Warcraft III: Reforged, a remastered version of Blizzard’s acclaimed real-time strategy game, comes out today. The new version bundles the original game with its expansion The Frozen Throne, and Blizzard has provided system requirements so players can determine if their systems can run the game ahead of launch. The system requirements are fairly accessible allowing most people to take advantage of the remastered game.
Warcraft III: Reforged comes with a very specific launch at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET on January 28. The game requires an internet connection, and those who pre-purchased will receive special hero skins and extra content in fellow Activision-Blizzard games World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, and Starcraft II.
The latest Warcraft release is Blizzard’s first real-time strategy release since the StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops expansion in 2016. World of Warcraft followed two years after Warcraft III‘s initial launch and become a record-breaking hit. Warcraft III takes place before the events of World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online game that finds the Horde and Alliance factions in a massive, trans-dimensional battle.
Warcraft III marked the first appearance of Arthas Menethil. He would go on to become the “Lich King,” a powerful enemy who was the namesake of World of Warcraft‘s second expansion. Its next expansion, Shadowlands, arrives later this year and will see the Horde and Alliance confront a new Lich King, taking up the throne abandoned by Arthas.
With the recommended settings applied, you can play World of Warcraft: Reforged on an affordable laptop, such as the Asus Tuf. Processing power and RAM will likely not be an issue if your system is only a few years old, but check to make sure it’s making use of a dedicated GPU instead of an integrated one. This is one area where the budget-priced PC brands tend to cut costs.
The system requirements are actually lower than those for World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, which launched in 2018. The latest MMO expansion requires more than twice the storage space as well as a more powerful GPU and CPU. Warcraft III: Reforged requires an Intel Core i3-530 CPU or newer, along with at least 4GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 GPU.
Warcraft III: Reforged was announced at BlizzCon 2018. The remastered game features 4K visuals, remastered cutscenes, and balances and updates made to the interface and gameplay systems. It also runs on modern Battle.net, so you can launch it just like you would Blizzard’s other current games.
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