Star Craft 2

[havoq]

ARS Technica Review:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2 ... raft-2.ars

I have to be honest and say that I think that you guys who are passing judgement on this game, just over the lack of LAN play, are being petty. Let's be real here. If you're getting a bunch of friends over to your house and connecting through your wireless (or wired) LAN, aren't all the computers going to have internet access anyway? So, what's the big deal whether you're connecting to the game locally or through an internet-based matchmaking server?

If the problem is the fact that you can't share discs anymore, then that's a bigger issue and not one that's specific to Blizzard or StarCraft. When's the last time you PURCHASED a game that you could run on multiple devices at the same time? The state of modern gaming is totally different. With consoles and MMOs the one-copy-per-computer model has become a standard. If you were hoping that Blizzard would do a 180 and fly in the face of the industry just to give gamers a taste of nostalgia, that's an unrealistic expectation. The game doesn't suck just because it doesn't support an outdated feature. That's like getting mad over the fact that the game doesn't support IPX networking.

So go ahead and sulk if you must. If you think its worth boycotting this game to satisfy your nerd-rage, so be it. Truth is, you're passing up on a game that's actually pretty great. It's been a LONG time since I've had this much fun playing an RTS. The single-player campaign alone is worth the price of admission. There's more depth there than in most games on the market today, in any genre.

[havoq]

Starcraft 2 is a peice of shit and so is Activision/Blizzard. Fuck that company. Fuck EA, fuck their bullshit. I will not be purchasing any games any more because I am sick and tired of the bullshit. These companies release bugged games, and the same old rehashed bullshit over and over and over again and stupid retards with nothing better to do gobble up their shit like its fucking gold.

GIve me a break. I played the SC2 beta for over 2 months and I got to say I was not impressed at all.

First, FUCKING LAG. What a fucking joke, its 2010 and a game from the fucking 90's (see starcraft 1) has better fucking netcoding then starcraft 2. Un-believable that a company that is working on this game for the last decade cant get that part right.

Second. Starcraft 2 offers nothing new over the original starcraft. Its exactly the same thing. The only difference is pretty graphics (WHICH are laughable, the graphics are nothing special and I would go as far as to say they are outdated.) The only difference is that some units have new names and new animations over the old units, but do the exat same thing.

This game fails, do not buy it.

You couldn't be more wrong. First of all, I've had no lag issues at all with this game, "fucking" or otherwise. I'm running it on my Macbook Pro with a 2.4ghz dual-core CPU, so nothing fancy. The game runs just fine. Your experience may be specific to your computer.

SC2 does offer new features over SC1. There are new mission types with unique mechanics (the train heist is a good example). There are new environment mechanics like day and night phases and geological events like quakes and lava eruptions. Units have enhanced abilities and new behaviors making the strategy that much more flexible. The ability to research tech and upgrade units outside of missions is a great new feature as well. The new map editor is hella cool! There's a fair amount of new stuff in this game even if you don't consider the 30-ish single player missions in the campaign. Saying that's it's just SC1 with pretty graphics is a severe over-simplification.

The game is not without its flaws, but it's far from garbage. Yes, I'd like it if there was more single-player gameplay than the 25-30 hours of the campaign, but I don't feel like I'm being ripped off when I compare it to other games like Assassin's Creed 2 that I finished in 14 hours and paid $59 for. Games are more expensive and most of them suck these days. Luckily, I don't think SC2 sucks at all. It's easily keeping my attention and keeping me up long into the night. It's been a while since I had that experience with a game.

[Vharc]

So go ahead and sulk if you must. If you think its worth boycotting this game to satisfy your nerd-rage, so be it.

No one is sulking. They are stating their opinion, just like you are stating yours. There is no need for these kinds of comments.

Yes, imo, the game has a pretty good single player. But really, if you want to play Protoss or Zerg, how is it fun for you? Oh the other expansions are coming, thats true, but it will be another $60 for each.

Most people play SC for the multiplayer. That is what is lacking in this game. Yes units have new abilities, but where is the "wow" (no not WoW) factor? The graphics are mediocre and the new abilities do the same thing as SC1 abilities, just renamed on a different unit.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, so let them have it. Discuss your opnion of the game, dont attack others because they dont agree.

[Dungeon Master]

havoq never goes on the offensive, so he gets a pass. Plus, attacking Sirex doesn't count as he's not really a human being.

I've never actually played any of the campaigns in an RTS with the possible exception of Command & Conquer. Remember how cool that story was? You could choose which countries to go into and everything! Plus, the nukes were just too cool.

"Unit lost... unit lost... unit lost..."

[havoq]

So go ahead and sulk if you must. If you think its worth boycotting this game to satisfy your nerd-rage, so be it.

No one is sulking. They are stating their opinion, just like you are stating yours. There is no need for these kinds of comments.

I'm pretty sure my comment was a tame generalization and not a direct attack against anyone. Also, I'm usually the first one to admit that we geeks get a little too passionate about our vices. Hence my "nerd-rage" comment.

And DM is right; I only fire back at Sirex because he likes to talk in absolutes about the merits of something based solely on his point of view peppered with "fucking" throughout. I don't really think you can postulate a conclusion on a debatable issue and not expect an equally assertive rebuttal.

[Sirex]

OMG REALLY Havoq?? YOU were done in by the day and night cycle????? WOW, I guess youre an easy customer to please... Lava erruptions??? lol, give me a break, Warcraft 3 reign of chaos had the same STUFF and it was released almost a decade ago. The day and night cycle ACTUALLY MATTERED because if you were playing as the elves you could use it to your advantage to cloak your units.

The graphics do suck, they are on par with Warcraft 3, which is rather sad. Though, graphics dont make the game.. BUT, if thats the case then why not just re-relase SC1 - OH WAIT, thats what they did.

Also, the lag I am refering to was not in game lag due to graphical slow down - great point on your macbook pro 2.4 ghz though....... The lag was due to ONLINE PLAY, specifically on 3v3 and 4v4 where people would drop almost every single game. 3v3 and 4v4 on games like warcraft 3, that was released ages ago hardly EVER dropped.

How about go and play online before trying to refute my claims with "you are dead wrong" clearly youve only played single player campaign and clearly youre more of a SC/Blizzard fanboi. Nothing wrong with that, but exactly like my original claim makes - the fanbois gobble it up and claim it to be amazing.

Youre paying almost 70$ for a game that came out a decade ago, with a "few new features" a bit of a graphics boost, all repacked and resold to you at a high price. It actually is insanity.

As for the "lan" party thing, I dont give a shit about that. But fuck, if theyre just going to re-release shit from back in the day, might as well stick to their routes.

Starcraft 2 is a peice of shit and so is Activision/Blizzard. Fuck that company. Fuck EA, fuck their bullshit. I will not be purchasing any games any more because I am sick and tired of the bullshit. These companies release bugged games, and the same old rehashed bullshit over and over and over again and stupid retards with nothing better to do gobble up their shit like its fucking gold.

GIve me a break. I played the SC2 beta for over 2 months and I got to say I was not impressed at all.

First, FUCKING LAG. What a fucking joke, its 2010 and a game from the fucking 90's (see starcraft 1) has better fucking netcoding then starcraft 2. Un-believable that a company that is working on this game for the last decade cant get that part right.

Second. Starcraft 2 offers nothing new over the original starcraft. Its exactly the same thing. The only difference is pretty graphics (WHICH are laughable, the graphics are nothing special and I would go as far as to say they are outdated.) The only difference is that some units have new names and new animations over the old units, but do the exat same thing.

This game fails, do not buy it.

You couldn't be more wrong. First of all, I've had no lag issues at all with this game, "fucking" or otherwise. I'm running it on my Macbook Pro with a 2.4ghz dual-core CPU, so nothing fancy. The game runs just fine. Your experience may be specific to your computer.

SC2 does offer new features over SC1. There are new mission types with unique mechanics (the train heist is a good example). There are new environment mechanics like day and night phases and geological events like quakes and lava eruptions. Units have enhanced abilities and new behaviors making the strategy that much more flexible. The ability to research tech and upgrade units outside of missions is a great new feature as well. The new map editor is hella cool! There's a fair amount of new stuff in this game even if you don't consider the 30-ish single player missions in the campaign. Saying that's it's just SC1 with pretty graphics is a severe over-simplification.

The game is not without its flaws, but it's far from garbage. Yes, I'd like it if there was more single-player gameplay than the 25-30 hours of the campaign, but I don't feel like I'm being ripped off when I compare it to other games like Assassin's Creed 2 that I finished in 14 hours and paid $59 for. Games are more expensive and most of them suck these days. Luckily, I don't think SC2 sucks at all. It's easily keeping my attention and keeping me up long into the night. It's been a while since I had that experience with a game.

[ahimah]

My opinion of the game still hasn't changed as I have yet to play it. I've gotta find someone locally who has it to see if I'll actually like it before I drop money on it. After all, I was super excited about Borderlands (preordered it and everything) and once I'd spent a couple hours with it I felt as if I'd been cheated out of $60 b/c it was repetitive and dull. The RTS genre of games hasn't really been one that I've gotten into over the years. I played some of SC with friends, but didn't spend a whole lot of time with it. I played WC3 for awhile too, but found myself using cheat codes to progress just so I could see the story.

[Mishura Desante]

honestly, that's why I just dont buy new games anymore. They're simply not worth it. Wait 3-5 months, price cut in half...by the 9month to 1 year mark, you can pick em up for cheap.

I just got Splinter Cell: Conviction off ebay for 10 bucks, and Halo: ODST for 7 bucks (+2 shipping for both).

Not bad considering 4 months ago that woulda run me 100 bucks.

Still waiting for red dead redemption to go sub 20...that'll likely be xmas time

[havoq]

OMG REALLY Havoq?? YOU were done in by the day and night cycle????? WOW, I guess youre an easy customer to please... Lava erruptions??? lol, give me a break, Warcraft 3 reign of chaos had the same STUFF and it was released almost a decade ago. The day and night cycle ACTUALLY MATTERED because if you were playing as the elves you could use it to your advantage to cloak your units.

They're interesting mechanics that change up the flow of the mission. The zombies attack in large waves at night while you can build up your defenses and counterstrike during the day. I think that's neat and it's something new, so what's wrong with that? Same thing with the lava, it's just something else I need to account for in the strategy beyond just gathering resources and fighting off attackers.

The graphics do suck, they are on par with Warcraft 3, which is rather sad. Though, graphics dont make the game.. BUT, if thats the case then why not just re-relase SC1 - OH WAIT, thats what they did.

I'm actually glad they didn't build this thing with super-high-res DirectX 11-compatible graphics. It's a top-town RTS and you spend most of your time zoomed out to a birdseye view, when would you really notice the extra detail of higher-resolution textures? Don't forget that you can have a LOT more units on the map at once now, so it would be more taxing on your hardware if they increased the poly-count of the models. This game runs smooth on my older hardware, so I don't have to go out and buy a new PC just to play this game. Thank you, Blizzard for that.

Also, the lag I am refering to was not in game lag due to graphical slow down - great point on your macbook pro 2.4 ghz though....... The lag was due to ONLINE PLAY, specifically on 3v3 and 4v4 where people would drop almost every single game. 3v3 and 4v4 on games like warcraft 3, that was released ages ago hardly EVER dropped.

How about go and play online before trying to refute my claims with "you are dead wrong" clearly youve only played single player campaign and clearly youre more of a SC/Blizzard fanboi. Nothing wrong with that, but exactly like my original claim makes - the fanbois gobble it up and claim it to be amazing.

I've been playing 3v3 with a few local friends over the weekend and I had no issues. I get a little lag spike when I launch the game, but I think that's my local machine and it lasts all of 5 seconds. Other than that, smooth sailing.

I won't try to argue my status as a fanboy since, as you say, it must be "clear" already. I've played SC1, Warcraft III and Diablo 2, but I haven't owned any Blizz games other than WoW and D2... and now StarCraft 2. I don't live and breathe Blizzard, but I appreciate their creativity in creating engaging stories and fully realized worlds, the same as I respect Bethezda, Square Enix and BioWare. I'm willing to admit the flaws in SC2, but the point is that I think you're picking on minor things that annoy you specifically and aren't actually a detriment to gameplay in a broader more objective sense. I'm only defending the game because I think you're arguments are based on a specific expectation or experience and I'm trying to provide a counter-view based on my overall enjoyment of the game.

Youre paying almost 70$ for a game that came out a decade ago, with a "few new features" a bit of a graphics boost, all repacked and resold to you at a high price. It actually is insanity.

I think the "few new features" are a benefit, but the thing you keep glossing over is that this is a completely new story to play through in the campaign. You could argue that Mass Effect 2 is just Mass Effect 1 with "some new features". Assassin's Creed 2 is just Assassin's Creed 1 with different textures. Every sequel is just an incremental change over the previous version when you break it down to it's component parts, but that's not the point. The experience of gaming is a summation of the elements compiled within the structure of a story. A "good" thematic game mixes mechanics that are familiar with some new twists and supports it all with a story and characters that are engaging and interesting. The story in SC2 is interesting to me and it's something that I want to experience through to the end. If story is not a priority to you then there are plenty of virtual freeze-tag games out there like Counterstrike or COD Modern Warfare 2.

[havoq]

Still waiting for red dead redemption to go sub 20...that'll likely be xmas time

Mish, if you've got a PS3 you can have my copy of Red Dead. I'm finished with it and I don't really care to play the multi-player anymore. Just PM me your address and I'll drop it in the mail for you.

[Mishura Desante]

xbox

[ahimah]

Still waiting for red dead redemption to go sub 20...that'll likely be xmas time

Mish, if you've got a PS3 you can have my copy of Red Dead. I'm finished with it and I don't really care to play the multi-player anymore. Just PM me your address and I'll drop it in the mail for you.

Since Mish can't use it, mind hooking me up with it instead? I've been meaning to play it, but with the wedding coming up I've been spending as little as possible.

[havoq]

Still waiting for red dead redemption to go sub 20...that'll likely be xmas time

Mish, if you've got a PS3 you can have my copy of Red Dead. I'm finished with it and I don't really care to play the multi-player anymore. Just PM me your address and I'll drop it in the mail for you.

Since Mish can't use it, mind hooking me up with it instead? I've been meaning to play it, but with the wedding coming up I've been spending as little as possible.

Sure dude, just pm me your address and its yours.

[Taze]

First 1 - Sirex = alexreborn = pond scum - Dont even reply to anything he says, sometimes you have to delete his posts just so the Human Rights organizations don't shut down our forums.


Second - I still play starcraft I so even if it is a rehash of SC1 in a new skin, it's still SC its just not 60$ for 1 campaign fun.

[Sirex]

First 1 - Sirex = alexreborn = pond scum - Dont even reply to anything he says, sometimes you have to delete his posts just so the Human Rights organizations don't shut down our forums.


Second - I still play starcraft I so even if it is a rehash of SC1 in a new skin, it's still SC its just not 60$ for 1 campaign fun.

LOL, k noob.


Havoq, honestly, if you like it, thats good for you. But you keep argueing about its "new content" when the content isn't new and has already been done before. Yes, it is a sequel, so clearly they cant deviate too far from the original game. Regardless they could have done alot more after keeping it a secret and working on it for so long. However thats part of their marketing campaign anyway. The game was ready months ago. I would go as far as to say it was ready years ago. Except this create buzz and made people go ape shit crazy.

Now people like you are drooling over "new stuff" that really isn't new at all.. So you think you got your moneys worth, but really you got ripped off. Enjoy.

P.S. That zombie thing that youre wetting your pants over..... Ya, happened in Warcraft 3 too. Day and night cycle? Warcraft 3.... Come to think of it, it pretty much is a Warcraft 3 clone, except in space.