[badger2d]

http://www.starcraft...lereports/1.xml

The commentary is a bit overwrought, but it's interesting to see some of the new stuff in real action, as opposed to the scripted videos they'd released so far.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Yeah, its interesting to see. Although, I still feel the maps are a bit boring.. S1 maps felt the same way. Warcraft 3 maps have way more life to them, and setting.

They could put in some more vegetation and animal life on the maps.

[bobbob]

There's something very, very wrong about soldiers clumping up and standing still to shoot for a bit, then taking a couple steps to 'get back in range' and shoot again, trading bullets one-for-one until the last guy keels over. If SC2 is going to devolve into a dancing, kiting, floating, bobbing, clickfest of retardation then Blizzard deserves to sell millions of copies.

Thain Esh Kelch, on December 21st 2008, 12:05 PM, said:

They could put in some more vegetation and animal life on the maps.

Space trees and space deer?

[badger2d]

This kind of RTS gameplay is certainly a bit anachronistic. The core mechanics we're seeing in SC2 are essentially unchanged since the first Warcraft, 13 years ago. Back then nobody had yet invented dancing, kiting, and the many various other ways to exploit these mechanics.

I've got to admit, I'm underwhelmed (by a Blizzard game! a remarkable feeling for me). All I see is SC wrapped in new shiny packaging.

[the Battle Cat]

bobbob, on December 21st 2008, 11:29 AM, said:

Space trees and space deer?

Yeah, wadda matter? You gotta problem wit nature?? Whaddya gonna wrap your space buggy round when you come home drunk from pillaging a planet? A space pole? A freakin' SPACE POLE??

[Thain Esh Kelch]

bobbob, on December 21st 2008, 08:29 PM, said:

Space trees and space deer?

Yeah, some green bloobs and thingies that eats marines when they get too close!

I want *life*!

[Tetsuya]

bobbob, on December 21st 2008, 12:29 PM, said:

There's something very, very wrong about soldiers clumping up and standing still to shoot for a bit, then taking a couple steps to 'get back in range' and shoot again, trading bullets one-for-one until the last guy keels over. If SC2 is going to devolve into a dancing, kiting, floating, bobbing, clickfest of retardation then Blizzard deserves to sell millions of copies.
Space trees and space deer?

i will agree that i hate those kinds of tactics as well, but i'd be willing to bet that the people who play Starcraft for money, and the people who follow those people, believe that the ability to do things like kite your enemies troops around is the pinacle of skill; and that coding the AI to not let themselves be baited into that kind of thing would be "affirmative action" for the people who suck and it would be the worst thing ever to happen to SC, etc etc etc.

not saying i agree with that - i dont - but thats the likely response from the millions of "hardcore" SC1 fans that sitll play it to this day, that are the target audience of SC2's Multiplayer.

[badger2d]

Many people in and around the Starcraft e-sport scene don't really want Starcraft 2 at all. You wander around Starcraft forums, and you come to realize that to many of those people, making another game with the Starcraft name is tantamount to attempting to make "Chess 2". It's nonsense, of course, and it's unfortunate that Blizzard appears to have bowed to that pressure, and designed the new game very conservatively.

[bookman]

Good points - I watched that Battle Report the other night, and I can tell already that I will suck as bad at Starcraft 2 as I do with Starcraft. The gameplay looks very similar.