StarCraft 2 Media

[rask]

The second and third SC2 releases will very likely be the first blizzard games that I have ever pirated.

I was thinking the same thing after I read what I'd posted. Then I sighed.

[Aez]

As for the vid: the game still needs a lot of polish. Unit movement is clumsy, colour schemes are questionable, etc... Most noticeably though, i think faction identity and uniqueness seems to have taken a big hit. Flamethrower quads? Wow, imaginative.

The saddest part for me was the Zealos being barely a match for the big marines.

[sidereal]

My enthusiasm is exactly in inverse proportion to the enthusiasm of the Korean PC Bang denizens.  Since this game thus far seems to be heavily catered to them, mine is nil.

[NiX]

Flamethrower quads? Wow, imaginative.

When did we ever look towards Blizzard for creativity and imagination? A lot of what they do is very generic.

[Hindenburg]

Starcraft 2 match. Space Marines vs Tyranids, from beginning to end. Sorta interesting, no way in hell am I skilled enough to play rts's like that.

[Prospero]

Starcraft 2 match. Terrans vs Zerg, from beginning to end. Sorta interesting, no way in hell am I skilled enough to play rts's like that.

FTFY

[Lakov_Sanite]

I'm not a big RTS guy, never played starcraft or warcraft but that game looked like fun to me.

[Tannhauser]

Wow, that was a good Terran player.  I don't know how people can react so fast so accurately like that.  Can't wait to play this game!  I think I'll go fire up Halo Wars, not a bad game itself.

[ahoythematey]

Do Want.

[Trippy]

Wow, that was a good Terran player.  I don't know how people can react so fast so accurately like that.  Can't wait to play this game!  I think I'll go fire up Halo Wars, not a bad game itself.

They are Blizzard employees now but David Kim and Matt Cooper are both former competitive SC and WC III players.

[UnSub]

I'm not a big RTS guy, never played starcraft or warcraft but that game looked like fun to me.

I was an RTS guy, played TA and Battle Realms (and other non-Blizzard, non-Westwood RTSs) but watching that made me realise how far over I am about base building. Give me a squad based RTS any day of the week.

[Draegan]

That looks just like any other RTS.  What's the big deal here?  I would be bored with that in 30 minutes.

[Rendakor]

That looks just like any other RTS the original Starcraft.  What's the big deal here?  I would be bored with that in 30 minutes years.

FIFY

[Quinton]

I really enjoyed StarCraft back in the day.  Does anyone know if they're going to support modern high-resolution displays in some sane way?  That's the thing that kills me about older games. 640x480 scaled up to 1920x1200 is uuuugly.

[Samwise]

I really enjoyed StarCraft back in the day.  Does anyone know if they're going to support modern high-resolution displays in some sane way?

I can't see why they wouldn't.

[Tarami]

I really enjoyed StarCraft back in the day.  Does anyone know if they're going to support modern high-resolution displays in some sane way?  That's the thing that kills me about older games. 640x480 scaled up to 1920x1200 is uuuugly.

Well, it's 3D with a fixed camera? I don't see why you wouldn't be let to run it in 3860x2880 if you really wanted to.

[Quinton]

I really enjoyed StarCraft back in the day.  Does anyone know if they're going to support modern high-resolution displays in some sane way?  That's the thing that kills me about older games. 640x480 scaled up to 1920x1200 is uuuugly.

Well, it's 3D with a fixed camera? I don't see why you wouldn't be let to run it in 3860x2880 if you really wanted to.

Ah!  The video I've seen has been pretty low quality / low resolution, so that wasn't apparent to me (didn't look that different from having very nice sprites).

[bhodi]

Starcraft 2 is using the warcraft3 3d engine. Greater resolution won't zoom out like diablo2 did, it will simply make things look sharper.

Note that camera distance is also balance issue; someone who can see more of the playing field than you can has an advantage.

[UnSub]

I really enjoyed StarCraft back in the day.  Does anyone know if they're going to support modern high-resolution displays in some sane way?

I can't see why they wouldn't.

Because they are Blizzard and don't care about fancy graphics?

[Trippy]

Starcraft 2 is using the warcraft3 3d engine. Greater resolution won't zoom out like diablo2 did, it will simply make things look sharper.

Saying SC II uses the WC III engine is like saying DOOM III or Quake Wars uses the Quake engine. There may be bits and pieces and algorithms that are the same between the two but they are essentially completely different engines.

http://ati.amd.com/developer/SIGGRAPH08/Chapter05-Filion-StarCraftII.pdf

[lac]

StarCraft2 - Battle Report : Part3

[Ingmar]

I missed the resolution discussion but my recollection from Blizzcon last year is that they had it running at a pretty high res on the demo machines. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[Sjofn]

I only remember two thinks about SC2.

1) I am fucking terrible at it.

2) It was pretty, even while I was busy being terrible at it.

[Trippy]

StarCraft2 - Battle Report : Part3

Bigger versions:

http://www.eurogamer.net/videos/starcraft-ii-battle-report-3

[K9]

StarCraft2 - Battle Report : Part3

Thanks

And damn, that's some mad micromanagement.

[Goreschach]

unreleased battle report leaked

[Malakili]

Multiplayer is always what kills RTSs for me.  I love them in theory, and sometimes I even love playing it for a bit, but I simply don't have the will to train myself in the inevitable winning strategies.  I tend to choose units based on what I like to use, rather than what is most effective.  Hell, I remember one time I was playing Empire Earth II (a great RTS actually), multiplayer.  It was maybe my first or second ever online game playing EEII.  And the draw of that game is sthis sort of long spanning, economic,  military, diplomatic game.  Well, there I am preparing to tech up through the ages, etc, and I lost to bola thrower rush as I was building my economy, game over in 5 minutes.  I did some research and apparently that was the strategy lots of people used in multiplayer.

Fucking lame.

Anyway,  blizzard RTS games seem to cater to this style of play, whereas I'd much rather play something like Sins of a Solar Empire


ETA: In the same way I seem to be good at most FPS games, I seem to be terrible at most RTS games (both in competitive environments), so this is where my grumpyness stems from.

[Samwise]

Well, there I am preparing to tech up through the ages, etc, and I lost to bola thrower rush as I was building my economy, game over in 5 minutes.  I did some research and apparently that was the strategy lots of people used in multiplayer.

Fucking lame.

In a decently balanced RTS, that sort of thing is the equivalent of trying a fool's mate in chess.  It'll work against someone who doesn't know about it, but once you're familiar with it (and the counter) you'll have an advantage against anyone who tries it.  Not sure if that's the case in this particular game, but early game rushes were pretty popular in SC1 as well.  Once you learned how to defend against them, you could pretty reliably and easily crush anyone who tried that technique.

[Malakili]

Well, there I am preparing to tech up through the ages, etc, and I lost to bola thrower rush as I was building my economy, game over in 5 minutes.  I did some research and apparently that was the strategy lots of people used in multiplayer.

Fucking lame.

In a decently balanced RTS, that sort of thing is the equivalent of trying a fool's mate in chess.  It'll work against someone who doesn't know about it, but once you're familiar with it (and the counter) you'll have an advantage against anyone who tries it.  Not sure if that's the case in this particular game, but early game rushes were pretty popular in SC1 as well.  Once you learned how to defend against them, you could pretty reliably and easily crush anyone who tried that technique.

You're probably right.  I think what irks me at least as much as actually losing to something like that is the fact that people only care about winning rather than experiencing all the cool content the game comes with.  Don't get me wrong, I can get plenty of competitive in games,  I just have a hard time with strategy games in that sense.

[Rendakor]

Malakili, if the game was multiplayer only, I would agree with you. However, there is (at least in SC) a considerable single player campaign for you to experience all of the content in. Additionally, not all races (again, SC1) are balanced for each stage of the game. Zerg were traditionally better in the early game, while Protoss became pretty unstoppable if you let them tech all the way up.

[K9]

I never understood the appeal of online play for RTS games. I played a lot of Warcraft III and Starcraft with my housemates over a LAN though, which was much more fun. Especially since we were all equally terrible and so most games would go the full distance (i.e. until most of the resources had been used up).

Malakili, if the game was multiplayer only, I would agree with you. However, there is (at least in SC) a considerable single player campaign for you to experience all of the content in.

3 single player campaigns in fact, since they're releasing each race campaign as a separate box.

[Aez]

I never understood the appeal of online play for RTS games. I played a lot of Warcraft III and Starcraft with my housemates over a LAN though, which was much more fun. Especially since we were all equally terrible and so most games would go the full distance (i.e. until most of the resources had been used up).

That's why you don't understand the appeal of online play.

[Rendakor]

The most fun I had playing RTS games online was always the Custom (Use Map Settings) games: Tower Defense, Dota, Mauls, Madness/Frenzies, etc.

In SC1, my friends and I were good enough to beat randoms we played, usually because there were 2-3 of us who knew each other and coordinated strategy vs 2-3 randoms who spent half the game talking shit on each other. When WC3 fixed that with the auto-join game thing, we suddenly got terrible at team games.   

[NiX]

unreleased battle report leaked

I'm sorry, but I think anyone whose watched the battle reports needs to watch this. That was awesome. Especially the Diablo 2 music in the background.

[Samwise]

Holy shit that was hilarious.  Excellent dry delivery by the announcer.