Starcraft II

I'm super hyped for HotS.

No argument here about the story from WoL. The dialog was hokey and the narrative not exactly compelling. But I don't play games for story (mostly,) and WoL delivered the best single player RTS campaign of all time. There's just no comparison. They did some great stuff with the mission designs and between mission upgrade stuff. If HotS builds on that, it's going to be a winner. Having Kerrigan as a persistant hero unit was the number one thing I was hoping for, so it's already onto a good start.

Blizzard is going to catch flack for making it a true xpac, though. This thing retails for $40, There'll be rioting in the virtual streets. Activision will be accused of transforming Blizzard into yet another soulless corporate profiteering juggernaut. But maybe not. Maybe Blizzard goes crazy and sell it for $20. Weirder things have happened.
 
It's too early to say but it looks like the original idea that you could purchase any of the 'stand-alone' games and always have access to the newest multi-player might be going out the window as well. It was never explicitly said, but it always seemed like the games were going to be released as stand-alone packages. It's definitely explicit now that you must own WoL to install and play HotS.

They've always said in their FAQ that it'll work very similar to all their expansions. It's been there since the site officially launched. o_O Difference here is that there will be 2 expacs instead of 1.

Meaning, if you don't upgrade, you'll be left behind, just like vanilla SC1, D2 and WC3. I'm expecting the price to be at $40, which is consistent for an expansion. Less levels, a few new units, tilesets, music, story continuation, etc.
 
i'm pretty excited for the new units. i've read somewhere that they would be lurkers, devour, medic and dark archons.
 
It must have been someone's naive wish list. I'm quite confident that they're not going to pass off BW units as "new." Blizz will probably go so far as to make a new unit that functions identically before doing that.
 
I don't care if it's $50, it's still a day 1 purchase for me.
This. And lets be honest, from a business perspective it's not completely out of the question, although my money will be on it costing $39.99 because that's what will grab the highest profit while allowing the most people to have the game (i'd guess).

I assume in classic Blizzard style they have not announced a release day yet?
 
I really don't understand ladder
I play 2vs2 with a friend 2 or 3 times a day... win rate is 2 out of 3 usually

Yet, we were demoted from Gold 45 to silver 16 and then to silver 60 even after winning every match.. the fuckk is wrong

Heh, welcome to ladders on SC2 :D Just keep winning and eventually you'll move back up. My buddy and I won 18 out of 20 in a stretch and didn't get a promotion, so I am not surprised. This was a few months ago though, as I haven't touched SC2 since.
 
i'm pretty excited for the new units. i've read somewhere that they would be lurkers, devour, medic and dark archons.

It must have been someone's naive wish list. I'm quite confident that they're not going to pass off BW units as "new." Blizz will probably go so far as to make a new unit that functions identically before doing that.

not just funny cause they're from bw but these are actually still in the game, custom mappers use them all the time. I'm sure you can find some customs done with maps from the current pool that enable play with those along with the new units, and other custom modes.
 
Yeah, Lurkers were even in the beta, albeit relatively briefly and before it went more or less public.
 
It must have been someone's naive wish list. I'm quite confident that they're not going to pass off BW units as "new." Blizz will probably go so far as to make a new unit that functions identically before doing that.

lol. probably true. I just saw the pc gamer preview where they said the new units haven't been revealed yet. Getting lurkers sounds good though. Think of what Spanishiwa can do with 'em!

Btw, haven't seen a build recently that incorporates Carriers. Anyone been able to use it successfully?
 
Wait. So they are actually trying to include new units into MP? I thought the "new" units will be SP only?

Also, while I loved Lurkers in BW, there's still a question about tech tree and how feasible they will be in SC2. Just compare Hydras from SC1 to SC2 and you'll get an idea.
 
Wait. So they are actually trying to include new units into MP? I thought the "new" units will be SP only?

Also, while I loved Lurkers in BW, there's still a question about tech tree and how feasible they will be in SC2. Just compare Hydras from SC1 to SC2 and you'll get an idea.

Yes, they are going to try to add new units to the game. They said they would add or remove units to help the game, which I think makes that scenario quite a bit more interesting. Also, there is going to be another 3-5 month online multiplayer beta before the expansion launches, so I'd imagine it should work out quite nicely.

As for the price, I'm guessing 35-40 bucks. It's a pretty decent deal for improved graphics, 20 or so missions, new maps, and new units. Hopefully they include some better features with battle.net.


Supposedly they're reworking the marketplace so that Map Makers, not just Blizzard, can make money buy selling their maps, which I think is a reasonable idea considering the amount of free quality content we get from the community. Some of those people really should be rewarded, and I'd imagine that only the real high quality custom maps will thrive.
 
I hope this isn't a letdown. From "26 to 30 missions" down to "about 20 missions" since wings of liberty was released. It looks like they're RPG'ing the fuck out of this game as well as adding micro-transactions.

It's too early to say but it looks like the original idea that you could purchase any of the 'stand-alone' games and always have access to the newest multi-player might be going out the window as well. It was never explicitly said, but it always seemed like the games were going to be released as stand-alone packages. It's definitely explicit now that you must own WoL to install and play HotS.

So, all in all, cut mission count by 20-30%, adding more bland "kill 10 yetis and collect their fur" WoW elements, micro-transactions...looks like Bobby got his grubby hands into the Blizzard pie if you ask me.

I never thought I'd say it, but I'm going to be watching as this develops, and Heart of the Swarm might just end up on my no-buy list, given how Activision-Blizzard is turning more into a monster every day.

If I recall, all blizzard expansions required the original game??? How is it any different?
 
lol. probably true. I just saw the pc gamer preview where they said the new units haven't been revealed yet. Getting lurkers sounds good though. Think of what Spanishiwa can do with 'em!

Btw, haven't seen a build recently that incorporates Carriers. Anyone been able to use it successfully?
Aside from new MP units the thing I'm most interested in is seeing some underused existing MP units get improved (or maybe removed, based on some recent interviews.)

I've watched dozens of hours of competitive SC2, and in all that time I've seen BCs maybe once, a couple nukes WAY back when the game launched and I have literally never seen a Carrier. I've seen more Motherships than Carriers.
 
Aside from new MP units the thing I'm most interested in is seeing some underused existing MP units get improved (or maybe removed, based on some recent interviews.)

I've watched dozens of hours of competitive SC2, and in all that time I've seen BCs maybe once, a couple nukes WAY back when the game launched and I have literally never seen a Carrier. I've seen more Motherships than Carriers.

While BC's, Carriers, Mama ships, and nukes aren't common, they have all changed the tide of professional games when used. Just the other day in GSL, someone used a bunch of nukes.
 
While BC's, Carriers, Mama ships, and nukes aren't common, they have all changed the tide of professional games when used. Just the other day in GSL, someone used a bunch of nukes.
Do you know which game? I'm a member over at GOM.TV and I would love to check out that VOD.
 
Aside from new MP units the thing I'm most interested in is seeing some underused existing MP units get improved (or maybe removed, based on some recent interviews.)

I've watched dozens of hours of competitive SC2, and in all that time I've seen BCs maybe once, a couple nukes WAY back when the game launched and I have literally never seen a Carrier. I've seen more Motherships than Carriers.
Also remember there is the crowd that likes to play against their friends for 2 hours, make 200/200 BC's vs 200/200 Carriers and then go 1fps in the middle of the map.

While I understand what you're saying, limiting the units to just a bunch of different units you can tech to quickly and have different strengths and weaknesses will just turn into a gambling match pretty much, which it sometimes is already.
 
Also remember there is the crowd that likes to play against their friends for 2 hours, make 200/200 BC's vs 200/200 Carriers and then go 1fps in the middle of the map.

While I understand what you're saying, limiting the units to just a bunch of different units you can tech to quickly and have different strengths and weaknesses will just turn into a gambling match pretty much, which it sometimes is already.
I don't necessarily want them to do any particular thing except somehow make those units more viable. It's just a bummer that one half of terran and toss tier 3 may as well not exist for the amount of time it gets used. Zerg, on the other hand, are a pretty well put together race at this point, with just about every unit seeing some action on a regular basis.
 
I don't necessarily want them to do any particular thing except somehow make those units more viable. It's just a bummer that one half of terran and toss tier 3 may as well not exist for the amount of time it gets used. Zerg, on the other hand, are a pretty well put together race at this point, with just about every unit seeing some action on a regular basis.

Pretty much every zerg unit is used in every pro zerg game except for ultralisks and hydralisks. Ultras are broken in so many ways it's like Blizz has given up, and hydralisks are only unused because they are a hard counter to less-popular protoss builds.
 
Pretty much every zerg unit is used in every pro zerg game except for ultralisks and hydralisks. Ultras are broken in so many ways it's like Blizz has given up, and hydralisks are only unused because they are a hard counter to less-popular protoss builds.
I see a fair amount of hydra/roach in zvp and zvz and ultras seem to pop up in lots of late games. At any rate the ultra/brood lord are the only t3 pair that actually show up. On the t side it's just thors and on the p side it's just colossus.
 
I use lings/roach/hydra combo. Seems quite effective so far (except against the collosi).
 
I've seen Ultralisks used at least once or twice every season and Hydralisks relatively often. Carriers are probably the rarest of them all
 
I see a fair amount of hydra/roach in zvp and zvz and ultras seem to pop up in lots of late games. At any rate the ultra/brood lord are the only t3 pair that actually show up. On the t side it's just thors and on the p side it's just colossus.

Hydras are counter to protoss who pop voidrays mostly. Ultras tend to pop up in late games as an "lol fuck you bro, I whooped you so bad I'm wasting resources on ULTRALISKS"
 
Ultralisks actually work great with Nydus networks. Horrible when you have to get them up a ramp. I've seen them quite often recently because of Spanishiwa games.

They probably need to buff Carriers so it actually becomes useful. Cheaper interceptors or something.
 
Anyone else watching MLG Columbus? It's on all weekend. Tonight's HD stream is free, while the rest of the weekend has free LQ stream (unfortunately). You'll have to pay for HD.

Some amazing matches so far (IdrA vs. MC... wow?... IdrA vs. Select... holy? TLO vs. Losira... whoa...)

And Bnet lag rears its ugly head yet again at MLG. /sigh.
 
Indeed, the games have been amazing, but there were some huge technical problems with Losira vs Incontrol. It was mostly a hardware issue though, but those lag spikes are also major boner kills. Kind of embarrassing after they said they got dedicated satellite trucks to make this as good and stable as possible etc.

Idra has been showing some phenomenal Zerg play. Unfortunately I had been awake for a while and couldn't finish off the day.
 
Kiwi vs July now. It's like watching chess, lol

Also, high quality stream is free all weekend!
 
Man bad timing on the hailstorm over Columbus during the MC vs Thorzain match. Missed game 1 x_X!

No kidding... Got a few texts and some online messages all asking each other if stream was down XD. I thought it was my internet acting up since I was streaming both red and blue at HQ.
 
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