[PC] StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm out!

[Eseell]

First impressions:
It's StarCraft. Blizzard didn't muck around with a good thing. They didn't change a whole lot about the UI, except that it's gotten a graphical upgrade. The game is very good-looking, but I really love Blizzard's art style so I am not particularly objective in this matter. The screenshots and movies available up to now did not do this game justice, visually. I've only played one match so far (as Protoss), but each of the units which carried over from SC1 felt just right, and each of the new units felt like it had a unique role to fill on the battlefield. None of the new units I experimented with felt shoe-horned in or out of place. There's a new screen on the post-match report that shows your build order and your opponent's side-by-side. Considering how much I suck at this game (and sucked at SC1 in multiplayer. . . and WC2. . . and WC3) and how much of that suckage is related to build order, this seems like a great tool for improving one's skill.

[Farscry]

damn, nothing today. hopefully the next wave.

Same here. Though really, if I have to get passed over in the SC2 beta to get into the D3 beta sooner, I'm all for that.

[leo8877]

First impressions:
It's StarCraft. Blizzard didn't muck around with a good thing. They didn't change a whole lot about the UI, except that it's gotten a graphical upgrade. The game is very good-looking, but I really love Blizzard's art style so I am not particularly objective in this matter. The screenshots and movies available up to now did not do this game justice, visually. I've only played one match so far (as Protoss), but each of the units which carried over from SC1 felt just right, and each of the new units felt like it had a unique role to fill on the battlefield. None of the new units I experimented with felt shoe-horned in or out of place. There's a new screen on the post-match report that shows your build order and your opponent's side-by-side. Considering how much I suck at this game (and sucked at SC1 in multiplayer. . . and WC2. . . and WC3) and how much of that suckage is related to build order, this seems like a great tool for improving one's skill.

That build order screen is fantastic.  Fantastic new addition to the game.

[CeeKay]

the beta can overheat your graphics card?  didn't figure it'd be that graphics intensive.

[leo8877]

the beta can overheat your graphics card?  didn't figure it'd be that graphics intensive.

There's some whizz-bang special effects, but nothing over the top.  I'm guessing because you can have like 200+ units on the screen, it might do some damage?  When you scroll down, nothing is too fancy, but from default view they al look pretty detailed.

Edit: well I guess it's the menus that cause the overheat.  I've had some major system slowdown when I finish a game...I wonder if that's it?

[CeeKay]

a look at the graphics.

[leo8877]

a look at the graphics.

It's purty, but not anything way beyond what's out now.  Typical Blizzard.  I love it, but I thought almost immediately that people are gonna be pissed.

[leo8877]

I got "zerged" by terran marines the other day...the new medics are a combo medic/dropship.  So they drop off a ton of marines and then hover above them healing.  I got owned pretty bad.

[PaulBot]

I sure hope the AI is as good as it is in SC. My friends & I still occasionally play SC Broodwar to this day. It's nearly 12 years old now!

[CeeKay]

a video preview for those of us not in the beta.

[SkyLander]

a video preview for those of us not in the beta.

She needed to stop talking.

[CeeKay]

an inventive way to use your hydralisks 

[jersoc]

an inventive way to use your hydralisks 

that's freakin hilarious























NOW WHERES MY KEY

[PaulBot]

an inventive way to use your hydralisks 

What I'd give to be commanding half a dozen Carriers and move in on those jokers. 

[CeeKay]

an inventive way to use your hydralisks 

What I'd give to be commanding half a dozen Carriers and move in on those jokers. 

Dance off?

[jersoc]

and i'm in!!

any late night players here, or maybe englanders. I think you're 6 or 7 hours ahead of me.

[Vidiot]

and i'm in!!

any late night players here, or maybe englanders. I think you're 6 or 7 hours ahead of me.

Still waiting......

[denoginizer]

I got my invite on Saturday morning.  I haven't had a chance to play yet though.  I fear getting my ass handed to me since I haven't played Starcraft or Warcraft 2 in about 8 years.

[leo8877]

I got my invite on Saturday morning.  I haven't had a chance to play yet though.  I fear getting my ass handed to me since I haven't played Starcraft or Warcraft 2 in about 8 years.

I had and I still got my ass handed to me.  You can play the computer, but only on the Very Easy difficulty, which kind of sucks.

[jersoc]

i played using their novice system, of which you get 5 games. the novice maps are neat because they dont' support rushing. there's barriers with 2500 hp in the way. won my first game in one of those last night.

me and a friend jumped into doing 2v2 and got so dominated so hard, that shit aint fun.

[CeeKay]

they're having a dev chat via Twitter today at 4pm PST.

[Tals]

No ability to play you guys

Q. Will we be able to play with our friends on other continents like we could in StarCraft's Battle.net?

A. Currently we do not have plans to integrate friends between regions for launch. In the long run that's definitely something we'll be looking at.

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=23767157319&sid=3000

[CeeKay]

CE info.  that box looks awesomely huge!

[EddieA]

Unfortunately, the $60 price for the regular edition means I'll be waiting for the "battlechest" version with all 3 parts to be released in 2161.  There's just no way I'm paying $180 for one game, even if it is from Blizzard.

[Blackjack]

Unfortunately, the $60 price for the regular edition means I'll be waiting for the "battlechest" version with all 3 parts to be released in 2161.  There's just no way I'm paying $180 for one game, even if it is from Blizzard.

Look at it from the standpoint most WoW players (MMO players in general) pay $180 a year in monthly fees on top of the $50-$60 to buy the client at launch. After a few years, most veteran players probably have pumped $700-$900 or more into playing one game.

Maybe from that perspective, Starcraft 2 will seem like a bargain.   Though I realize it's apples and oranges comparison.

I'm still skeptical of the whole "our game's so great we gotta release it as a full price title 3 times!" I think a lot of people will choose the one campaign that interests them (I imagine only the Terrans will interest me) and skip the other two titles.

Frankly, I'm skeptical of the whole RTS genre at this point. It seems to be about spent in much of the marketplace, which is littered with the corpses of dead RTS developers. My brethren in South Korea would probably be content to play SC "1" forever.

It'll be interesting to see whether Blizzard can revive a genre that seems to be on its last legs, or if they're just going to sell a bazillion copies in the Asian market (any market that supports Starcraft cereal and pajamas clearly can't get enough RTS  ) and find other markets just aren't falling all over themselves for RTS games anymore, regardless of pedigree.

[KePoW]

Unfortunately, the $60 price for the regular edition means I'll be waiting for the "battlechest" version with all 3 parts to be released in 2161.  There's just no way I'm paying $180 for one game, even if it is from Blizzard.

First of all, I don't think they've announced that the Protoss and Zerg releases are going to be $60.

Second, I think it's a little misleading and disingenuous to call all 3 releases "one game".  Do you realize that the Terran campaign is going to be 30+ missions alone?  That's about the same length as all of Starcraft and most any other RTS.  It easily stands up as a full game by itself.  I'm going to guess that the Protoss and Zerg campaigns will be the same length.  So to me, those are 3 full separate games, just under the same universe setting.

Lastly, are you saying you would have happily bought the game at $50 instead of $60?  I don't see much difference.  Warcraft 3 released at retail for $60...

[jersoc]

CE info.  that box looks awesomely huge!

preordered like every blizzard CE. The art books are worth it alone imo. plus the ability to have another semi exclusive wow pet is a nice bonus.

[CeeKay]

it's been rated AO in Korea.  I guess the nude zerglings were a bit too much 

[Turtle]

Got a deal on the collector's edition, but Lordnine informed me that included in the box is a DVD basically showing all the pre-rendered cinematics, and also includes about in-game story cinematics (not sure how much).

Now I'm torn between watching that, or just cheating my way through the single player since I don't like the SC style of RTS games.

[CeeKay]

how about a cutscene?

[CeeKay]

also, modders sued then unsued.  the interesting part is the bit about them working on a new AI for the beta, wonder if they really stopped working on that or if it'll see the light of day.

[denoginizer]

There are already plenty of skirmish AIs available for the beta client.  I use a few of them and they are already pretty good at emulating the way a person would play.  Sending scouts, grouping units, etc.

[CeeKay]

7 minutes of gameplay.


and some hippie talking about something.

[Soulchilde]

I have a pre-order beta key for the first person that sends me a PM.  I'm already in after winning a GT Beta key give away

[CeeKay]

a look at the game performance.  looks to be fairly PC friendly.

[denoginizer]

On my desktop (P4 3 Ghz 1 gig of RAM) my framerate drops below 10 as soon as more than 5 units are on the screen.  On my laptop (quad core 4 gigs of RAM) I never drop below 30.

[CeeKay]

there's going to be a dev chat today if you're into that sort of thing and like to twit.

[CeeKay]

there's going to be a dev chat today if you're into that sort of thing and like to twit.

here's the chatlog

[CeeKay]

here's a video of Terrans vs Protoss.

[CeeKay]

JULY 27TH!!!