StarCraft: Remastered

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

So what? Fuck you.

 

[RhodokMasterRaceOfficial]

So what? Fuck you.

Because multiplayer is all Starcraft actually offers/ever offered, so why do you even care about an always online requirement? All you're gonna do with your old install is play the campaign for 10 seconds and quit.

 

[thesheeep]

So what? Fuck you.

Because multiplayer is all Starcraft actually offers/ever offered, so why do you even care about an always online requirement?

Says you and the other 5-10% of players that actually stick around for MP

 

[MilesBeyond]

Even if you're only doing single player, the ability to rebind hotkeys is well worth being always online and having the ad in the main menu.

 

[thesheeep]

Yeah, no doubt. This remaster is mostly for the MP crowd. At least I doubt there are too many changes (if at all) to the campaign.
But claiming SC has only ever been for multiplayer is beyond ridiculous.

 

[MilesBeyond]

But claiming SC has only ever been for multiplayer is beyond ridiculous.

Oh, no argument here. That was just plain stupid. There's plenty of people who enjoy Starcraft for its campaign, and then plenty more people who enjoy it for UMS multiplayer. In fact, I think that in North America that demographic would be a fair bit larger than those who are in it for competitive multiplayer.

I've honestly felt no need to get the Remastered. I just don't have the time to get deep enough into BW to become a reasonable player, and none of the rest of the changes really seem worth spending money on. That's the problem Starcraft's always had, really, and the reason why I'm not surprised SC2 has struggled so much against MOBAs. Starcraft is PC gaming's chess (and whether you take that as a compliment to SC or an insult to other PC games is up to you). The reality is that it's not something you can just pick up and play. Cultivating the mechanical ability alone takes a lot of time, to say nothing of learning the meta and timings and how units work and whether that has any relation to how you'd think they work (be honest, how many people, after finishing the Terran campaign in SC1, thought to themselves "Man, you know what? That Vulture unit is incredibly useful and is obviously going to be a staple of Terran multiplayer").


Meanwhile, I have never played a MOBA sober. You do the math.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

The old offline installers for most Blizzard games are still accessible - if one wants to avoid using Blizzard's launcher or online installers.

Starcraft + Brood War (1.15.2)
https://eu.battle.net/download/getLegacy?product=STAR&locale=en-GB&os=WIN

You still need a serial key to install/play.
Starcraft is almost a 7GB download now that they've bundled classic and remastered together.

This may be due to a difference of meaning, but that does not link to an offline installer, but to an online installer.

Could it be that the link has changed?

 

[mwnn85]

You basically download and run that file - which downloads the "real" offline installer in turn.

Spoiler

Once it's downloaded you can delete Downloader_StarCraft_Combo_enGB.exe.
It'll try an install the game once downloaded but it's safe to cancel that.

Backup the contents of the downloaded folder (i.e. \SC-1.15.2-enGB\* ) to a convenient place.
Run Installer.exe to install the game.
You will need a serial key, you don't have to be online to install, you won't need your discs at all.
Thrown mine away years ago.

 

[MilesBeyond]

Reviving this thread because I recently stumbled across Lowko's playthrough of the campaigns in SC:R and if you've got a lot of time on your hands it can be a fun watch (I actually have almost no time on my hands but for some reason the more work I have to do the more time I end up spending on Youtube. I've noticed that I almost never go on Youtube unless I'm procrastinating). It's a good introduction to SC:R and will famliarize you with the new graphics and illustrated interludes to get an idea of how you feel about them. Personally, I don't know how to feel. The interludes are actually pretty cool, but they hardly justify the price tag on their own. I don't like the new Terran visuals as much, but I think I do prefer the new Zerg visuals. Maybe? It's hard to say. On the one hand, the remastered Zerg look a bit too plastic-y. On the other hand, they're also a lot more clear. With the original textures there's quite a few units and especially buildings where you had to look up their pictures in the manual to get any idea of what the hell they were supposed to be portraying, and here it's easier to tell. For Protoss, I like the look of the units a bit better? Except for the Zealot, I feel like their colours have become a lot less obvious. But I'm really not a fan of some of the portraits. Aldaris and Tassadar in particular just look strange. I guess the former is fair because original Aldaris kinda looked like a Jim Henson creation. Anyway, all in all, definitely not something I'd spend money on.

Also, Lowko's a major figure in SC2 who has never actually played through SC1 (his excuse is that back when it came out he was mostly playing HoMM 3 and AoE, which... is totally fair, actually), so it can be fun to watch him experience it for the first time. He's actually pretty taken aback by how much he prefers the story and writing to SC2, and how much fun the SC1 units are. He makes an interesting case at one point for SC1 having a better unit collection: A lot of basic, straightforward units that are fairly general purpose mixed in with a few specialist units to liven things up, as opposed to SC2 where everything feels like a specialist unit to an extent and everything feels a lot less powerful as a result. It can be a little frustrating at times because of his tendency to miss things that are obvious or in the middle of the screen, but it's still the most enjoyable playthrough of SC1 I've seen.



EDIT: When I say he's a major figure in SC2, it's more as a video maker or commentator. He's not a pro or anything like that.

 

[ArchAngel]

He was a pro at one point but he wasnt able to become a top pro

 

[Multidirectional]

I enjoy watching Lowko host pro SCII videos from time to time because I genuinely pick up some nice ideas that I successfully apply in my own games occasionally, or just get more information about units in general. His videos where he is executing a build and explaining it while playing are also nice. But I can't be arsed watching him play campaigns, I'd rather replay SC myself. Which I did do for original not long ago, BW campaigns still await.

 

[RhodokMasterRaceOfficial]

There's a lot of drama right now because Blizzard is a shit company. They're making the pro-scene impossible atm by charging an absurdly large tournament license fee, which means that AfreecaTV is currently in the red running ASL, and basically gating anybody else who wants to run a major league out of doing so. The finger on the monkey's paw curls. ASL5 might be the last big thing we get.

I'm not sure what they can do to mess things up.

ASL5 should be starting later this month, by the way.

 

[Dzupakazul]

I got the Remaster a while ago on sale - because I'm honestly just a sucker for Starcraft in all its forms, can't help it, love that game, will always be a lowly Drone for it - and I think I managed to avoid the brunt of most of the lag and early release issues. I'm playing Zerg at 1500 MMR and just enjoying myself. Sure, I'm not good and my teenage dreams of being like Draco are never coming to fruition, but game is still tight as hell and winning makes me really happy and pumped up. Unparalleled feeling with any other competitive online game I put my toes into. Not that this is an endorsement to go mass-buy the Remaster, as I am also aware of all the issues surrounding it; the game is currently apparently developed by, like, one guy in his free time.

One thing that apparently the Remaster isn't good for yet is working with modded campaigns; the other day I stumbled upon a very interesting project made by a really renowned mapmaker and checked out a few minutes of a playthrough on YT: mod has units with hacked in special abilities, full voice acting and a ton of quality and polish. Only problem is: it doesn't work on current SC:R patches because of lack of compatibility with the newest changes. So if any one of you guys want a Starcraft SP experience and have a 1.16.1 version of the game laying around (or can simply downgrade patch it), here's a trailer.


And here's some dude's playthrough; just check out the care put into this thing. I can 100% get behind it.

 

[MilesBeyond]

He was a pro at one point but he wasnt able to become a top pro

Riiiight, that was it. It's what makes the videos so fun to watch. He's got semi-pro levels of micro and macro skills due to SC2, but he's a noob to BW, which means that he goes back and forth between pulling off some pretty impressive stunts and having some facepalm moments, often within minutes of each other.

I enjoy watching Lowko host pro SCII videos from time to time because I genuinely pick up some nice ideas that I successfully apply in my own games from time to time, or just get more information about units in general. His videos where he is executing a build and explaining it while playing are also nice. But I can't be arsed watching him play campaigns, I'd rather replay SC myself. Which I did do for original not long ago, BW campaigns still await.

See, for the most part I feel the same way, but I found these videos interesting because as his first time through he's always comparing everything to SC2, and makes some pretty cool observations.


EDIT: Actually, to illustrate the first point, when he plays the Protoss mission where you have to use Tassadar to rescue Zeratul, he never actually figures out that the Terran units are rescuable. He just assumes they're hostile and either avoids them or storms them. It goes from being a huge facepalm to actually being pretty impressive when he manages to complete the mission this way - you keep thinking he's going to figure it out, but nope. He just uses micro and a bit of save scumming to beat the mission with almost no army.

 

[MilesBeyond]

Also if I were head of the SC:R team I would have patched Scouts out of multiplayer just to see how long it would take before someone noticed

 

[Dzupakazul]

Also if I were head of the SC:R team I would have patched Scouts out of multiplayer just to see how long it would take before someone noticed

Scout/Tank 200/200 is an unbeatable late game combination in Team Melee.

 

[RhodokMasterRaceOfficial]

Also if I were head of the SC:R team I would have patched Scouts out of multiplayer just to see how long it would take before someone noticed

Scouts do actually do something, it's just that the units they're useful against (Carriers, BCs, large Zerg flyers) don't get used much vs Protoss. There's an SSL Classic PvZ match where the protoss player builds one (1) scout to kill a pair of guardians that were hatching behind his base.

 

[cvv]

So in order to understand the drama around WC3 Reforged I briefly skipped through this thread. Seems people mostly like how Blizzard didn't do jackshit to actually modernize SC1 and kept it basically the same, including all the 1990s limitations....but they're seething with hatred because Blizzard didn't go far enough with Reforged?

So is this about nostalgiafaggots vs. graphic whores? Or is the rage mainly about Blizzard completely mismanaging expectations with Reforged? (talking just about single-player here, I do understand they objectively fucked up WC3 multiplayer).

Coz I do remember I had high expectations for SC1 Remaster and I fucking hated how lazy it is and how thoroughly Mass Recall/Retro fucks it in the ass, with looking, moving and sounding better, having tons of additional content and being free. Sadly I don't remember anymore what Blizzard promised for SC1 Remaster.

 

[luj1]

No, you are just retarded. SCR is a top-tier effort and how you properly remaster a classic, WCR is not - it lies on the opposite end of the spectrum. Another example of how *not* to do a remaster are HoMM3 HD and various Bumdog EEs.

- every unit sprite remade (not only "upped" resolution)
- every building sprite remade (ditto)
- every terrain tileset remade (ditto)
- improved UI appearance
- improved music and sound-effect quality
- improved all campaign cinematics to FullHD
- new comic-style illustrations to enhance storytelling
- new unit portraits
- new matchmaking system (!)
- full connectivity to Blizzard’s gaming network for social features and updates
- cloud saves for campaign, custom maps, replays and keybinds
- localized in 13 langauages
- added spectator mode
- added 4K and UHD support
- added Win7/Win8/Win10 compatibility
- uses the same gameplay code as Brood War

And add to this,

- a new patch for BW
- making SC and BW completely free to download
- one player can play on 1.18 and the other on SC:R
- even if the players play on standard BW, observers can cast it in HD
- old replays will play and work under StarCraft: Remastered.
- bug fixes

FYI Blizzard worked closely with doyens of this sport such as Flash, Jaedong, Stork, and Bisu whom were given out builds to test, while for WCR they outsourced the project to some chink kid living in a cage on a rice farm.

 

[cvv]

No, you are just retarded. SCR is a top-tier effort and how you properly remaster a classic

SCR is how you remaster a game so that brainless nostalgiafaggots are happy while nobody else gives a fuck. A 2017 game that looks like the 1998 original with a HD mod. At least they "only" charge 15 dorra for that worthless crap.

WC3 is worse because it's a 2020 game with visuals that look like a mix between a PS3 era and cheap mobile. AND they ask a full triple A price to boot.

To be clear I'm not asking for any remasters ever, as long as the OG are still playable. But IF you take the time and money to build brand new assets then why the fuck do they look 15 years old? If I'm to pay 40 bucks then at least give me the same production values as modern RTS games like Anno 1800.

 

[Wilian]

So in order to understand the drama around WC3 Reforged I briefly skipped through this thread. Seems people mostly like how Blizzard didn't do jackshit to actually modernize SC1 and kept it basically the same, including all the 1990s limitations....but they're seething with hatred because Blizzard didn't go far enough with Reforged?

So is this about nostalgiafaggots vs. graphic whores? Or is the rage mainly about Blizzard completely mismanaging expectations with Reforged? (talking just about single-player here, I do understand they objectively fucked up WC3 multiplayer).

Coz I do remember I had high expectations for SC1 Remaster and I fucking hated how lazy it is and how thoroughly Mass Recall/Retro fucks it in the ass, with looking, moving and sounding better, having tons of additional content and being free. Sadly I don't remember anymore what Blizzard promised for SC1 Remaster.

WCR wasn't meant to be 'just a remaster' to begin with.

 

[Wilian]

No, you are just retarded. SCR is a top-tier effort and how you properly remaster a classic

SCR is how you remaster a game so that brainless nostalgiafaggots are happy while nobody else gives a fuck. A 2017 game that looks like the 1998 original with a HD mod. At least they "only" charge 15 dorra for that worthless crap.

Yeah, it's a remaster. Not a remake. It was marketed as such.

WC3 is worse because it's a 2020 game with visuals that look like a mix between a PS3 era and cheap mobile. AND they ask a full triple A price to boot.

It's worse because it's nothing like it was sold as. It wasn't meant to be simple remaster and it's release fucked up those earliel games unless you have access to CDs.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

So is this about nostalgiafaggots vs. graphic whores? Or is the rage mainly about Blizzard completely mismanaging expectations with Reforged? (talking just about single-player here, I do understand they objectively fucked up WC3 multiplayer).

From my perspective the real issues are that:

• WC3 didn't really need a remake, it was working fine on modern OS and UI scaled properly in HD and even 4k etc...
• The new art looks as if Blizzard just outsourced all of the art to some chinese mobile company
• Somehow, the optimization of the game was so poor that even the title screen lagged like crazy on my modern PC (this was in late beta when I refunded idk if they fixed this)
• Playing the original version now requires you to install a giant update that gives the menus an aesthetic feel of a cheap mobile game

To me, it's more that the "Reforged" is worse than the original and there's no reason to purchase it, idk why they did such a half-ass job on remaking what is probably THE game that made Blizzard a huge successful company.

I think I saw other people complaining about how blizzard owns the rights to custom games or whatever.. but idk how anyone with half a brain would think that wouldn't happen in today's world. Like, duh, they obviously don't want Dota 2 to happen again and they don't want to be sued by Dragon Balls or whatever. Sucks, but that's just how things are today.

 

[cvv]

From my perspective the real issues are that:

• WC3 didn't really need a remake, it was working fine on modern OS and UI scaled properly in HD and even 4k etc...

Sure. I'd like to play WC3 with 2020 audiovisual standards and bursting with content like AoE 2: DE. But I'd be even happier if they invested the effort and money in WC4 instead.

 

[Average Manatee]

SC:R:
- Doesn't fuck anything up.
- Adds higher resolution graphics.
- Adds some really specific stuff requested (reverse ramps I know of, actual experts on SC maps and mapmaking can probably tell you more)
- Only cost $15, basically what you'd expect. Not sure what the cost for a copy of SC1 from the blizzard store was before remastered but it was probably at least $10.
- Made SC1 free to play.

WC3:RF:
- Fucks up literally everything for everyone. Seriously its mindboggling how many ways things are fucked up. If only campaigns were fucked up, or only custom games were fucked up, or only ladder games were fucked up, or only single player campaigns were fucked up, or only graphics were bad, or only performance were poor, it'd probably be getting a 70-80/100 rating. Blizzard fucked fucking everything up with multi-headed dicks that branch off fractally into more dicks that are also fucking you at every level of scale.
- $30, a relatively high-tier price point. At this level you are competing against AAA games that are discounted after being a few months old or top-of-the-line indie games.