When Will Starcraft Remastered Be Released

• Starcraft Remastered Differences
• When Will Starcraft Remastered Be Released Back
• When Will Starcraft Remastered Be Released Date

'Hell, it's about time,' rumbled from the cigar chewing mouth of ex-con and former marine Tychus Findlay when Blizzard Entertainment introduced Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty seven years ago. Now Blizzard uses same phrase to market its latest release, Starcarft Remastered, which warped in from hyperspace on August 14th, 2017. It makes sense. This is the original 1998 game Starcraft and its official Blizzard expansion (there were two others not produced by Blizzard) Brood War, completely retooled to look like a modern day release with the graphics to match.

StarCraft Remastered will release this Summer. After the remaster drops, Blizzard will release the original game and its Brood War expansion for free. 'Following the update.

Why all the fuss? Because Starcraft is not a game. Starcraft is more of a passion or profession in the realm of computer gaming. Yes, many will say it's simply a good RTS (Real Time Strategy) game that mimics the Warhammer 40K environment with the UED Dominium, Protoss and Zerg substituting for the Imperium of Man, Eldar and Orcs (well, Orcs and the insectoid Zerg are a bit of a stretch, but still). Many will say it's the same venerable game process of each species collecting resources and building fighting units like all the rest. But it was more. Starcraft introduced the bedrock RTS foundation of three dissimilar antagonists each functioning in different ways, each with its own unique blend of strengths, weaknesses, tactics and weapons. The Protoss have psionic powers and advanced energy weapons, for example, while the organic Zerg use low tech biological weapons with units that can be produced much more quickly and cheaply. It's a convention now so common in RTS as to seem eternal, but it once was not.

• The release date for StarCraft Remastered is August 14, but the timing of the release has been delayed a bit. At the time of writing, Blizzard has stated that the title will hit at 1 pm PDT/ 4 pm.
• 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.
• Blizzard Entertainment has announced the StarCraft: Remastered release date, which will be August 14, 2017. StarCraft: Remastered is a modernization and remaster of StarCraft, the phenomenally popular sci-fi strategy game which spawned everything from internet memes to eSports leagues.
• Starcraft fans everywhere will be thrilled to hear that Blizzard will make their favorite real-time strategy game in the universe great again. Launched in 1998 and seen as one of the best RTS.

And the gaming world responded. Starcraft and its add on Brood War sold over 10 million (that is not a typo) copies, and pulled not less than four Guinness World Records for categories such as Best Selling PC Game EVER. In Korea, fighting it out with Brood War is actually a professional sport with national TV coverage and one young gamer reporting a yearly income of $245 thousand. They even have sports bars – excuse me, barcraft – for this game. The original game's only real negative is how archaic it looks for today. . . until now.

What Starcraft Remastered is Not

Starcraft Remastered comes with both games, Starcraft and Brood War, and will set you back $14.00 | £12.99. It actually seems to be an upgrade of sorts because you have to have both the original games to play it. Blizzard, however, has made this a non-issue by offering both original titles as a free download. As with all Blizzard games, the software needs to be run via the company's Battle Net app, which is also a free download.

However, this does not mean a significant hardware upgrade is needed for the remastered edition. The game does take a lot of time to load up and start, but once running does so flawlessly and effortlessly, even on low end machines. Screen top piano. Right now I use my wife's tiny Lenovo ThinkCentre work station to run the game, and although there is a 2.41 GH quad processor involved, we're talking an Intel onboard video card, and that's overkill. Got a Microsoft Surface or similar? You're fine.

Likewise if you are looking for an entirely new set of missions supporting a brand new story line, you won't find them. Instead this is the same space opera as the original with the same cut scenes, the same unit types and so on. This means you are now back in Koprulu Sector, an unsupported colony of the United Earth Directorate (UED) that went off course and wound up on the edge of Protoss space. Various human factions such as the Sons of Korhol vie for power, all the time being watched by the mysterious Protoss and threatened by the bug-like Zerg. It's the same story using the same controls on the same layout as before, same colors, all inviting you to replay a classic and discover for yourself how agent Sarah Kerrigan became the Queen of Blades, overlord of the Zerg, and why the UED does not exist in Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty.

Changes even remotely affecting game play are 'under the hood' and very transparent, mostly concerning multiplayer matches. There is optimization for Windows 10, multiplayer matchmaking, social integration with other games and a multitude of player preferences synced to Blizzard's online servers to include key binding, custom maps, replays, settings and so on.

Yet the original game's unique compromise of a 2D environment fused to a forced isometric perspective (I have really no idea what that means, but it sounds good) remains. This means that the quirky yet classic gameplay that evolved from this graphics combination remains as well, so players will find no need to go back to the academy for a refresher course.

What Starcraft Remastered is

Visuals often get short shrift in computer game reviews, and that's a bit sad. Gameplay of course is important, but if presentation wasn't as well, then one might as well use blocks with NATO symbols as game pieces. Visual impact is often what draws a gamer to a computer game and it's why people install third party video cards with enough power for a holodeck on their PC motherboards. If you can't see Storm Bolters and pulse laser cannon pulverize enemy battlemechs, why use a computer? Just for mathematics, number crunching and records management? Most folks say no.

The original StarCraft and Brood War expansion are classic games that have all the basic functionality of more recent RTS games, but with less complexity and a tried and true digital engine that runs like the proverbially well-oiled machine. Unfortunately, compared to the modern visuals found in today's computer games, the old Starcraft games are woefully inadequate and simply cannot compete. OK, let's be real. They suck.

But they don't suck now, not the graphics and not even the sound. For the latter, this means that all sound effects and all dialog has now been rerecorded in high definition sound. And, yes, you can hear the difference. The characters voices are now clearer and cleaner, while sound effects such as explosions sound much more realistic vice digital reproductions. Given Robert Clotworthy's already perfectly tuned voice for Jim Raynor, this is impressive.

The real star of the Remastered collection, however, is the set of redone graphics, same terrain, same unit design, same scale, but now redrawn to support up to glorious 4K Ultra High Definition, to include widescreen support which is really a bit jaw dropping. It's really hard to explain the difference unless you can sit in front of a screen and compare then and now. Fortunately the game lets you do that by allowing a switch to the old graphics configuration as well as a zoom in tool. Taking a unit like the Protoss Dragoon, one of my favorites, you will notice no pixilation but smooth, sharp, crisp lines instead. Maybe it's just me, but this seems to make movement more fluid and natural. You really need to see pictures vice my description, but in a nutshell this is Starcraft Remastered.

Why Should I Get It?

True story. Many moons ago I decided to spring for a limo to take my family from Harrisburg, PA down to the Port of Baltimore to catch a cruise ship. We were going to be picked up from the house at around 2:30 in the AM so I figured I'd just stay up and start a new game of Brood War. Two in the dark thirty comes, luggage is packed and the wife says, 'Sweetie, time to go.' I respond, 'Please tell me the driver can wait another 30 minutes for me to finish this mission.' The room gets hotter than a photon torpedo on overload and I look down to see a battalion of lead wargaming miniatures melting under my wife's gaze (they can do that?). I grit my teeth, hit SAVE and off I go. Yes, even as a game in its own right, it's that addictive. Simple, easy to learn and play, with all the baseline elements you'd expect in a solid RTS, not to mention one of the most intriguing story lines out there IMHO.

At $ 14.99, it's a bit of a no-brainier. Got your plastic out yet? Hell, it's about time.

Simply look at the astounding success and accolades of the original, then realize the Remastered edition's graphics, sound and under the hood enhancements have made it even better.

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Starcraft Remastered Differences

Without a doubt, StarCraft caused a sensation when it was released back in 1998. This is because Blizzard's game was considered revolutionary at the time, due to its superb real-time strategy gameplay, colourful factions and competitive online gameplay.

Actually, the game's Terran, Protoss and Zerg feature some of the best-designed and creative units ever seen in a game, while it's hard to forget the game's iconic characters like Raynor, Kerrigan or Artanis.

StarCraft's multiplayer also became a global phenomenon, with players trying to get the best of each other on Blizzard's Battle.net online service, while the multiplayer side of StarCraft almost single-handedly made eSports popular worldwide. This is due to the game's popularity in countries like South Korea, where StarCraft became a televised sport and top players were handsomely paid for their efforts.

Of course, StarCraft was released in the late 90's and it no longer has the appeal it used to. It looks horribly dated these days, and can be a challenge to get to run on modern PCs. The eSports scene, meanwhile, has shifted to other games like DOTA and League of Legends.

But American video game company Blizzard is not letting its timeless classic wither away and die, as the company recently announced that a remastered edition of the game will be hitting the shelves this summer.

In a statement, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said that 'With StarCraft: Remastered, we're modernizing the original game's visuals, audio, and online support to ensure that players can enjoy StarCraft for another 20 years and beyond'.

Blizzard also claims to have re-recorded the original dialogue and soundtrack on its website, which is also slightly worrying. This is because other remasters like this year's Duke Nukem 3D featured new recorded dialogue for the main character, which sadly was subpar and not a match for the original voiceovers. But hopefully if Blizzard has decided to bring back the original voice actors to re-record the game's dialogue, the result will be of the same high standard as the original game…

Also key in the original game were the cool briefings which put players up to speed on the latest happenings in the game's story, and these will be getting a makeover in the remaster too.

When Will Starcraft Remastered Be Released Back

Of course, the multiplayer has always been the meat and potatoes of this game, and Blizzard does not appear to be neglecting this aspect of the game in this upcoming remaster either. The new game will be fully integrated into the Blizzard App (the new, renamed Battle.net) and feature full support for matchmaking such as the likes of Overwatch do. This is surely a welcome change, as hunting for games in the original StarCraft in the late 90's was something of a chore, so hopefully things will be much smoother multiplayer-wise this time around.

As an added bonus, StarCraft Remastered will also include the great Brood War expansion released for the game in 1999. This featured a campaign which was arguably better than the one in the original game, and some interesting new units like the Zerg Lurker, and it will sure be fun to revisit Brood War's devilishly difficult campaign in the remaster.

There are also other modern conveniences like cloud saves (handy when one plays on multiple devices) and support for new languages bringing the total to 13 (English, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Italian, Russian, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese). Plus it will no doubt be great to enjoy StarCraft's superb cinematic sequences in HD resolution, as this is one area in which Blizzard no doubt excel.

When Will Starcraft Remastered Be Released Date

It's hard to think, though, that this StarCraft Remaster is little more than a compatibility patch to modernize the game without adding anything of substance to it, even if it's clear that a classic game like StarCraft needed this sort of treatment to ensure that future generations of players will be able to enjoy the legendary RTS. So here's hoping that this remaster lets players enjoy everything that was great about the original without losing anything that made StarCraft special in the first place.