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It’s great that Microsoft are still actively maintaining a ~24 year old game! Blizzard ought to take note. A few years back they announced “Warcraft 3 reforged

It’s great that Microsoft are still actively maintaining a ~24 year old game! Blizzard ought to take note. A few years back they announced “Warcraft 3 reforged” with great fanfare: a remastered version of the classic Warcraft 3, updated for modern systems with improved graphics etc. It looked/sounded fantastic! But despite it being a paid upgrade, what they released was a buggy mess that did little justice to the classic original. Then they immediately abandoned it and have released no updates or fixes since.

potemkinhr 4y ago
It's actually worse, they pulled the legacy version from the users and forced the (effectively) downgraded version to everyone. Even the owners of the legacy version were shafted as they forced a update which removed much of the functionality of the legacy version. To this date still the best version was the pre-patch one for everyone who has the original installers and the latest pre-upgrade patch
- zelphirkalt 4y ago
  And the AoE2 DE has way higher system requirements while only looking marginally better in some aspects, but looks worse than 2 decades old 2d art in some other aspects. Just because it "has to be 3D" these days, while there is nothing truly requiring any 3D in the game. This is subjective, but I liked some of the old unit designs more than the new ones. For example Teutonic Knights and Cataphracts looked better in my opinion. The Teutonic Knight looked leaner and taller, while it now looks a bit like a walking barrel. OK, somewhere they need to carry all that armor ... but still I liked the old ones better. Also I would have been completely fine with units having only 8 or whatever directions in which they can look. I don't need 360° all-around rendering of units. It even substracts a little from AoE2's abstract character. What I do like is, that they added more civs.
  - VoodooJuJu 4y ago
    I think DE actually looks worse. Old graphics hold up great - just look at this: https://imgur.com/hWSZBpb https://imgur.com/hWSZBpb. The new ones lost the soul. They have a weird glow/fuzziness. Nonetheless, DE has better multiplayer performance and cool new civs, so it's the one I play.
  - qwytw 4y ago
    > I don't need 360° all-around rendering of unit But you don't have it anyway? I assumed the game is still actually isometric and not 3d but even if it is the camera is still fixed.
- Laaas 4y ago
  I'm surprised this isn't illegal.
  - maeil 4y ago
    I would imagine that in certain countries with strong consumer rights (e.g. Australia or Germany) it may well be, just understandably no one bothers with the expensive legal fight it would take.
- Razengan 4y ago
  This kind of crap is actually why I will not buy Diablo 4 (even though I kinda want to, to have a good hack'n'slash on my PS5) or put money into any Blizzard game anymore.
- Reason077 4y ago
  Update: In fairness to Blizzard, I did just check this again and it seems like they have started maintaining Warcraft 3 Reforged again, releasing some small patches last year and a significant update in January 2023: https://news.blizzard.com/en-gb/warcraft3/23896791/warcraft-iii-reforged-patch-1-35-0-now-live https://news.blizzard.com/en-gb/warcraft3/23896791/warcraft-... I'll have to take another look now that this has been released. But still, there was a 2 year stretch between 2020 and 2022 when the game was in a very crappy state and absolutely nothing was done to improve it or address the issues.
  - vultour 4y ago
    Blizzard also pulled the original W3 downloads and switched everyone to a non-hd version of Reforged. I'm still mad about that because I paid for both and I'm no longer able to get one of them.
    - LeoNatan25 4y ago
      But isn’t Reforged using the same engine as the original, with higher res assets (mostly textures)? At least, I thought so, as that was part of the criticism of Reforged.
      - Reason077 4y ago
        Nothing wrong with that, necessarily. In fact, I’d argue that’s exactly what I would want out of an ideal War3 reforged. Exactly the same game modernised for modern systems, with the “same” graphics just at higher resolution and detail. Besides, World of Warcraft, StarCraft 2, and Heroes of the Storm were all built using upgraded versions of the Warcraft 3 engine, so it’s proven to be quite capable. It’s logical to use an updated version of the engine for an updated version of the same game. Trying who port the game to an entirely different engine would not only be much more effort, it would risk introducing subtle differences in gameplay and feel that could mean it doesn’t play quite the same any more.
      - vultour 4y ago
        I haven't played it for a while now, but one of the major complaints after release was that many of the old custom maps didn't work.
yen223 4y ago
It's not just maintenance, Microsoft has released several expansion packs to the original Age of Empires II, plus an Xbox port to boot.
tetha 4y ago
Yeah it appears my Diablo 2 has been pulled from my Blizzard account when the D2 Remastered was launched, at least I can't find it anymore. And now I either have to dig up the CD and key and hope those still work or pay $60 or something to play D2. My desire isn't really that big.
- alewi481 4y ago
  I see this link on the Blizzard support site that provides downloads to classic D2 and LoD but I haven't tested them out to see if they ask for a CD key or not. https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/13867 https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/13867
spaceman_2020 4y ago
The amazing thing is that this new version of AoE was a fan made upgrade, and they did such a good job that MS brought them in house. The Forgotten Empires team is brilliant and I can't be more grateful to them for bringing back a childhood favorite.
- lippihom 4y ago
  It's really been amazing. Also very cool how much the community has grown in the past few years. The subreddit is super active which adds to the fun.
roflyear 4y ago
Broodwar is still super popular and they don't do shit there either.
hannofcart 4y ago
Even more amazing still is that it still has a large active player base and YouTube streamers make money playing it and casting videos of their play through. I'm routinely shocked by how easily I can join online multiplayer matches. For a 24 year old game! A bunch of guys in my company play it. Most of them were 3 or 4 years when the game was released. A couple of them weren't even born. Real kudos to the team maintaining it. They constantly listen to player feedback and keep updating the various unit stats and bonuses to keep the game balanced.

potemkinhr 4y ago

It's actually worse, they pulled the legacy version from the users and forced the (effectively) downgraded version to everyone. Even the owners of the legacy version were shafted as they forced a update which removed much of the functionality of the legacy version. To this date still the best version was the pre-patch one for everyone who has the original installers and the latest pre-upgrade patch

zelphirkalt 4y ago
And the AoE2 DE has way higher system requirements while only looking marginally better in some aspects, but looks worse than 2 decades old 2d art in some other aspects. Just because it "has to be 3D" these days, while there is nothing truly requiring any 3D in the game. This is subjective, but I liked some of the old unit designs more than the new ones. For example Teutonic Knights and Cataphracts looked better in my opinion. The Teutonic Knight looked leaner and taller, while it now looks a bit like a walking barrel. OK, somewhere they need to carry all that armor ... but still I liked the old ones better. Also I would have been completely fine with units having only 8 or whatever directions in which they can look. I don't need 360° all-around rendering of units. It even substracts a little from AoE2's abstract character. What I do like is, that they added more civs.
- VoodooJuJu 4y ago
  I think DE actually looks worse. Old graphics hold up great - just look at this: https://imgur.com/hWSZBpb https://imgur.com/hWSZBpb. The new ones lost the soul. They have a weird glow/fuzziness. Nonetheless, DE has better multiplayer performance and cool new civs, so it's the one I play.
- qwytw 4y ago
  > I don't need 360° all-around rendering of unit But you don't have it anyway? I assumed the game is still actually isometric and not 3d but even if it is the camera is still fixed.
Laaas 4y ago
I'm surprised this isn't illegal.
- maeil 4y ago
  I would imagine that in certain countries with strong consumer rights (e.g. Australia or Germany) it may well be, just understandably no one bothers with the expensive legal fight it would take.
Razengan 4y ago
This kind of crap is actually why I will not buy Diablo 4 (even though I kinda want to, to have a good hack'n'slash on my PS5) or put money into any Blizzard game anymore.
Reason077 4y ago
Update: In fairness to Blizzard, I did just check this again and it seems like they have started maintaining Warcraft 3 Reforged again, releasing some small patches last year and a significant update in January 2023: https://news.blizzard.com/en-gb/warcraft3/23896791/warcraft-iii-reforged-patch-1-35-0-now-live https://news.blizzard.com/en-gb/warcraft3/23896791/warcraft-... I'll have to take another look now that this has been released. But still, there was a 2 year stretch between 2020 and 2022 when the game was in a very crappy state and absolutely nothing was done to improve it or address the issues.
- vultour 4y ago
  Blizzard also pulled the original W3 downloads and switched everyone to a non-hd version of Reforged. I'm still mad about that because I paid for both and I'm no longer able to get one of them.
  - LeoNatan25 4y ago
    But isn’t Reforged using the same engine as the original, with higher res assets (mostly textures)? At least, I thought so, as that was part of the criticism of Reforged.
    - Reason077 4y ago
      Nothing wrong with that, necessarily. In fact, I’d argue that’s exactly what I would want out of an ideal War3 reforged. Exactly the same game modernised for modern systems, with the “same” graphics just at higher resolution and detail. Besides, World of Warcraft, StarCraft 2, and Heroes of the Storm were all built using upgraded versions of the Warcraft 3 engine, so it’s proven to be quite capable. It’s logical to use an updated version of the engine for an updated version of the same game. Trying who port the game to an entirely different engine would not only be much more effort, it would risk introducing subtle differences in gameplay and feel that could mean it doesn’t play quite the same any more.
    - vultour 4y ago
      I haven't played it for a while now, but one of the major complaints after release was that many of the old custom maps didn't work.

yen223 4y ago

It's not just maintenance, Microsoft has released several expansion packs to the original Age of Empires II, plus an Xbox port to boot.

tetha 4y ago

Yeah it appears my Diablo 2 has been pulled from my Blizzard account when the D2 Remastered was launched, at least I can't find it anymore. And now I either have to dig up the CD and key and hope those still work or pay $60 or something to play D2. My desire isn't really that big.

alewi481 4y ago
I see this link on the Blizzard support site that provides downloads to classic D2 and LoD but I haven't tested them out to see if they ask for a CD key or not. https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/13867 https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/13867

spaceman_2020 4y ago

The amazing thing is that this new version of AoE was a fan made upgrade, and they did such a good job that MS brought them in house. The Forgotten Empires team is brilliant and I can't be more grateful to them for bringing back a childhood favorite.

lippihom 4y ago
It's really been amazing. Also very cool how much the community has grown in the past few years. The subreddit is super active which adds to the fun.

roflyear 4y ago

Broodwar is still super popular and they don't do shit there either.

hannofcart 4y ago

Even more amazing still is that it still has a large active player base and YouTube streamers make money playing it and casting videos of their play through. I'm routinely shocked by how easily I can join online multiplayer matches. For a 24 year old game! A bunch of guys in my company play it. Most of them were 3 or 4 years when the game was released. A couple of them weren't even born. Real kudos to the team maintaining it. They constantly listen to player feedback and keep updating the various unit stats and bonuses to keep the game balanced.