I've gone on record as not being a huge fan of the artstyle choices used in the new Warcraft I & II remasters. It's crisp and readable, sure, but I'm never exactly thrilled to see all the roughness of older sprites completely done away with, especially when I always felt some of that ruggedness was the point. The tendency of remasters to treat every characterful oddity as a blemish is a wider topic than the scope of this article, but one day, Bluepoint will remaster Bloodborne, and the world will feel my pain.
Anyway. Nowadays, I'd say Blizzard - or, World Of Warcraft, at least - is pretty much synomous with a softer, more colorful approach to fantasy worlds. While I don't pine for a return to the more boobily ridiculous elements of Frank Frazetta's style, I do often wish that some of the more expressive, pained, and physically grounded elements of classic Sword And Sorcery art was a bit more common. I'm no art scholar, and there's undoubtedly a bit of tunnel vision of my part to this assertion, but as far as as pop culture goes: I see the Blizzard version of fantasy more than I see the Frazetta version, and I don't exactly love it. Same goes for the older, punkier, less uniform sci-fi art from things like 2000 AD and Warhammer 40,000. Edwin touched on some of this in his excellent Space Marine piece.
Anyway, a valued RPS community member on the Discord shared an older bit of art by Blizzard's Chris Metzen, from the original Starcraft manual. I figured a few of you might enjoy seeing these older pieces, considering how much the overall look of their games has changed over the years.
]]>A new shooter set in the StarCraft universe is in the works at Blizzard, according to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier's book Play Nice, via Eurogamer. The project is headed up by Dan Hay, who worked various leading roles on Ubisoft’s Far Cry series, and also a 1999 CGI film starring Jim Belushi named “The Nuttiest Nutcracker”. The real-time strategy spinoff was also mentioned during an IGN podcast that aired yesterday.
]]>Earlier this month, we asked you to vote for your favourite strategy games of all time to celebrate the launch (and glorious return) of several strategy classics this month, including Relic's WW2 RTS Company Of Heroes 3, Blue Byte's The Settlers: New Allies and Cyanide's fantasy Warhamball Blood Bowl 3. And cor, I've never seen such love for individual expansions and total conversion mods among mainline RTS games and 4Xs. As with all strategy games, however, there can only be one victor - and you can find out what that single strategy game to rule them all is right here. Here are your 50 favourite strategy games of all time, as voted for by you, the RPS readership.
]]>Have you ever heard a football or basketball or (snort) baseball fan talking in depth about their passion? The numbers they can memorise alone puts some EVE veterans to shame. Some of them probably take it even more seriously than some of the players. Meanwhile, what's a star ballchucker to do in their downtime, with the press circling and anything dangerous or unhealthy off limits? There's only so much you can do when confined to a hotel.
It's not really a surprise then to see footage of the NBA's San Antiono Spurs playing StarCraft in between games back in 1999. Sport and games: together at last.
]]>I sense a theme developing here. My 'triumphant' return to RPS, after five years away, is nothing but stories about classic game series being given cartoonish makeovers. First Turok down there, and now StarCraft: Remastered. While Turok has been re-worked into a new game and genre, StarCraft: Cartooned is a lick of paint over the ancient RTS. Though it's a lick from a brush made of unicorn hair that's been dipped into Teletubby blood.
]]>After some delays, StarCraft: Mass Recall is complete and ready to play. It's a StarCraft 2 mod remake of the original StarCraft's campaign, expansion, demo and more. Better still, it's compatible with the free SC2 Starter Edition, effectively making it a free game. When I last covered this and other SC2 mods, only the first three campaigns were available, with the remaining missions needing work to keep up with StarCraft 2's mod-breaking patches. Below, a trailer comparing Blizzard's own StarCraft: Remastered to today's new Mass Recall. Personally, I prefer the latter.
]]>A team at Blizzard had been working on a first-person shooter set in the world of their StarCraft real-time strategy games, the rumour mill says, but it's recently been cancelled. One secret source told Kotaku that the game was a bit "like Battlefield in the StarCraft universe" though we may never see or know much more about it. Cancelling unannounced games is fairly standard for Blizzard if they don't think it's working out and, without confirming anything, the studio hint that's the case here. Kotaku's rumours say the StarCraft FPS gang aren't being laid off, rather put to work on Diablo 4 or Overwatch 2 instead.
]]>StarCraft 2 remains an RTS esports favourite nine years from launch, but its mod scene never got the love or attention it deserved. Despite Blizzard's support, an in-game mod browser, powerful editor and even a short-lived premium mod program, a lot flew under the radar. While some mods and standalone missions remain popular in the StarCraft 2 Arcade, we're going to be diving deep into the biggest, best and newest single-player campaigns available. Whether you're an RTS veteran or don't know what a Zerg is, there's something for you here.
The icing on the space-cake is that all of this is completely free. StarCraft 2's first episode - Wings Of Liberty - has full mod support, and Blizzard made it free back in 2017. Every one of these campaigns can be played start to finish, fully intact and without a scratch on your wallet. Impressive, considering one is a full modernised remake of the original StarCraft and its expansion.
]]>I'm perhaps too far behind to catch up on StarCraft. I played back in the day but 15 years of competitive epsorts later, I rarely understand what I'm seeing when I watch the Big Match. (For what it is worth, I'm suddenly finding Rainbow Six: Siege to be the most watchable esport competition. Lemme know if that's how you're feeling too.) But for the game that was basically the first major esport competition, we have a lot of good news today, including some updates on the remastered version and some league announcement information that's pretty fascinating.
]]>This year's BlizzCon will run November 2-3, Blizzard have confirmed, and the first round of tickets will go on sale on May 9th. BlizzCon is their annual fan convention in California, with panels, tournaments, and events for all their big games. It always brings some big announcements too, setting up the year of Blizzard to come. For people who can't get there, Blizzard will also sell 'Virtual Tickets' to access livestreams of anything as well as the customary in-game goodies, and the main presentation livestreams tend to be to everyone for free.
]]>Blizzard have been celebrating the 20th anniversary of Starcraft all month long with a series of giveaways and perks for their endlessly cross-promoted stable of games. Today, they're finally giving away something of real value for Starcraft II players: One of their premium-priced playable characters for the RTS giant's still-growing cooperative mode.
You remember Fenix, right? Protoss hero, seemed friendly if a little death-prone. Now you can get him in his final, transforming future-bot form, free via Battle.net.
]]>If you've ever looked at your pet in Diablo III and thought "it's a shame that's not a miniature version of a high-tech flying battleship", then I've got some good news. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of StarCraft's release, Blizzard are giving out some free bits and bobs for StarCraft: Remastered, StarCraft II, Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone. You play at least one of those games, right?
I find something undeniably icky about the phrase "cross-franchise celebration", despite having no real objections to what it entails. Maybe it's just that in whatever context it crops up, I can't help but recoil at the f-word.
]]>The next Overwatch map will launch on January 23rd, Blizzard World have confirmed. It's taking the gang to the magical kingdom of Blizzard World, a theme park based on Blizzard's other games, from the StarCraft rollercoaster 'Journey to Aiur' to the 'Snaxxramas' restaurant. Us, nah we're not having fun, we're going there to shove a payload around. After a stretch on the test servers, Blizzard are now confident that they've jacked the saltiness of fries high enough that people will become parched and need to buy a drink but not high enough to vomit, so they'll set the map live on the main servers next Tuesday. New costumes based on characters from other Blizzard games are coming too.
]]>We've trapped in two main cycles of revamps, revivals, remakes, and rethings. One is giving us revivals and remakes of games from 20 years ago, while the other goes revamping games released during the previous generation of consoles. StarCraft: Remastered [official site] is from the former camp, a remake of Blizzard's wonderful sci-fi real-time strategy game from 1998, now fancied up with new art and better support for modern systems and all that. And it's out today.
If you had expected it to be out by now, hold on. Blizzard say that "our deployment is taking longer than initially expected" so the launch is due around 9pm (1pm PDT).
]]>After Blizzard made StarCraft free ahead of August's launch of the fancied-up StarCraft Remastered [official site], they had said they planned to add Remastered's new matchmaking and ladder to the free version too. (Yes, StarCraft had no matchmaking - oooh the olden days!) Blizzard have changed their minds. Matchmaking will not be added to the free old version after all, as it supports cross-version play with Remastered and Blizzard say they worried it'd end up being abused by griefers. That's a bummer but hey, it is a free game.
]]>After being finally announced in March -- confirming rumours that felt like they’d been going on forever -- StarCraft Remastered [official site] now has a release date: August 14th. The remastered version will contain all the original content from the main game and the Brood War expansion, gussied up in 4K. It’s available for pre-purchase now.
]]>Blizzard's seminal 1998 strategy game StarCraft [official site] and its expansion, Brood War, are now free for all and sundry. The game that birthed modern digital sports! The game that launched a thousand zerg rushes! The game that still has the best tanks in all RTSland! Blizzard have updated StarCraft a touch to play nicer with modern computers but mostly it's still just StarCraft ("just StarCraft" she says!). The real overhaul is coming later this summer in the not-free StarCraft Remastered. But for now, free StarCraft for all is just dandy, ta.
]]>Blizzard have fired two blasts from the news-barrels, finally revealing a vague release window for the long-rumoured StarCraft Remastered [official site] project, and informing the world that the original version of the game will be free to download and play once the next patch arrives. What's more, owners of the original will be able to play against those using Remastered. StarCraft is back, even though it never really went away.
Although presumably aimed at the esports crowd, Remastered contains all of the singleplayer content and the Brood War expansion. On top of that it has 4K visuals, widescreen support, improved online functions and remastered audio. It's coming in summer and you can see it below.
]]>The Korea e-Sports Association, KeSPA, has announced it will be discontinuing the world's longest-running esports league, the StarCraft ProLeague as of 18 October. Its closure comes after 14 seasons of competitive play across the Brood War and SC2 iterations of the franchise.
You can read the statement in full after the jump but I wanted to say that the golden years of competitive StarCraft were a bit before my time in PC Gaming and esports proper so what I know, I know from research and watching older VODs. With that in mind I'd really love to hear your experiences watching both ProLeague and with StarCraft in general - who you followed and why, standout moments, tiny heartbreaks - that sort of thing. Just leave a comment :)
]]>Blizzard could very well announce an HD remaster of StarCraft next month, if reports from iNews24, a reputable Korean news source, are correct. iNews24 says multiple sources with access to Blizzard's inside plans suggest that the company will reveal a StarCraft HD remake some time in September.
]]>Before broadband and the connected world of information, we found different ways to mix our social life and our games. LAN parties. Where our PCs had a big group hug and let us kill one another in peace. Michael Johnson remembers those times.
Growing up as a PC gamer in the 90's was a curious experience, the dawn of the internet age was upon us, but everything was still a little bit rough around the edges. To illustrate this - try playing the dial-up modem noise to a millennial and tell them that this sound used to accompany turning on the internet and they'll say something precocious like “You had to turn on the internet?” before laughing in your face and stealing all your pogs.
]]>Prepare the cake and light up the candles, because Heroes of the Storm [official site] has announced its next hero, bringing the roster up to 50 characters! What do you say? We don't do candles and cake anymore? We just give them an achievement?
Anyway, as reported by Destructoid, it's Dehaka's turn to join Blizzard's MOBA. He comes from Starcraft, and among his abilities it stands out that he won't be able to use mounts.
]]>The Student StarCraft AI Tournament is an AI vs AI tournament which pits bots programmed to play StarCraft: Brood War against one another. SSCAIT started in 2011 and is one of three major Brood War AI tournaments. Last year's student division title went to Martin Rooijackers and his creation, LetaBot. They also won the 2014 student and mixed division. This year Martin and LetaBot made it through to the quarter-finals.
While the bots continue to battle I've been asking Martin to tell me more about how they work. Are some of Starcraft's races easier to build bots for than others? What's the hardest thing to get bots to do? And is LetaBot built to dominate a bot meta or could it take on humans too?
]]>[Update: Oh! Blizzard told GameSpot it's simply to maintain them. Dreams are always so short-lived. Hey, maybe do consider revamping them though! That would be lovely. Official support for modern resolutions in Diablo II would be a grand start.]
Once a games studio has been around for long enough, different generations of players will each have their own idea of the devs' finest days. Perhaps like many in their early thirties, the Blizzard games I think of most fondly are Diablo II, the first StarCraft, and Warcraft III (which isn't to say I dislike their modern games, of course). If you're in a similar position, good news! Going by a job listing, it looks like Blizzard are planning to tart up those three classics.
]]>The omnipresence of the Internet, together with the ease of modern control schemes, has all but eradicated the need for game manuals. Who needs a glossy paper booklet when they have Reddit and GameFAQs and YouTube? Who has time to read with such a gluttony of entertainment options available at their fingertips?
But game manuals and owner’s guides aren’t just about information. The best ones can be beautiful: cornucopias of concept art and comic panels, hives of witty one-liners, knots of clever prose intertwined with moments of weird. I want to talk about, if not the best, then at least my favourite manuals - and then I want to know about yours.
]]>Today I will mostly be watching the Student StarCraft AI Tournament. It's been running every year since 2011 as a challenge to student AI developers. The idea is that students submit bots to compete against each other playing 1v1 Brood War matches.
]]>Gigantic pretty clearly wants to be a big deal. It's from the former lead designer of StarCraft and Guild Wars, it has $20 million in backing, and its team size is kind of, er, gigantic for an indie studio. So it can talk the talk, but can it justify a series of costly expenditures on the part of shadowy investors and/or see why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch? That's the $20 million question, but it certainly looks like an intriguing prospect. Gigantic includes MOBA elements (teams of five facing off in a big ol' battle arena), but the difference is you're not on defense. Rather, both teams have a hulking colossus that accompanies them into combat, with defending/destroying them serving as your main objective. Meanwhile, the whole thing is action-based, with physics-based abilities and WASD controls steamrolling over the classic top-down approach. Impressive debut trailer below.
]]>That headline might be confusing for some of you, so allow me to elaborate: Rob Pardo's been one of Blizzard's top designers for 17 years, making him - among many other things - one of Diablo's many daddies. So when I say the devil cries, I'm mostly referring to that. I'm sure he's blowing his 666 nostrils into a +44 WIS Hanky Of Wretched Despondency as we speak, the poor primeval force.
That, however, is only the beginning of Pardo's legendary ledger, which spans everything from the original StarCraft to Warcraft III to World of Warcraft to Diablo III. He's been everywhere (as lead designer or chief creative officer for a lot of it), worked on projects great and not-so-great. And now he's leaving.
]]>Mohawk Games is an excellent name for a company. And so it is that former Civilization IV lead designer and Spore man Soren Johnson approaches me sporting the company haircut. It's a recent trim job for the old headshrub, he tells me, but he wears it well. However, the brain beneath the mohawk - the mind behind some of strategy gaming's greatest greats - is the real main attraction here. Johnson's goal is to design "core strategy games" in conjunction with Civ V art director Dorian Newcomb and in partnership with Galactic Civilizations (no relation) developer Stardock.
First on the docket? A still unnamed Mars economy RTS with no units and 13 different resource types. Is it madness? Probably, but it's the good kind, the kind that drives a man to shave off most of his hair before a business conference, the kind that sounds wicked fun when people exchange fireside tales of their favorite matches.
Go below for a discussion with both men about how the game works, boardgame influences, how videogames might be able to replicate boardgaming's face-to-face appeal, designing strategy that's extremely complex but also accessible, release plans, and heaps more.
]]>This week Jeb Boone looks at the story of Flash versus Grubby, and the Electronic Sports League (ESL) Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) tournament in Singapore.
]]>The techno-chaps over at Ars Technica have posted an interesting story about the development of the ultimate Starcraft AI. Written by student Haomiao Huang, it's the story of the "Berkeley Overmind", which recently beat Starcraft pros a former Starcraft pro in head-to-head matches (although it is a way off beating the real current masters, it seems). Here's a snippet: "In theory, a computer should be great at controlling many units simultaneously, since it’s not limited by human speeds. Indeed, there is a common misconception that because StarCraft is real-time, it must be game of reflexes. But while speed is useful and important, it is no substitute for knowing the right thing to do... To handle these issues and limit computational overhead, our agent uses artificial potential fields for unit movement. The potential field controller generates virtual forces that push the mutalisks around, balancing attractive forces on targets with repulsive forces on threats. Summing up the forces acting on a mutalisk gives a direction to fly, resulting in a simple but robust control scheme."
ChaosSmurf found himself inspired by the humanity of Starcraft commentator Day(9)'s latest broadcast - a two hour confessional about his life as a gamer, and specifically Starcraft. He lobbed it over. I went to just briefly check its vibe, and all of a sudden I'm half an hour into it, just carried along with the enthusiasm and period detail. I suspect anyone who dug the hell out of Gaming Made Me series will find something to enjoy here. And I'll agree that having a brother is one of the best peripherals a young gamer can have. You'll find the footage below...
]]>I'm not entirely sure how to dig deeper into this particular drama, as the main source sites are in Korean, and the auto-translations aren't proving to be particularly useful. Anyway, the story as originated here reports that top Korean players are being named and shamed for throwing matches to make money on illegal betting. It's apparently been a problem that the e-sports organisers have been trying to stamp out for a while, and it has now reached an impass, with players being outed, or forced to retire. It's the biggest drama the game has seen in some time, and could shake things up for the leagues as they move ahead to the Starcraft II launch, with sponsorship being put at risk, and so forth.
]]>Blizzard have announced some lovely digital downloads via their online shop. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne cost $20 each (about £10) and Starcraft is up there for $15 (about £7.50). Not bad, but I recall buying the CD version of Starcraft (minus Broodwar, come to think of it) for about £3 off Amazon a while back...
]]>A fascinating little study of Starcraft's AI by software engineer Shamus Young reveals something you might not have expected from the game:
I’ve been curious about the quirks in the Starcraft AI and I’ve wanted a chance to see them do their thing in a deterministic environment. I learned some surprising things about this ten-year-old gem. While the races themselves are very nearly balanced in the hands of humans, it turns out the AI is a lot better at using some races compared to others.
It turns out, from Shamus' experiments, the AI are rubbish at playing the Terrans...
]]>Half the internet is rather excited about finally getting to see Starcraft 2's Zerg in action. So, here they are, doing what Zerg do best: Zerging.
]]>The creativity of the crafting gamers knows no bounds. Behold: the Starcraft Origami.
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