Useful links: ⭐ Heroes 3 Complete Edition at GOG.com*: af.gog.com/game/heroes_of_might_and_magic_3_complete_edition?as=1673737379 *Note: As a GOG affiliate, purchases through this link support the channel via commission at no added cost to you. This video was scripted/recorded before I became an affiliate. ⭐ HDE mod for HD Edition (Steam Community): steamcommunity.com/app/297000/discussions/0/604941528472210055/ ⭐ HDE mod Github page: github.com/potmdehex/homm3tools/releases/tag/1.22 Featured playthroughs: ⭐ Ascension (HD Edition gameplay): th-cam.com/video/hGW_Pis4b0I/w-d-xo.html ⭐ Forge mod playthrough: th-cam.com/video/87PcIps1SAk/w-d-xo.html ⭐ The Great Wasteland (Horn of the Abyss): th-cam.com/video/vHwiF2Q9bAY/w-d-xo.html Complete Edition Mods: ⭐ Horn of the Abyss (HotA): h3hota.com/en/documentation ⭐ HD mod (quality of life improvements, resolution and bug fixes): sites.google.com/site/heroes3hd/ ⭐ SoD_SP addon for HD mod: docs.google.com/document/d/1JlQ6TC97d_Bb1g_sDRpxTvkKHtyXgZ3qORG5LJS8tp8/edit#
The narration for this was mostly recorded a long time ago so I'm not certain which mic I used, but probably my old Rode NT-USB. I use a Shure SM7B now.
that's interesting you had the audio recorded long ago for a video just released 2weeks ago. would be happy to see a video or blog from you about your production process.
Nice video, but you forgot to mention any version of the most important fan-made expansion for Homm3 complete, which started developing since year 2001 - WoG which later was renamed to Era in mid 2010's !!! That mod/expansion started it all and made it possible for later ones (like HD and Hota) to exist. Also in it''s long "life" made more and most significant improvements and innovations to our beloved HoMM3 than all of the other mods combined !
@@F0nkyNinja What i'm trying to say is that, if we buy the game today, NONE of the money goes to any of the creators. :) So who cares if we pirate the game.. If it actually went to the creators of the game, i'd buy the game in a heartbeat.
Thank goodness of GOG and the Horn of the Abyss Expansion, I loved this game since I was 17, and now at the age of 35. I am glad there is a community here that keeps it alive. I one time thought of buying the Steam HD version but I remember Total Biscuit said it best: " Go buy the GOG version and you'll not regret it, there is even a mod expansion, do not waste your time with it".
@@giulio7853 They rebranded a while ago and it's just been 'GOG' for years actually. I mean, who cares, and not the best move, but yeah they're the best alternative to steam, for new releases as well. No EGS or EA or whatever megacorpo data-grab, fair to call them 'steam's hippie little sister', with both the positives and negatives that entails.
Also with how they all look it's very obvious they used AI upscaling for all of it, and with how some of it looks very off it's also very obvious that they literally just left them as is without doing manual edits most of the time. Very few art assets look and feel like they've been touched by an actual artist and not a computer program. There is nothing wrong with using a program to make your job easier of course, but simply taking whatever it spits out without giving it the final human touch it needs is pure laziness. People use AI upscaling to make HD mods for video games, and they do it FOR FREE. HD Edition is essentially a mod that you have to pay for, which is also standalone for some reason and doesn't work with the version of the game everybody plays. This is why it is considered a cash grab.
@@RiskOfBaer the HD edition was made before AI upscaling became mainstream (or good) They even shown some of the behind the scenes and the work was made manually
@@DaddyMouse If that is true, all "manual work" was probably outsourced to the cheapest sweatshop in Malaysia. I don't intent on dismissing skill/talent/artistry of Malaysian people, just trying to argue that when you are paid peanuts (326,43 dollars is the official monthly minimum wage according to google, I assume they have 12 hour workdays and/or massive crunch) to be a cog in a machine churning out minimum viable products to satisfy foreign clients, you probably aren't producing the best results. Further reading: "How Game Publishers Buy Crunch Overseas" by People Make Games EDIT: They probably had an actual well-paid artist do the Hydra, as the process was released in the form of "Speed Painting" for marketing purposes. I still hold that every other asset was likely dumped to overseas sweatshop(s) that may or may not be located in Malaysia.
It never ceases to amaze me how these giant corporations with huge resources and access to talented employees of their choosing often can't even make a proper remaster or remake. You'd think that if there is one thing they'd be good at it would be churning out uninspired, but well-polished and consistent products that follow an already established formula. But most of the time they can't even do that.
Its corporatism inspired by the small greedy gremlins maximizing the profit and investing absolute minimum they can get away with. So attention to detail and authenticity and completeness goes out the window in that case. Its the companies that would go under right away if people were well educated and less ignorant. Uneducated uncultured people always have low standards and that's where the society is going so thats what we get unfortunately. Its become so bad over the years that actual fans of these franchises would do many times better job for free if they got the source code.
Well, remasters are definition of the cash grab, from corporation perspective it's has to be done as cheap as possible to maximize profit and make shareholders happy so they can't accuse CEO of wasting money on project that will easily cash in anyway. Even failures like Reforged made a net profit, nostalgia is hell of a drug so there is often just no point from their perspective to put any effort. In case of HoMM3 they missed the spot of being greedy enough but I'm sure it made some money anyway despite the fans outcry though definitely not as much as anticipated.
Nah, nah, they can't they just don't want to. Remakes are usually a quick cashgrab that provides the ability to make some money for minimal effort. It can be done properly as shown by Capcom or Square Enix but usually it isn't.
Ok, but I hope the purpose of this video is to explain that u can get much more with H3 Complete edition togheter with HD and other mods. For non-hardcore players should be Heroes 3: HD Edition on steam/uplay good enough.
To be honest I would consider buying this if this would be fully reworked version containing both expansions(AB and SoD) and Chronicles campaings. It is hard to consider it "better" version if more than 60% of content is missing.
buy complete. The graphics with HD MOD are nice, there is online support via the hota(horn of the abyss) mod , come play :D Dunno what "OP" is talking about really, the hd edition looks like shit :D
@@aathrael1372 You don't even need the hota mod for online, you can play online with just the HD mod, and for people like me who's probably in the minority who don't like hota mod(don't know why it just never felt right for me, the amount of content it adds is cool tho) it is nice that you don't need the hota mod for online play
C&C Remastered was produced by Jim Vessella, who started in EA working with some remaining Westwood developers on RTS games like Battle for Middle Earth and C&C 3. He worked hard to get the original C&C developers involved.
i played CC recently and the remaster was great, was using mostly pixelated graphics but didnt have any problems with the exception of one mission where for some reason the save files get corrupted
EA for what it's worth, have a very solid track record of decently working re-releases. Mass Effect Legendary, C&C +Red Alert, NFS Hot Pursuit, Medal of Honor Allied Assault, tons actually in the Origin store.
@KasumiRINA somehow they're the only AAA publisher who realised that it's actually incredibly cheap to remaster a game properly and the returns are hundreds of times more than what you put in. Genuinely embarrassing that Konami, Sony and EA are the only ones who have realised this
I'm one of those poor sould who fell into the trap of buying HD Edition off of steam then feeling scammed when I experienced HD mod. Shows the difference between passion for a game and corporate greed to milk a fanbase.
So cool that other people still love this game. I didn't play it back in the day and thought it looked stupid until a trusted friend finally convinced me to try it out, 2000 hours later it's one of my favorite games. So many robust mods too
I bought the original HOMM III from Good Old Games. It's not high res, but it does use the whole screen instead of trying to accommodate the 15" CRT monitors that were pretty standard for the time. I'm fine with the old version. I do play Horn of the Abyss, as well. A great community there. This is still one of my all-time favorite strategy games ever.
Its really sad that we don't have a complete Heroes 3 HD complete edition. HOA community and overall all Heroes 3 has such a nice a good community. Its really nice to be around such people.
With ERA III the mod ability from the H3Complete is increase even more. This allows activate different mods at the same time (with some exceptions). Giga maps, QoL mods, alternative upgrades, or advanced classes f.e.. VCMI is a other great mod project, that recoded the complete base game to increase some limits. If the HD Edition had add some QoL features and a random mapgenerator it wouldn't too bad. Age of Empires 2 Remakes got more love from the dev team than this game. 😢
I used to play H3 back in 2009 when my uncle show it to me. I had stopped playing until 2020 and i didn't have it so i bought it from steam and then i bought it from GoG and the i have played both versions for a while. I have to say Complete edition is by far better but i don't regret buying HD edition. Is not good but it is playable.
You young whippersnappers don't know how good you have it these days i'm tellin ya, back in 96' upon the release of homm2 we would play for hours on end with a pentium 1 and WIN95 And when I was grounded and my privileges were taken away which including gaming, my pager, and Coolio cassette tape, I would resort to playing "Paperball" basically, all you do is get a scrap piece of paper, crunch it up into a ball, and play with it!
I really enjoy the way you do content. It's not slapped together or overflown with memes and hot takes, but a nice mix of professional and casual, infused with a bit of fun.
I got the game when it first came out in 1999 but lost it somewhere along the line. I bought the HD Edition years later thinking that would be the best option, WRONG! So, I now have the HD HOTA Mod edition and LOVE it. Sooooo many hours of gameplay. and the HOTA expansion is so well thought out.
Thanks for this video, I just came across my og HoMM3 CD and was looking around for the best experience of this amazing game and this helped me not waste my money on this HD "remaster".
One of the games in the remaster trend that broke my heart was Homeworld remastered. It plays nothing gameplay wise like the original game even with all the band aid patches, and I feel it gives new players a bad\worse idea of what the game actually was and played. At least here on HoMM3 some features are out, but its essentially the same game.
Homeworld 1 Remastered is a real shame, because the graphics/art overhaul is 10/10 (excluding the remaked art cutscenes which are worse than original + misaligned music). Sadly they went the fast & easy route and used H2 as a basis for the first game's remaster which led to the extreme changes in gameplay/systems cause of the fundamental differences between the original H1 and H2 engines. Homeworld 2 Remastered has no issues, as far as I know.
Bro go play HoMM3 HD some more and I garuntee you won't agree that it's "essentially the same game" The missing features are glaring and constant, you don't realise how much the expansions fundamentally change the entire game until you are forced to play without them. HD Edition is not an enjoyable experience. I would even go as far as to say that it is a bad game. Complete edition unmodded on the other hand is janky but a good game. This is coming from a casual player, I can't even imagine how terrible the steam version is for people who actually know how to play the game 😂
I got excited when you mentioned the HD Mod and HotA and deep down i hoped WoG would get at least a honourable mention. I know it’t not great and not polished at all and the creators of the mod dropped the project unfinished, but it definitely has some interesting quirks and mechanics. Great video tho and good explanation on everything else, keep up the good work!
Didn't know the source code for the expansions had been found. A shame Ubisoft isn't going to do anything with them. Great summary of the reasons why the steam edition is mostly worse than the complete edition.
I found homm3 when I was 14, now I'm 37, and even if I only pick up the game for a couple of days when I get an itch every year or so, I often do mental battles as math just to check who would win between x and y unit. Goes without saying that I know all unit stats 😅
i think the issue you are having is you are not able to change your resolution setting... i have a files (i think its iso) version of the game, and also installed a Launcher HoMM3 HD 5.4 R72 Launcher (needs update). the Launcher takes care of the resolution and i enjoy playing in HD 1550x872, i can play in 1920x1080, but graphics get too zoomed out to enjoy. if you going to search online, might as well search for h3era (in the wake of gods) and h3hota (horn of the abyss) versions aswell... complete isnt complete... also the guards/borders update you talked about in video is incorrect is not refering to monolith or teleportation gates, but colored guards (keymasters gate) or post guards (which disappear). basically i think you are playing HD in 800x640...
The HD version can be so cheap that it doesn't hurt much to buy it "to support whatever it supports" but two things you missed are HD is Windows only; the various other versions (with mods and new engines) are cross-platform. HD looks like it may be steam deck compatible, for what that's worth.
I never realized how much the game was improved on the additional content until I tried playing the HD Edition and noticed I actually hate the gameplay, haha. I played the game first time (at my friend's pc) when it was released on 99 and from there it has been more or less a part of my life. Bought the CD-ROM (of complete edition) around 2003-2004 and occasionally played the game for the next six or seven years, before updating the pc and having to buy the gog version as the old rom didn't work on the new pc anymore. After that I picked the game up every few months, almost solely because of the 'random map' feature. Sometimes going back to the Scenarios I had already played, but changing the starting color. After I bought this current gaming pc I had not really had time to play HoMM anymore, but I thought that's going to change when they released the "new" HD version of it (I had never heard of any of the mods) in Steam. Nope.. Moats are completely useless in the "base game". Don't harm or slow the enemies at all. I have no idea why they are in the game at the first place. Also I disliked the fact that the AI just sends an troop standing at my gates and I can't do anything to it if I can't use spells and/or have any archers. And what comes to the "spell points".. I had an bug which prevented my hero from using spells at hero vs. hero battles. Could use them just fine when fighting creatures but when attacking AI or they attacking me I suddenly couldn't. I tried five or six scenarios and a couple of campaigns and they all had this "feature". SP were full, book had spells, wasn't standing on magic ground, nobody had artefacts which prevented spell casting (at least I didn't get the message you get on the complete edition, also happened so early on the matches I doubt they'd always found one of those) the book was just grey. I contacted "support", listed all the above into it and the only thing they told me is "you just don't have spell points on your hero, use another. No other possibility". Customer service of the year, Ubisoft in a nutshell. Luckily I got an refund even after I had played for over two hours, as it was unplayable because of that bug.
The conflux was pretty strong, but nothing was/is more broken than Lyonis the Cleric, of the Castletown, because his special was a massive buff to the power of the spell "prayer" that scaled with his level. Adding Expert Water Magic to it allowed him to cast prayer on his entire army. He started with basic water magic at lvl 1 which made getting expert very early on easy. I used to play using him on impossible difficulty and win.
@@crimsonlightbinder You're underestimating how strong his spell prayer is with his specialty buff and expert water magic. The raw bonus it gives to all stats of creatures is op. What do you mean by "rpg" map? I'm talking about a randomly generated map with monster strength on high and difficulty setting on imp with at least 4 ai. It's easy if you know what you're doing.
Depending on the enemy's army, mass slowing all enemies and/or hasting/praying your entire army on top will make raw power be your friend. The lower a unit ranks, the bigger prayer's effect is, so big masses of lvl 1-3 will steamroll bigger tiers and your high tier units still get buffs on nearly all stats. A big, powerful army will do better with mass haste/mass enemy slow than some attack spells you might otherwise use.
@@__-tp4tm While lower tiers units get more of a buff, the strength of Lyonis' bonus effect amps up its benefits on higher tier units. In fact, his prayer + expert water magic grants the same amount of bonus movement as mass haste making it redundant to use under his command.
Olá amigo, aqui do Brasil vendo a obra de arte que é esse video e saber que existe uma comunidade que mantém viva a alma desse jogo. Fiz 28 anos agora em 2023, lembro de jogar uma versão Demo...conseguia fazer um glich que o tempo de demonstração não expirasse, jogava por muitas horas. Mesmo não existindo o conceito de speed run, ja fazia isso kkkkk. Obrigado pela sensação de nostalgia, lembrando do pc da minha mãe em 2004±...Windows 98 e aquela adrenalina de deixar 100% dominado o primeiro cenário, por vezes demorava um dia todo. Em 2012± encontrei na internet um 🧲 com ele em muitas traduções prontas...lembro que gostava muito de jogar as missões nos pântanos e aquele cenário que lembra a fortaleza de Sauron. Amo esse jogo, fiquei completamente surpreso por existir tanta gente que ainda é online...um dia compro um PC para jogar com uma galera. Usava o mod mesmo antes da versao HD oficial.
I'm so glad you took the time to spell all this out. Coming back 20 years after I last played, I was very confused on editions and mods and which HD was good. GOG and HD mod for me. I'll save Horn of the Abyss until later (but I will say, Cove looks better developed and balanced than Conflux was).
Can someone Tell me the best settings to get the Most FPS for the HD mod? My AMD Driver dont Show me the fps because the Game IS Not listed in the Driver Overview. Hope you understand what i mean my english ist not the best😅
yea... lack of expansion packs is a dealbreaker Re: bloodshot eyes, tired or something else... heh, I vaguely remember reading a fanfic a few years ago in which Inferno basically run a drug empire, so maybe there is something in it xD
I like non-scaled up graphics. A lot of the art was beautiful in its original resolution but looks meh upscaled. With modern graphics cards supporting integer upscaling (meaning a pixel is no longer made blurry when upscaled) it makes sense to calculate the best lower resolution for your monitor. For 2560x1440 this is 1280x720 but even 800x600 works fine (1600x1200 with some black borders).
I think it predates AI upscaling. Honestly, AI upscaling would look better. The weird smoothness makes it look like it was just run through some upscaling filter and that was that. It's always a little silly when a huge company like ubisoft does a worse job at something than a mod you download off a vaguely dodgy looking russian webpage.
Even the makers of the upcoming HoMM 3 board game seems to view Cove, and by extension Horn of the Abyss, as an official expansion, as Cove was in the list of factions kickstarter backers could vote for as a last faction to be included (Inferno ultimately won that vote, which was pretty much expected, though personally I would have loved to have seen Stronghold)
I used to have horn of the abyss running on my PC but for unknown reasons nowadays when I start the game it goes to 1fps, unable to play at all. Used to play it for ages. Horn of abyss nicely balances races and gives a new faction, when you think conflux is overpowered, you didnt see the pirate race.
The HD edition is horrible. I got so happy when I found out that the complete version was available on GOG, and that it is supported by two amazing fan updates and expansions. They even managed to create a fully functional online lobby for multiplayer!
3:40 "conflux is overpowered"... okay... and??? Oh that's with, with the hota heroes 3 complete you can completely disable any conflux towns or units or even heroes. Or do it halfway, only disable certain ones. Or maybe different towns. Enable/disable whatever you like. Any skills, any artifacts, any spells, any objects, anything you want. Can you do that with HD? No, of course not.
0:58 honestly i still think Valve has a way to good reputation despite their doing. -They killed pyhsical copies - They get way too much share for "only" being a seller (i know this is a little double edged opinion here but i don´t mind them taking off some percentages of shitty publishers. On the other hand people that do a really good job also pay too much) - Gambling (CS GO and Dota say hello , Valves monetization is insane) - Forced to have an internet connection - They had quite a long time bad refund policies - Steam-Market (i still think this shit should have been limited to never reach any insane numbers "just" for a "digital" something) - Check some games (Sid Meiers Pirates doesn´t work with the Steam version, neither does Fallout 3 by default (though that´s also kinda on MC... bless GOG for existing, so yeah some control for older games at the time would be nice) On the other side sure they have done a few things right (Workshop, Forums, Sales, Friendlists, Greenlight / Indiescene [ you are allowed to make this list here with the Life of Brian scene])
Glad I saw this before playing it. I bought it from GOG, but I think it also includes the HD edition as well. I'll be sure to install the complete edition and the HD mode instead.
Excellent video! I actually do find the HD edition to look better (mostly) which is a shame. I'm tempted to finally try the HotA expansion. Any chance you continue the town reviews like you did with dungeon? I understand there's some balance changes in different versions but still. The video was very entertaining and I believe useful for newer players. Thanks
I definitely recommend HotA! Even if you won't play as the new pirate (Cove) town, it's very much worth it because of how much they added, how many bugs they solved and their ballance changes are very, very well done. I play HotA for like 2 years already and to me it's basically the "official" game. 11/10
Nice video, but you forgot to mention any version of the most important fan-made expansion for Homm3 complete, which started developing since year 2001 - WoG which later was renamed to Era in mid 2010's !!! That mod/expansion started it all and made it possible for later ones (like HD and Hota) to exist. Also in it''s long "life" made more and most significant improvements and innovations to our beloved HoMM3 than all of the other mods combined !
Excellent video. I’m currently playing through HoMM3 campaigns and I was considering installing HotA until I heard about the nerfs… Is there a way to play this mod without nerfing Conflux and Necropolis? As a single player gamer I absolutely despise nerfs in strategy games
so i've been playing Heroes chronicles this entire time not knowing this wasn't the base bame? why is the HC puzzle map always completed ? is it not included in the game? are obelisks in HC? there's no content available explaining this...?
Well one thing to add is: If you buy homam VII deluxe you get the homam III HD included. So 2 in 1 for 10€ in steam sale, may be another option, even the mentioned differences.
You forgot to mention ERA 3, MoP and VCMI, a bit more chaotic then HOtA but great mods nonetheless, especially ERA 3 + adv. classes + third upgrades. There's also upcoming (hopefully) days of reckoning.
Is there any way to control which factions are allowed on your randomly generated map? I have not found this from the settings and as a quite noob player has not been able to solve. I own the complete edition with HoD mod, but sometimes I would really like to drop the Cove faction out of the game. Is it possible without going back to more bare versions of the game? Ofcourse you can choose your own and opponents factions, but the map generator can still generate Cove monsters and unclaimed towns to maps.
The only thing I disagree with is you saying HD edition looks better and the original looks outdated. Also has any remaster ever done a 100% good job other than AoEII?
I finally broke my addiction pf playing Heroes 3 on and off for nearly 20 years. And then I come across a TH-cam video showing me all have the HOTA expansion and bugger me! I'm back playing heroes again. Just played malestom on impossible and won. Great map.
Is there a way to play homm3 with the improvements from hota like the better graphics and online lobbies without the new content like the hota balance changes and new factions? I mainly downloaded hota to play homm3 online with a friend but we'd like to play vanilla homm3 complete sometimes.
I have an ethical problem. I own Restoration of Erathia, Shadow of Death and Armagedons Blade on disc. Is it piracy if i download complete edition or just taking what i own and avoid the extra steps and using not so legitimate acquiring methods have the same game in one place. I've bought my copies sometime between 2004 and 2007.
You already paid for the game, there's your answer. If you paid for it again, literally not a single person who worked on the game or even marketed for the game will recieve anything for it. The only people who profit are a soulless company who bought the rights from a dying company. Pirate the thing bro, there's no ethical question here. You already paid the people who made the game.
my custom modded ERA II setup is all I need, I run 40ish mods for HOMM3 and the game is amazing now, new terrains, new units, new towns, new artifacts, new skills, spellcrafting etc.
I would like to say this: the random map generator can be used from the old games, generating a map for hd version, you just have to choose the right version of the game when generating...which is the restoration f erathia. Many of you already knew this but for those who didn`t keep this in mind
Thanks for the video. Since I only ever played the vanilla HoMM 3 back in the days and don't care for Conflux, scenarios, adventures, custom maps, playing against other players or mods, the HD version is fine for me.
which is why you buy the gog version love how you also advertise it here lol. but man i would love a remake of it in the homm5 engine with alternate upgrades
you are the guy with the popular opinion. meanwhile, me and all others with the unpopular opinion bought HD edition and played the heck out of it and loved every second of it because Restoration of Erathia alone contains like 50 hours of campaign gameplay (remember there are 7 campaigns) and another 100 hours of missions. While you had to make do with everything being tiny, or blurred and non-widescreen if you stuck to the original CDs just so you could play 1 more town and the expansion campaigns, your ROE experience was worse.
well If you consider the graphics of a 25 year old game (lmao) more important than the quality of life features and don't mind paying more for less then yeah, I suppose you are right.
I bought it because I was a bit nostalgic to play the vanilla basegame. I do prefer the Complete Edition with the HD mod. But I do enjoy seeing that original arc angel with the sword in the clouds screen. Something they changed for complete edition and the expansions. So for me it was essentially just being able to play the base game again without anything extra. I got so used to playing with the expansion I forgot the time when it did not have them. I hope they one day remedy this. Now that they have the source code, a sort of throwback title is coming. I do hope they make a fully HD (Ultra-wide) version of complete edition and give buyers of the HD-version atleast a some percent off.
At the beginning of my teenage years, I got to know this fantasy turn-based strategy game series. Over time, I learned how to manage resources well and use multiple types of combat units in Heroes of Might and Magic 3. I still enjoy this game to this day, I got it from the Good Old Games software store a long time ago (around 2016 I bought with PayPal). 🙂 Before I bought Heroes 3 Complete online, I tried a fan mod called "In the Wake of Gods" that added quite a few things. I would also watch a video about how important "Heroes 3 WoG" was until the end of the mod's active development period. I didn't play Horn of the Abyss fan expansion, but I will try out when I can have free time after the weekly work. 🙂
Hey guys, i played WOG, shadow of death and Hota for many years and I just bought this version two weeks ago.. I am used to play randomg generated map with templates and this steam version doesnt even have that. But somehow, I found that very exciting, play maps that was designed to play them in some way, and also… in First game on Warlord map I had hero level 6 stucked wirhour OP spells with small army…(warlords map) and it was very fun in some way.. I liked that size of army really mattered. No wywerns stack, no angels or cyclopes stack, just your few units and few bad spells, hero with low stats, not that 30/30 after one weeks break… only you have to download mod for quick combat, otherwise its really pain. But playing the vanilla maps, many of them for first time, totally new experience 😊 so for some of you, it could be refreshing experience with limiting yourself 😁
EI hope the community comes up with a way to just use the HD assets to mod the original game. That said, the same could not *legally* happen to Warcraft 3 since you kinda can't play the original game anymore, right? Edit: Does Complete Edition run on Windows10? It's good enough for me.
Your criticism is fair, however, I was very happy to get this to my iPad since I can't play as much as I did before and this was a very easy way to pick it up, even with lacking the expansions and the many bugs. And I agree too the PC I would have expected more.
How come no one talks about Wake of the Gods (WOG) mod? Easily the biggest best mod for H3, can even convert old maps....so many options and features I couldn't play without.
super glad I made the right chose back in the day then. I have the complete edition from gog. I considered the HD on steam after but not now after I have seen this video. Perhaps I should try mod it
In heroes' case, the only dealbraker of getting this compared to the original one, is not having the expansion packs, Heroes 3 HD is only the base game, which while awesome, is missing a lot of nifty things from the Expansions.
I will NEVER understand who decided to port the vanilla Heroes 3 without the expansions... I EXPECTED it a cash grab with Armageddon Blade and Shadows of Death released soon, but NOPE, they JUST spend resources upscaling 1/3 of the game (if you count story and map content, most towns and units are as in).
I got on steam Heroes of Might and Magic® 3: HD and I never had a problem with that, I still loving after 20 years❤ other wise is missing the complete edition from steam😢
Ubisoft has pretty much abandoned the Heroes/Might and Magic franchise. Heroes 7 came out 8 years ago. And even that was made on a tiny budget where the developers had to reuse a lot of assets from Heroes 6. After that, Ubisoft has only licensed out the brand to shovelware developers for cheap mobile games.
I had no idea people were still playing HOMM3. I think I have the complete version from GoG. I’m going to install those mods and play it. It will be a nice change from Total Warhammer 3.
Useful links:
⭐ Heroes 3 Complete Edition at GOG.com*: af.gog.com/game/heroes_of_might_and_magic_3_complete_edition?as=1673737379
*Note: As a GOG affiliate, purchases through this link support the channel via commission at no added cost to you. This video was scripted/recorded before I became an affiliate.
⭐ HDE mod for HD Edition (Steam Community): steamcommunity.com/app/297000/discussions/0/604941528472210055/
⭐ HDE mod Github page: github.com/potmdehex/homm3tools/releases/tag/1.22
Featured playthroughs:
⭐ Ascension (HD Edition gameplay): th-cam.com/video/hGW_Pis4b0I/w-d-xo.html
⭐ Forge mod playthrough: th-cam.com/video/87PcIps1SAk/w-d-xo.html
⭐ The Great Wasteland (Horn of the Abyss): th-cam.com/video/vHwiF2Q9bAY/w-d-xo.html
Complete Edition Mods:
⭐ Horn of the Abyss (HotA): h3hota.com/en/documentation
⭐ HD mod (quality of life improvements, resolution and bug fixes): sites.google.com/site/heroes3hd/
⭐ SoD_SP addon for HD mod: docs.google.com/document/d/1JlQ6TC97d_Bb1g_sDRpxTvkKHtyXgZ3qORG5LJS8tp8/edit#
what microphone do you use for recording these videos?
The narration for this was mostly recorded a long time ago so I'm not certain which mic I used, but probably my old Rode NT-USB. I use a Shure SM7B now.
that's interesting you had the audio recorded long ago for a video just released 2weeks ago. would be happy to see a video or blog from you about your production process.
ah... well i have Complete Edition, not HD..
there's some HD launcher mod or smt, and HotA expansiuon... HD Edition from Steam is pointless indeed...
Nice video, but you forgot to mention any version of the most important fan-made expansion for Homm3 complete, which started developing since year 2001 - WoG which later was renamed to Era in mid 2010's !!! That mod/expansion started it all and made it possible for later ones (like HD and Hota) to exist. Also in it''s long "life" made more and most significant improvements and innovations to our beloved HoMM3 than all of the other mods combined !
Keep in mind that the creators of HOMM3 doesn't get money if we spend money on buying it.. They sold the company a long time ago :)
yarrrrr? :)
Arrrrghhhhh
No, they went bankrupt in 2003. The company was called 3DO btw, they also did the Army Men series.
@@F0nkyNinja What i'm trying to say is that, if we buy the game today, NONE of the money goes to any of the creators. :)
So who cares if we pirate the game..
If it actually went to the creators of the game, i'd buy the game in a heartbeat.
Yeah, Might and Magic franchise being bought by Ubisoft is one of the worst things that could happen.
Thank goodness of GOG and the Horn of the Abyss Expansion, I loved this game since I was 17, and now at the age of 35. I am glad there is a community here that keeps it alive. I one time thought of buying the Steam HD version but I remember Total Biscuit said it best: " Go buy the GOG version and you'll not regret it, there is even a mod expansion, do not waste your time with it".
What's the "GOG" version? Didn't understand it :D
GOG stands for Good Old Games. They sell old games, with patches and fixes if possible.
They sell newer games too.
I prefer WoG over the Horn, but that`s also very good expansion.
@@giulio7853 They rebranded a while ago and it's just been 'GOG' for years actually. I mean, who cares, and not the best move, but yeah they're the best alternative to steam, for new releases as well. No EGS or EA or whatever megacorpo data-grab, fair to call them 'steam's hippie little sister', with both the positives and negatives that entails.
The worst thing about "improved" graphics and portraits is that it wouldn't even take that much time or money to do it properly.
Also with how they all look it's very obvious they used AI upscaling for all of it, and with how some of it looks very off it's also very obvious that they literally just left them as is without doing manual edits most of the time. Very few art assets look and feel like they've been touched by an actual artist and not a computer program. There is nothing wrong with using a program to make your job easier of course, but simply taking whatever it spits out without giving it the final human touch it needs is pure laziness.
People use AI upscaling to make HD mods for video games, and they do it FOR FREE. HD Edition is essentially a mod that you have to pay for, which is also standalone for some reason and doesn't work with the version of the game everybody plays. This is why it is considered a cash grab.
@@RiskOfBaer the HD edition was made before AI upscaling became mainstream (or good)
They even shown some of the behind the scenes and the work was made manually
@@RiskOfBaer, nah, pretty sure it was all manual labour, which somehow makes it even worse, lmao
@@DaddyMouse If that is true, all "manual work" was probably outsourced to the cheapest sweatshop in Malaysia. I don't intent on dismissing skill/talent/artistry of Malaysian people, just trying to argue that when you are paid peanuts (326,43 dollars is the official monthly minimum wage according to google, I assume they have 12 hour workdays and/or massive crunch) to be a cog in a machine churning out minimum viable products to satisfy foreign clients, you probably aren't producing the best results.
Further reading: "How Game Publishers Buy Crunch Overseas" by People Make Games
EDIT: They probably had an actual well-paid artist do the Hydra, as the process was released in the form of "Speed Painting" for marketing purposes. I still hold that every other asset was likely dumped to overseas sweatshop(s) that may or may not be located in Malaysia.
@@DaddyMouseyea thats right. theres videos of them doing it manually that they showed.
It never ceases to amaze me how these giant corporations with huge resources and access to talented employees of their choosing often can't even make a proper remaster or remake. You'd think that if there is one thing they'd be good at it would be churning out uninspired, but well-polished and consistent products that follow an already established formula. But most of the time they can't even do that.
Its corporatism inspired by the small greedy gremlins maximizing the profit and investing absolute minimum they can get away with. So attention to detail and authenticity and completeness goes out the window in that case. Its the companies that would go under right away if people were well educated and less ignorant. Uneducated uncultured people always have low standards and that's where the society is going so thats what we get unfortunately. Its become so bad over the years that actual fans of these franchises would do many times better job for free if they got the source code.
Well, remasters are definition of the cash grab, from corporation perspective it's has to be done as cheap as possible to maximize profit and make shareholders happy so they can't accuse CEO of wasting money on project that will easily cash in anyway.
Even failures like Reforged made a net profit, nostalgia is hell of a drug so there is often just no point from their perspective to put any effort.
In case of HoMM3 they missed the spot of being greedy enough but I'm sure it made some money anyway despite the fans outcry though definitely not as much as anticipated.
Nah, nah, they can't they just don't want to. Remakes are usually a quick cashgrab that provides the ability to make some money for minimal effort. It can be done properly as shown by Capcom or Square Enix but usually it isn't.
@andrzejnadgirl2029 ur mentality is wrong though. This kills the company image which is more important in the long run
Did you watch the video? Steam doesn't have a proper version but GOG has. Greatest game of all times imho.
The more people know to avoid HD Edition, the better. Excellent video.
Ok, but I hope the purpose of this video is to explain that u can get much more with H3 Complete edition togheter with HD and other mods. For non-hardcore players should be Heroes 3: HD Edition on steam/uplay good enough.
To be honest I would consider buying this if this would be fully reworked version containing both expansions(AB and SoD) and Chronicles campaings. It is hard to consider it "better" version if more than 60% of content is missing.
buy complete. The graphics with HD MOD are nice, there is online support via the hota(horn of the abyss) mod , come play :D
Dunno what "OP" is talking about really, the hd edition looks like shit :D
@@aathrael1372 You don't even need the hota mod for online, you can play online with just the HD mod, and for people like me who's probably in the minority who don't like hota mod(don't know why it just never felt right for me, the amount of content it adds is cool tho) it is nice that you don't need the hota mod for online play
true, theres also another rework mod like hota thats being played a lot as well@@NoodleVerse
It makes me sad because even Command & Conquer got a better result, from EA of all publishers.
You know what they say - "Why was EA named the worst american company? Because Ubisoft is french."
C&C Remastered was produced by Jim Vessella, who started in EA working with some remaining Westwood developers on RTS games like Battle for Middle Earth and C&C 3. He worked hard to get the original C&C developers involved.
i played CC recently and the remaster was great, was using mostly pixelated graphics but didnt have any problems with the exception of one mission where for some reason the save files get corrupted
EA for what it's worth, have a very solid track record of decently working re-releases. Mass Effect Legendary, C&C +Red Alert, NFS Hot Pursuit, Medal of Honor Allied Assault, tons actually in the Origin store.
@KasumiRINA somehow they're the only AAA publisher who realised that it's actually incredibly cheap to remaster a game properly and the returns are hundreds of times more than what you put in.
Genuinely embarrassing that Konami, Sony and EA are the only ones who have realised this
I'm one of those poor sould who fell into the trap of buying HD Edition off of steam then feeling scammed when I experienced HD mod. Shows the difference between passion for a game and corporate greed to milk a fanbase.
I really appreciate you putting this video out and also linking the modlist, it's made me pick up the game from GoG and try it out for the first time.
Wow, what was your experience?
So cool that other people still love this game. I didn't play it back in the day and thought it looked stupid until a trusted friend finally convinced me to try it out, 2000 hours later it's one of my favorite games. So many robust mods too
I played it from the first one, prob. hundreds of hours with friends in hot seat, great game, love homm 2 more but 3 is definitely best of the series.
@@Dagoth666Ur I prefer the graphics of 2 over 3, but 3 is objectively a better game.
@@oz_jones Yep, 3 is the best but 2 is my favorite, nostalgia i gues.
I bought the original HOMM III from Good Old Games. It's not high res, but it does use the whole screen instead of trying to accommodate the 15" CRT monitors that were pretty standard for the time. I'm fine with the old version. I do play Horn of the Abyss, as well. A great community there. This is still one of my all-time favorite strategy games ever.
Its really sad that we don't have a complete Heroes 3 HD complete edition. HOA community and overall all Heroes 3 has such a nice a good community. Its really nice to be around such people.
Except that we do have a full complete hd version.
The art of Steam's Heroes 3 HD Edition is atrocious.
With ERA III the mod ability from the H3Complete is increase even more. This allows activate different mods at the same time (with some exceptions). Giga maps, QoL mods, alternative upgrades, or advanced classes f.e..
VCMI is a other great mod project, that recoded the complete base game to increase some limits.
If the HD Edition had add some QoL features and a random mapgenerator it wouldn't too bad. Age of Empires 2 Remakes got more love from the dev team than this game. 😢
I used to play H3 back in 2009 when my uncle show it to me.
I had stopped playing until 2020 and i didn't have it so i bought it from steam and then i bought it from GoG and the i have played both versions for a while.
I have to say Complete edition is by far better but i don't regret buying HD edition. Is not good but it is playable.
You young whippersnappers don't know how good you have it these days i'm tellin ya, back in 96' upon the release of homm2 we would play for hours on end with a pentium 1 and WIN95
And when I was grounded and my privileges were taken away which including gaming, my pager, and Coolio cassette tape, I would resort to playing "Paperball" basically, all you do is get a scrap piece of paper, crunch it up into a ball, and play with it!
I keep going back to Homm3 every ten years or so. The colorful maps always give me so much joy. it's fascinating.
I really enjoy the way you do content. It's not slapped together or overflown with memes and hot takes, but a nice mix of professional and casual, infused with a bit of fun.
I got the game when it first came out in 1999 but lost it somewhere along the line. I bought the HD Edition years later thinking that would be the best option, WRONG! So, I now have the HD HOTA Mod edition and LOVE it. Sooooo many hours of gameplay. and the HOTA expansion is so well thought out.
Are you planning on playing HoMM V any time in the future by any chance?
Thanks for this video, I just came across my og HoMM3 CD and was looking around for the best experience of this amazing game and this helped me not waste my money on this HD "remaster".
Wake of Gods didn’t get mentioned 😭 is my favourite, and works with HD MOD
He showed Succession Wars mod which runs on ERAII which is the successor to WOG
@@KyriosHeptagrammaton Lol. The Succession Wars mod has nothing to do with WOG...
@@tri28 Mate, I worked on the Succession Wars mod
One of the games in the remaster trend that broke my heart was Homeworld remastered. It plays nothing gameplay wise like the original game even with all the band aid patches, and I feel it gives new players a bad\worse idea of what the game actually was and played. At least here on HoMM3 some features are out, but its essentially the same game.
Homeworld 1 Remastered is a real shame, because the graphics/art overhaul is 10/10 (excluding the remaked art cutscenes which are worse than original + misaligned music). Sadly they went the fast & easy route and used H2 as a basis for the first game's remaster which led to the extreme changes in gameplay/systems cause of the fundamental differences between the original H1 and H2 engines.
Homeworld 2 Remastered has no issues, as far as I know.
I think the new cutscenes were okay, the lines were faithful. But yeah the gameplay was ruined. H2 remaster is fine yes.@@6kembe4orba
Bro go play HoMM3 HD some more and I garuntee you won't agree that it's "essentially the same game"
The missing features are glaring and constant, you don't realise how much the expansions fundamentally change the entire game until you are forced to play without them.
HD Edition is not an enjoyable experience. I would even go as far as to say that it is a bad game.
Complete edition unmodded on the other hand is janky but a good game.
This is coming from a casual player, I can't even imagine how terrible the steam version is for people who actually know how to play the game 😂
I got excited when you mentioned the HD Mod and HotA and deep down i hoped WoG would get at least a honourable mention. I know it’t not great and not polished at all and the creators of the mod dropped the project unfinished, but it definitely has some interesting quirks and mechanics.
Great video tho and good explanation on everything else, keep up the good work!
WoG is still alive and ppl are still working on it, they even got their own launcher
WOG is still alive rhough..?
Didn't know the source code for the expansions had been found. A shame Ubisoft isn't going to do anything with them.
Great summary of the reasons why the steam edition is mostly worse than the complete edition.
I bet that a Hacker group from Russia or elsewhere could try and find it in Ubisoft development servers.
I found homm3 when I was 14, now I'm 37, and even if I only pick up the game for a couple of days when I get an itch every year or so, I often do mental battles as math just to check who would win between x and y unit. Goes without saying that I know all unit stats 😅
i think the issue you are having is you are not able to change your resolution setting... i have a files (i think its iso) version of the game, and also installed a Launcher HoMM3 HD 5.4 R72 Launcher (needs update). the Launcher takes care of the resolution and i enjoy playing in HD 1550x872, i can play in 1920x1080, but graphics get too zoomed out to enjoy. if you going to search online, might as well search for h3era (in the wake of gods) and h3hota (horn of the abyss) versions aswell... complete isnt complete... also the guards/borders update you talked about in video is incorrect is not refering to monolith or teleportation gates, but colored guards (keymasters gate) or post guards (which disappear). basically i think you are playing HD in 800x640...
The HD version can be so cheap that it doesn't hurt much to buy it "to support whatever it supports" but two things you missed are HD is Windows only; the various other versions (with mods and new engines) are cross-platform. HD looks like it may be steam deck compatible, for what that's worth.
06:13 Homm 3 HD goes up to UHD II ("8K UHD") though. You can also Linearly or with Interpolation, scale 1:1 or similar.
I never realized how much the game was improved on the additional content until I tried playing the HD Edition and noticed I actually hate the gameplay, haha. I played the game first time (at my friend's pc) when it was released on 99 and from there it has been more or less a part of my life. Bought the CD-ROM (of complete edition) around 2003-2004 and occasionally played the game for the next six or seven years, before updating the pc and having to buy the gog version as the old rom didn't work on the new pc anymore. After that I picked the game up every few months, almost solely because of the 'random map' feature. Sometimes going back to the Scenarios I had already played, but changing the starting color. After I bought this current gaming pc I had not really had time to play HoMM anymore, but I thought that's going to change when they released the "new" HD version of it (I had never heard of any of the mods) in Steam. Nope.. Moats are completely useless in the "base game". Don't harm or slow the enemies at all. I have no idea why they are in the game at the first place. Also I disliked the fact that the AI just sends an troop standing at my gates and I can't do anything to it if I can't use spells and/or have any archers.
And what comes to the "spell points".. I had an bug which prevented my hero from using spells at hero vs. hero battles. Could use them just fine when fighting creatures but when attacking AI or they attacking me I suddenly couldn't. I tried five or six scenarios and a couple of campaigns and they all had this "feature". SP were full, book had spells, wasn't standing on magic ground, nobody had artefacts which prevented spell casting (at least I didn't get the message you get on the complete edition, also happened so early on the matches I doubt they'd always found one of those) the book was just grey. I contacted "support", listed all the above into it and the only thing they told me is "you just don't have spell points on your hero, use another. No other possibility". Customer service of the year, Ubisoft in a nutshell. Luckily I got an refund even after I had played for over two hours, as it was unplayable because of that bug.
The conflux was pretty strong, but nothing was/is more broken than Lyonis the Cleric, of the Castletown, because his special was a massive buff to the power of the spell "prayer" that scaled with his level. Adding Expert Water Magic to it allowed him to cast prayer on his entire army. He started with basic water magic at lvl 1 which made getting expert very early on easy. I used to play using him on impossible difficulty and win.
I kinda find that hard to believe, sorry. On impossible, unless it was an "rpg" map, not sure anyone would say that Lyonis is a good main hero
@@crimsonlightbinder You're underestimating how strong his spell prayer is with his specialty buff and expert water magic. The raw bonus it gives to all stats of creatures is op.
What do you mean by "rpg" map? I'm talking about a randomly generated map with monster strength on high and difficulty setting on imp with at least 4 ai. It's easy if you know what you're doing.
@@crimsonlightbinderOfc Lyonis can be strong. Why shouldn't he? 🤷🏻♂️ Expert prayer ain't bad at all
Depending on the enemy's army, mass slowing all enemies and/or hasting/praying your entire army on top will make raw power be your friend. The lower a unit ranks, the bigger prayer's effect is, so big masses of lvl 1-3 will steamroll bigger tiers and your high tier units still get buffs on nearly all stats.
A big, powerful army will do better with mass haste/mass enemy slow than some attack spells you might otherwise use.
@@__-tp4tm While lower tiers units get more of a buff, the strength of Lyonis' bonus effect amps up its benefits on higher tier units. In fact, his prayer + expert water magic grants the same amount of bonus movement as mass haste making it redundant to use under his command.
Olá amigo, aqui do Brasil vendo a obra de arte que é esse video e saber que existe uma comunidade que mantém viva a alma desse jogo.
Fiz 28 anos agora em 2023, lembro de jogar uma versão Demo...conseguia fazer um glich que o tempo de demonstração não expirasse, jogava por muitas horas.
Mesmo não existindo o conceito de speed run, ja fazia isso kkkkk.
Obrigado pela sensação de nostalgia, lembrando do pc da minha mãe em 2004±...Windows 98 e aquela adrenalina de deixar 100% dominado o primeiro cenário, por vezes demorava um dia todo.
Em 2012± encontrei na internet um 🧲 com ele em muitas traduções prontas...lembro que gostava muito de jogar as missões nos pântanos e aquele cenário que lembra a fortaleza de Sauron.
Amo esse jogo, fiquei completamente surpreso por existir tanta gente que ainda é online...um dia compro um PC para jogar com uma galera.
Usava o mod mesmo antes da versao HD oficial.
Jogo Heroes 3 desde 2001, 2002. Envelheceu igual vinho
I'm so glad you took the time to spell all this out. Coming back 20 years after I last played, I was very confused on editions and mods and which HD was good. GOG and HD mod for me. I'll save Horn of the Abyss until later (but I will say, Cove looks better developed and balanced than Conflux was).
Wow I've been playing HD edition for many hours, but now I'm buying the complete edition thanks to your video.
Same, I liked the HOMM 3 gold edition so much, its a shame they didn't add all that into the Steam version
Can someone Tell me the best settings to get the Most FPS for the HD mod? My AMD Driver dont Show me the fps because the Game IS Not listed in the Driver Overview.
Hope you understand what i mean my english ist not the best😅
Today GOG is having sales. I was just comparing which version should I get. Glad I bought GOG complete version.
yea... lack of expansion packs is a dealbreaker
Re: bloodshot eyes, tired or something else... heh, I vaguely remember reading a fanfic a few years ago in which Inferno basically run a drug empire, so maybe there is something in it xD
I like non-scaled up graphics. A lot of the art was beautiful in its original resolution but looks meh upscaled. With modern graphics cards supporting integer upscaling (meaning a pixel is no longer made blurry when upscaled) it makes sense to calculate the best lower resolution for your monitor. For 2560x1440 this is 1280x720 but even 800x600 works fine (1600x1200 with some black borders).
The HD upscales really look like it was mostly just AI-generated. The artifacts and hard edges are really characteristic of generative art.
I think it predates AI upscaling. Honestly, AI upscaling would look better. The weird smoothness makes it look like it was just run through some upscaling filter and that was that. It's always a little silly when a huge company like ubisoft does a worse job at something than a mod you download off a vaguely dodgy looking russian webpage.
@@savagemessiah./videos no, AI upscaling was very much invented at that point. There'd even been first promising results with style transfer already.
@@ZeroPlayerGame So much for my sense of time lol
Even the makers of the upcoming HoMM 3 board game seems to view Cove, and by extension Horn of the Abyss, as an official expansion, as Cove was in the list of factions kickstarter backers could vote for as a last faction to be included (Inferno ultimately won that vote, which was pretty much expected, though personally I would have loved to have seen Stronghold)
I bought the complete edition and downloaded the HD Mod, thanks for the recommendation. I liked your playthrough videos.
I used to have horn of the abyss running on my PC but for unknown reasons nowadays when I start the game it goes to 1fps, unable to play at all. Used to play it for ages. Horn of abyss nicely balances races and gives a new faction, when you think conflux is overpowered, you didnt see the pirate race.
The HD edition is horrible. I got so happy when I found out that the complete version was available on GOG, and that it is supported by two amazing fan updates and expansions. They even managed to create a fully functional online lobby for multiplayer!
3:40 "conflux is overpowered"... okay... and??? Oh that's with, with the hota heroes 3 complete you can completely disable any conflux towns or units or even heroes. Or do it halfway, only disable certain ones. Or maybe different towns. Enable/disable whatever you like. Any skills, any artifacts, any spells, any objects, anything you want. Can you do that with HD? No, of course not.
My game at 1920x1080 is so zoomed out. How can i fix that? Pls help quick.
Bought HD Edition on Steam about a week ago. And I'm really enjoying it. Costs me just $4...
0:58 honestly i still think Valve has a way to good reputation despite their doing.
-They killed pyhsical copies
- They get way too much share for "only" being a seller (i know this is a little double edged opinion here but i don´t mind them taking off some percentages of shitty publishers. On the other hand people that do a really good job also pay too much)
- Gambling (CS GO and Dota say hello , Valves monetization is insane)
- Forced to have an internet connection
- They had quite a long time bad refund policies
- Steam-Market (i still think this shit should have been limited to never reach any insane numbers "just" for a "digital" something)
- Check some games (Sid Meiers Pirates doesn´t work with the Steam version, neither does Fallout 3 by default (though that´s also kinda on MC... bless GOG for existing, so yeah some control for older games at the time would be nice)
On the other side sure they have done a few things right (Workshop, Forums, Sales, Friendlists, Greenlight / Indiescene [ you are allowed to make this list here with the Life of Brian scene])
Glad I saw this before playing it. I bought it from GOG, but I think it also includes the HD edition as well. I'll be sure to install the complete edition and the HD mode instead.
Excellent video! I actually do find the HD edition to look better (mostly) which is a shame. I'm tempted to finally try the HotA expansion.
Any chance you continue the town reviews like you did with dungeon? I understand there's some balance changes in different versions but still. The video was very entertaining and I believe useful for newer players. Thanks
I definitely recommend HotA! Even if you won't play as the new pirate (Cove) town, it's very much worth it because of how much they added, how many bugs they solved and their ballance changes are very, very well done.
I play HotA for like 2 years already and to me it's basically the "official" game. 11/10
Does the HD edition have random map generator? I remember deleting the game for not being able to find it years ago.
great guide, which settings are y ou using and are you using the HD mod?
Nice video, but you forgot to mention any version of the most important fan-made expansion for Homm3 complete, which started developing since year 2001 - WoG which later was renamed to Era in mid 2010's !!! That mod/expansion started it all and made it possible for later ones (like HD and Hota) to exist. Also in it''s long "life" made more and most significant improvements and innovations to our beloved HoMM3 than all of the other mods combined !
Finally a TH-cam retro gamer that offers genuine insight on the game's quality rather than just exagerrated sarcasm and tired jokes!
Excellent video. I’m currently playing through HoMM3 campaigns and I was considering installing HotA until I heard about the nerfs… Is there a way to play this mod without nerfing Conflux and Necropolis? As a single player gamer I absolutely despise nerfs in strategy games
I welcome the nerfs cause it makes for a more balanced game. More of a fair multiplayer fight :)
Ngl, Necropolis is still very strong to OP in single player games (even without the cloak of the undead king wich is a giant FU to game balance).
Necropolis and Conflux are still very strong.
Fantastic overview and comparison of the two. Must watch video for any new players in 2023
Thank you for this information. I had no idea. I'm going with Complete + mods now
so i've been playing Heroes chronicles this entire time not knowing this wasn't the base bame?
why is the HC puzzle map always completed ? is it not included in the game?
are obelisks in HC?
there's no content available explaining this...?
Well one thing to add is: If you buy homam VII deluxe you get the homam III HD included. So 2 in 1 for 10€ in steam sale, may be another option, even the mentioned differences.
You forgot to mention ERA 3, MoP and VCMI, a bit more chaotic then HOtA but great mods nonetheless, especially ERA 3 + adv. classes + third upgrades. There's also upcoming (hopefully) days of reckoning.
thank you so much, i´ve been play hd edition and feeling like i was missing something. Also, is there a difference with the map editor too?
why the steam version dosnt have random map generation
Is there any way to control which factions are allowed on your randomly generated map? I have not found this from the settings and as a quite noob player has not been able to solve. I own the complete edition with HoD mod, but sometimes I would really like to drop the Cove faction out of the game. Is it possible without going back to more bare versions of the game? Ofcourse you can choose your own and opponents factions, but the map generator can still generate Cove monsters and unclaimed towns to maps.
You can configure this in a map/RMG template itself using the map editor.
@@skillaxxx Thank you for the tip! I have never used the map editor.
Hi , could you help me and my friend? We are trying to play this game together, but we cant find how to do that...please helppp
The only thing I disagree with is you saying HD edition looks better and the original looks outdated.
Also has any remaster ever done a 100% good job other than AoEII?
So complete with hd mod is the good stuff, HD thing is the cashgrab scam. Thank you, awesome info to keep in mind.
Heroes of Might and Magic 3: HD Edition Multiplayer is completely broken, Was unable to create a working server :(
Great video!
I finally broke my addiction pf playing Heroes 3 on and off for nearly 20 years. And then I come across a TH-cam video showing me all have the HOTA expansion and bugger me! I'm back playing heroes again.
Just played malestom on impossible and won. Great map.
that's a feat! Congratulations!
If I have Heroes of Might and Magic 3: HD Edition can I install the Horn of the Abyss? If yes, how?
Is there a way to play homm3 with the improvements from hota like the better graphics and online lobbies without the new content like the hota balance changes and new factions? I mainly downloaded hota to play homm3 online with a friend but we'd like to play vanilla homm3 complete sometimes.
I have an ethical problem. I own Restoration of Erathia, Shadow of Death and Armagedons Blade on disc. Is it piracy if i download complete edition or just taking what i own and avoid the extra steps and using not so legitimate acquiring methods have the same game in one place. I've bought my copies sometime between 2004 and 2007.
You already paid for the game, there's your answer.
If you paid for it again, literally not a single person who worked on the game or even marketed for the game will recieve anything for it.
The only people who profit are a soulless company who bought the rights from a dying company.
Pirate the thing bro, there's no ethical question here. You already paid the people who made the game.
my custom modded ERA II setup is all I need, I run 40ish mods for HOMM3 and the game is amazing now, new terrains, new units, new towns, new artifacts, new skills, spellcrafting etc.
I would like to say this: the random map generator can be used from the old games, generating a map for hd version, you just have to choose the right version of the game when generating...which is the restoration f erathia. Many of you already knew this but for those who didn`t keep this in mind
Thanks for the video.
Since I only ever played the vanilla HoMM 3 back in the days and don't care for Conflux, scenarios, adventures, custom maps, playing against other players or mods, the HD version is fine for me.
thank you very much for this explanation. it really cleared things up for me. i will be getting complete edition with hd mod and Abyss
which is why you buy the gog version love how you also advertise it here lol. but man i would love a remake of it in the homm5 engine with alternate upgrades
you are the guy with the popular opinion. meanwhile, me and all others with the unpopular opinion bought HD edition and played the heck out of it and loved every second of it because Restoration of Erathia alone contains like 50 hours of campaign gameplay (remember there are 7 campaigns) and another 100 hours of missions. While you had to make do with everything being tiny, or blurred and non-widescreen if you stuck to the original CDs just so you could play 1 more town and the expansion campaigns, your ROE experience was worse.
Thankfully Norovo is correct
well If you consider the graphics of a 25 year old game (lmao) more important than the quality of life features and don't mind paying more for less then yeah, I suppose you are right.
i'm so out of touch i had no idea what the video
was about..... theres any other version besides shadow of death???
9:40 I confirm. Fully agreed.
I bought it because I was a bit nostalgic to play the vanilla basegame. I do prefer the Complete Edition with the HD mod. But I do enjoy seeing that original arc angel with the sword in the clouds screen. Something they changed for complete edition and the expansions. So for me it was essentially just being able to play the base game again without anything extra. I got so used to playing with the expansion I forgot the time when it did not have them. I hope they one day remedy this. Now that they have the source code, a sort of throwback title is coming. I do hope they make a fully HD (Ultra-wide) version of complete edition and give buyers of the HD-version atleast a some percent off.
At the beginning of my teenage years, I got to know this fantasy turn-based strategy game series. Over time, I learned how to manage resources well and use multiple types of combat units in Heroes of Might and Magic 3. I still enjoy this game to this day, I got it from the Good Old Games software store a long time ago (around 2016 I bought with PayPal). 🙂
Before I bought Heroes 3 Complete online, I tried a fan mod called "In the Wake of Gods" that added quite a few things. I would also watch a video about how important "Heroes 3 WoG" was until the end of the mod's active development period.
I didn't play Horn of the Abyss fan expansion, but I will try out when I can have free time after the weekly work. 🙂
What makes the Azure Dragon the most powerful dragon in the game?
it has the best stats
How do you guys buy things on third party websites without feeling worried about your debit card?
Hey guys, i played WOG, shadow of death and Hota for many years and I just bought this version two weeks ago.. I am used to play randomg generated map with templates and this steam version doesnt even have that. But somehow, I found that very exciting, play maps that was designed to play them in some way, and also… in First game on Warlord map I had hero level 6 stucked wirhour OP spells with small army…(warlords map) and it was very fun in some way.. I liked that size of army really mattered. No wywerns stack, no angels or cyclopes stack, just your few units and few bad spells, hero with low stats, not that 30/30 after one weeks break… only you have to download mod for quick combat, otherwise its really pain. But playing the vanilla maps, many of them for first time, totally new experience 😊 so for some of you, it could be refreshing experience with limiting yourself 😁
On the topic of the quality of redesign, Sseth said it beautifully in his reviews: it looks like it's been done by underpaid interns xD
EI hope the community comes up with a way to just use the HD assets to mod the original game. That said, the same could not *legally* happen to Warcraft 3 since you kinda can't play the original game anymore, right?
Edit: Does Complete Edition run on Windows10? It's good enough for me.
Yeah HOMM3 complete + hd mod runs on win10
Your criticism is fair, however, I was very happy to get this to my iPad since I can't play as much as I did before and this was a very easy way to pick it up, even with lacking the expansions and the many bugs. And I agree too the PC I would have expected more.
How the heck none of the developers had the source code somewhere in their computers but only a translator?
Where can i download maps for H3 Complete made by community?
Everywhere, just Google it...
Does it matter in what order you install the mods for Heroes 3 Complete?
if I own Heroes 3 Complete edition on CD can I still download the HD mod for it? or do I need to buy the GoG version to be able to use mods? :0
I think you can ask gog to give you the game for free if you have a physical copy of it and show proof
How come no one talks about Wake of the Gods (WOG) mod? Easily the biggest best mod for H3, can even convert old maps....so many options and features I couldn't play without.
The moat doesn't deal damage, hello? What's up with that?
super glad I made the right chose back in the day then. I have the complete edition from gog. I considered the HD on steam after but not now after I have seen this video. Perhaps I should try mod it
Man I was recently just talking about the original release to my wife, how I absolutely loved HOMM2 and never got the chance to play 3.
In heroes' case, the only dealbraker of getting this compared to the original one, is not having the expansion packs, Heroes 3 HD is only the base game, which while awesome, is missing a lot of nifty things from the Expansions.
I will NEVER understand who decided to port the vanilla Heroes 3 without the expansions... I EXPECTED it a cash grab with Armageddon Blade and Shadows of Death released soon, but NOPE, they JUST spend resources upscaling 1/3 of the game (if you count story and map content, most towns and units are as in).
What I find the funniest about this, is that Ubisoft is now selling the complete edition on Uplay, making the HD edition basically a "Steam tax".
I got on steam Heroes of Might and Magic® 3: HD and I never had a problem with that, I still loving after 20 years❤ other wise is missing the complete edition from steam😢
They sell it on UBIsoft for $10, HD mod is free to download
Does it play on macs?
Ubisoft has pretty much abandoned the Heroes/Might and Magic franchise. Heroes 7 came out 8 years ago. And even that was made on a tiny budget where the developers had to reuse a lot of assets from Heroes 6.
After that, Ubisoft has only licensed out the brand to shovelware developers for cheap mobile games.
a shame they abandoned it after heroes 5, it was a decent game.
So... better to get Heroes V (gog ver.) ?_?
I had no idea people were still playing HOMM3. I think I have the complete version from GoG. I’m going to install those mods and play it. It will be a nice change from Total Warhammer 3.