StarCraft Remastered out this summer, original to be free
Shiny happy protoss
Blizzard have fired two blasts from the news-barrels, finally revealing a vague release window for the long-rumoured StarCraft Remastered [official site] project, and informing the world that the original version of the game will be free to download and play once the next patch arrives. What's more, owners of the original will be able to play against those using Remastered. StarCraft is back, even though it never really went away.
Although presumably aimed at the esports crowd, Remastered contains all of the singleplayer content and the Brood War expansion. On top of that it has 4K visuals, widescreen support, improved online functions and remastered audio. It's coming in summer and you can see it below.
Last year, I started wearing glasses for the first time and this video reminds me of the first time I tried them on. I thought the whole world had just got a bit muddy around the edges but it turns out my eyes had started to break and the world was doing just fine (in terms of its resolution at least). The glasses were like an HD upgrade and the StarCraft Remastered trailer captures that feeling, right down to the way some parts of the world don't look quite right in the higher resolution.
I don't even know what most of the StarCraft units are but I can imagine some people recoiling from the screen when the new 4K version of their favourite unit doesn't look quite like they expected. It's a bit like when normal telly channels went HD and some newsreaders and presenters really suited the increased fidelity, but some looked a bit like sinister slightly iffy doppelgangers.
The newly free version will be called StarCraft Anthology and will have all expansion content and will be released in the form of a patch to the original, later this week.