Windows THE bit-tech StarCraft 2 thread

What's everyone's opinion of the single player campaign. Tempted to pick it up but as I never played the first want to run through the SP first.

 

Only played the single player, and of that, played about 8 mission ( the mission system is not pure linear, so can't really tell). My review score: 9/10. The graphics glitch in the beginning, and the need to balance a fair number of the units out make it lose 1 point.

Other than that, i'm loving it, and will continue to love it for a long time to come

 

I played with a few friends yesterday and I was enjoying it. I usually don't play regular games because I suck balls at it but yesterday, even though we got our ass kicked, I still had fun (we all did). For the first time ever I am actually tempted to get better at StarCraft ... 0.o

 

I'm curious as to which units you feel are unbalanced?



Thoroughly enjoying the game, I've just finished

Spoiler

the bit where Zeratul pops up on the bridge

, can't wait to get home and play more.

 

Just went out and bought this game. It's a new world for me though as I never played the original.

 

I feel old lol. I remember picking up my copy of SC when it released back in Mar 98. If you ever come across a deal for it, you should pick it up.

 

That's like saying "I've never really thought about tits before today"

 

I'm in a dilema as I feel to enjoy this game fully I'm going to need to upgrade my computer. Currently I'm on a laptop with 2 gig ram, 2.2 duel core CPU, and only a 8400gs mobile gfx card..hmm

What to do ..might need to build another pc on the cheap again...something to do later I guess after I'm married. Good to have it in my collection though,
I'm a big blizzard RTS fan.

Warcraft was my all time #1 rts and I hope this delivers too.

It seems there are effective counters for each type of unit which without the warcarft style hero system becomes purely on microing your army..easier I would presume?

 

I was 7 when it came out, 19 now. I wasn't a big PC Gamer till a year or so ago (Well I played loads of WoW and CSS). Heard good things about Starcraft and so bought 2 when I saw it in the shops.

As above lol.

 

Wow I remember picking up games late 70's early 80's; I must be ancient

 

So how do I add you guys as friends through Battle.net?

 

You have to add their emails I believe

 

I always thought that actual game combat was better without the heros. Warcraft 3, in terms of the regular game, was a bit of a failure. The heroes added depth to the singleplayer campaign as plot elements, but made the multiplayer kinda goofy. I never really liked the regular multiplayer.

Where the hero system absolutely excelled was with custom maps. It never really meshed right into normal combat IMO, but people were able to make a whole number of amazing custom maps using heros and the experience/ability/inventory/stats system in a much better way.

Is this still possible in SC2? I know there are no heroes on the standard game, but I really hope there are provisions to allow custom mappers to make a WC3 style hero. The integration of the RPG elements into the RTS gameplay made custom maps that are more RPG-oriented very smooth and effective. The old SC RPG custom maps used this awkward leaderboard counter that required a buttload of triggers, since there was no system for experience, bounty, stats, items/inventory, or custom abilities besides the standard ones for that type of unit. I really liked Elements RPG and Obzuko DnD RPG on Starcraft, but their WC3 successors improved it so much, and integrated it into the gameplay so much better.

I can only hope Blizzard is smart enough to realize that it is in their best interest to go out of their way to cater to the very dedicated tournament players, as well as the custom mappers. The original Starcraft is STILL a popular game because of high level tournament play, and Warcraft 3 is STILL a popular game because of DotA and the many other excellent custom maps.

I don't have any statistics, but I really doubt that any game from 1998 is still as popular as SC is, or that any game from 2002 is still as popular as WC3 is.

The singleplayer campaigns and the standard online play will draw in lots of players, but those players will leave as soon as the next thing comes along. The tournament play (especially in Korea) and the custom map play (especially DotA) can keep a game popular for a decade. I doubt that was what Blizzard intended when they released those games, but it's what they got. I'm hoping that they were smart enough to realize it, and put those provisions in. If they haven't, if they've moved to a model of catering to the vagrant players who will buy SC2, play through SP, then play occasional MP but move on when the next AAA RTS title comes along, this game will have fallen far short of its potential.

 

fixed my performance issues, just made my SC2 SLI profile use 1 GPU instead of 3

2 missions in and its stable as a rock, i too am loving the campaign atm however a lack of funds mean picking up the full version will be a while off yet.

 

I really have to respectfully disagree!

The hero system worked incredibly well but the thing about Warcraft 3 was that it wasnt suited for the casual gamer as the online aspect was too competitive and at really high standard.

To the untrained player who was totally unaware of the tactics, the strengths and weaknesses of every single race, hero, or units it would feel really disjointed however once you know the game inside out and what each unit is caperble (including all the heroes) and all the tactics there are (and there were literally tons) then you are able to better effectively decide which hero to make, who to use for whatever situation etc.
Thats why they gave you 3 heroes to choose from - so you adapt your choice depending on the situation as each race were given 3 distinctive heroes which allowed you to choose depending on your choice of tactics, map, the enemies race, the enemies choice of hero etc...

I wasnt a "gosu" (or professional) as they put it at Warcraft 3 but I could hold my own reasonably and beat a couple of high ranked players (level 50 +) and I have to say when your understanding of the game develops and you do become better at it all the heroes fit into the game incredibly well -

actually the level of depth that game had was unreal which is why i took an interest in starcraft as I really hope it has that level of depth.

 

Well went out and picked it up, hope it's good.

 

Played the first 3 missions and like what I see so far. Although a glitch in the 3rd mission.

Spoiler

The Zerg just ran on one side of the bridge past the half way mark in single file so they didn't cause any damage to my, then 3, bunkers shooting at them

 

Fair enough point. I am coming from a perspective of someone who played A LOT of SC:BW from '98 to '02, beginning with SP then transitioning to B.Net, then to big money maps, then to micro money maps [for those unfamiliar, big money maps are very large maps divided into eight bases with one entrance each, and an unlimited stacked resource pile right next to the town hall, generally a very "noob" map where you turtled under heavy defenses and then massed late-game units. often, they would also be 'no rush' games where there was a verbal agreement before the game to not send any assaults before a specific timeframe, usually 10-20 minutes in. micro money maps also have the unlimited resource pile, but put everyone very close together. This removes exploring and expanding from the strategy, but it means that combat starts immediately, and the bases are very small. Not as much of a 'noob' map. It removed some strategic elements versus the normal gameplay, but added in others.]. At that point, I got into a lot of UMS maps (such "Tower Defense", its derivatives and the RPGs I mentioned earlier"). When WC3 came out, I bought it on release day, but the normal melee mode didn't really do it for me. I was very used to the micro spiral maps, where you were in constant combat and the games were short, so having a game that required building up, expanding, exploring, skirmishing, etc. was not really doing it for me. But I got into DotA and Wintermaul and a lot of other WC3 custom maps quickly, and have thoroughly enjoyed playing them. I listen to people talk about all these newer games, many of which I haven't even heard of, because there is so much excellent custom content in Warcraft 3 that the only games I have played in the past eight years have been WC3 and The Orange Box, with some Xbox GTA action on the side.

Now, I know I've been blabbering about WC3 and this is SC2, but anyone familiar with blizzard knows that the two games are very related, with most of the differences being cosmetic. Starcraft took the Warcraft 2 gameplay mechanics and refined them, improving the graphics and switching from a fantasy to a sci-fi theme along the way. Warcraft 3 took all of the successful improvements Starcraft made to the interface and mechanics, then added a whole slew of new improvements, and restored the fantasy theme. My experience in SC2 beta leads me to believe that SC2 took a good number of the WC3 gameplay improvements and incorporated them back into Starcraft. I'm really hoping that they continue the legacy of great support for third-party mappers, as custom maps have played a huge role in the success of SC2's several predecessors.

 

I seem to have an odd issue where it claims there's a patch, then refuses to download the patch (I ran the updater manually).

Hm.

 

!!!

Got my collector's edition in mail today, too bad I won't have time to actually play it until sunday