OT: Starcraft II announced!

[Renegade 13]

I read earlier today that Blizzard Entertainment has announced that they're working on Starcraft II, sequel to (in my opinion) one of the best, and best balanced, games I've ever played.

Starcraft II webpage link! (http://www.starcraft2.com)

Can't wait for it to come out! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Randallw]

I saw a youtube video of their new trailer. Now I'm not one to cry that it is a complete rip off of Warhammer 40K, after all not even GW invented power armour but later I looked at their website and they had a unit that was a dreadnought rip off.

As for the game itself. Meh. Nice video but the units still looked a bit low res. Better than Starcraft 1 but still a bit cartoony. I'm not really interested as I don't really like RTS games. Instead of spending 30 minutes furiously moving units I prefer spending 2 years running an empire.

[Spectarofdeath]

About damn time.

[GuyOfDoom]

Spectarofdeath said:
About damn time.



Don't get too excited yet, knowing Blizzard it's still 2+ years off.

[Tim_Ward]

Bleh, it looks *exactly the same* as Starcraft, even down to the same graphics for the same units. I know Blizard has a reputation for not innovating, but this is rediculous. Especially after the Total War series, and Dawn of War.


Now I'm not one to cry that it is a complete rip off of Warhammer 40K



I've little sympathy for Games Workshop, given how much of their stuff is lifted from/'a tribute to' others' work. I doubt it bothers them much, either.

[Raapys]

I think it sort of looks like a Starcraft mod for W3. I really can't stand the graphics engine they're using; everything's sort of blocky, and there's way too many flash-effects. Very hard to make out the units and buildings.

I'm sure the story will be great, though.

[Arkcon]

Meh...I did enjoy Starcraft, for a bit. But the grind of building up units and controlling them when all heck broke loose did begin to take the fun out of it for me. This new one just looks like new added dimensions of micromanagement, that I don't think I'd enjoy.

Thing was, I really enjoyed Warcraft II. It had just the right mix of cartoon graphics, texture and resolution to keep the game clear and a simplicity of tactics to keep itfun.

[GuyOfDoom]

The only thing that differed between orcs and humans in warcraft 2 was spells....

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a TBS board isn't favoring an RTS, but Starcraft had great gameplay and an excellent storyline.

As for graphics.... Bah I'd rather have the game be fun then have awesome shading and resolution. All improving graphics does is force people to spend more money to upgrade their computers.

[Suicide Junkie]

Personally I prefer to play starcraft with a custom map which cuts mineral piles down to 1/3 or 1/4 of normal, and has event triggers to convert gas into minerals when gas > minerals in storage.

Makes it much more interesting, and takes longer too. Territory is actually worth something, instead of just the main enemy base.
You can make use of special abilities...
And the biggest units are actually scary.

[Azselendor]

Blizzard really isn't a company about innovating. They're a company about refinement. They take existing game concepts and refine it down.

Plus, when starcraft first went into development it looked very similar to warcraft in nearly every aspect leading to accusations it was just a warcraft in space mod. I'm sure in the 2-3 years blizzard takes to get this game up and running they'll have very different graphics and appearances for the game.

[Fyron]

So is it going to be a boring click/unit-spam fest like starcraft 1 was?

[Leternel]

I thing it will take at least three years before releasing because of late, as every Blizzard game.

Don't try to imagine what work will be made.

Just to tell you, go in FAQ of the site, and you can read: "We don't know the material requirement".
It means : "We haven't even the beginning of the graphic engine", which implies we can wait long time.

[Renegade 13]

I like how long Blizz takes to put out their games, as when they do finally release them they tend to have very few bugs (unlike almost all other games, recently).

And really, Blizzard doesn't need to innovate...they're very good a raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from three specific game worlds (primarily Warcraft, then Starcraft, and to a far lesser extent, Diablo). Makes me wish I was a stockholder in Blizz! Just think, 8 million people pay about $15/month to play World of Warcraft...they're raking in around $120 million per month in revenues, just from World of Warcraft...it's insane.

[Ragnarok-X]

I really wasnt impressed by the 4 videos released so far. It looks exactly like a spiced up StarCraft and judging from the gameplay videos there is nothing new to it.
Howver, it seems that Space Marines wear a crisis shield now, so i guess SC2 will probably have a lot more micro and most units will have at least one ability. I guess Marines will have drugs and their shields.

Anyways, the only thing i was REALLY impressed about where those 4 legged protoss walkers who are able to walk over cliffs, and, on a slightly different note those jumpengine-driven beserker-marines, however i think their ability must be activated, while the protoss-walker work without a manual ability.
Then again, i guess we will see something along those lines soon enough in Supreme Commander as well, hence why we have real physics.

All in all, i can say im rather dissapointed from what i ve seen. I have played StarCraft for like 5 years, sneaking up to the computer in the middle of night when my parents were sleeping btw.
Judging from Blizzards comments SC2 will be much like SC1, from Interface to eco and counter-system. It seems to be really just a spiced up version meant for korea ( http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif ) with a LOT of micro and skill-based gameplay added.

[Raapys]

I'm rather disappointed too, mostly by the graphics engine, but I've a hard time imagining what *wouldn't* disappoint me. The combination of excellent music, movies, story, three distinct races and top-of-the-line "RTS" gameplay made Starcraft 'da bomb', and I've problems imagining areas they could improve upon. I think keeping the game similar to the original is wise though. For a significantly different game they should rather start a new series.

Speaking of which, I think it'd be neat with a Battlezone type of Starcraft game.

[MrToxin]

After the disgusting abomination that Warcraft III was and the awfulness of World of Warcraft, I am entirely unable to take Blizzard seriously. I will assume that Starcraft II will suck horribly until I am proven otherwise.

[Atrocities]

Pretty sweet. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Makinus]

Suicide Junkie said:
Personally I prefer to play starcraft with a custom map which cuts mineral piles down to 1/3 or 1/4 of normal, and has event triggers to convert gas into minerals when gas > minerals in storage.




Can you point where i can find this kind of map for download? i would like to try one...

Thanks

[Renegade 13]

I'm as much looking forward to the cinematic sequences in-game as the actual game. One thing Blizzard does very well is their cinematics, I love 'em.

[Suicide Junkie]

Try these:
http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/nick/games/starcraftmaps/

A little old (2004), but that shouldn't matter.

[BlueTemplar]

Nooo! Now I HAVE to buy a new PC...

[Tim_Ward]

The mininium system reqs will be interesting. Judging by those shots, it should be able to run on a fairly old PC. Whether this will actually be the case is another matter.

[Makinus]

Suicide Junkie said:
Try these:
http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/nick/games/starcraftmaps/

A little old (2004), but that shouldn't matter.



Thanks! I´ll try them tonight...

[Yimboli]

Wow, I checked that out and it looks awesome. Nothing like some good ol' 2v2 blood bath action... hopefully they'll include "classic" maps like hunters blood bath and lost temple.

[GuyOfDoom]

..... Big Game Hunters was the dumbest thing ever.

[Yimboli]

... which is why I didn't include it. hunters != bgh

[Azselendor]

Has anyone watched the gameplay videos, they didn't look too bad.

[BlueTemplar]

Protoss mothership seriously kick ***!

[Artaud]

I loved the original Starcraft.

I see that unfortunately, the new version will have system-hogging 3-D graphics. Which means that I won't be buying it.

I have a pretty powerful CPU and a nice graphics card. But I've never encountered a game that was actually made better by being 3-D. The latest piece of 3-D junk I stupidly spent my money on was Caesar IV.

Even though my system is way beyond what the box says the minimum specs are, the game is so "mushy" and cursor control is so difficult that I've actually re-loaded Caesar III and re-discovered what a great game that is.

Game designers just don't get it.

Or maybe I'm just too old, and more impressed by addictive gameplay (remember that?) than pretty 3D graphics.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Homeworld has 3D graphics and they contribute to gameplay, too. So does Half-Life.

[se5a]

supreme commander?

[Yimboli]

Time will tell, but my guess is starcraft 2 will not fall short of "addictive gameplay".

Civ4, imho, was noticeably enhanced by the 3d gameplay. Whether the enhancement was significant enough to warrant me buying a new graphics card, well my jury is still out there.

I can't wait for starcraft 2... looks like they'll have to give the terrans something beefy to handle those immortals if their shields block such a large portion of siege tank blasts.

[BlueTemplar]

Since Blizzard wants SC2 to be a competitive game, it will probably run very smoothly, especially if you desactivate most of the spacial effects. (But since my computer has a hard time running even SE5, I think I'll have to buy a new one anyway).

[GuyOfDoom]

Due to nostalgia I reinstalled SC1 and have started going back through the original campaign. Once I get to Brood Wars I think I'm going to take my crack at battle.net, but I'm certain that years of natural selection have left everyone on b.net in the rush mode that I left it.

I'm sad to hear the Blizzard is tuning SC2 to be a quick pace game such that they predict an "average" game to last 20-30 mins and "Pro" games should last 15.