'Warcraft III' Latest News: Game's New Test Realm Could Signal Remaster of 15-Year-Old Title
"Warcraft III," Blizzard's real time strategy game that launched as far back as 2002, just launched its first official Public Test Realm. Could this lead to a remaster of the beloved game in the near future?
The 1.28.6 update for the PTR was announced on Blizzard's official forums on Thursday, Aug. 10, inviting players to join the test realms for new maps — from one-versus-one skirmishes to free-for-all battles.
Through this PTR, Blizzard is now gathering feedback from a host of changes they made to the game, including balanced creep camp difficulties, improved creep drops, and better item diversity.
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The "Warcraft III" team has also rebalanced start locations, working to make all starting spots have equal access to lumber and the same protection from choke points. They are also making sure that expansion areas have similar accessibility for all players. Both are all things crucial for competitive "Warcraft II" matches.
The patch has even included aesthetic re-works on the maps which involves getting rid of hard edges on the boundaries by replacing them with cliffs and deep water. Key areas have also been decluttered, with map textures also given a rework for better visual clarity.
The forum post also promised more changes coming, with improvements to matchmaking and game lag among those in their list of priorities.
While this set of changes come a bit late, fifteen years after the launch of "Warcraft II: Reign of Chaos," these updates may lead to a big project coming just around the corner. Blizzard could be set at remastering their older games, "Warcraft III" and "Diablo II" in particular, according to job listings recently spotted by IGN.
With a "Starcraft" remaster already out, a remaster for another of Blizzard's signature real-time strategy games is certainly possible. Meanwhile, fans can look forward to future "Warcraft III" patches for more information from Blizzard's Classic Games team.
