Farewell Blizzard! We knew thee well!

[Jaime Lannister]

So there's some SP gameplay up and to be perfectly honest, it looks better than I thought. That is, playable.

Fuck the new-age interface though. Fuck it in the ear.

huh? the interface looks the same.

also, there are 30 missions in each "release" and the second and third will be expansion-priced. so this really isn't too different from brood war or frozen throne

 

[Jaime Lannister]

no LAN play sucks balls, though

 

[TheWesDude]

one thing that needs to be answered is how exactly the net-code works for bnet play.

if it allows a direct connection to the other players rather than going from client - bnet - client, then you dont need to worry about lag.

 

[Turok]

How you cant love this?? :


http://www.gametrailers.com/video/blizz ... t-ii/54292

Is not simply beautiful?

 

[Emotional Vampire]

What kind of lowlife faggot plays those games for the multiplayer parts anyway?

You best be fucking joking whiteboy.

 

[Eldritch]

Starcraft was already cartoony, but it was more of a Marvel style cartoony which was colorful but at least had a bit more realistic proportions and a better texture rather than the weeaboo style Warcraft III cartoony. Starcraft II has a big fat weeaboo furfaggoteer in charge of its art right now and you know it.

It's not just the overly vibrant color scheme with the rounded edges or the WIII graphical style, the faction design turned out p. unsatisfactory too imho.

The Terran faction really went from gritty industrial pre-fab retro to putting neon strobes on their fucking units/buildings. Admittedly, they tried to do something with the extreme colorfulness and the design of certain specially fucked up units (Early Siege Tank right out of Fisher-Price toy catalogue), but the sleekness is still there. A sloppy last-minute tweak as pathetic as this one is not enough to come up with a consistent design. They're still sleek terrans with a desaturated color scheme now.

Here comes the "savage and beautiful" Protoss. Protoss -> Eldar -> SpaceElves. Aiur -> Primeval wilderness majestic trees oh so fabulousgraciousnegrocious tra la la la. They sure were a lot more bulky and "solid" in design before. The Protoss had their "quirky, but functional" looking technology but that was a bit fucked up in favor of the gazillions of other generic "ADVANCED" alien races portrayed in generic Sci-Fi. They now look a bit gayed up with the overly sleek, efficient, and in some cases faggadaciously extravagant design. No more powerful, bulky looking bodies of solid alien metal with the subtle curves and the muted palette. Barftronic amounts of crystalline, slender faggotry is the new shit. Oh, also check out the savage and beautiful female protoss warrior in her elegant armouuur: "SELENTI"...

The Zerg strikes me as the Hillybilly Bugger Boys squad as in they're a bunch of colorful insects now. They were nothing special before as spiky blobs of bullcrap but at least their overall design looked a bit more modular as in a lot of the species resembled their subspecies a lot more with some additional mutations. They also look a lot more insectoid now apparent from the hopping locust lings opposed to the original ones resembling the dog-xenomorph from AIII with the additional therapod legs. A lot of the species from the original game didn't give me a flat-out insectoid vibe. This new obviously insectoid design rather than the previous ambiguously insectoid design makes them feel a bit less alien imho.

But the whole thing has improved quite a bit compared to the earliest visuals, and it looks a lot better in action rather than the static screenshots.

I'd hit it.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

Starcraft was already cartoony, but it was more of a Marvel style cartoony which was colorful but at least had a bit more realistic proportions and a better texture rather than the weeaboo style Warcraft III cartoony. Starcraft II has a big fat weeaboo furfaggoteer in charge of its art right now and you know it.

It's not just the overly vibrant color scheme with the rounded edges or the WIII graphical style, the faction design turned out p. unsatisfactory too imho.

The Terran faction really went from gritty industrial pre-fab retro to putting neon strobes on their fucking units/buildings. Admittedly, they tried to do something with the extreme colorfulness and the design of certain specially fucked up units (Early Siege Tank right out of Fisher-Price toy catalogue), but the sleekness is still there. A sloppy last-minute tweak as pathetic as this one is not enough to come up with a consistent design. They're still sleek terrans with a desaturated color scheme now.

Here comes the "savage and beautiful" Protoss. Protoss -> Eldar -> SpaceElves. Aiur -> Primeval wilderness majestic trees oh so fabulousgraciousnegrocious tra la la la. They sure were a lot more bulky and "solid" in design before. The Protoss had their "quirky, but functional" looking technology but that was a bit fucked up in favor of the gazillions of other generic "ADVANCED" alien races portrayed in generic Sci-Fi. They now look a bit gayed up with the overly sleek, efficient, and in some cases faggadaciously extravagant design. No more powerful, bulky looking bodies of solid alien metal with the subtle curves and the muted palette. Barftronic amounts of crystalline, slender faggotry is the new shit. Oh, also check out the savage and beautiful female protoss warrior in her elegant armouuur: "SELENTI"...

The Zerg strikes me as the Hillybilly Bugger Boys squad as in they're a bunch of colorful insects now. They were nothing special before as spiky blobs of bullcrap but at least their overall design looked a bit more modular as in a lot of the species resembled their subspecies a lot more with some additional mutations. They also look a lot more insectoid now apparent from the hopping locust lings opposed to the original ones resembling the dog-xenomorph from AIII with the additional therapod legs. A lot of the species from the original game didn't give me a flat-out insectoid vibe. This new obviously insectoid design rather than the previous ambiguously insectoid design makes them feel a bit less alien imho.

But the whole thing has improved quite a bit compared to the earliest visuals, and it looks a lot better in action rather than the static screenshots.

I'd hit it.

7/10

 

[Eldritch]

Thanks bro.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

inevitable Warcraft IV

Blizzard said there won't be Warcraft IV - if you remember they said not so long ago that after SC2 and D3 they are done with old franchises and will go for something new.

Did they say it before or after they became Activision Blizzard? I can't imagine Activision executives killing a cash cow like Warcraft. At the very least the franchise will be given to another developer.

 

[Zuluf]

Whoever said Starcraft is a single-player oriented game is a fucktard. The lowest kind. In league with the likes of Andhaira.

Starcraft is the most played RTS in terms of competitions and cash play. The most pro gamers who actually saw a nickel out of playing multiplayer games are Starcraft games.

Sure, all the best players are korean but still, look at WCG, ESWC, ESL etc. Stop being ignant dumbfucks.

 

[Gragt]

Looks like someone woke up and found some shit in his cereals this morning.

 

[Zuluf]

I'm not pissed because you retards are bashing SC. Frankly, I couldn't care less.

I'm pissed because the Codex used to have a penchant for using facts when eating away at something, not just throw away bloated opinions based on absolute shit.

You don't get it. I'm not on Blizzard's side. I'm utterly insane. I support fucking truth and justice.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

I'm pissed because the Codex used to have a penchant for using facts when eating away at something, not just throw away bloated opinions based on absolute shit.

Sadly true.

 

[Xi]

With most of the old time posters gone(replaced but the lowest dregs of sewer sperm babies) and VD gone, all of the older intellectualism has left this place. There are still a few people left, but mostly they don't post anymore. And why should they? Not to mention that RPGs are a dead genre.

Also, SC2 and D3 both look great. Can't wait.

 

[L'ennui]

Outside a circle jerk of morons, laughing my ass off.

Re: SC2

Looks interesting, hopefully the gameplay will compensate for the new decadent art style. Maybe I will dl and have a look.

AND NOT PAY ONE FUCKING PENNY YOU GREEDY ACTIBLIZZARD FUCKTARDS FROM HELL.

 

[kris]

snip

I'd mostly agree on the Terrans. they look a bit more sleek. The protoss on the other hand only have increased the amount of "crystaline", they never were bulky. Look more at the videos for the first to see how they had them sleek with thin joints. Was more that the graphical limitations on the first made every single unit look bulky in starcraft 1.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

I'd mostly agree on the Terrans. they look a bit more sleek. The protoss on the other hand only have increased the amount of "crystaline", they never were bulky. Look more at the videos for the first to see how they had them sleek with thin joints. Was more that the graphical limitations on the first made every single unit look bulky in starcraft 1.

If I were to assume, I'd say he meant 'bulky' in design, not in physical builds. In SC1 they looked like aliens with augmentative devices, while in SC2 they're all sharp edges and menacing stare clad in high fantasy armour.
Details, I guess. And SC2's being custom-tailored for the biggest market (asian cybersports), so who cares about some grumpy sci-fiers, right? Right.

 

[Eldritch]

If I were to assume, I'd say he meant 'bulky' in design, not in physical builds. In SC1 they looked like aliens with augmentative devices, while in SC2 they're all sharp edges and menacing stare clad in high fantasy armour.

:highfive:

Details, I guess. And SC2's being custom-tailored for the biggest market (asian cybersports), so who cares about some grumpy sci-fiers, right? Right.

 

[Gragt]

Might as well make the game with ASCII graphics then.

 

[Azrael the cat]

I'd mostly agree on the Terrans. they look a bit more sleek. The protoss on the other hand only have increased the amount of "crystaline", they never were bulky. Look more at the videos for the first to see how they had them sleek with thin joints. Was more that the graphical limitations on the first made every single unit look bulky in starcraft 1.

If I were to assume, I'd say he meant 'bulky' in design, not in physical builds. In SC1 they looked like aliens with augmentative devices, while in SC2 they're all sharp edges and menacing stare clad in high fantasy armour.
Details, I guess. And SC2's being custom-tailored for the biggest market (asian cybersports), so who cares about some grumpy sci-fiers, right? Right.

Starcraft is first and foremost an esport to be played competitively online. That's where it sits in the Blizz stable, and if it takes off, that will be why. Starcraft's persistence isn't because of its singleplayer, it is because it is one of the greatest multiplayer spectator-RTS ever made. It fits hte Korean pro circuit perfectly, as they actually watch it on TV as a competitive sport - and frankly as sad as that seems, a part of me goes 'major fucking props' for that. Out of the few folk I know involved in the Korean circuit, the general view over there is that WC3 (with TFT) is actually more complex due to the addition of hero-harassment, and the increased complexity introduced by better implementation of guerilla tactics and hit-n-run harassment / economic-starvation tactics outweighing the complexity lost through WC3's failure to implement terrain-usage on the SC scale. However, SC kicks WC3's ass as a spectator RTS, and has a far more 'sensible' (not easier, but sensible) learning curve because the rock-paper-scissors mechanics are far more intuitive. You can take a brief look at the graphical design and abilities of a unit in Starcraft and instantly have a good idea of what units it will counter and what it will be vulnerable to. Gee, what will zerglings suffer against - ooohhh those armoured flamethrowing bats might toast them.

WC3 on the other hand has a neatly complex, but utterly unintuitive countering mechanics - aboms such agains everything but counter bears (which against most things are a much better T3 melee than aboms). undead pults smash huntresses, when it looks like it should be the other way around. Ghouls as high-dps ultra-fast melee look like the perfect counter to rifles-casters, but get beaten by rifles and pwned by casters until the tier 3 upgrades and destroyer support. For someone watching the game it looks like an utterly random set of counters, making the game unintelligible.

Graphics is neither going to make nor break SC2. If their main market is Koreans, then power to them for aiming it at them. It's hard for me to be cynical about that. In this area, Koreans aren't a bunch of casual noobs dumbing down their favourite games into FPS shite. THose guys are as passionate about SC as we are about Fallout - probably more so. They live and breath it, watch it on tv, worship the top players as sports stars. Fuck, the west isn't the centre of everything, and if there ever was a franchise where the Koreans should bea ble to raise their hands and go 'market to us, buttwads', it's this/. Hell, if fallout fans were as rabid as Korean starcraft fans, Bethesda would hvae been too AFRAID to buy the FO license.

As it is, I'm MUCH more worried about hte gameplay. That could sink both the game AND blizzard. Those Koreans aren't going to be so forgiving as Blizz might think. WoW has made them lazy - their RTS fans have a much more hardcore centre, who have given them massive free publicity over the years. I'm not flaming you for bringing bad news on graphics. But I'd REALLY be grateful if someone could post a series of what we know about hte multiplayer. Because if they pander to the Korean market for multiplayer, then thats 3 shades of awesome. I just don't think they have the personnel or the attitude to do that anymore. And that's why I'm worried that it might be one of my biggest gaming disappoinments yet:-(

 

[racofer]

This game looks like total skyway.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

@Azrael the cat:
I can see where you might be coming from, but I just don't believe that PvP is all there is to the genre. The thing is, I don't really care for cybersports. I care for gameplay, definitely, but unless it has solid and interesting setting to keep me hooked, even well-greased mechanics won't hold off the boredom for long.
So far, it seems that it isn't what modern Blizzard can provide, so you'll have to forgive me for not being all that excited about whether or not they hit financial success.

If all they needed was for SC2 to be popular with cybersports - wherever they're held - they wouldn't need to drop the ball on it's sci-fi side to appeal to a specific market. But they did drop it. I doubt it's an indication of their inability to offer great gameplay, but won't bet there. Most likely, their current designers and writers just can't do anything else.
As for gameplay, there are a some 'Battle Reports', but they show little and there's still tweaking going on between them, so I don't think there'll be anything solid on gameplay until a few months before release. But the basic principles don't seem to have changed much, which, at least, gives me some hope.

What irks me about their attitude towards SC isn't about graphics, of course. Not per se. It's the design and focus they've applied to it: the same kid-friendly high fantasy they've adopted since WC3 and are pushing onto D3, as well. And judging by that and the cinematics, there's a good chance SC2's setting will fall into the same vein.
I'm starved for Space-Fi, and the only hope for something to tie me over on the horizon is being turned into fantasy cartoons. Can't say I'm glad.
That's not all there's to it, I suppose, but since I don't have a big pool of nerdrage and go HULK RESPECTFULLY DISAGREES every five minutes, I'll refer to what Eldritch's already described and won't reiterate. (Except for the travesty that's insectoid Zerg. Why they've had to degrade them to pests I doubt I'll understand...)

 

[AdrianWerner]

Erm...wtf are people mumbling about in this thread? Not only Blizzard said there will be no Battlenet 2.0 fees for Starcraft2, but they also said the Zerg and Protoss releases will be priced as expansion packs, not full games.

So wtf are people complaining about?

 

[Eldritch]

Artistic design is everything, fuck graphics. Next-Gen graphics without good design -sounds like oblivion. Why would anyone want that?

Graphics technology has nothing to do with the visual design and the art direction that is being criticized ITT. You can fuck up the design of an RTS faction with 2D graphics, ASCII graphics or any fucking graphics just as well. The devs can rock out with their cock out with any given tool at any given time to screw a games fatmosphere nice and swell.

I'm replaying the RTS/action hybrid "Sacrifice" lately and even though it was a game made in the "Early 3D" era where the 3D graphics made for almost every single game sucked beyond mortal belief, its extremely creative art direction somehow makes that early 3D era game absolutely B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. The creatures, the characters, the deities' disciples and dominions art and design just makes up for the disgusting early-3D graphics. If something manages to still visually impress you in spite of the ugly ass early 3D technology that means there is something else involved in this shit other than technology. Sacrifice's graphics alone spawned by an inferior technology matters very little even today when the game can make you appreciate how it looks and feels like in the greater picture. I don't even see the crude graphics, all I can see is that the game managed to be simply beautiful. I really think good art and design can pull off an amazing gestalt to provide an atmosphere worthy of experiencing beyond the games technical competence.

Starcraft of course wasn't a serious bizness hard sci-fi setting, it was a really cool pulp sci-fi setting stylized in the western fashion which managed to give you the bitchen "wartorn grimdark universe" feel as advertised, the rich stylization didn't fuck with that feeling, it only made it more distinct and tasteful. Blizzard always did cartoony, but it did it well in the past. I LOVED the art and atmosphere in Warcraft II, it was full of character and was absolutely humorous in a very good way. It had this really magical atmosphere that made you feel you were playing through an impressive saga of a great war without taking itself too seriously at the same time preventing the whole thing from turning into a bland caricature of epic high fantasy. It was humorous and cool. The great war was serious business, the Orcish Horde was a frenzied war machine of destruction in the spirit of Mongolians, raping and defiling everything in their way. They weren't just evil, they were motherfucking mongolians. The noble and savage(tm) WIII shamanistic Orcs just felt too PC and neutered in comparison, the Undead scourge and the Burnan' Legion fucking.sucked as generic evuhl aggressors. Warcraft III never impressed me the way II did.

I don't like what they're going for in terms of visual design for Starcraft II from what I've seen so far, but I can't say I give too much of a damn as long as the gameplay turns out very satisfactory. I hate it but it's not exactly a deal-breaker for me, as I said, "I'd hit it". It's a fast-paced competitive RTS game in the end but I sure miss the way they designed how these games looked like in the past and it's not just "nostalgia".

 

[MetalCraze]

Did they say it before or after they became Activision Blizzard? I can't imagine Activision executives killing a cash cow like Warcraft. At the very least the franchise will be given to another developer.

Warcraft - a cash cow? You're confusing it with World of Warcraft.

Erm...wtf are people mumbling about in this thread? Not only Blizzard said there will be no Battlenet 2.0 fees for Starcraft2, but they also said the Zerg and Protoss releases will be priced as expansion packs, not full games.

So the real full game will cost $110 instead of $150? Cool.