StarCraft: Brood War is now free!

[Winthur]

This is last week's news, but Blizzard has decided to make SCBW free, in lieu of the incoming remaster, and I'd love to play it with someone again. I'm in the EU zone, but a few years ago our SC and WC3 groups were doing very well by aggregating on the USEast server anyway, with a couple dedicated players playing 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and custom maps, and we all had pretty good casual fun with players ranging from C to D ICCup ranks (which is top 0.1% of people playing Brood War, apparently, but the ranks go all the way up to A+, so that's some interesting statistics right here).

Brood War can be a very intimidating game. It doesn't have the same mechanics that SC2 does. It is, however, still very rewarding to play, and even a massive loser like myself is having fun with every loss. And there are still a handful of people who play at a pretty damn beginning level.

And even if you don't really care about the competitive scene, play the campaigns. Starcraft has one of the best RTS stories to this day. It's really good. Classic Blizzard storytelling, with compelling FMVs that still manage to look awesome to this day.

And if you'd like to try out Multiplayer, visit Teamliquid (teamliquid.net/), Liquipedia (http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/Main_Page). ICCup has a list of all competitive maps and a whole map pack of fun custom UMSes. (http://iccup.com/en/files.html) I still have the files for a Starcraft Co-op Campaign which is pretty damn good and fun. I played the Terran Campaign with a pick-up-guy the other day and let me tell you, Desperate Alliance has never been this nervewracking:

http://i.imgur.com/dciiPvS.jpg

Seriously, the Co-op Campaign ROCKS. The AI is bolstered and given many tools. The final mission of Terran campaign drops 2 nukes on you in 3 minutes! (Hint: Vulture Spider Mines have personal detectors). It is intense as hell.

Also, Brood War is really damn fun to watch, and it still has Korean streams.

Spreading the love because I'm really damn excited!

[divitorobert]

I know it's nit picky, but every time he said irradiate it made me cringe

[Silfir]

How do you get it? Can the (soon-to-be-renamed) Battle.net client just download it?

[Winthur]

How do you get it? Can the (soon-to-be-renamed) Battle.net client just download it?

Link to the 1.18 beta is for now here (https://d8un0y0mnd29o.cloudfront.net/public/Starcraft+1.18+PTR+1202.zip), hosted by Teamliquid. You need a PTR account to play on the PTR servers (they are based in California, to my knowledge).

Something is wrong currently with official Blizzard forums.

I might be tempted to write something quick about how every race plays in BW, but I think that for the most part the mechanics carry over nicely from SC2, sans the unlimited grouping, workers instantly going for minerals and all that.

[Keltest]

How do you get it? Can the (soon-to-be-renamed) Battle.net client just download it?

I think that's the plan eventually, but for now its still a separate thing. Brood War is an old game, after all, so getting it to work with modern systems and programs is a bit of a chore, especially since theyre trying not to mess with the game client more than they have to in order to preserve the feel.

[Silfir]

Oh, I played Starcraft like way back when it was new, but I wouldn't mind giving the campaign another go-around.

Now if only they'd fix up Diablo, too!

As for multiplayer, I think I'll get a buddy of mine to play it for old times' sake - on LAN! Ah, glorious memories.

[Gandariel]

Now if only they'd fix up Diablo, too!

Hey, Diablo 2 never went anywhere!

Anyways, I kind of prefer SC2, honestly. Graphics are soon going to stop being an issue, but large grouping, building grouping and non-retarded unit pathing truly improve the game to me.

Will certainly give it a try, anyways. I think I do still have my old BW installed on an old computer.

Also: dat music

[Silfir]

Go away with that new-fangled Diablo II crap!

[Dienekes]

Hey, Diablo 2 never went anywhere!

Anyways, I kind of prefer SC2, honestly. Graphics are soon going to stop being an issue, but large grouping, building grouping and non-retarded unit pathing truly improve the game to me.

Will certainly give it a try, anyways. I think I do still have my old BW installed on an old computer.

Also: dat music

I agree with some not with others.

Pathing improvement is definitely much appreciated, as are graphics, and the increased worker amount in lotv is just a nice quality of life change.

But large groups I'm kind of torn about. From just an ease of use perspective, yeah being able to put more in a group is just nice. But, in doing so, it made death balls easier, turning death balls into the primary method of doing anything. I still play the old Brood War from time to time, and the smaller max unit forces people to be smarter with their unit grouping, and to focus on smaller strike teams, which were more effective in part because the large death ball groups were hard to get to respond to the mobile strike forces.

In SC2, by mid-game everyone feels like they're playing like late game Zerg, getting a massive army to smash into each other.

[Cynan Machae]

This is last week's news, but Blizzard has decided to make SCBW free, in lieu of the incoming remaster, and I'd love to play it with someone again. I'm in the EU zone, but a few years ago our SC and WC3 groups were doing very well by aggregating on the USEast server anyway, with a couple dedicated players playing 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and custom maps, and we all had pretty good casual fun with players ranging from C to D ICCup ranks (which is top 0.1% of people playing Brood War, apparently, but the ranks go all the way up to A+, so that's some interesting statistics right here).

Winth! I'm late, I missed this post. You should come play with me and Slaan, started playing a bit since the PTR, BW is hard after so long lol. I'm hoping we can get some kind of play group again when SC: Remaster releases.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I've been taking advantage of this to finally play the SC campaign for real. Good stuff!

[Spore]

I'll probably still rather play Broodwar Remastered just because nowadays I feel like 640x480 is quite the eye strain.

[ghostmaya]

Im glad to join this forum~! I really love starcraft~! And also Im happy to hear that starcraft is now FREE~! WOOHOO~!