The new 1.18a patch to Starcraft: Brood War makes the game free-as-in-beer and remasters the pixel art as well as campaign assets:
For one, it will be preceded by a patch to the 19-year-old StarCraft: Brood War client, and this new 1.18a client will reportedly not change the mechanics of the game. To prove that out, this patched version will still be able to connect to players using the existing 1.16 patch (which came out all the way back in 2009). Among other tweaks, like better compatibility with newer versions of Windows, the new patch will include two important updates: the ability to connect to and play against owners of the upcoming remastered version, and the change to a wholly free product. Once the patch goes live, the original StarCraft Anthology will be free-as-in-beer to download and play in both single- and multiplayer modes.
Also at VentureBeat.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Tuesday March 28 2017, @12:45AM (1 child)
It seems that Macs are excluded from the 2D version update. It would be nice if it were AND if the source code were recompiled for Intel-based Macs so I don't have to boot Snow Leopard in order to play the classic Starcraft.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Tuesday March 28 2017, @12:57AM
My mistake. I looked at the details for the patch coming out on Friday. When the remaster is released this summer it will run on both PCs and Macs. Woohoo! I get to kill more realistic squishy Zerg!
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by mth on Tuesday March 28 2017, @01:12AM (2 children)
The mechanics won't be changed because their clunkyness is part of the challenge that top-level players and viewers enjoy. This post by StarCraft 2 caster TotalBiscuit [twitlonger.com] provides some context. It's cool that Blizzard cares about keeping a relic like this alive, where a lot of other game companies only care about their old games when they can call upon fond memories to sell pre-orders for a sequel. But it's not something I'd be interested in playing again myself.
What I'd like to see is a StarCraft with more accessible game play, where there is no needless clicking just to keep your economy rolling, but instead you can spend your actions on the parts of the game where the fun is, like figuring out what your opponent is doing, performing multi-pronged attacks etc. StarCraft 2 is a beautiful game to watch two pros play, but when you play it yourself you have to invest way too much time to just to be able to perform the basic mechanics quick and reliable.
An example of an action-draining mechanic is queuing units for production: StarCraft 2 will immediately deduct the costs (mineral and gas) for a unit, even if it's placed at the end of a queue and won't be produced for another few minutes. So to play efficiently, you have to regularly cycle through your production facilities and put a single unit into the queue when the previous one is nearly finished. If the production costs would be deducted at the time the production starts, the decision making process (what type of units do I want to build?) would be exactly the same, but you would have to check up on your production far less often.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday March 28 2017, @01:40AM
Supreme Commander (follow-up to Total Annihilation) is a worthwhile mention.
Not everyone likes the infinite economy (resource points don't run out), which makes for a very different strategy, especially for turtles (turtles don't like getting hit by nukes and giant bots, though).
But I like the greater focus on fighting, matched with SupCom2 having the best unit movement I've ever played (units flow around all obstacles and each other beautifully).
You can queue/repeat units at your factories, tell them where to go once built, and even patrol around until called upon.
TotalA just shared resources in real-time, slowing down builds, while SupCom grabs each queued unit's resource payment when available (meaning you can't start big units if small ones keep resources down, and you lose more if you get interrupted).
SupCom: FA is a great (now pretty old) game which suffers from gradual real-time slowing deep in the game, but has immense depth and replayability, with fans writing many AIs and mods.
SupCom2 (with the economy-fix patch) adds research tree, and unit training which allows early minor units to be more than cannon fodder as the game progresses.
Both series are full 3D unit movement/ballistics, unit veterancy, and land/sea/air units.
Recommend a try. SupCom2 doesn't feel its age, because I don't really know how you add more without it being fluff.
(now I've got to check if any sequels are in the works)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday March 28 2017, @03:25AM
Starcraft UMSs were the bomb.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 28 2017, @01:35AM (3 children)
This patch is going to get an entire household of good will for Blizzard where I sleep. The kids will probably dig it even more than the adults. We got them hooked on quality vidya early.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @02:24AM (2 children)
Too bad Blizzard got onto the Ctrl-Left crazy train. https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/61su2i/blizzard_is_cucked/ [reddit.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @05:25AM
Oh noes, Soylent News got posted by a cuck, whatever I we do?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @02:11PM
What's really going to bake your noodle later on is that Trump is the actual cuck. When you see it, you'll shit bricks.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @06:11AM (3 children)
I'm not just picking on Blizzard here. It seems to be a trend that nearly all big game studios (and entertainment studios in general - movies for instance) are facing.
I think this is clear evidence that this money before all culture increasingly invading so many aspects of companies today is ironically not the way to make money. For any poker playing soylentals, it seems akin to a poker player who is afraid to lose their money when playing. For soylentals still with their sanity, that translates to a great way to make sure you do exactly what you're trying to avoid. The symptoms are even the same. Companies are very afraid of taking any risk that they can't precisely measure. Uncertainty and major change is all but completely taboo. Do what you know, and then do it a million times more. If Notch had pitched Minecraft to any major studio he would've been laughed out of the place. "Yeah.. so you wanna make a game where you play with blocks? No story? No hero? No villain? And super pixelated graphics on top of it? I tell you what. I'll fund it. No, not that idiotic idea - but whatever is you're smoking because I want some! Now get outta here!"
All games that are coming out of these studios are increasingly derivative mush that's watered down to the lowest common denominator. Replace games with movies and you have a similarly accurate statement. That said I think we're currently in a serious golden age of gaming but the gems aren't coming from Activision, EA, or Ubisoft. They're coming from small studios in pursuit of fun over profit, yet the profit somehow emerges even in the complete absence of the absurd marketing budgets that these other companies have. We could say that the companies are just doing what works, but it doesn't. Even as the demographic size of gaming has increased by tens of millions on population increases alone (let alone demographic expansion) new consoles sales are a joke compared to the PS2. Adjusted to their per-capita performance they're a really really bad joke. And the "bread and butter" of companies revenues continue to fade. Assassin's Creed Syndicate was a flop, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare was a flop, all of these things are flopping left and right. And the companies frequently blame everything except their own lack of connection with the market. Must be mobile... Yeah, Candy Crush Saga is totally just stealing all the gaming market away. Funny how Minecraft managed to sell tens of millions on PC and console. Guess Candy Crush Saga resonates more with the demographic for Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty, than the demographic for Minecraft. Yeah... that must be it.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Tuesday March 28 2017, @06:46AM
This is also a example of a software company supporting their product after 20 years. That is nearly unheard of.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday March 28 2017, @12:34PM
If Notch had pitched Minecraft to any major studio he would've been laughed out of the place. "Yeah.. so you wanna make a game where you play with blocks? No story? No hero? No villain? And super pixelated graphics on top of it? I tell you what. I'll fund it. No, not that idiotic idea - but whatever is you're smoking because I want some! Now get outta here!"
Yet Alexey Pajitnov didn't get the same reaction to Tetris.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday March 28 2017, @06:25PM
> we're currently in a serious golden age of gaming
Game studios and movie studios have the same problem: Excessive processing power.
Much of the public expects amazing visuals for their cash, so the studios (spending millions to create and promote their stuff) would rather put out a great-looking crummy story than a fantastic story which looks dated. Video chips manufacturers help the studios push the envelope, to sell hardware.
Independents have to generate original stories and experience, because they don't have the AAA/blockbuster budget (and a get-noticed rather than get-return-on-9-figures set of constraints).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @11:54AM (1 child)
I played StarCraft long ago. It was good fun.
Does this mean that we can download and play that original game for free?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Zinho on Tuesday March 28 2017, @04:11PM
Yes, but not until March 30. It's listed under "classic games" now, indicated as "sold out"; that will presumably change when the update is pushed and the price is changed to "free".
I'm looking forward to this; we've been trying and failing to get Starcraft classic running on the Windows 7 boxes at my house, and constantly run into a bad graphics bug that seems pretty common. I really hope that the new patch will fix that glitch and I can get it going again.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin