StarCraft II

yeah.jpg


Long day at work is gonna be loooong.

Also, funny how the manual is an installing and lore guide, but has no information at all on how to actually play the game.
 
Bad^Hat said:
Actually they did release a figure, but nobody picked up on it as they expressed it in gallons.

As in, how many gallons worth of liquefied $100s it took from their GIANT MONEY POOL.
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Lol'ed heartily

**** OFF SHAKER YOU ****ING ****** BITCH SKANK ASS HOE **** SHOE CAT ANUS BUTTSHIT ************
 
I'm chill braw. Srs case of too much time on my hands. Staying up until I can bus over and holing up in room with nothing but horrible-for-my-body energy drinks, dimmed lights and a fridge full of munchies. Last stretch before my busiest and most stressful semester of college yet, gotta get my last aspie gaming marathon in.

I have it really hard, dudes.
 
<3 PS: I HAVE A MAC TOO AND I LOVE IT, SUCK IT PC NERDS WITH YOUR 100lb, ugly as shit, burn a hole half way to china laptops.

Have fun not running SC2 portably on your Netbooks.

I'm A Demon.
 
About that, when you add the SCII key to your Bnet account, you can download the client for both PC and Mac, right?
 
Gargantou said:
This.

I'm in the same seat so.
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The Open Beta is free. I haven't even bought it yet, and I've already completed half the campaign.

Letters said:
Sounds good! I look forward to noon tomorrow!

I liked the little summary of Starcraft 1 during the install, so I have some idea what the hell is going on.
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The summary completely left out how the UED kicked everybody's ass so hard they all had to unite to destroy that tiny expeditionary fleet.

Next up: UED invades, this time with proper measure.
 
taviow said:
What reviews?
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oOBUF.png


Never mind they printed this before the game servers were even up and it doesn't contain a single solitary fact that couldn't be gleaned from following the game pre-release.

EIGHT OUT OF TEN.

Haha, game journalism.
 
Bad^Hat said:
oOBUF.png


Never mind they printed this before the game servers were even up and it doesn't contain a single solitary fact that couldn't be gleaned from following the game pre-release.

EIGHT OUT OF TEN.

Haha, game journalism.
Click to expand...

So she played the beta, got pwnd, and based her review on that. Bad Kirsten.
 
Its HERE!

*rips off covers*

Woooo I like the boxing they used, makes it feel almost special-edition-esque.

Install faster!

I will certainly need to listen to the story during the install again.
 
PC Gamer is ****ing astoundingly and nauseatingly bad at this point. I would literally rather eat my own shit and die of butt cancer then read that increasingly horrible, terribly marketed and shoddily designed mind-rotting, ascerbic, pre-teenaged bullshit aspie-dribble.

That review showcases the third grade education Kristin posses along with her fellow starving English B.A. possessing Genius Bar side-job working co-workers and their horse shit hardware plugs and obvious paid favoritism (cough: Guild Wars). I hope they go out of business and somebody takes a piss on the condemned building-turned-methlab that Dan Stapleton still works at when they lose all their money and can't feed their kids.

**** PC Gamer.

There is, however, an opportunity here that Kotick and I have been discussing with our fellow AB compatriots, we may just start selling gaming journalism by the page--and cover said page by a large watermark that advertises NOW AD-FREE! so only a few sentences of terrible journalism are contained on each micro-PCG. By the time it's off news stands we'll have enough money for a couple more lawyers so we don't have to give parting bonuses to the mouth breathers doing slave labor journalism for a dying and horribly uninteresting industry which yields almost no profit and doesn't know what to do with itself. (aside from bnet and RED DOT SIGHTS FOR $5 + an additional .5cents a month).

I'm A Demon.
 
YES I ****ING GOT IT.

The collector's edition is beautiful. Absolutely amazing. I would totally post pictures to show off, but I'm too busy enjoying this stuff.
 
Okay this game has some serious polish on it.

Its like a dream cocktail of Starcraft's old-skool playing style, C&C 3 and Dawn of War 2 what with the side missions and the upgrades.

Graphically its a little like the cartoonish Warcraft 3 games but definitely better of course.

Being able to navigate around the ship is a nice touch, interacting with characters, jukebox (Sweet home Alabama baby), watching the news etc.

Just got to the cantina now, and laughd when I saw the dancing red hologram of a woman in the upper section, which is the same dance animation of the Night Elf Female in World of Warcraft. Its Blizzard alright.
 
I am envious of those that have this game.

Starcraft destroyed my life back in the day. I failed tests, exams, got in trouble, detention at school.

Here i am, a married ****ing man and i'm not allowed to ****ing buy it.

**** the world you cruel miserable bitch with fangs. **** you for all eternity.
 
Wooo two 2v2 games and two rapings. So glad I rushed home to play this.... damn Kiwi's
 
WARNING: HULKING ESSAY LENGTH RANT POST, READ ONLY IF YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH A LONG WINDED CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC TAKE ON THE SC2 LAUNCH BY A LOUD MOUTHED BITCH: After all, I am A Demon.

Actual proportions since the 3D/Isometric RTS switch look shitty when you don't properly stylize. I think Starcraft 2 was a good compromise--I'm also willing to bet it allows them to stay low-poly for the massive scaling the game does to fit so many systems and continually run so well.

I'd rather there was a bit more grittiness as well, but the more I played beta the more I began to enjoy the details and subtleties of the new style. It's really astonishing the amount of attention to detail the high quality models have now: decals on marine's shoulder pads, scrapes and dents on marine armor/shields, Diversity of positional animations on Hydralisk, the damn things look creepy when you path large amounts across long distances.

Tails slithering mouths snapping and spiny midsection writhing and twisting. One reason I really appreciate Blizzard is their complete artistic synergy, this is often underlooked in games. A GUI, the cursor, models, map textures, background texture(s) and effects, menu options, various interfaces for briefing--they all just sort of work together. Blizzard has never ****ed that up in the process of going 3D.

I wish the same could be said about other RTS ips of former glory like Command & Conquer or Chris Taylor's TA remake... forgot name, or the clunky awkward resource hogging elements of CoH, 40k, etc.

RTS I honestly felt was dying. I'm not a big fan of the checkpoint style games, as I love building a kick ass base. There's something to be said for laying your buildings out perfectly and having to macro while managing units--it's so frantic and awesome. The map-revealer-thingies are super nice, too. They provide scouting incentive in the newb ladder that I play in.

Blizzard has upped the ante here, more than usual because RTS games have seen a slump in lieu of the struggling PC Gaming industry. I know for a fact that there are many like me who really only played Starcraft when that fps craving kicked in. We're all piling back and cherishing this. Bnet 2.0 is better for my type of Starcraft player--I think there's a vocal minority of top-tier competitive players who are pissed off because the game doesn't require as many APM to macro/micro that sort of dominated the gaming press and air space shitting all over battle.net 2.0.

The fact is, the missing in game features can all be supplemented, for instance using IRC or even the Steam overlay, which works if you launch the game through Steam flawlessly. Competitive unofficial/official mods for league play can turn it into Starcraft, Blizzard has stated this for quite some time, and beta proved it.

So uh, here we go again. Star's back and a half-million former PC Gamers are clicking away furiously. It's even got the brobros who went into denial about their gaming habits guiltily quick-matching before pounding their chests and pounding beers and running in front of traffic.

I'm ****ing grateful for /b/ slamming the RealID forum shit and a bit worried that higher-ups at Blizzard decided that something so stupid was OK, but Starcraft 2 is a labor of love. It can't be ignored by anyone who enjoys games, of any kind. It's global recognition competitively is unrivaled, and the gears seem to be grinding for SC2 to take SC1's place as the aspies realize that the ****ing moon is not crashing into the earth.


Hell... it's about time. I first played Starcraft as a child and it was the most in-depth RTS story wise I'd ever experienced. I cheered for Jim Raynor, I gawked at Kerrigan's infestation and her subsequent and engrossing taking over of the Zerg. Kerrigan is not possessed by some sword, nor is she fulfilling the fallen hero stereotype conventionally. Instead, she takes some sort of initiative to remain a powerful being even in her humanity dying.

She's not brooding and generically evil like Arthas, who seems to have forgotten who he was. She is intelligent, coordinated and fiercely and more effectively rules the Zerg, serving as an awesome matriarch consistently driving chaos into an already ****ed up civil war and alliance of convenience the Protoss have with who many templar factions are rather not-fond of.

It's very much an allegory for the way the Western powers of our world interact with the Middle Eastern/West Asian/Southeast Europe powers.

Zaratuel is an exception to the rule when it comes to templars, he's a ****ing great character. He almost seemed cheapened by the trailer being presented as an all-knowing mystic--Zaratuel never presented himself as all-knowing because he has a deep respect for the religious aspects of Protoss culture--and, like many great Eastern territories/countries possess in our world, the Protoss stress humbling one's self, honor and dignity before all.

The Protoss are not without merit or tacked on, they're a fascinating and multi-faceted race. This applies to all the Starcraft races, even in the books. The Zerg function in some ways like the stereotype: units largely lack much free will, insect-like hive minded species voiced by one character--yet, I've got this feeling that we're going to see more evolution in the Zerg. If Kerrigan can become the Queen of Blades, self proclaimed, mind you, then hypothetically as they infest more Terran and... Protoss, very, very interesting things could happen.

Again this is speculation, it's helping me because I freewrite every morning, these are not spoilers, I've only seen the pre-launch media released officially by Blizzard and read one of the novels.

Starcraft is one of those games where I'm not ashamed of it's story or the way it's told. It's a game I can show the girlfriend and she'll get engrossed in the characters and want to give it a whirl. It's politically fairly brilliant and doesn't fall into the trap of most fantasy RTS titles of either going fully into camp (RA3) being non-existant (Supreme Commander :|). Instead Starcraft, lore wise, does what a AAA Sci-Fi entry should, in any medium (graphic novels, cinema, short stories, games, Tabletop Canon, television shows, shorts, etc).

Seeing the media and reading the surrounding story, which puts into place the politics of SC2, really does prove that Starcraft 2 is not just representative the maturing of RTS and video game narrative, but of Sci-Fi narrative.

There's a reason why people who despise Sci-Fi whom I know personally absolutely love Star Craft. It's got that Star Wars'y mass appeal without becoming dumb. Nobody else has managed to do that.

So once again Blizzard has raised the RTS bar, to evoke some campy Half-Life 2 language, and I gotta say it's a big leap--I think a bigger one than Half-Life 2 was for FPS (a genre which seems to be at the same level of intelligence as it was in it's infancy with the exception of the oft-delayed and short lived bites of Half-Life we're permitted these days).

Oh yeah, and this editor will allow for some much, much better Single Player mods with their own stories and canon, and, if done tastefully, fan fiction. One could (and someone should!) make an RPG akin to Shaker's (with a team) to show what happened in between, and a lot before the original SC.

Starcraft 2's inclusion of any kind of editor is great, but something robust enough to create games of outside genres? It's absurd--Blizzard have given us an awesome sandbox. Something that PC Gaming seems to have largely forgotten. I think it's absolutely silly that people don't think each and every SC2 title won't be worth $60 given how sterling of an example Starcraft was and Starcraft 2 seems to be, they're labors of love, Blizzard games. It always shows, and though I had my concerns pre-launch, they've been remedied by what friends have been telling me about the Single-Player. Gamers are going to decide to dump a lot of money into ActiVision Blizzard these next few days, majority of Blizzard's sales are no pre-orders or digital, but boxed copies--this is healthy for PC Gaming as it results in non-gamers to experience a guided experience on a huge array of hardware. If battle.net does what Blizzard wants it to, it will serve as a social portal to raise brand awareness. Before you whistle-blow on this consider this: as PC Gamers, we put up with a LOT of bullshit. We must jump through hurdles to get games to work on our setups, edit CFG files on legal games to make them playable, install 4/5 patches+ for many games for functionality. There's a reason why hardcore PC Gaming has remained niche and competitive and relatively serious online communities have developed for many online console titles by now (Halo, KZ, Resistance, Drake's Fortune, Vegas, Advanced Warfighter and so forth).

Those guys, those console dudes who played Starcraft but went to college and could no longer afford the time nor the hardware to play the latest Blizzard had to offer are back, many of them have jobs and disposable income, many are simply setting aside the time because of the nostalgia.

Sounds really silly, but Starcraft 2 is actually incredibly important for the industry. It'll make the books after all. For a moment I was worried, but the new bnet site is classy, RealID is nice for family/dear friends and D3 development is about to speed waaay up from the (momentarily freed) Starcraft guys. Nobody swaps devs around more than Blizzard, they ensure their most talented guys take part in every project--and it shows. The fact that the most mediocre games Blizzard has put out is Wrath of the Lich King is really ****ing impressive and admirable, because Lich King is a great game that suffered a flawed post-launch content time line.

I wanted to fight Arthas, dammit. I didn't want to spend hours grinding badges when I had to write term papers. I digress, what I mean to speak towards is this: Blizzard has remained committed to not releasing garbage, not making compromises and pleasing most all of it's audience.

They've remained loyal to their fanbase and still communicate on the forums with individuals when they are internationally more popular than almost anyone in the games' business save the Gamefather himself: Shiggy . They have great setups in all territories, not just the U.S. staffing tech support and GOOD translation and now dubbing--cultural translation, which is really ****ing important if you want to be playing the game that's intended. I keep reading more and more about interface and gameplay elements unique to the South Korean version, nobody should be surprised at that. The game sells in SK for an entirely different reason than it sells here, and Blizzard and Acti know that--product announcement was in Seoul.

Gettin' too long winded. Long story short: Starcraft 2 is, non-sarcastically speaking, a big deal for the generation(s) who grew up gaming. People are returning to their PCs, mainstream games are getting smarter, and advancement in customization and modding have been made without excessive monitization. The Star 2 editor is far easier than Hammer was or Source SDK continues to be, more complex things can be done with it in less steps.

Granted with the fully liscenced Source tools that's another level altogether--Blizzard keeps it's tech proprietary, for better or for worse, I just like the money pumping into PC Gaming and the custom community kicking so much ass. That's what made my love the PC as a medium, the almost hyper-active and explosive modding communities and developers, many of whom work for Blizzard and Valve (both have many noted former custom content folks, Valve hiring in entire indie studios and mod teams).

In a way, I feel as if Valve is doing what Id and the Masters of Doom crew tried to do when they hit the roadblock of no longer being progressive. Quake Live is a good idea in practice, but without a proper social platform it's not going to garner IP interest for micro transactions beyond hardcore players--most of which already own the now Open-Source Q3A (and people wonder why new hacks are released every day for Modern Warfare 2 and VAC doesn't hold a candle against even the most vaguely motivated of "haxxorz".

I may joke about ActiBlizz a lot and my supposed love for Bobby Kotick, but I think in a lot of ways the cashflow has been very worthwhile. Blizzard, despite what tinfoil hat wearing forum warriors claim, committed to gamers that the cashflow would be beneficial, and it appears to have been well spent. Many don't realize that in a lot of ways, in a way that Infinity Ward couldn't afford to defend against, Blizzard is holding the balls in the ActiBlizz model.

BK isn't going to complain is Blizzard can both maintain a happy stable revoling MMO playerbase AND launch games with CoD level sales success--this is perhaps why the hiring has been costly for Blizzard. They have to staff a lot of veteran and incredible figures in game development, and it shows in the end product. Like the film industry, many fail to understand, having a great resume and modding track record is looked at very, very highly--there are development mini-celebrities besides those who make Kotaku. It's a great mix at Blizz, from PhD hire-ins for consultation and demographic awareness to grass roots folks who simply loved modding and were grabbed from undergrad. Guys who worked on FPS's, RTS, console games, internet networking websites, PhD/MA degree'd coders absolutely--not a consistency always, even with AAA titles. There's blowhards from ye olde S&S days who just love the always-on Blizzard environment.

A good comparison is something like DC or Marvel. Blizzard is one of those companies that not just represents it's medium, it defines it to culture at large. I don't think the acquisition changed that. Normally, I'd be skeptical but I invested in WoW for a long time as a pre-teen, I saw them ****ing baby that game into a powerhouse and continue to release patches that companies like SOE charge up to $30 for.

If you look at the history present here, if you look at studios that have been acquired by giants like Fox, Universal, Mirimax, Sony Pictures--often times the parent company is much more at the mercy of the developer, who, should they decide to bust out (Nice work on Bungie, Fagrosoft)--would result in lost sales. Microsoft had a great opportunity in allowing Bungie to dodge Halo, I'm 100% confident given they retained most of their employment base and never signed their souls, that Bungie will begin a beast and perhaps even go public on their own. Blizzard wanted to survive while investing in an insane amount of costly stuff that not even WoW could pay for--the battle.net 2.0 backbone along side a next-gen mmo, Diablo III and a constant WoW expansion/content patch teams, Starcraft OGs working on the two other games and a shit ton of employees to make sure bnet 2.0 and Starcraft 2 is a sure thing for a successful fully international launch. Again think of the Simpsons--longest running animation ever, Rupert Murdoch was a conservative money grabbing douche and still is and the show regularly made fun of him but he kept it on for the cash and lols.

ALRIGHT, I really do need to shut the **** up. Starcraft 2, regardless of it's status as an indicator of a move towards grabbing the mainstream, will be a kick ass thing for gaming. Investors seeing mass non-subscription based cash flow into the PC Gaming industry is just a good thing.
 
Mr-Fusion said:
i'm not allowed to ****ing buy it.
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Your wife decides what games you are and aren't allowed to ban?:LOL:

@A Demon: **** that sounds awesome, any info on if they're planning on a demo or not?

I might buy this if I know it runs okay on my almost-4 year old PC.
 
15357 said:
The Open Beta is free. I haven't even bought it yet, and I've already completed half the campaign.



The summary completely left out how the UED kicked everybody's ass so hard they all had to unite to destroy that tiny expeditionary fleet.

Next up: UED invades, this time with proper measure.
Click to expand...

The UED got spanked by Kerrigan while retreating and none of them even reported back. I don't think they'll care about coming back until it's completely worthwhile.

Man I wish I could skip work and continue playing... but I have essentially FOREVER to wait at the moment so... I'd better settle in.
 
That was a great read BHC. :D
I'm liking your long windedness, do it more often.
 
This post is comparatively minuscule to the one BHC accomplished, but I might have been one of the few people who read it in its entirety, and I must say, well done. I can't even comprehend how long that took you, but I see an enormous amount of effort, whether it was simply off of the top of your head or in deep contemplation, that was put into that post. I think you would do well at writing reviews.

Now that's that out of the way, my assumptions lead me to believe StarCraft II is as successful as its predecessor, perhaps even more, (based on the reviews and numerous comments I've read) and I most certainly need to get it. I might have touched upon some of the areas of the original StarCraft but never really got into it. I guess I was too busy playing other oldies, especially the original Half-Life and Dark Forces. I feel ashamed knowing I haven't played one of the most popular games out there, but now I can kind of relinquish that shame by playing StarCraft II.
 
i played since i got it at the midnight launch, for almost 7 hours straight
 
Anyone from the states that has any guest passes for the game should send them to yours truly. :angel:
 
Sounds awesome!

Do I have to find a place that sells mac versions or can you install for both Mac and PC off the same disk?
 
I can hardly wait to play it. Previous to this morning my favorite game of all time was STILL Starcraft followed by Warcraft 3. I have a feeling by tonight that will change.
 
Finished the campaign on Hard. I now need to sleep. Coffee can go only so far. Oh god, I'm about to collapse at any second. I haven't slept since like 23 hours ago.



Campaign Post-Analysis: Tbh, I would have liked more action cinematics, but I loved the campaign nevertheless, and I am going to play it again, but this time in English, and with different choices. **** YOU Blizzard, for making me install a completely different version of the game just to hear the voices in English.
 
15357 said:
Finished the campaign on Hard. I now need to sleep. Coffee can go only so far. Oh god, I'm about to collapse at any second. I haven't slept since like 23 hours ago.



Campaign Post-Analysis: Tbh, I would have liked more action cinematics, but I loved the campaign nevertheless, and I am going to play it again, but this time in English, and with different choices. **** YOU Blizzard, for making me install a completely different version of the game just to hear the voices in English.
Click to expand...
Well that was fast. Was it good for you?
 
15357 said:
Finished the campaign on Hard. I now need to sleep. Coffee can go only so far. Oh god, I'm about to collapse at any second. I haven't slept since like 23 hours ago.



Campaign Post-Analysis: Tbh, I would have liked more action cinematics, but I loved the campaign nevertheless, and I am going to play it again, but this time in English, and with different choices. **** YOU Blizzard, for making me install a completely different version of the game just to hear the voices in English.
Click to expand...

So choices have a big effect on the storyline? Does that mean different endings as well? And how do you make the choices, rpg-like conversation trees?
 
MuToiD_MaN said:
Well that was fast. Was it good for you?
Click to expand...

Yes. Very good. The missions were entertaining, and was very challenging on hard. The little bits they added were a very nice touch (like propaganda billboards, etc, etc.) Many things were lost in translation, however. And of course, Blizzard keeps making us wonder what is going to happen next after Wings of Liberty.


And I still haven't bought the game yet, LOL.
 
You already beat it...?
That's disconcerting.

Did you check out every little thing that it had to offer on your first go(bonus missions etc) or did you speed through it only doing the important bits?
 
Sped through, of course, or it wouldn't have taken me 23 hours to complete it all. I mostly ignored all the bonuses.


33 hours without sleep is a personal record, I'm gonna sleep after the caffeine wears off.
 
Jesus Christ, you literally marathoned it?
You crazy SKers.

If it took you that long to beat it then it'll probably keep me busy for a damn long time.
 
Yep.

Seriously, that's prolly why I played it so fast.


EDIT: Oh, and I've just learned that the singleplayer was available only in the Korean open beta. So... uh, lol. Doesn't seem a very good business strategy on part of Blizzard, but hey, I enjoyed it.
 
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