Buy StarCraft II

[Eternimus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_E83GfWM-A

If that doesn't sway you, nothing will. Play the first one first, or you're going to be very confused.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Like I said earlier: that's a really awesome CGI preview, but it's nowhere near enough to make me spend $150 on one game.  Think about it: splitting the game into three parts based on race, no matter how "epic" the story they're telling, and then asking $50 for each third is awful hard to swallow.  Like penis would be hard to swallow for straight bulls like us.

If you're stuck playing one race in each game, how the hell is a new player supposed to learn to play the other two races before getting eaten alive on Battle.net?!  It's marketing, pure and simple: good for Blizzard's bank account, bad for the players.

Oh, I'll probably play the game...after I secure a copy through the Bay.  I refuse to pay for it.  I'll save that money for The Old Republic.

[Oni]

okay all I think about with this game is getting gang banged by a bunch of TMAK's aliens.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

TMAK: "Knock-knock!"
ONIC@: "Uh...who's there?"
TMAK: "ZERGLINGS!!"
ONIC@: "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU~!!"

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Interesting to note: every physical copy of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty comes with two "guest keys" that can be used to play the game for 14 days (either downloaded client or installed from somebody else's CD).

[Oni]

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Every bit of the above is true.

But so is this:


(Click to epically embiggen.)

And this:


(Click to epically embiggen.)

And especially this:


(Click to epically embiggen)

[Taylor-MadeAK]

I don't know why, but this made me think of OniC@:

[Keph]

I really wish that the Starcraft II modding system was better, so I might be able to partially get into the game. I don't enjoy the Starcraft universe that much, but the original map editor had quite a bit of flexibility as far as mapmaking goes. Hopefully they'll improve the modding system enough to allow for overhauls of the base game..

[Taylor-MadeAK]

I really wish that the Starcraft II modding system was better, so I might be able to partially get into the game. I don't enjoy the Starcraft universe that much, but the original map editor had quite a bit of flexibility as far as mapmaking goes. Hopefully they'll improve the modding system enough to allow for overhauls of the base game..

Actually, Starcraft II does support mods if the C:\Program Files (x86)\StarCraft II\Mods folder on my hard drive is a reliable indicator.

But, let's talk about maps, since a map editor is currently available while a modding SDK has yet to be released.

The base Starcraft II Galaxy Editor already gives map makers and modders a whole lot of flexibility as far as layout and game rules go.  Through Battle.NET 2.0 I've played maps that range from classic Tower Defense to games with more of a single player "Alien" vibe.  Essentially, everything you could do with Warcraft 3 maps you can do with Starcraft II maps.

Except download maps from a web site, repository, or other player and host games with them.  This is the biggest disadvantage imposed by the new Battle.NET 2.0.  With Starcraft - both original and extra crispy (Broodwar) flavors - you could create or download custom maps and then host a game on those maps knowing that the players who join your game will automatically get the map from you as they connect.  The same went for all of the Warcraft games as well (not counting WoW). 

That functionality is gone, and it's a darn shame.  Replacing it is the requirement that all users publish to and download from a central repository (the Battle.NET 2.0 server hive).  Along with that comes a strict set of rules (no offensive content, limited file size, etc.) that mappers must adhere to lest their content be given the Apple Appstore treatment (shift-delete). 

Oh, I get why they did it.  Activision Blizzard wanted to keep control over who gets exposed to what kind of content, and they're doing exactly that.  Now, I don't really find anything wrong with that in itself.  While it's true that the limitations imposed curtails the kind of things the modding community can currently do, what really hurts both the mappers and players alike is the poor implementation of the Battle.NET 2.0 client.  Right now you have three basic options for finding a third-party map to play in Starcraft II:

• Popular Maps
• Recently Played Maps
• Your Published Maps

That's it.  You can't search, you can't sort, and you can't just drop a map downloaded from a web site into a custom maps folder on your hard drive and host it.  You could just publish that map yourself and have it available to play as part of your published maps, but that workaround is of limited usefulness because you're only allowed to have 5 maps published at a time.

Battle.NET 2.0 is still in its infancy, though.  Activision Blizzard isn't likely to give up the control over custom content that they so very much desire, but I imagine the service is going to go through some refinements throughout the months ahead.  One can only hope that this is one of the things that will be adjusted for the better in the future.

[Keph]

Ah, I understand now. I simply have a few friends who were really excited to get into the mapmaking / modding scene for Starcraft II originally..then suddenly about-faced about a month ago. I didn't research any of the bits regarding it, unfortunately. I'll take a peek around here in a few..

It's really unfortunate that they did impose those restrictions on the custom maps, but I can sort of understand why since I followed the semi-recent Diablo II 1.13 patch - I recall hearing a lot of hullabaloo over a bunch of virus-ed maps that were circulated in Warcraft III over battle.net for a while - with blizzard having to devote upwards of a couple weeks finding ways to fix it before too much damage was done.

That being said, I hope they find a nice median in the future.

Oh, and thanks for the information, too. Much appreciated.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Don't let any of the modding stuff deter you from trying the game out, Keph.  I'm probably the biggest Blizzard-hater you'll ever meet, but even I have to admit that StarCraft II is a fun game at its heart.  A lot of the things that really took the fun out of StarCraft for me back in the day (a decade ago) have been fixed in the sequel.  Things like being limited to selecting 12 units at a time, or the cheating AI (even the programmer who wrote the AI in StarCraft admits that it was a cheating little bitch!) whose difficulty you could not adjust - all fixed.

That's why I laid out the $60 for a copy of this game: It really is fun!

[Goman Fox]

Oh, I'll probably play the game...after I secure a copy through the Bay.  I refuse to pay for it.  I'll save that money for The Old Republic.

That's why I laid out the $60 for a copy of this game: It really is fun!

Teehee, silly TMAK.

I don't doubt that SC2 is good though, lol.  I'd probably try it out if "the Bay" wasn't so hard on our delicate bandwidth limits.   If I knew where my old copies of SC and Brood Wars were though, I'd probably play those again just because I never got through the whole story.  I think I even stopped on the original Protoss Campaign near the end because I just didn't like playing Protoss. D:

[Taylor-MadeAK]

The problem with cracking SC2 is it robs you of the multiplayer, and in Wings of Liberty that means you never get to play as Protoss or Zerg.  Which is a shame, because the whole game really is fun.  That's why I laid out the $$ for a legit copy even after downloading it via torrent, cracking it, and playing the first two missions of the Campaign.  Yes, I know that makes me a hypocrite, but so what?  I'm having fun playing SC2!

I have ISOs for SC and the expansion.  Be warned, however, that the game is showing its age and does not like Windows 7.  You'll need to run the game with Chaoslauncher if you want to avoid having effed-up colors and funky stretched full-screen graphics.

[Goman Fox]

Yeah I could see that being a good reason to buy the game, lol.  I love the Zerg, so getting only Terrans to play with would make me pretty sad.   Of course, I've never been big on multiplayer SC since I suck at the game, lol.  The only times I enjoyed playing multiplayer was when I would team up with a friend of mine against two or three computer players.  I'd almost always get screwed over early in the game and have to hide behind him to build back up. D:

Playing against people actually -good- at the game... I'd be crying for my mommy after losing before getting my Barracks built, lol.