StarCraft II

[Ginaz]

I'm having some serious graphical issues.  Game freezes every few minutes for about 10-20m seconds.  This occurs during gameplay and cut scenes.  Windows 7 is updated, I downloaded latest drivers and followed the advice in the Game Informer article mentioned earlier.  Probably going to shelve this until I can find out how to fix it.

[bhodi]

I'm having some serious graphical issues.  Game freezes every few minutes for about 10-20m seconds.  This occurs during gameplay and cut scenes.  Windows 7 is updated, I downloaded latest drivers and followed the advice in the Game Informer article mentioned earlier.  Probably going to shelve this until I can find out how to fix it.

You could try defragging your HD, and putting all the settings on low. Beyond that, no real suggestions :(

[Rasix]

It's funny that the expert challenges are the easiest ones by far.

[Margalis]

One other thing Starcraft brings is three races that play very differently, and yet are relativley balanced. Most other RTSes have units that are simply reskins of identical units.

Starcraft 1 brought that, which at the time was pretty amazing. A decade later the same 3 races with the same mechanics is substantially less amazing. Dawn of War has 10 or 12 relatively balanced races with unique units and some unique mechanics.

I honestly believe that Starcraft 2 will be largely forgotten by history and quickly fall off of "best of" lists. It's basically SC1 with a graphical upgrade and some UI improvements. It's going to get high review scores because of the way reviews work - for hyped games the score starts at 100 and then points are subtracted for "objective" flaws. SC2 has very few objective flaws like low production values or technical issues. Reviewers will rarely dock "major" games for being rehashes, though they'll rip into minor releases for the same thing. The fact that the game is samey and uninspired isn't going to hurt its metacritic. But where it will hurt is when people look back and remember how awesome SC1 was and how comparatively tame SC2 was.

Bah humbug I say!

[Typhon]

Are you playing it?  Do you like it?  I still haven't bought it and I'm on the fence of whether to buy it soon, or just let it sit for awhile.

[K9]

I'm playing it, I like it. The campaign (novelty lore aside) is well done and offers a variety of missions with different paces, settings, challenges and difficultes. The challenge modes are fun and add a new type of gameplay, and I hope they add more of these in the future. Multiplayer, despite the doomcrying, is incredibly well balanced and runs well. There's also the whole other world of custom maps, and given the track record with WC3, it is likely that there will be plenty of interesting avenues of novel gameplay that will emerge there over time. Like all Blizzard products, it is incredibly well polished and well done. When you have a fun format that works well there's really no need to reinvent the wheel. The argument that it is just Starcraft with new graphics is fairly poor, you could make the same (flawed) case about plenty of games, such as Doom 2 or the Civilisation series, or pretty much any Nintendo game. The reality is that SC2 is a complete rebuild of the original that preserves a lot of what worked and made Starcraft and interesting and fun game, while adding a lot more. Ultimately it's good fun, it offers content in manageable chunks and it's worth playing. Imho.

[Ratman_tf]

[Jobu]

I swear the voice of that lab rat guy, Stettman, is the voice of the nerdy kid main character (Kevin) from the Adult Swim cartoon Mission Hill. Everytime I hear him all I can picture is that gawky kid doing his nerd squawk.

[LK]

[Miasma]

Avoiding all the news and discussions during blizzard's long production cycle might have come back to haunt me.  I'm starting to get the feeling that I don't get to play as the zerg or protoss.  I don't, do I?

[Margalis]

You do for the low low price of $120 more. 

There is a small Protoss mini-campaign. No zerg.

[Rasix]

Avoiding all the news and discussions during blizzard's long production cycle might have come back to haunt me.  I'm starting to get the feeling that I don't get to play as the zerg or protoss.  I don't, do I?

Multiplayer, vs. AI, challenges, and a brief portion of the campaign (protoss, as mentioned).

[ffc]

I read a post like K9's and I think I want to buy it.  I read a post like Margalis' and I don't want to buy it anymore.  Gah.  How about co-op vs. AI, anyone playing that?  Can the AI put up a good/fun fight?

[Rasix]

Why would you take the word of someone that's just trolling the thread over someone that's actually playing and enjoying the game?

[lesion]

I swear the voice of that lab rat guy, Stettman, is the voice of the nerdy kid main character (Kevin) from the Adult Swim cartoon Mission Hill.

You got it. It's Scott Menville.

[Reg]

I've got the game and I'm enjoying it. Jim Raynor must have spent the entire game development time working out though. I don't remember him being a super-mutant in Starcraft 1.

[Margalis]

Why would you take the word of someone that's just trolling the thread over someone that's actually playing and enjoying the game?

So now giving your opinion of the game is "trolling." Blizzard fanboys are too funny.

I read a post like K9's and I think I want to buy it.  I read a post like Margalis' and I don't want to buy it anymore.  Gah.  How about co-op vs. AI, anyone playing that?  Can the AI put up a good/fun fight?

If you want a shinier version of SC1 you should buy it. I'm not saying it's a bad game, just that it's super conservative. The AI is pretty decent, the hardest difficulty is probably hard for most players. Also I do agree that the single player is more varied than SC1, so if you're into the single player it's probably a good purchase. (As long as you don't mind buying two more games to complete the story...) Hell the multiplayer is good too, there's certainly nothing wrong with it.

I'm watching some SC2 tournament vids right now, I'm hardly a hater. It's just not the landmark game that SC1 was.

[SurfD]

I've got the game and I'm enjoying it. Jim Raynor must have spent the entire game development time working out though. I don't remember him being a super-mutant in Starcraft 1.

I cant actually recall seeing a body shot of him anywhere in the first game. As a character on the field, he was always either in a Vulture, or in a Battlecruiser i think, and other then that, all you ever saw was his face in the comm screens.

[Reg]

Hmm now that you mention it you're probably right. Still, I found his freakish build a little jarring.

[Merusk]

As has been mentioned, unless you're into multiplayer or want the WoW pet it's not worth buying for Single Player.  That's all I'm after because I suck at RTS (mainly because I hate micromanaging what I feel should be guys able to think on their own two feet.)  and use cheats to finish.    As such I'm waiting 2-3 years for the battle chest.   Hell I waited 5 years to buy SC1, why should this be different. 

From the little I played in Beta, it looked like it could be fun for RTS-types, FWIW.

[bhodi]

Hmm now that you mention it you're probably right. Still, I found his freakish build a little jarring.

I'm pretty sure EVERYONE in the starcraft universe is juicin'.

[Ironwood]

Oh God, the story is so BAD.

 

[LK]

Oh God, the story is so BAD.

 

Finally. Let it all out.

[Lantyssa]

I've heard rumors, but I didn't want to stomp all over the euphoria.  Dish!

[K9]

Oh God, the story is so BAD.

 

Yea, pretty much. Plot is really Blizzard's blind spot.

[Ironwood]

I think there's one chap at Blizzard who writes story.  Sure, he looks great, but the picture in his attic is a fucking MESS.

[lamaros]

Finished it on hard just now and I don't think it was worth the money or time, really.

Looks and feels like they're setting it up for a MMO to me. Anyone else get that vibe?


Oh well. I guess I'll go back and do some of the earlier missions for fun if I can be bothered. Maybe I'm just over this type of RTS, but I find the 'epic' ending missions with massive enemy bases and heaps of units really boring and unimaginative and unfun.

[lesion]

I think I'd feel better about myself if the game cost $10 less.

[jakonovski]

I dished out the big bucks for a CE. I feel a bit stupid, but at least the art book is good. And the USB stick, it's got SC1 and Brood War preinstalled.

[Ironwood]

I was given it as a leaving gift.  If it was just the Single Player, I'd STILL feel I'd paid too much.

As it is, who cares. 


(So Bad.  SUCH A BAD STORY.)

[Paelos]

I was given it as a leaving gift.  If it was just the Single Player, I'd STILL feel I'd paid too much.

As it is, who cares. 


(So Bad.  SUCH A BAD STORY.)

Yes, I concur since mine was also free. It's been a fun single player, some decent multi-player but I would never have paid $60 for the game. The fact that they are releasing them all for that amount of money is simply ridiculous. I just don't see how they will convince anybody who isn't a raving lunatic to buy the other two parts at full price.

[climbjtree]

I am absolutely terrible at this game. I mean, like, BAD.

[K9]

Looks and feels like they're setting it up for a MMO to me. Anyone else get that vibe?

Pretty much

[Ironwood]

You only feel like that because the Story reminded you of Warcraft III.

In the same way as crabs reminds you of syphillus.

[Merusk]

I figure the 'setting up for sequel/ MMO feeling you're getting' is because you haven't seen the entire story yet.  The end of the Human campaign in WC3 didn't feel like the end of a story, either.  You had to play through the Orcs, Undead and then Night Elves to get it all.  Same thing here, only you have to wait until next year to get the Zerg bit, then the ending with the Protoss at some time after that.   

If it STILL feels like "Oh look, set-up for another game" after that I'll concede.  However, I think Blizzard has learned it's better to just come up with new IPs for MMOs so you don't have to cram stuff in that makes no sense.  Then again, Blizz isn't in charge anymore so it could be, "Hay make everything into an MMO, NOW!" time.