WarCraft III

Blizzard's 16-year-old real-time strategy game Warcraft 3 is now widescreen.

Blizzard has issued a major new patch to Warcraft 3 amid rumours the company is set to announce a remaster of the 16-year-old real-time strategy game.

The update, which is live now on the Warcraft 3 PTR, makes balance adjustments to many of the heroes, adds 24-player lobbies and widescreen support. Check out the patch notes on Battle.net.

In a post on Battle.net, Blizzard announced the first Warcraft 3 Invitational, which is set for 27-28th February. Well-known competitors from around the world will be at Blizzard's Irvine, California headquarters to take part. Expect to see Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen, Park "Lyn" Joon and Kim "ReMinD" Sung Sik to play Warcraft 3 with all the new changes brought about by the update.

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Warcraft 3 - yes, Warcraft 3 - has a new public test realm.

After 23 years at Blizzard, we were all a little surprised to hear that Chris Metzen had actually retired.

The Warcraft movie hasn't Thralled critics but it's doing the business globally - and director Duncan Jones is up for a sequel if it comes to it.

Globally the Warcraft movie has made $377.6m, reported Box Office Mojo, and more than $200m of that in China. That makes Warcraft the most commercially successful video-game film ever, beating previous champion Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ($336m), which starred Jake Gyllenhaal's muscular torso.

The Angry Birds film, meanwhile - which I've watched and it isn't great - has made $327m.

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The Duncan Jones Warcraft movie may be on course to flop in America (where it opens 10th June) but in China it's bigger than Star Wars: The Force Awakens - it's massive! Perhaps we'll see sequels after all.

Hot on the heels of the new update for Diablo 2, Blizzard has released a patch for its wonderful real-time strategy game Warcraft 3 - four years after the last one.

Like the Diablo 2 patch, Warcraft 3's 1.27a update, out today, focuses on modern system compatibility.

Here are the patch notes (unfortunately there's no widescreen support!):

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UPDATE 3/11/15 5.00pm Here's a quick glimpse at the trailer, due Friday. Behold, 15 seconds of Warcraft movie footage plus analysis from our Blizzard buff Chris Bratt:

Off-screen footage of the Warcraft movie by Legendary Pictures has leaked from San Diego Comic-Con.

George Lucas' famous special effects studio, Industrial Light & Magic, has whipped up a heck of an interactive trailer for the upcoming Warcraft movie.

Released on YouTube, this Skies of Azeroth trailer lets viewers look around the world in 360 degrees by dragging their cursor. Think Google Earth, only way more seamless (and, ya know, Azeroth).

Set atop a flying gryphon, you can only view the sprawling city of Stormwind from above, but what a view it is! Now if only the real World of Warcraft looked that good in game form.

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Feast your eyes on Orgrim, the orc warchief in the upcoming Warcraft movie.

A team of modders is remaking Blizzard's real-time strategy game Warcraft 3 using the StarCraft 2 editor.

Blizzard has made all the Warcraft 3 models and assets available to use in the StarCraft 2 editor.

Ever find yourself flipping a card in Hearthstone, or whacking a giant leg in World of Warcraft, and wondering who that character is and why they're important?

Behold, the cast of the Warcraft film, as revealed by movie makers Legendary and Universal (and Slashfilm).

With the recently-announced World of Warcraft expansion Warlords of Draenor sparking nostalgia for early Warcraft lore, memories of the company's old real-time strategy Warcraft games have been rekindled.

As the wait for Warcraft 4 goes on, modders have released a new video showing off an in-development Warcraft RTS built using the StarCraft 2 engine.

Blizzard wants the Heroes of Warcraft domain but someone else owns it.

Indirect DOTA co-creator Blizzard has legally opposed the Dota trademark Valve is trying to register for new game Dota 2.

Every Sunday, we dust off an article from the Eurogamer archive that you may have missed at the time or may enjoy again. Valve announced The International 2014 for Dota 2 this week, so we thought we'd revisit Paul Dean's piece on the origins of the MOBA genre. This article was originally published on 16th August 2011, so some facts and figures are now out of date, but it still tells an interesting back-story and provides a snapshot of the genre's progress at that time, back when Dota 2 was a barely known quantity.

Blizzard, perhaps the finest game maker on the planet, has turned 20 years old.

Duke Nukem voice actor Jon St. John has tweeted something about the Defense of the Ancients project thought to be under way at Valve Software.

Blizzard, not short of things to do, has burped out a patch for Warcraft III - a game eight years old.

Blizzard has launched a special site celebrating the fifth anniversary of World of Warcraft - which launched on 23rd Novmeber 2004 - as well as 15 years of the Warcraft series.

Blizzard has announced that the regional World of Warcraft 3v3 Arena and Warcraft III finals will be held in Cologne, Germany between 26th and 28th June.

Blizzard has announced it will be hosting a third BlizzCon fan meet on 10th and 11th October this year, in its regular venue of Anaheim, California (that's south of LA, next door to Disneyland).

The 2008 celebration of all things Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo will expand from two halls of the Anaheim Convention Centre to three, in response to public demand. That may not sound like much, but having attended the second BlizzCon in August last year, we can assure you it's massive. Some 13,000 Blizzard and World of Warcraft fans attended BlizzCon 07.

This year's event will follow the World Wide Invitational in Paris at the end of June - BlizzCon Europe in all but name.

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Blizzard has begun to offer its back catalogue of games as digital downloads via its Store.

Art is important to Blizzard. The offices of the World of Warcraft developer, currently working on RTS sequel StarCraft II, are plastered with it. Vivid, colourful and extravagant concept art is hung everywhere. The offices even have a curator, part of whose job description is to ensure that huge floor-to-ceiling pieces are displayed around the campus. One such piece is in the canteen - a jolly painting of drinking dwarves by Samwise Didier.

Blizzard has said that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft II will be playable at its Worldwide Invitational event this summer.

Blizzard has announced plans for its second BlizzCon gaming convention today, which will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center on the 3rd and 4th of August.

Everyone from age four and up is invited along to celebrate the company's biggest and best franchises, enjoying a wide variety of different activities from dressing up to sound-alike contests.

Tickets are expected to go on sale on the official website in the next few months, and will cost you USD 100 per person.

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Hot on the heels of the most entertaining video clip involving cute children you'll come across on the internet, we're proud to present another amazing musical clip. Except this time it's possibly the best video involving Eurodance DJs who sing about playing LAN parties on custom Warcraft III maps that you'll come across on the internet.

Downstairs there's a massed crowd of Blizzard acolytes. Upstairs, it's different. Quieter. With more tea.

Blizzard Entertainment has reasserted its aggressive stance against cheating in its online games, permanently shutting down over 50,000 user accounts this week.

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