Starcraft II
Stacraft II
I'm suprised no one here has started a topic on this yet.
As it says on the Blizzard homepage, "hell, it's about time"
I'm sure it's probably at least a year away, but since blizzard is pretty much the only source of simulataneous mac/PC releases and they make such consistently good stuff, I'm looking forward to it
I'm not a MMORPG person either, so it's been a while since there has been something from Blizzard I'm interested in.
I'm suprised no one here has started a topic on this yet.
As it says on the Blizzard homepage, "hell, it's about time"
I'm sure it's probably at least a year away, but since blizzard is pretty much the only source of simulataneous mac/PC releases and they make such consistently good stuff, I'm looking forward to it
I'm not a MMORPG person either, so it's been a while since there has been something from Blizzard I'm interested in.
Comments
Dunno what's disappointing about 3 races. It gives you nine different 1v1 matchups already, not to mention combinations. Starcraft has absolutely massive amount of stuff and tricks to discover even for the casual gamer. SC came out in 1998; I was still finding lots of new stuff after two years of constant play with my friends. As late as in 2005 the pro players have been occasionally coming out with a whole new type of tactic that was unknown even to the other pros... probably also after that but I haven't been watching.
Well for me its boring to have the same 3 races, even in Warcraft 3 things can become boring if you play random. I was especting Starcraft 2 to have at least 5 races. The Order was Wacraft 2 - 2 races, Starcraft 3 races, warcraft 3 -4 races. It is possible for a new race with a probable expansion game like Blizzard did for starcrat 1 and warcraft 2 and diablo.......
Overall I trust blizzard that starcraft 2 is gonna be a great game, blizzard never failes.
Blizzard games are the only games (besides Civ2) that I continually enjoy years after they come out. This winter I just reloaded and finished DiabloII with the assassin for the 1st time. And I still haven't finished with the Sorceress (I can't beat the end boss in the desert with her...), or the necromancer (just never tried). So there's still more in that game for me. And I was actually planning on reloading Starcraft and going through the single player campaigns until I got sucked into WoW. And with WCIII, I was absolutely addicted to Dota for ages--until about last summer.
But I honestly wasn't all that impressed with the preview for SC2 so far. The screenshots look nice, but the original game was so beautiful that it doesn't look *that* much better.
What could be interesting is if they combine the stuff they did with Starcraft:Ghost with this into the single-player campaign. But a FPS and a RTS are really difficult to blend well. But it makes me wonder what a RTS game would look like if the perspective were ground level. But that's probably not what they're going for here.
As for SCII, I'm thrilled that it's coming but I definitely have some reservations. I know they've only shown the Protoss in detail but frankly it doesn't bode well-- too bubbly and shiny aesthetically, and two of the units--that laser-Colossus and the ludicrous mothership-- are ripped right out of War of the Worlds and Independence Day, respectively. Compare that to the Reaver of the original-- unique concept, awesome art, great name...
I have a personal thing for names and the aesthetic they contribute to-- IMO, Bungie got it right about every time. Something about their language for naming things always hinted at some dark, authentic mythology-- for Halo too-- without falling into cheese. Hopefully Blizzard will remember what made the original SC units great. I think unpretentious names and understated art design had a lot to do with it, personally.
I hope they put in live damage effects on the units-- like in C&C Generals-- and just in general spray a fine coat of grit over everything. I suppose the Protoss units have all been warped in from some immaculate, far-away place, but the Terran stuff, at least, should look like it was actually built on the surface of a harsh planet, and have some wear and tear to demonstrate it.
Well-- we'll see!
Personally, I think 3 races is perfectly sufficient, and indeed has an advantage over games that stress an artificial idea of diversity over true distinction between the races they provide. WC3 did the diversity and balancing pretty well, but frankly it was too much to keep in one's head-- the geometry and logic of a three-way system is easier to conceptualize (at least for a fairly casual gamer like myself).
Well I am not a casual gamer. I am pro. I play TFT on bnet only random, and even like this it can get boring. Concerning the diversity to keep in head its ok, for warcraft you don't have much to keep in head, even if 1 is noob he just need to know the units and the armor and attack types.
The race diversity is the 1 thing that makes a strategy game most enjoyable. Of course, more the races more hard to balance them for the creators.
Someone said here about the first starcraft that even in these years the pro players come with new strategies. I don't think so, maybe some modified srategies, but impossible to be totally new, for a totally new strategy u need at least 1 new unit.
I know for warcraft 3, everything these days in pro games is reduced to micro, everyone knows the strategies and stuff.
Well I am not a casual gamer. I am pro. I play TFT on bnet only random, and even like this it can get boring.
AFAIK, those of my friends who were good at SC were not so much going for random matches in bnet. They hung around a channel in bnet that had pretty much the top 15 players of my country. They split their time about 50/50 between playing each other (because they knew those would be good matches) and random bnet. Mostly on bnet they were trying some off-the-wall new strat or practicing a specific old one. They played their best game in their internal matches, and in matches and tournaments set up with folks in other countries through forums. World Cyber Games was a big event for them, as well as national games. The best my friends did was #3 national.
Someone said here about the first starcraft that even in these years the pro players come with new strategies. I don't think so, maybe some modified srategies, but impossible to be totally new, for a totally new strategy u need at least 1 new unit.
Oh, you best believe it. There are tons of examples, I'll link one.
2005. Successful protoss dark templar rush against zerg with no anti-air units. This is pretty much unheard of in pro level play. And FYI, this zerg is one of the top three in the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e31t1_9tek0
Higher micro skills, added knowledge of your opponent, further developed metagame and yomi all make new strats possible without new units.
I know for warcraft 3, everything these days in pro games is reduced to micro, everyone knows the strategies and stuff.
After you get past the initial micro and buildup phase, macro and strategic level thinking begin to matter, and even godly micro doesn't necessarily turn the game around for you.
Ofc I don't know about War3.
What he said.
Let's hope it's good. Can't wait.
Really surprised there is not more interest in this. I downloaded the trailer/demo video and I have to say the whole look is great. Much better graphics and hopefully AI. The new units look pretty cool too.