Starcraft: Remastered gets a launch date

The new version of Blizzard's real-time strategy classic Starcraft is due to release on August 14. Starcraft: Remastered was announced earlier this year but today Blizzard has confirmed the launch date for the HD version of their iconic space-themed RTS. The creators of Warcraft have decided to modernize and polish the graphical aspect of the game, and they have created a new title that includes the original Starcraft and its expansion Starcraft: Brood War, and features widescreen UHD support for up to 4K resolutions, higher quality sound and high fidelity music, as well as a few quality of life changes like an improved matchmaking system that matches people based on their skill, leaderboards, cloud saves and profiles with individual statistics. The gameplay is completely unchanged and therefore Starcraft: Remastered is compatible with the original version and cross-version play is allowed. Those that feel a bit nostalgic can just swap on the fly to the older version looks and back anytime just by pressing F5.

Original Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood War are completely free to get right now, you just need to head to their website, log in or create an account, and then proceed to download Starcraft Anthology from the Classic Games tab and install the game afterwards.

Starcraft: Remastered will be available for PC and Mac, and all those interested in pre-purchasing it will be also getting some goodies from Blizzard for doing so. The bonuses include three exclusive building skins for the Char Hive, the Korhal Command Center, and the Aiur Nexus in the remastered version, and also Alexei Stukov for co-op commander mode and three unique portraits in Starcraft II.