Well the Warcraft 30 Year Anniversary presentation had a little something for everyone, quite literally touching on every property in the Warcraft catalogue to make sure fans from every era had something to enjoy. Classic games getting a remaster, new exciting features for current ones – then a huge orchestra at the very end to show just how banging the music has been for the last 30 years.
So what got shown off?
Warcraft and Warcraft II Have Been Remastered Baby
Relive the classic conflicts of Warcraft’s past with new hand drawn visuals and modernised controls. No ‘Reforged’ bungles here, just these spectacular old school games given a fresh polish and unleashed upon a generation of gamers that barely know what the RTS genre can offer. And the best part? They are available NOW.
Patch 2.0 Will Hopefully Un-bungle Warcraft III: Reforged
Warcraft fans all bitterly remember Warcraft III: Reforged – it was less than perfect, and actually seemed to walk the classic Warcraft 3 experience backwards in a few areas. That, and the blisteringly high-definition assets actually felt lacking in the Blizzard secret sauce. Well Blizzard’s RTS team (they have an RTS team!?) have been hard at work creating a generous patch that will address many of the issues with the remaster, and get some of that shine back. This includes a proper ‘uprez’ version of the oldschool assets to make the game feel more like it’s classic release, just with modern trimmings – which is arguably what many of us wanted in the first place. And the patch is available NOW!
StarCraft Is Coming To Hearthstone
Yeah, you read that right – the big Warcraft anniversary event for Hearthstone is remembering that StarCraft exists. And this isn’t a coy pretend tie-in like the previous Diablo event, this is a full blown mini-set celebrating the amazing sci-fi epic of Terrans, Protoss and Zerg. And the heroes of the setting will lend their power to existing classes to really bring the flavour. Most excitingly, classic music from the StarCraft series is also promised – so look forward to that when it drops in January next year.
Hearthstone’s Arena Format Is Getting Tweaked
For those that seek a proper challenge in Hearthstone, you are probably familiar with the classic Arena format – being that it has gone largely unchanged since the game was released. With the introduction of the Underground format, you can now instead opt in to a quicker and more chaotic experience, with the matchmaking being open to any and all. The existing Arena format will still be available, and rankings will be present for either mode – so pick your poison.
Warcraft Rumble is Introducing Hybrid Leaders (And Coming To PC)
Warcraft Rumble is a delightfully chaotic experience for the palm of your hand, however it suffers from the same issue most big-scale mobile games do – it makes your phone run very hot and blasts your battery. Well, this can be alleviated when the title enters its PC beta testing phase during December of this year – and it will let you enjoy the big incoming change to the game, where it introduced hybrid-type leaders for your army picks. This means you can better mix and match your forces and enjoy the synergy of seeing different units working together – neato!
Mists Of Pandaria Classic Revealed
Less of a surprise and more of a fun nod, of course the classic experience will next head to the misty lands of the Panda people. The current World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic experience still has a few challenges left to face, so expect to venture forth away from Deathwing’s destruction in 2025.
Fresh Classic Realms Are Coming
Anyone who has played either World of Warcraft: Classic or World of Warcraft: Classic Season of Discovery knows that they are experiences that are best enjoyed early – strangely enough, as time passes they start to get a bit loopy with the economy going batty and players becoming titanic powerhouses. Well Blizzard seeks to sort this out by just …releasing some fresh realms. So enjoy equal footing and maybe grab your guildmates for another leisurely stroll to level 60. Coming 21 November.
Season Of Discovery Will Head To Naxxramas And “New Instance Content”
The wild and whacky remixed version of World of Warcraft, Season Of Discovery, will of course continue through the content patches of the original World of Warcraft – but then will also head into some nebulous “new instance content”. The video showed two areas of World of Warcraft that never had any original endgame experiences in them – Deadwind Pass and Scarlet Monastery – so now players are hungrily wondering if these will be new raids, or simply endgame dungeons. What does the future of SoD hold? Well, we’ll need to wait and see.
The War Within Will Send Players To The Goblin Undermine
The first major content update for The War Within, Undermine(d), will launch early next year and will take players to the subterranean goblin capital of Undermine – a place of rampant capitalism, high speed streets and even a giant casino. The update will include 2 new Delves, a new dungeon, a new 8-boss raid and a new hot-rod ground mount specially engineered for high-speed traversal within the Goblin city.
World of Warcraft: Midnight Appears To Offer Player Housing
Not much was revealed about the next chapter after The War Within – which is fair enough, the current expansion is still brand new. There was, however, a very bespoke teaser showing off what happens when an adventure is taking a break from adventuring: with the weary soul reclining and taking a break in their very own home.
Player housing is often a hotly requested feature in an MMO, and I know that people have asked for something to occur in World of Warcraft for decades – so seeing how this gets implemented is exciting to say the least. Maybe it’s time to start calling your guildmates flatmates instead?
Well, that was an impressive amount of content. For a 30th birthday celebration, Warcraft sure is aging gracefully – offering a huge range of cool new (and classic) goodies for any who donned the colours of the Horde or the Alliance.
Feel free to take a look at your Battle.net launcher for whatever flavour of Azerothian goodness tickles your fancy, and find joy in the fact that this franchise is still very much kicking arse.
What appealed to you most in the showcase? Are you an old-head RTS fan ready to step forth into the fog of war? Whatever a long-suffering StarCraft fan, eager for any kind of new space-faring content? Tell us all about it in the comments or on our social media.
