StarCraft2

IvyFanboy

IvyFanboy

[11] Champion
It's out! Being the first RTS I've ever actually purchased I don't have a deep comparison to the last one or any other RTS so I can't really give technical complaints and praises, but as a whole I love it. The story mode area and interface are top notch, best I've ever seen in a game. Graphics are great as well even though my rig can't do ultra. The story mode missions (im only a few in mind you), seem great and well thought out, but do not reflect multiplayer at all. You'll have access to different units and be situationally objective driven.

The multiplayer feels well set up and a lot of thought was dumped into it. You can filter for fights to make sure you're always playing an equal skill level (im currently still doing practice since im a total Terran scrub and keep getting pwned). There's stuff to unlock like avatars and insignias. Battles can be selected all the way up to 4v4 as well, so there's a lot of stuff to do. The bets feature is the video playback complete with full details of player stats in the battle so you can see your flaws and even see what your opponent did and learn.

My ONLY complaint would be the absolutely atrocious background music, Terran music sucks major ass. Some people feel different, but I'm baffled how such unfitting music made it's way into a game with so much polish and thought. It's completely out of place even if you happen to like the score.

I'll post my gamer tag later.
 
Starcraft 2 is an incredibly well made, well polished game, with beautiful cut scenes, excellent music, superb online components, and hopefully balanced gameplay... That being said...

I'm actually very disappointed with Starcraft2. In the past 12 years since Starcraft 1, dozens of other RTS have come out (most with questionable quality, but occasionally even better than Starcraft). These RTS have made several huge advances in the genre, coming up with things like in-depth queuing, waypoints and strategic zoom. Many of these features have changed the way we play RTS games, with strategic zoom, most RTS games don't even have a default minimap anymore. With queuing and waypointing the need to tactically micromanage your build has become less and less important and been replaced by general strategy.

Now Starcraft 2 has come out and all these advancements in the genre have been completely ignored in favor of a completely outdated and "classical" user interface. The game feels dated and just too little too late. Unfortunately, Starcraft has become a "Sacred Cow" and everyone will view it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. It doesn't even have a zoom, the queues are rudimentary at best, and waypointing may as well not exist. People talk about actions per minute in Starcraft, but the way I see it, the only reason APM matters is because of the absolutely horrid and dated user interface.

In Forged Alliance, it combined the queuing system and the waypoint system together. You can waypoint anything, and then drag and drop waypoint positions without having to redraw the entire waypoint structure. Not to mention, you can have units leave the waypoint to go take care of something, and then return to the waypoint, which could possibly be a patrol queued waypoint. You could have built units come right out of a factory and jump right into a patrol.

When you consider that the game had PRO-RATED build queues. For instance, if I wanted to build 10 defense missile silos, but I only had the resources to build 2, I could queue up all 10. But the pro-rated build queue would only consume resources as it needed. It would keep the build queue and pull from the resource fund only when available. In SC2, the moment you queue up a building it IMMEDIATELY takes the resources out of your funds and out of circulation.

So if you put a large queue together, you are arbitrarily restricting your build as it doesn't let you build based on resources that you're going to get in the future. Even if the building won't even begin to get built for another 5 minutes, those resources are still gone. Of course, after all this, you can queue your engineer back to patrolling and healing your units. You don't have to micromanage your units the entire time when you can tell a building "Build this, and repeat until the end of time".

Now people say to me... "If you prefer strategy over tactics, you should be playing a Turn Based Strategy game, not a Real Time Strategy game"... But you know what? The word "strategy" is in the name "Real Time Strategy"... So fuck off! People cling to the skill completely outdated artifacts of 90's gameplay as something that requires "skill", when they can easily be done away with; which would make the game easier to play, as well as more streamlined.
 
Thank you for pointing out everything that Blizzard did right in leaving out of Starcraft 2. Because god knows that they left out all the wrong things:LAN support, chat rooms, etc.

While whatever RTS's you have been playing these days may make you feel like you're being more clever and strategic, Starcraft has been the only RTS that has been able to stay relevant for longer than the short period time after its release, and dare I say, the only RTS that has ever been truly relevant.

The reason why micro is important in an RTS is that without micro, strategy becomes stale. What's possible a decade from now is possible today, making finding the solution to said game come that much faster, and who wants to play a degenerate game. Furthermore, micro rewards quick thinking and decision making. Do I spend all my focus on this single battle, or do I make another round of units, or do I protect the last round that is now moving unprotected to their rally point? This dynamic is part of what made Starcraft so addicting, and a strategically interesting game, because you can only do one thing at a time. It's like comparing normal chess where you are allowed to move one piece at a time, versus some strange variant where you are moving 5 pieces at a time. Time has showed that the original is pretty damn beautiful and doesn't need to be changed much.
 
Just did both. Runs smoothly on ultra except big battles. Might need to upgrade CPU and RAM. I don't have PCI-e 2.0 but I don't think that makes a huge difference.
 
must buy new hardware too

micro > all
DYK: some sc1 progammers complained about the lack of micro in sc2 and found the game too "assisted"

as for me, i am happy with the apm required for this game as it fits my current skill (lost a lot even after playing many years of w3, i am feeling old :S)
 
I am incfredibly happy with this game. They didnt change what works, If it aint broke dont fix it. Angry Joe Gave the game a 10/10. with activions bullshit envolved its 9/10, but the game got a perfect score.

The Leauge system is awesome. Campaign mode is anasing, online all around is fun and rewarding. Achievements are adictive.

My system runs the game on a 1.8 ghz, its slow and with the lowest settings but I can still play it. Thats all I care about.

Also if anyone wants to play Im more then happy to provide info via PM. (I dont want to give away this email).
 
Funny because I know in the back of my head SC2 is easier, it is much more boring than SC1 to watch. SC is a competitive game, it should be designed as such.
 
TBH I don't care about other strategy games despite their ease of use because they simply don't have the depth, balance, and effectiveness instilled in every action.

I'm a Terran player.

I haven't really gotten too deep in the metagame, I've only played 3 ladder games (won them all), and a couple against buddies. I'm not even gonna think too much about midgame strategy aside from infantry + tank push, until I master early game- so basically all I know is openers and cheeses right now. I'm liking Reaper Harass into Marauder/Tank, as I can't really get Full Mech or 1/1/1 to work.

Hands down my favourite build is Planetary Fortress Rush. I pulled it off against my friend today. Get an engy bay, save up 150 minerals and 150 gas, fly over your Command Center (load some SCVs into it) and your Barracks. Land them into your opponent's base. Start transforming your CC ASAP, and use Marines and SCVs to take out Marines or Zealots. Blast the workers, then blast the Pylons (if Protoss) or just go straight for the town center. It's a horrible horrible strategy, but you opponent's surprise just MIGHT let it succeed.
 
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Think of the game as more of massive unit control Diablo than a full scale war. I know some RTS games have massive amounts of units like you're controlling civilizations but this is on a smaller scale. The control is very tight and each individual unit counts.

I love it. Toss Player = Barbosa.938
 
For anyone that cares at all about RTS games, you need to watch the TSL3 finals between thorzain and naniwa. Probably every single set with thorzain in that tourney as well, and Boxer vs. Sen. Seriously the first truly entertaining matches of SC2 that I have seen, which gives me hope for SC2 if brood war ever dies.
 
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