Homeworld Remastered Collection (2015) (PC) (Gearbox Software)
0This lovingly restored re-release of Homeworld 1-2 certainly counts as one of the more essential PC remasters of recent years. I say that as someone who barely played the series back in the day (because complex 3D RTSs are scary) but nonetheless have fond memories of its beautiful visuals, haunting soundtrack and artfully restrained approach to storytelling. These games belongs to a relatively small category of titles which are both innovative from a systems and mechanics perspective and memorable works of art in terms of their presentation.
In this video, I replay the first mission of H1, after which I flip through the lengthy lore section of the paper manual from the original 1999 physical release (starting at 18:12). The reason why any of its flavor text is of any relevance today is of course that it builds the foundation for the next Homeworld game which, bizarrely (given the almost complete lack of marketing or pre-release coverage until the last few days), is released next Wednesday (20th Jan. 2016). You'd be forgiven for not knowing that the epic saga now continues - albeit with a prequel not set in space - over 10 years after the last game in the series, although for licensing issues Blackbird Interactive's Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak technically started out its development cycle without being formally connected to the venerable Relic IP.
For a comparison with the first version of the game, see my Remembrances of Games Past #35 video;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X4RVMFLB3M
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak Development Diary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVh_E657bFA