |
| Release Date | Summer 2017 |
Rexly Peñaflorida is a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering topics such as computer hardware, video games, and general technology news.
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Mister-Vine So, they're going to release an old game, remastered?Reply
Outstanding.
Maybe, since they're an EA property, they can re-release it every year, give us a new list of players, so we can pretend it's a new game and fork over more money for a worn out, pimped out version of itself? -
frzsk @MISTER-VINE since when did Blizzard become an EA property? They're Activision Blizzard owned by Vivendi games. Good misinformation right there.Reply -
dark_lord69 "the game will now support up to 4K resolution"Reply
Cool, I just bought a 4K TV!
"will be free to download and play when the update is released"
:-O
Awesome!
Personally I would like to see Warcraft 2 Remastered. -
spdragoo Sorry guys...The original (non-4K) Starcraft & Brood War will be released for free after the 1.18 patch is released. The remastered Starcraft (i.e. 4K gameplay/1080p cutscenes) wil not be free.Reply
But that's quite all right, I'll still pay the money anyway. With Starcraft, what's kept me coming back (& even kept my interest with SC2) was a combination of the gameplay, the single-player campaigns, & the multiplayer (over both LAN & Internet). I'll be saving up the cash for this one... -
bloodroses Makes sense since SC is better than SC2 imo. I used to spend months on SC; with SC2 I lost interest after the campaign. HoTS has been quite fun though.Reply
What they really need to do is remaster ALL their older games and have them available on battle.net (wc, wc2, wc3, lost vikings, lostvikings 2, blackthorne, diablo1, diablo 2). As a bonus, they could remaster Rock n' Roll Racing and include things such as online multiplayer. -
tkline I take it this won't have Ultrawide support since SC2 doesn't? Why does Blizzard hate Ultrawide? no fair and bah humbug!Reply -
spdragoo Nope, the WCCFTech article (http://wccftech.com/starcraft-remastered-announced-summer/) specifically states that it'll support both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios (& apparently let you switch between them with a keystroke in-game)...Reply