Well, they are making the originals free to play whenever they bring out the 1.18 patch so you won't need to shell out any money to play the originals although from memory the resolution is pretty low (640x480 IIRC) - I know it looked pretty ropey on my old 21" 1600x1200 display, I imagine it'll be a pretty odd on widescreen.
Good story and cutscenes to go with the thoroughly fun gameplay and properly different play styles for the three factions.