Preview: StarCraft II

[ZippyDSMlee]

What keeps one playing a game(not a film or a movie nor interactive video) shiny graphics?, a story? or depth in game play? A lack luster game that dose not play well is still lack luster and sub par, a nice to good game with a decent story that dose not play well is mediocre.

IMO AI,control and "interfaces"(how you interact with the game world via its mechanics) are far more important than story,setting or graphics and its those things which the industry including the review industry has rushed to over the last decade because they do not want to put the time or effort into better mechanics that are polished and finished.

I do not care for the industry's substandard way it dose things, were things always better maybe, maybe not thats not so much the point as the industry has grown stagnate in both mechanic's and polish making what was a 5 or 6 a 7 or a 9 just because something is a big seller. And yet these big sellers are not very well supported by the industry that made them millions........ *sigh* I am rambling again... my apologies...

I agree that control and interfaces - and general gameplay - are by far the most important things to most games, especially one like StarCraft II. But AI? The AI only matters in the singleplayer campaign, and if it's functional for that then that's what's important. I'm confident SC2 will have a great singleplayer even if the AI is on the easy side, but tons of people are going to buy it for its multiplayer where the AI is literally irrelevant.

I would honestly lump AI in with story and graphics as things that are "nice, but not must haves."

Well I got burnt on WC3 because it was not up to snuff, AI is important for a solid SP experience of course some people don't bother with counting what the AI dose or dose not do and call trash like bioshock "11++++ great"(its above average yes but not THAT much above average), I mean I know I am OCD on somethings but come on is everyone just out to make and buy the most minimalistic experience possible these days?

AI is a cornerstone of gameplay its part of how mechanics are applied, I just can not see how its on the same level of story and graphics....

But the thing is, BioShock WAS great. For the most part, gameplay is king, but BioShock excelled in writing and atmosphere even if the mechanics were average. If you go into BioShock to play it as a shooter, it's an average shooter; the trappings and the setting are what make it stand out. The AI wasn't BAD, it just wasn't great. Just because a game is on the easy side doesnt' make it "minimalist," and I think you're judging these things on a hugely skewed scale.

In the grand scheme of things, AI CAN ruin a game, but it's hardly a make or break thing. ICO and Shadow of the Colossus have very limited AI, but they're still spectacular, emotional experiences.

I dunno it was average more or less ,by today's standards sure its very much above average for me who played dues ex ,half life,System shock and SS2,Strife,Arx fatalis,Dark messiah,Stalkerect,ect,ect the gameplay was sub par and lacked polishing as did the weapons and half the plasmids a death mechanic is missing from the game unless you call re spawning a usable mechanic in a SP game, item pacing and AI is a joke, I can not call it great I can barely call it above average.

The writing was good enough but came off as heavily edited sound bites half the time I can glaze over story issues and plot holes and BS has plenty, the immersion is nice but dose not last long due to poor mechanic implementations stated above. (And I can say the same for WC3 only the story was better, or at least flowed better)

To me it was a sand box lulz fest like GTA or Saints row or Red faction:G with more emphasis on story and worse gameplay. Sure you can glaze it all over and say the broken parts make a greater whole...I just see a Frankenstein in need of being fixed not in need of more sells and "infamy"....

I buy games for the SP experience something that is very much lacking for 50+ dollar games these days...perhaps its my fault for being a enthusiast who played a ton of games over the years and has learned to btch about flaws than play a crappy game without cheating and changing the gameplay so the game is fun. God I miss codebreaker/gameshark...at least armed with them I do not have to work so hard to ensure my money is well spent....

 

[paralost]

when this game comes out Korea's economy will crash

 

[BloodyThoughts]

*kicks tower for not having the requirements for the beta or the game*


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

It just looks so fun!

 

[TransMando]

Awesome. 100% awesome.

 

[Zanez]

Huh, it's a little sad when "you can now select more than 12 units" is a grand new feature.
Bah, but who am I kidding? I'd probably love the game even if it didn't have anything innovative.

heh, not saying its innovative and new to select more than 12 units. Saying its something that the original SC didn't have. It is an upgrade from Starcraft 1, and the unlimited unit selection is just a part of what makes SC2s interface smooth

 

[MortisLegio]

I dont have enough minerals to build more pylons

 

[Scrythe]

Spoiler: Obligatory

 

[Wodan]

I almost paid $400 for an invite selling on eBay two days ago...

But then someone I followed on twitter tweeted about this cool blog giving away free invites as a promotion. I couldn't believe it, so I went to try to get one for the hell of it.

Lo and behold, 2 hours later, I actually had a fresh, unused beta key sitting in my e-mail box.

For those who want to try it for themselves, the blog is here, the URL is long so I've shortened it:



Good luck guys!

Can we ban this guy or something? so far all i have seen is him advertising his webpage to mine data in the confusion of the SC2 Beta.

 

[Rathy]

I love having a computer to run this very well(better than my previous computer would run SC1), but no beta, and then just watching all this awesome gameplay... Argh at never getting into any of the betas anywhere!

But really, the game looks amazing. I really just want a chance to play around with the new tech trees and unit strengths so much.

 

[whaleswiththumbs]

This will most definetly be a pickup for me or my dad, we love the original. Although i never played with much "strategy" just "oh that works for now", "more of those and when in deep troubke "ok i'm done playing for 5 mins"

 

[Banana Phone Man]

I realy like the look of this game. I never got SC1 but I have played WC3 a lot. If they are similar in the way they play and feel then I will definately get this. Will I be missing out on not playing SC1? Should I get SC1 first?

 

[PxDn Ninja]

Doesn't matter if it's a new Mona Lisa. I won't be buying it until they remove the DRM and restore the LAN.

Okay, that's just childish.

Nope, exercising my rights as a consumer to protest against a direction I don't like.

I'm not saying you are wrong and you should certainly vote with your money, but how come Steam doesn't garner the same response? That's what Blizzard has made though, a system where you loose some rights for other services.

Because Valve can do no wrong, man. Valve can do no wrong.

I would have said because unlike Blizzard, Valve makes good games. OH SNAP!

But in all seriousness Steam is a solid DD system that doesn't have it's weak points (being slighly unstable ranking high). I'm personally shocked somewhat at the removal of LAN from SC2, but I hated the first SC, and hate all Warcraft games, so I have no intention of picking this game up. I'm sure for the fans of the series it will be great, but I know I will hate just about every design decision they go with in it.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

Drool...seriously...I need to go wipe my keyboard now...

 

[martin's a madman]

Eh. Seriously, if Starcraft 1 is the best the genre has to offer, then I don't care for that genre.

But holy shit does that game look pretty.

This. Looks to be a re-skinned version of the original, which is great if you liked the first one... However, those of us that like the improvements made to the genre over the last 12 years are going to have to give this one a pass. Seriously? Your air units have to stop to fire? WTF is the point??? I will take my TA/SupCom any day thanks!

Well, there would have to be continuous combat in an RTS, and having an Aircraft almost equal to the size of a tank whizzing around in circles strafing with lasers seems a bit silly when you think about it. Also, having stop and go control helps to provide greater Micro Management which is VERY important in smaller scale RTS games.

 

[tetron]

I get more anxious for this game's release every time I watch a new gameplay video. I love how all the units and structures are detailed and revamped while still being recognizable. Is that the sunken colony ? omg it is =D ! I am looking forward to seeing how those yellow minerals affect people's strategy. I know I'm gonna be bumrushing those places. I am disappointed in that I was hoping to see a zerg/protoss hybrid race in this game.

 

[Aptspire]

I appreciated the old basis of the game
I liked the new units and abilities
But I LOVED what you did at 4:23
...Pylons...

 

[Kikosemmek]

Yep, I'm in the beta and it's just great.

The Protoss so far are my favourites, largely for two things: the new music, and the Colossus. It wtf-pwns Zerg and Bio-Terran.

I lost most of the games I played so far, and I've enjoyed all of it.

 

[Weaver]

I'm not saying you are wrong and you should certainly vote with your money, but how come Steam doesn't garner the same response from you? That's what Blizzard has made though, a system where you loose some rights for other services.

Who says it doesn't? What Steam doesn't do is: slow my games down, limit my installs, limit my use of mods, force me to use one d/l system, and snoop without my permission.
What it does do is give me instant messaging that I can turn off, a robust package and reasonable prices some of the time. It also support independent developers and talks to its community.

That counts for a lot, and while I understand that companies have all gone down the DRM route, there are fair trade-offs and unfair trade-offs. I won't buy from those I believe have made unfair trade-offs.

Steam also crashes occasionally, have a support staff where sarcasm is an inbred trait and hides too many options away; but if I have to have a DRM, it's the one I'll put up with.

I guess we could go through and weigh every feature to see where the scales land, but my point is that that's precisely what the new Battle.net system does. Unlimited install, downloadable clients, cross game chat, etc. If that's your DRM of choice, I don't see why this one is any different at least in a broad sense of the scheme.

Do you know if you have to be logged into battle.net to access the single player game? I know the beta doesn't include single player content, but I haven't been following the battle.net features very closely so I'm hoping you knew.

IIRC, there is a singleplayer mode offline but you won't get achievements or any of the online features (obviously) since you can't log in.

Re: the LAN issue... if they go forward with the "you get LAN pings but you need to maintain a net connection" I don't think it'll be much of a problem. We live in the era of widespread wifi and broadband; tech-savvy folks are almost SURE to have stuff like that. I can't remember the last time I LANned without an internet connection.

And my lag on B.net has been extremely miniscule if any.

My personal issue with the LAN I hosted back in the days of yore was the 32 person switch we had couldn't support an ethernet connection. Hell, maybe we were just setting it up wrong, I dunno.

 

[Nmil-ek]

I dont have enough minerals to build more pylons

You require more, vespene gas.