Blizzard looking to restore older titles (Diablo 2, Warcraft 3, StarCraft 1)

[RayCathode]

Just fixes to make them work on more modern operating systems or "HD" remakes?

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id=15000XZ

SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER, CLASSIC GAMES

Compelling stories. Intense multiplayer. Endless replayability. Qualities that made StarCraft, Warcraft III, and Diablo II the titans of their day. Evolving operating systems, hardware, and online services have made them more difficult to be experienced by their loyal followers or reaching a new generation.

We’re restoring them to glory, and we need your engineering talents, your passion, and your ability to get tough jobs done.

So if you like wearing many hats, know small teams are the most effective, and look forward to challenges that will create millions of new adventures for our players: we would love to hear from you.

RESPONSIBILITIES
-Make gameplay first again on modern operating systems.
-Create conditions for experiences that look as good as they play.
-Own implementation and curation of features new and old.
-Combat hacking to improve multiplayer.
-Diagnose and fix all the things: crashes, deadlocks, overflows, heap corruptions, etc.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

So they are truly out of ideas, then.

 

[HeXen]

Remember Blizzard games on SNES?

 

[videogames101]

So they are truly out of ideas, then.

Exactly, the people that made Diablo 2 a titan of it's day are long gone.

 

[lupi]

This is really some exciting news..if you missed it when they talked about it at last blizzcon.

 

[Ricochet]

Remember Blizzard games on SNES?

Lost Vikings?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Lost Vikings?

I was thinking Blackthorne myself, published by Interplay. Maybe Rock & Roll Racing as well if anyone remembers that one.

 

[Anubis]

Exactly, the people that made Diablo 2 a titan of it's day are long gone.

yea they went on and made the pile that was Hellgate london

 

[lupi]

yea they went on and made the pile that was Hellgate london

Ah I love that title, called that as being a POS that was going to have a great funeral pyre and it delivered in spectacular form.

 

[Majes]

yea they went on and made the pile that was Hellgate london

To be fair Hellgate: London's problems stemmed mostly from how the sales model was managed, not the actual game. The game was actually pretty darn fun.

 

[evident]

warcraft 3 is the best RTS of all time.

perfect balance of economy, military and micromanaging heroes without having to make a billion units.


starcraft 2 is just too.... hardcore and intense for me

 

[lupi]

I prefer two. Dislike how the later 3d model based games have the max zoom out level still feel too close to the ground. Even heroes suffers from that.

 

[Majes]

warcraft 3 is the best RTS of all time.

perfect balance of economy, military and micromanaging heroes without having to make a billion units.

Agreed! It also created the MOBA and Tower Defense genres!

 

[Texashiker]

No mention of the original Diablo?

It would be nice if Diablo and Diablo II were upgraded with modern graphics and made to run on Windows 7.

 

[Rakehellion]

warcraft 3 is the best RTS of all time.

perfect balance of economy, military and micromanaging heroes without having to make a billion units.


starcraft 2 is just too.... hardcore and intense for me

Truth. I played the hell out of some Frozen Throne. I like to watch Starcraft replays, but I never got into it.

 

[Tweak155]

No mention of the original Diablo?

It would be nice if Diablo and Diablo II were upgraded with modern graphics and made to run on Windows 7.

The original Diablo would have to have some major improvements made... I don't think a lot of people would have the patience to walk everywhere lol.

 

[tidy]

.

 

[BSim500]

It would be nice if Diablo and Diablo II were upgraded with modern graphics and made to run on Windows 7.

You can run Diablo 2 on Window 7. The "rainbow" color corruption bug (that was the result of explorer.exe overwriting the color palette of several older DirectDraw games, ie, AoE2, Diablo 2, etc) has long been fixed, initially by "killing" explorer.exe then later on by the DirectDrawFix.exe utility. Likewise, another patch (D2MultiRes) supports +1080p widescreen resolutions on top:-

To be honest, I'm struggling to understand what there is to "restore" other than bundling already free community patches. If they did a full-blown HD remake they'd probably lose that distinctive sprite based art style and just end up yet another generic ARPG trying to be everything to everyone. And possibly lose compatibility with great mods like MedianXL. Sometimes a "proper" remake works, but many times when "that itch" to over-monetize everything is just too great to not scratch, a milder "remake-lite" done by the modding community works out 10x better when it stays true to the original gameplay.

As for Activision-Blizzard, I think their golden age is long over. They just blew $5.9bn on Candy Crush Saga, yet struggle to think of any new games even though that same sum of money could fund 69x Skyrim's. That's just plain sad... Maybe they'll merge the two for a "monetized" mobile version : "Match 3 Worldstones in Mephisto Crush Saga!", "Diablo 2 - Android version. Offers in-app purchases". D: God help us...

Edit: I really don't think they're capable of remaking Diablo 2 today without it ending up like "Diablo 2 - Hand Us Your Mobile Wallet You Gullible Fools Edition". The biggest problem with remakes isn't technology, it's attitude and the fact the people who gave 15 year old Golden Era games "that feel" have long moved on. Ironically when some of those key people move onto other devs, sometimes they'll produce more of the same feel in a different franchise than the official sequel. Torchlight springs to mind (made by Max and Erich Schaefer - co-designers of Diablo 1 & 2).

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

So they are truly out of ideas, then.

I guess they don't want to advance the MMOFPS genre then...who wouldn't want a Starcraft version of Planetside 2, but where the gaming company isn't afraid to put in BIGG equipment, like letting you drive Thors?

 

[tidy]

.

 

[waggy]

warcraft 3 is the best RTS of all time.

perfect balance of economy, military and micromanaging heroes without having to make a billion units.


starcraft 2 is just too.... hardcore and intense for me

agreed. the warcraft series RTS were amazing. I would love 4 to come out.

 

[Grooveriding]

I'd rather they left Diablo 2 alone. Current day Blizzard has demonstrated they can't repeat the magic of Diablo 2, TBC etc. etc. Why go back and try to add some more colour to the Mona Lisa is my thought on it, especially when the original artists are long gone.

Diablo 3 bombed out and appears that it will never see another expansion after how poorly the first expansion sold compared to the original game. WoW is winding down, probably only has the upcoming expansion and one more in it before it goes to a legacy support status. Overwatch looks like it could be interesting though.

Like others I'd rather they went ahead with Warcraft 4 and didn't waste resources trying to polish up what are already the best games in their catalog.

 

[Elcs]

I'd assume that at the bare minimum they will simply do a GoG and ensure that these older games run on Windows 10 and from the job description I believe that that's all they're looking to do... make old games run on modern systems.

Perhaps they'll add:

• Modern resolution support
• Bug fixes
• Graphical tweaks (low level) or re-write to do somewhat of a Homeworld: Remastered job
• Additional content (DLC perhaps)

It is sad how far Blizzard have dropped since.. Diablo 2 LoD but even the best falter.

 

[Tweak155]

So would Diablo II.



I completed Diablo again a few months ago. If you're playing SP, then Diablo is less tedious than Diablo II despite the walking, purely because Diablo has saving and Diablo II doesn't.

Don't have to convince me, I'd play it. But there is a lot of ADD out there.

 

[Texashiker]

As for Activision-Blizzard, I think their golden age is long over. They just blew $5.9bn on Candy Crush Saga, yet struggle to think of any new games even though that same sum of money could fund 69x Skyrim's. That's just plain sad...

It is very sad that with a franchise like Diablo and blizzard can not keep the ball rolling.

A few months ago I got into path of exile. How is it that a group of people can make a free to play game like path of exile but blizzard can not come up with new games?

I would love to see an updated version of Diablo with the original sounds and music.