Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
Continuing with Warcraft III from last month, where we covered how to install it and how to run it on Ubuntu 18.04, this month we’ll review the actual game. As stated last month, please remember that, to launch the game, you must first type the following (as a single line/command) in a terminal:
wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Warcraft\ III/War3.exe -opengl -nativefullscreen
If you forget to run the previous command, it’s basically impossible to get the game going (the game might start, but then, when you select the mission you want to play, the game will crash).
Once you get the game running, it’s a pretty cool game to play. So far, I’ve been able to play the game for many hours without any issues. The game plays pretty smoothly. To play Warcraft III, you need to use a mouse and keyboard – it was designed to be played on a PC.
Being that this game is more than a decade old, you have to accept that the graphics will be pretty outdated and, by today’s standards, not that great.
Originally released in 2002, Warcraft III is the third game from the Warcraft game series. The Frozen Throne, an expansion pack, was released the following year, in 2003. You can buy Warcraft III directly from Blizzard’s battle.net shop for $9.99 (if you buy only the game without the expansion pack). This game has been such a big hit over the years that Blizzard is still actively updating it. The latest patch (version 1.29) for Warcraft III was actually released in April 2018 which is pretty impressive for a 16-year-old game. I was lucky enough to find the Warcraft III Battle Chest in Amazon for the low price of $6.99 in new condition. The Battle Chest includes Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos CD, Warcraft III Expansion: The Frozen Throne CD, and two bonus strategy guides from Brady Games. I was able to install the game from these CDs.
You might be asking yourself, why Warcraft III? Certainly there are newer games to play, right? And, you’re right. There are certainly newer games to play, and we will get back to a newer Linux release in upcoming articles, but Warcraft III is an important game in more ways than one – which is the reason I’ve decided to install it, play it and review it.
For those of you who may not be familiar with the Warcraft game series, and without getting too deep talking about the entire Warcraft series, let me explain the importance of Warcraft III. In today’s gaming world, the two names synonymous with successful online gaming are DotA 2 & World of Warcraft. Both of these games have their roots in Warcraft III. Let me explain…
First for the more obvious of the two: World of Warcraft. The Warcraft game series goes back over a decade. The first video game to be released from this series was Warcraft: Orcs & Humans back in 1996. Then followed Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, and then Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos was released. Then in 2004 World of Warcraft was released.
Now, as far as DotA 2, it may not be as easy to see the relationship if you’re not a DotA gamer, so let me explain. With Warcraft III, there is a mod available that allowed for the original Defense of the Ancients (DotA) to be developed. Warcraft III includes a map editor which allows the player to create custom maps and custom games. It was through Warcraft III, and with the use of the map editor, that Icefrog developed and released the original Defense of the Ancients. In time, Valve (the company behind the game engine Steam), hired Icefrog and a few other game developers, and tasked them with developing a new game based on DotA. The end result was DotA 2. You can still play the original DotA, but in order to do so, you need to have Warcraft III installed.
So, as far as the game is concerned, it plays like a charm. This game has been out for a while, so you’d expect it to run smooth with today’s hardware, and it does. However, due to the fact that there are still new updates being rolled out for this game, it does mean that development hasn’t yet ceased and because of it, the folks at WINE are still actively trying to get the game to run smoothly on Linux. And they’re doing a great job of it.
If you’re looking for a little bit of nostalgia, or maybe you want to play the game that was the stepping block for whatever your favorite game might be today, you won’t regret going through the hassle of installing a non-Linux game. Warcraft III is the first game I’ve reviewed here at Full Circle Magazine that required me to install and run WINE, and I’m happy to report back that this endeavor was a true success. The game was able to play smoothly, without any lag or glitches. However, getting the map editor to run in Linux is another headache that I haven’t yet submitted myself to suffer, so I can’t quite comment on how to use it nor on how to run and play the original Defense of the Ancients, but if I ever do, you better bet I’ll let you know about it in an article here. Chances are that I won’t, but you never know.