- Starcraft 2 is now FREE TO PLAY, just check out starcraft2.com.Useful links below:Guides/Community Forum - Imp.
- Wage war across the galaxy with three unique and powerful races. StarCraft II is a real-time strategy game from Blizzard Entertainment for the PC and Mac.
- Is Starcraft Remastered Worth Buying Items
- Starcraft Remastered Free
- What Is Starcraft Remastered
- Is Starcraft Remastered Worth Buying Guide
- Is Starcraft Remastered Worth Buying Gold
StarCraft and its Brood War expansion are in both of these deals. One of the interesting Brood War characters, Admiral Alexei Stukov, will be making an appearance in Heroes of the Storm as the new melee support hero. A smart move to get other players interested in the lore, and, eventually, into buying the remastered version.
One of the most popular games and esports of all time is now completely free.
Blizzard Entertainment has just updated StarCraft, its 19-year-old real-time sci-fi strategy classic, to make it a free download. You can get StarCraft and the Brood War expansion without paying anything by clicking here for the PC and here for the Mac (the download will automatically start if you hit those links). Blizzard has not released any of the classic Warcraft RTS games for free.
This move is a precursor to the release of StarCraft: Remastered, which is an updated version of the game and the expansion due out in the next couple of months. Blizzard recently completed a trilogy of releases for StarCraft II, and now it is making an effort to revitalize a franchise that was once the most important game in the competitive-gaming scene around the world.
By releasing the original StarCraft for free, Blizzard is also telegraphing some of what it wants to do with the remaster and with the series as a whole. Starcraft 2 encyclopedia. StarCraft: Remastered is not the first updated classic in the world of games. Publishers do this all the time. Examples include the recently released Voodoo Vince, Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, and PlayStation 4's God of War III Remastered. What is different, however, is that most other publishers don't give away the original version of the game for free.
That discrepancy is worth noting because it signifies that Blizzard isn't worried that the audience for StarCraft: Remastered will get what they want by playing the original again. This is despite the company promising to keep all of the gameplay from StarCraft exactly the same in the Remastered release. And the reason this doesn't worry Blizzard is because the updated HD visuals and re-recorded audio (both welcome improvements) aren't the reason most people will show up for the remake — instead, fans will show up for the promised 'modern online features.'
The thing that will make StarCraft: Remastered worth purchasing is that it will work through the Blizzard app and a lot of people will play it. This means you'll have an easier time finding a match with someone who matches your skill level, and you can also see when your friends are online playing. These are crucial features for one of the best head-to-head competitive games ever, and the free version cannot match with its more rudimentary online support.
So go enjoy yourself some free StarCraft, and then Blizzard will see you in a few weeks when you're ready to buy the game all over again.
VentureBeat
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital townsquare for technical decision makers to gain knowledge about transformative technology and transact. Our site delivers essential information on data technologies and strategies to guide you as you lead your organizations. We invite you to become a member of our community, to access:- up-to-date information on the subjects of interest to you,
- our newsletters
- gated thought-leader content and discounted access to our prized events, such as Transform
- networking features, and more.
Do not be deceived by the above gallery. This is not a prank or a proof of concept. StarCraft: Cartooned is now live at Blizzard's online store as an official $10 add-on to 2017's StarCraft Remastered. It redraws every single piece of art in the classic RTS game to look and animate like a children's cartoon, without otherwise changing the core gameplay.
Specifically, StarCraft: Cartooned looks like a Carbot Animations cartoon—because the YouTube channel in question, operated by Canadian artist and animator Jonathan Burton, was tapped to create Blizzard's first full cosmetic overhaul mod for a retail game.
The Cartooned DLC does not add any new gameplay or mechanical content to the StarCraft Remastered package. Instead, it transforms every single graphical element in the game, from menus to sprites to between-mission briefings, to look like the Carbot Animations animated series 'StarCrafts,' now in its seventh season on YouTube. (Carbot's YouTube channel also includes unofficial animated series based on Blizzard game series Diablo and WarCraft.)
As you can see in the above gallery, all of Burton's existing designs have been translated into the working game in their silly, bulbous, flat-shaded glory. In fact, they saw their gameplay world premiere last month at an official StarCraft tournament in South Korea, where pro players tested the mod and confirmed that, yes, silly as it looks, this mod otherwise delivers pure SC: Brood War action.
Advertisement Burton says that Blizzard's work on StarCraft Remastered paved the way for his mod to become a reality, since the updated engine supports a complete sprite swap without disrupting the core gameplay. (That's in essence how the original Remastered release works, anyway.) And unlike Carbot's 2016Is Starcraft Remastered Worth Buying Items
StarCraft 2Starcraft Remastered Free
mod, which only redrew assets within that sequel's limited arcade mode, today's new mod smothers the fullWhat Is Starcraft Remastered
StarCraft Remastered experience in Burton's redrawn characters.A few original assets remain, like FMV sequences and some interstitial art at the beginning of each campaign. Otherwise, you'll find a ridiculous amount of redrawn cartoon material—even in the between-mission briefings. In those, you'll see Burton's full treatment look its silliest as the game's original, dramatic music and voice acting play out over childish art. Having tested the mod briefly before filing this report, I would argue that this is an entirely new way to experience the game, if only because of how easy it is to follow Burton's bold, primary-color designs as battles get hectic and Zerglings rush en masse.
Reminder: If you're simply itching for classic StarCraft: Brood War action, either single-player or online, and don't care how it looks, you can grab the complete, original game in its 480p, 4:3 ratio glory for free at Battle.net. From there, you'll have to buy both the StarCraft Remastered upgrade ($15, if you don't already have it) and the StarCraft: Cartooned mod ($10) to take your classicIs Starcraft Remastered Worth Buying Guide
StarCraftIs Starcraft Remastered Worth Buying Gold
experience to a Saturday-morning level.Listing image by Blizzard Entertainment / Carbot Animations