StarCraft 2 - Season 7 is live. Someday I'll ladder, honest

[Azuremen]

Well, PC World is reporting StarCraft II will be in stores, globally, July 27th (yes, this year). Article here, but I a seeing reports across the community that agree with this date.


Old post stuff about beta:

Well, I forgot I made this thread, but anyhow...
Beta is out

Wondering who all is in the Beta on GTP, figured maybe we can get some group games going. So, post your B.net alias in here if you'd like, and I'll get around to creating a list of GTP users, which I'd place on the first post for easy reference.

Those of you wondering about how the Beta plays, just think how the original played, just streamlined to allow easier unit control and base management. Graphics are quite nice as well, but run on lower spec machines so a few hundred dollar computer from a year ago or two will run it on medium - low specs smoothly.

The streamlining I mentioned is as follows

• Unlimited select - You can now select any number of units and assign them to a CTRL group, so no more 12 man groups.
• Multi-Building Select - No more having to build at each Barracks manually, now you can just select all of them at once for mass production.
• Smart Casting - Groups of casters will now cast only time for each key press; no more casting 8 psi storms in one place because you had 8 templar selected.
• Auto-Mining - Set minerals or gas as the rally point from your Command Center/Nexus/Hatchery
• Left hand hotkeys - All hotkeys have been adjusted to be left hand friendly; no more reaching for M to build Marines, its now A, etc.
• Queue buildings - SCVs and Probes can be given building queues, so you can assign a single unit to build numerous structures after each other.

I am sure I forgot something, but those are the major ones. The result is less focus on micro'ing your base and casters, more focus on actually implementing a strategy and tactics.

Here is a good video from a tournament that was run last month...

Well, Blizzard had said it was announcing a new game this weekend, and rumor had it would be related to StarCraft as the games 10th anniversary is coming up. I figured the announcements would be posted sometime on the 19th, but a I guess it is already mid day over in Korea, so its been announced there.

I got linked to basically notes coming from an IGN writer, which can be found here - http://pc.ign.com/articles/788/788627p1.html

Nothing major yet, new units and 3d graphics, but over all, it looks very StarCraft like... Apparently, they have been working on Protoss concepts, as they seem to have the most new units and such. Here are some screenies from IGN's site as well

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/790/790131/starcraft-2-20070519000446842.jpg
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/790/790131/starcraft-2-20070519000454013.jpg
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/790/790131/starcraft-2-20070519000457607.jpg

More can be found here
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/850/850126/imgs_1.html

Me, I'm quite glad they have an RTS coming out. WarCraft III did not really impress me much, seemed more like Heroes with some dudes to help kill stuff... And rumors had it would be an MMO of some sort, since those tend to make more money with the monthly charges. I hope they keep the StarCraft play style alive, and from these screens, it looks like large amounts of units fighting is gonna be part of it still. So, I'm quite glad...

Now they just need a new Diablo

 

[Gen.]

http://www.gametrailers.com/umwatcher.php?id=66506

I would have loved to been watching this live.

 

[G.T]

Looks great. 👍 I used to be a huge fan of the previous game.

Finger crossed, by the time it comes out, I'll have a new rig to play it on...

 

[Small_Fryz]

Starcraft...

Long live the legend.

Is their anybody at these forums that havent played this game at least once?

I wonder if starcraft 2 will even come close to the legacy of number 1.

 

[Joey D]

I'm not going to hold my breath that this actually becomes real.

I really hope it does though, Blizzard games have always been great. Warcraft, WoW, Diablo, and the original Starcraft.

 

[zoxxy]

Is their anybody at these forums that havent played this game at least once?

Yep, guilty of charge.

 

[Delirious]

So what kind of system requirements we lookin at or even a release date yet?

 

[Flerbizky]

I am going to install SC & BroodWar right now - And then sit right here and wait until the game is released....

I LOVE StarCraft and have been waiting for this since forever !.....

 

[NocturnalPS]

Wow very nice cant wait.

 

[Freddie]

Very nice is understatement; Blizzard is known to fine-tune their games to perfection. Even to this date, there are still debates wether which race is the most powerful in the original game. Looks like that debate won't stop with this game, either.

The first was an epic, that didn't stop with BW. I'm setting aside some money for this game, and crossing my fingers that this will be at least as good.

edit; It's making headlines in the larger national newspapers! Sort of says just how big this is!

 

[DustDriver]

Yep, guilty of charge.

I haven't played it either

 

[F1GTR]

There will be a Zerg rush when this hits the stores.

 

[JCE]

The fact that they've gone to the trouble of putting all this together and the massive amount of StarCraft fans why wouldn't they release it?

Oh and the original StarCraft is my favorite non-RPG game ever. I still play it to this day, almost 10 years later. If I have to wait another 5-10 years for what I see in those screens I will.

[/decade]

 

[Azuremen]

I imagine it will be a year or two before anything is even considered for shelves.

Nothing in those screens is officially final from what I read, but I imagine alot would stay since Blizzard is good about keeping things going in the right direction.

Blizzard creates a master piece with every game they have. Starcraft is pure genius and I play it from time to time still (though online seems nothing but endless resource maps ) and WarCraft 3 was great. While I did prefer StarCraft to WC 3, they needed to distinguish the games more, and the Hero system in WC 3 that I am not really fond of did it. It also made the game extremely flexible for the map making community.

They will utterly tweak this game to death to make it perfect. They realize what they have to out do, and they will manage it. And when it comes out, I will likely buy it the day its out.

Oh, and on PC requirement concerns... Blizzard has always managed to be pretty reasonable about what specs their games require, so I think a relative budget box will run SC 2 smoothly.

 

[Delirious]

Is it just me or can no one get access to www.blizzard.com

 

[Flerbizky]

Is it just me or can no one get access to www.blizzard.com

Works from here...

 

[Flerbizky]

I imagine it will be a year or two before anything is even considered for shelves.

Nothing in those screens is officially final from what I read, but I imagine alot would stay since Blizzard is good about keeping things going in the right direction.

Blizzard creates a master piece with every game they have. Starcraft is pure genius and I play it from time to time still (though online seems nothing but endless resource maps ) and WarCraft 3 was great. While I did prefer StarCraft to WC 3, they needed to distinguish the games more, and the Hero system in WC 3 that I am not really fond of did it. It also made the game extremely flexible for the map making community.

They will utterly tweak this game to death to make it perfect. They realize what they have to out do, and they will manage it. And when it comes out, I will likely buy it the day its out.

Oh, and on PC requirement concerns... Blizzard has always managed to be pretty reasonable about what specs their games require, so I think a relative budget box will run SC 2 smoothly.

Can't give you rep at this point unfortunately, but that is very very well put 👍

 

[McLaren]

Very nice! Shame though, that it's previous title in the StarCraft series, Ghost, was canned.

 

[JCE]

Yea but wasn't Ghost a FPS? 👎

 

[McLaren]

Yea but wasn't Ghost a FPS? 👎

Yes, but there were a lot of StarCraft fans looking forward to playing the game through the eyes of a soldier.

 

[Azuremen]

I don't think it has been officially canned though. They placed it on indefinite hold last year, and I don't think they want to scrap a project they have been working on for so long.

History does know of them scrapping nearly complete projects, such as Warcraft: Adventures for not meeting their insanely high standards. But I think they still would like a console title out, and they will likely finalize Ghost at some point or another. Or at least I hope they do.

 

[StevieMo]

Should be interesting, I plan on getting addicted to it as I did to the first. I still can't believe it's coming on 10 years since the first Starcraft.

 

[JCE]

10 great years of playing the original StarCraft and loving every minute of it. 👍

 

[JCE]

I just watched the 21 minute gameplay demo AVI...and I can't even speak.

Every 10 seconds I was either staring with my mouth open or saying "omg that is SOOO cool". I can't wait. If you are a StarCraft fan you need to download the 449MB gameplay video. Its so far beyond anything I expected for a sequel. Infact I'm going to go and play some regular SC now just because.

 

[Flerbizky]

I just watched the 21 minute gameplay demo AVI...and I can't even speak.

Every 10 seconds I was either staring with my mouth open or saying "omg that is SOOO cool". I can't wait. If you are a StarCraft fan you need to download the 449MB gameplay video. Its so far beyond anything I expected for a sequel. Infact I'm going to go and play some regular SC now just because.

Me too.. DL'ed it today at wrrk, and the other 3 guys in my team were drooling on my monitor for the full 21 minutes... Holy-Craptacular-Batman - That is going to be even more interesting than the first... BUT... And that's a pretty big BUT, they need to keep the learning curve to a decent level. That's one of the things that made the 1st so playable - You were able to actually learn as you went along.. Truth be told, there will be so many options in SC II it looks quite scary !....

The Mothership WILL be awesome though.. Holy mother that is cool !... I will be playing Protoss on easy just to get one of those !....

 

[JCE]

I predict those people who went for a Carrier final assault party will most likely choose the mothership route. And I wonder if you can cloak it with an Arbiter. Mmmmmm I'm already planning strategies for a game that isn't even out yet. My beloved Dragoons are gone but they have some sort of cool replacement...as long as they are ranged units I'll be happy.

And I've always preferred Protoss over the other 2 but I'm actually VERY excited to see some new Zerg and Terran stuff. That animation of the new Nydus for the Zerg was just awe-inspiring. And now 'lings have a whole new evolution--running poison bombs?! That is just too cool.

 

[Joey D]

I always loved the Protoss as well, their Carriers always reminded me of the Planet Express Ship from Futurama.

 

[Azuremen]

I can't even get the damned game play movie to download... I think my ISP hates blizzard downloader. I know they hate torrents in general... but I let the Bliz Downloader sit for like, 10 minutes, with no success.

I'll have to find another source I guess. JCE, we should arrange to have some games online at some point. See if we can't get a small revival of GTP members to play games. Personally, I would prefer to play without cheaters and on maps that aren't BGH or some other unlimited resource map. No strategy in those maps, as resource taking and holding is key to making an interesting game I think.

 

[JCE]

I've got a couple of maps I've designed that aren't anything like BGH's boringness and turtling like the 3v3 shared bases and insane mineral maps. I also have created those kind of maps too...well if you think about it in almost 10 years I've probably created 100-200 maps...lol maybe I've created all types?

 

[Flerbizky]

I can't even get the damned game play movie to download... I think my ISP hates blizzard downloader. I know they hate torrents in general... but I let the Bliz Downloader sit for like, 10 minutes, with no success.

I'll have to find another source I guess. JCE, we should arrange to have some games online at some point. See if we can't get a small revival of GTP members to play games.

I'm game :-) I suck at the original and will probably suck at this as well - But I'm game nonetheless :-)

I can UL the AVI to my server when I get home if you want - PM me if you want me to do so !...