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Blizzard’s first real-time strategy games had a profound impact on me as a young immigrant to Canada in 1994 and ’95. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness helped me learn how to read and write in English, and formed the basis for some of my oldest friendships in a brand-new country. Suffice to say, I have a lot of love for these old RTS games — maybe more than Blizzard itself.

So you can imagine my excitement at remaster rumors for Warcraft II and its expansion, Beyond the Dark Portal. When Blizzard aired its Warcraft Direct last week, not only were those rumors confirmed, but it announced that the original Warcraft would receive the same treatment, and both would be sold alongside Warcraft III: Reforged (itself a remaster) as part of a new battle chest. Of course, I immediately booted up Battle.net and bought the bundle.

I was just as quickly disappointed. Where to start? The most obvious place is the new hand-drawn graphics. Some fans have accused Blizzard of using AI to upscale the art in Warcraft and Warcraft II. I don’t think that’s what happened here, but what is clear is that the new assets don’t live up to the company’s usual quality. 

The unit sprites are completely missing the charm of their original counterparts. They also don’t look properly proportioned, and many of them have new stilted animations. Additionally, the extensive use of black outlining makes everything look a bit too stark. At best, the remasters resemble poorly made mobile games.

Both games feature a toggle to switch between their original and remastered graphics seamlessly, but here again, Blizzard missed the mark. There’s a great YouTube video explaining the issue, but the short of it is the company didn’t accurately represent the “tall pixels” that the original graphics were designed around, so every asset appear stretched horizontally. 

Like every game from that era, Warcraft was designed to be played on a 4:3 CRT monitor. However, the original art assets were made to scale within a 320 x 200 frame, which is a 16:10 resolution. As a result, UI elements and units look taller in the 1994 release than in the remaster. GOG correctly accounted for this when it rereleased Warcraft and Warcraft II in 2019, and there’s no reason Blizzard couldn’t do the same in 2024. Without these nods to the game’s original visuals, Warcraft: Remastered just doesn’t look right.

What gameplay enhancements the remasters include are minimal, and while they’re all appreciated, Blizzard could and should have done more. In Warcraft, for instance, it’s now possible to select up to 12 units simultaneously, up from four, and bind buildings to hotkeys for more efficient macro play. Oh, and you can finally issue attack move commands, something you couldn’t do in the original release.

However, any features you might find in a modern RTS are notably missing. For example, neither game allows you to queue commands or tab between different types of units in a control group. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Blizzard took the same approach with StarCraft: Remastered. StarCraft: Brood War still had a sizable professional scene when Blizzard released its remaster. Had Blizzard touched the balance or mechanics of that game, it would have caused an outcry. By contrast, Warcraft II is essentially moribund, and would have greatly benefited from modernization. At the very least, Blizzard could have done a balance pass and added a ladder mode to give the game a chance to attract a new multiplayer fanbase.

Coming back from the dead is achievable for an old RTS. Age of Empires II managed to pull this trick off with flying colors: Since the release of its Definitive Edition in 2019, Microsoft’s genre-defining RTS has never been in a better place. A constant stream of support, including a substantial new expansion that was released just last week, has managed to grow the AoE2 community. At any time, there are as many a 30,000 people playing the Definitive Edition on Steam. If you ask me, that’s pretty great for a game that was originally released in 1999, and it shows what’s possible when a company cares and nurtures a beloved franchise. The fact Microsoft now owns Blizzard makes its treatment of Warcraft feel particularly unfair.

Most disappointing is the lack of bonus content. Contrast this with Half-Life 2’s free anniversary update, which Valve released just days after the Warcraft remasters. It includes three and a half hours of new commentary from Gabe Newell and the dev team. Valve also uploaded a two-hour documentary and announced a second edition of Raising the Bar, a behind-the-scenes look at Half-Life 2’s turbulent development. If Newell could take time away from his yachts to talk about Valve’s most important game, surely Chris Metzen could have done the same for Warcraft. The people who were vital to Warcraft and Warcraft II’s development aren’t getting any younger — Blizzard should preserve their stories.

If there’s one thing I’m hopeful for, it’s that Blizzard will eventually do the right thing. As I mentioned, the bundle I bought also came with Warcraft III: Reforged. Last week it received a free patch that does a lot to fix the disastrous issues with that remaster, albeit four years late. With more work, I can see the Warcraft and Warcraft II remasters becoming essential. But as things stand, the studio has done the bare minimum to honor its own legacy.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/i-wish-blizzard-loved-warcraft-as-much-as-i-do-141524674.html?src=rss 

Adobe is making it more affordable to access its apps if you pay for a subscription until Black Friday this year. You can get the 100GB Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan for $30 a month instead of $60 if you sign up for a subscription until November 29. If you’re a student, you can get it even cheaper at $16 per month, or 70 percent less than its usual price.

Take note that the offer is only available if you’re a first time subscriber, and it requires a one year commitment. You will be paying the discounted rate for the entirety of those 12 months, though, and it’s not until your subscription is renewed after the year is over that you’ll have to pay for its regular $60-a-month pricing. 

Creative Cloud for Teams is also discounted until November 29 and will cost businesses $45 per month per license, down 50 percent from $90. Meanwhile, Adobe Express for teams will set businesses back $5 per month per license instead of $8. Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps gives you access to 20 of the company’s creative apps. They include Photoshop, which is probably the Adobe app you’re most familiar with, as well as Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects, InDesign and Acrobat. In addition, you’ll also get cloud storage space, social media templates and thousands of fonts with a subscription. If you want to make a website, you can use the plan’s access to Adobe Portfolio create it, and you can also use the included access to Adobe Behance if you want to showcase your creative work. 

Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/adobes-black-friday-deal-slashes-50-percent-off-creative-cloud-plans-143039647.html?src=rss 

Nintendo Switch players, you can get Life is Strange: Double Exposure on your console starting today. Square Enix says the game, which been available on the Xbox Series X|S, PC and PlayStation 5 since October 29, comes later than the other versions because it has been “meticulously ported” for the Switch. Its lighting system has been rebuilt and its assets have been optimized so that they’d perform well and run smoothly in both docked and handheld modes. 

Double Exposure picks up from the events of the first game and revolves around the original Life is Strange protagonist Max Caulfield. Max is older in this newer installment and now has the power to shift between two different timelines. In Double Exposure, Max’s best friend Safi was murdered and found dead in the snow. She then uses her powers to investigate Safi’s murder, mainly to solve the crime in one timeline and to prevent it from happening in the other timeline where her friend remains alive. 

The digital version of Life is Strange: Double Exposure will be available today, November 19, at 8am PST/11am EST. You can get the base version with the full game, the Deluxe Edition with two additional outfits for Max and the Ultimate Edition with five additional outfits (including a Final Fantasy VII outfit pack), as well as a cat companion for the protagonist. Square Enix will release a physical version on January 28, 2025, which is now also available for pre-order. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/life-is-strange-double-exposure-comes-to-nintendo-switch-today-130005279.html?src=rss 

We at Engadget spend a lot of time thinking about the best tech gifts for anyone and everyone in your life. But during that process, we often can’t help but think about the things we’d like to receive as gifts. We encourage everyone to treat themselves in some way while scrambling to find gifts for those they love, and it’s about time we take our own advice. Here, we’ve compiled a list of gadgets on our staffers’ wish lists with the hope that it may inspire you to splurge a bit on yourself this year.

Check out the rest of our gift ideas here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-tech-gifts-on-our-editors-wishlists-130043069.html?src=rss 

Accessing and securing the cloud is a necessity for companies and Microsoft has taken another step by announcing the Windows 365 Link device. According to Microsoft, “it enables desk-based users to work securely on a familiar Windows desktop in the Microsoft Cloud with responsive, high-fidelity experiences.”

Windows 365 Link is a small, lightweight device that Microsoft claims can immediately wake from sleep, boot up in seconds and locally process video conferencing solutions like Microsoft Teams. It doesn’t store local data or apps, has security baseline policies enabled and doesn’t allow for individuals to disable security features. Plus, logging in requires Microsoft Entra ID along with the Microsoft Authenticator app or USB security keys.

Microsoft’s new device also works with dual 4K monitors, an audio port, four USB ports, an ethernet port, Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E. The Windows 365 Link is currently available in preview but should come to select areas in April 2025 for $349. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/microsoft-made-a-349-hardware-client-to-connect-to-cloud-pcs-133027364.html?src=rss 

If your Instagram recommendations have been feeling a little stale, you’ll soon have a way to make the app’s algorithm forget everything it thinks it knows about you. Meta is testing a new feature that will allow users to reset the algorithmic suggestions that power the app’s feed, Reels and Explore section.

The company described the feature as a “test,” but said the update “will soon roll out globally.” With the change, users will be able to “reset suggested content” from the content preferences section in Instagram’s settings. This will, according to Meta, allow you to “start fresh” and provide an opportunity to re-tune the app’s suggestions.

But while this may help you get an Instagram feed that better reflects your current interests, Meta notes that doing this kind of “reset” doesn’t delete any of your data from the app or change how the company serves you ads. (Instagram has a separate setting to personalize ad preferences.)

Meta is framing the change as part of its push to bring new safety features to teens, even though the feature will be available to all users. “We want to give teens new ways to shape their Instagram experience, so it can continue to reflect their passions and interests as they evolve,” the company wrote in a blog post. The service has previously faced criticism over its recommendations, which EU regulators have suggested could encourage “addictive behavior.”

The company notes that it has other teen-specific features meant to prevent its younger users from seeing inappropriate content. It recently introduced “teen accounts,” which have stricter privacy settings, and attempts to block certain types of harmful content from appearing in their feeds.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/instagram-will-let-you-reset-your-recommendations-120022492.html?src=rss 

It has long been possible to listen to music from within Opera’s browser. If you go down its sidebar, you’ll see a player icon where you can choose from Apple Music, Spotify and Deezer and then log into any of them with your account details. But now Opera has teamed up with Spotify and has made the music streaming service the default option on the company’s flagship browser with generative AI features, Opera One. 

After logging into your account and activating the player, you’ll be able to detach it from the sidebar and move it around the screen to a place that wouldn’t interrupt your workflow. The player will float inside the browser and will not disappear if you tab away. It also automatically fades out the audio that’s currently playing when you join meetings and calls. Your songs will remain paused for the duration of the call or meeting and will resume as soon as it’s over. 

Perhaps the best thing about the companies’ teamup, if you live in a certain location at least, is that you can get Spotify Premium for free if you don’t have a subscription yet. If you’re in Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, the UK, the US or Vietnam, you can redeem two to three months of Spotify Premium at no cost from within the browser’s sidebar. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/spotify-is-now-the-default-music-player-in-the-opera-one-browser-090024069.html?src=rss 

Two undersea communications cables in the Baltic Sea have been knocked offline, and at least one appears to have been physically cut. CNN received confirmation from a local telecom company that a cable between Lithuania and Sweden was cut on Sunday morning. A second cable, about 60 to 65 miles from the first, routes communications between Finland and Germany. The cause of that outage has yet to be determined, but officials suspect “intentional damage.”

The outages follow a September warning from the US about an increased risk of Russian “sabotage” of undersea cables. That came after a joint investigation from public broadcasters from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland that Russia had deployed a fleet of spy ships in Nordic waters. They were reportedly part of a program designed to sabotage the cables (and wind farms).

This doesn’t leave the European nations entirely without online communications, as data is typically routed through multiple cables to avoid overreliance on a single one.

Cinia, the state-controlled Finnish company that oversees the second cable, said it wasn’t yet determined what caused the outage since they haven’t yet physically inspected it. However, the sudden outage reportedly suggests it, too, was cut by an outside force.

The foreign ministers of Finland and Germany released a joint statement on Monday. “We are deeply concerned about the severed undersea cable connecting Finland and Germany in the Baltic Sea,” they wrote. “The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times. A thorough investigation is underway. Our European security is not only under threat from Russia‘s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors. Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies.”

The Lithuania-Sweden cable, which handles about a third of Lithuania’s internet capacity, is expected to be repaired “over the next few weeks,” and weather could determine the precise timing.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/two-baltic-sea-communications-cables-have-been-knocked-offline-214130723.html?src=rss