WarCraft II: Battle Chest

The Good
The best thing about this update is that it makes Warcraft 2 fully functional in Windows, along with Battle.net and many many multi-player maps. It brings some great elements into the game, though it is at it's heart the same game is was when it was released many years ago.

The Bad
Not much, seeing as its an old game theres not much to complain about it.

The Bottom Line
A fun game, if you haven't played Warcraft 2 yet, I suggest it. It's worth it now at the cheap price. The game is simple but fun. The graphics are pleasently cartoony, and the game still has the same appeal that lead it to being one of the biggest sellars of gameing history. Its only added with the windows support, the cool mission builder, and the Battle.net support.

The Good
The low price, the classic WarCraft 2 I remember, and the Battle.net capability.

The Bad
The people on Battle.net are not very fun to deal with, I'd suggest playing with some friends.

The Bottom Line
The RTS that gave birth to all of the WC clones on the market. It is undoubtly the best real time strategy game ever made.

The Good
Ok folks, if you haven't played Beyond the Dark Portal I can forgive you, but if you haven't yet played Warcraft II Tides of Darkness you've been living under a cave.

The battle.net edition is sort of the ultimate Warcraft II battle chest, but 99% of the people who are thinking of buying this already have WarCraft II, so im going to skip what was already in WarCraft II and talk about the upgrades of the BNE (Battle.net Edition).

First of all, of course, is support for Blizzard's top notch matchmaking service, Battle.net, which has been used in previous titles such as StarCraft and Diablo. No longer must you go onto Microsoft's Internet Gaming Zone (shudder) or the high demand Heat.net to play Warcraft II multiplayer, which is a beautiful thing.

In addition, it's somewhat convenient to have both Tides of Darkness and Beyond the Dark Portal on the same CD, and another fine convenience is the BNE is windows native, fixing many compatibility issues that arose with the old dos versions running on windows systems.

But perhaps the most notable thing about the BNE besides the far better Multiplayer support is the AI, remember that goofus AI you used to watch build up his entire army only not to do anything with it? The way it just waited for you to come and stomp it whenever the mood struck you? Well now you actually have to rush to build defenses because the AI finally knows what to do, and plays so much more aggressively I couldn't help but think "StarCraft AI", still it's better than it used to be.

And as if it couldn't get any better... there's also several new multiplayer maps added and some BNE versions of old classics like Garden of War.

The Bad
It would've been nice to see Blizzard overstep expectations and make both races more unique, rather than the mirror images of each other they've always been, but it's no biggie.

The Bottom Line
For 20 dollars make the upgrade, you won't be disappointed!