Quick Look: StarCraft Remastered

Is it about time, hell?

Brad, I'm here for the $15 tree.

Wait isn't fmv supposed to be not CG? Why does Brad call it FMV?

This is giving me hope for a potential Diablo II remaster.

what are XdsGrrr Maynard OgerEli Fish DEF-Korn up to now?

The way those hillbillies look in that CG cutscene really reminds me of Xavier Renegade Angel for some reason.

@mustkill: Think it was just a mistake.
EDIT: I guess the term is much broader than I thought.

@mustkill: Nah, FMV just have to (mostly) fill up the screen with non-static content — it's full motion — rather than just a tiny window with a couple of looped frame animations. CG is just a process of producing that video.

Brad and Ben didn't mention this, but they did add a matchmaking system for 1v1 and a ladder.

This is really cool, any excuse is a good excuse to go back to starcarft, sprite based graphics have such a beautiful textured quality to them. It looking so nice also makes me realize how great the sound design in this game is, it's like the graphics just caught up with the sound.

Watching in mobile quality, remastered and old gameplay graphics looks similar other than the aspect ratio. lmao.

@dim499:

Oh man those naaaames...I think Korn played professional poker for a long time, he might even...still?

anyway, about the remaster: I really wish they'd put in an achievement system, especially since most of the SC2 ones are cleverly designed :/

I admit, the lack of that makes the 15$ pricetag sting a bit. Looks and feels great though!

Hotkeys are customisable on the main menu, but its a bit tedious.

All the one vs one action is happening in the ranked.

Back in the day we used to call every prerendered video FMV. At least I did.

Diablo 2 has to be getting the same treatment, right?

Fun fact: If you had "misplaced" your cd-key in the original, you could use 1234567890 and that would work.

This seems harsh, the SC2 achievements were really cleverly designed and helped encourage you to play the game in weird ways. It WOULD have been a nice bonus added to a game a ton of people have played before.

@dim499: Grrr played in the Korean remastered showmatch.

@little_shadow: I don't see a reason for it. Diablo 3 is still doing well, at least I have not heard much bad about it.

We used to install it every day at lunch during highschool. Almost any random smashing of the numpad would be a valid CD key.

Please remaster Fallout 1 & 2

They played starcraft campaign at 1/2 speed.

Brad scrolled past the speed adjustment.

Activision Blizzard's Blizzard's Battle.net

since @Coreus original comment seems to have disappeared:

That's a very myopic and reductive statement. I do value games for the experience they provide, but as someone who played SC1 when it came out (and BW and years of online multiplayer), a remaster without that modern framework seems lacking in 2017.

As it is, I'll probably cheat my way through the campaign and get pummeled online a few times, and that'll be it. I get that the most obvious reason for this remaster is that there's a resurgence of BW in the Korean e-sports scene, and the new graphics make that much more palatable, but still.

@brad Put the speed up if you play any more of the single player, it's still smooth & great :)

And wow, all those sounds are just ingrained into me. I forgot...totally have to buy this, even if just to watch pro replays ^_^

IntoTheRain, Grr..., NC_Yellow, H_Paul_WII were always my favorites to watch. Never liked Terran :p

I had forgotten what made SC 1's singleplayer good, but I forgot the humour like the Sarge ridding in a buggy over dunes FMV. SC1 didn't take itself too serious, SC2 went balls deep into serious territory.

@steelknight2000: Fallout 1&2 remaster would be nice, it has to include fixing all those fucking bugs though. The two times I've tried Fallout 2 I got stuck 15 hours in because some quest was all kinds of fucked.

Old PC RPGs were so unstable it's crazy. I can't tell how many times I've had to quit one because of some bullshit.

Yeah, the term FMV (full motion video) originally applied to any type of video in a game. However, the term became synonymous with bad games from the 90's that primarily used live-action video. I'm old and even I blinked when Brad called it FMV because of what that term has come to mean today.

@tippis I think "full" is referring to the actual motion rather than the size on screen. For example, I wouldn't consider a small looped animation with a few frames a full motion video. That's just an animated element, same as a animated sprite, etc.. But I would consider the small videos in Myst to be FMV. To me FMV just means any fullyanimated footage with a constant frame-rate and considerable length.

Starcraft 1 is as close to a perfect game as it gets.

Cool singleplayer campaign with good story

Multiplayer obviously, much better balanced (and uniquely designed) than its RTS peers

Modding and map sharing, so you can play tower defense or RPG if RTS is not for you

Graphics and sound design still hold up

Easter eggs, cheat codes were fun as well

Incredible influence on esports and gaming as a whole

@brad BGH was in Broodwar -> Webmaps. And it's still there.

Eh, never had huge love for the original Starcraft, but this looks pretty nice, so good for those who'll go back.

Warcraft 3 and Frozen Throne, though, I'd definitely play those again if remastered.

Also I remember trying battle.net for the first time with my friend back in the day to play some Starcraft online. We thought that people were obviously cheating, when they rushed us right in the beginning and we just stared with open mouths.

What is the hotkey to toggle between original and HD graphics? I'm not seeing it in the options.

EDIT: Finally found it, F5!

I'm really enjoying playing through all of the campaigns again. The only thing I didn't remember was how terrible the unit pathing is!

Yeah I would buy that in a heartbeat. Depending on the success of this game we may end up seeing more remastered stuff.

Thank goodness I can play this game again, because the last time I played it I ran up a £300 dial-up bill.

lol Ben backstabbing the shit out of people in SC1. The best thing was sending a little side squad to kill the computer while you amassed a much bigger squad at your base and then as soon as the computer was dead, sending your squad in to destroy your ally's base

OI! ME APMS!

Blizzard founded a whole "Classic Games" division to make this, and in interviews the lead has said "well there's a reason it's called Classic Games, so yeah, you'll be seeing more from us."

The storytelling in Starcraft and Brood War was so god damn good. World-shifting events popped off every few missions and it even led me to read the books.

So despite all the time I played watching/playing Starcraft II, it always left a bad taste in my mouth because the story got so fucking bad at parts (despite the actual mission designs being super creative and varied).

This is a cool thing.

@klynn: Didn't know about that; thanks for informing me. Good to know more of this stuff is on the way.

Yup, Kerrigan no longer looks like a heroin addict/vampire.

@steelknight2000: I'm sure Blizzard will get right on that.

brad

This is Jimmy.

The Stimpack upgrade is in the Academy...

There was a discussion at length during the last Blue Bombin' between Austin and Dan on what games could be called 'masterpieces'. I would rate the original StarCraft + Brood War as one example of a video game masterpiece.

My favorite game of all time right here, happily shelled out the 15 bucks for a fresh coat of paint. Those hotkey groupings are going to take some getting used to though!

One of the best games ever made. I saw some people wonder which games are masterpieces. Well.. this is one for sure. That music too, holy cow. So iconic and good.

I love how games like Starcraft, Warcraft and Dota give you the tools to play a certain way and then just let you express yourself through the game. That makes a game really good.

If you're not interested in spending money, at least get the free version :)

The multiplayer part of this quick look reminded me of the times playing SC or WC3 online and everyone getting angry at you if you didn't already have the map downloaded...