273 replies to this topic

[XxtraLarGe]

15 minutes? When I played it, the time limit was 20 minutes. Maybe you're playing on casual instead of normal?

dojoboy, on 27 July 2010 - 08:30 PM, said:

I've played the first few chapters on normal difficulty, and it seems a bit too easy.  Right now, I'm in my first battle where I must survive for 15 minutes against the Zerg.  I can see how this one could get dicey on a harder difficulty.  Also, the dialogue in the cut scenes is kind of lame, imho.

I'm not seeing any of those issues, though I had a hard time installing it. Gameplay is pretty smooth so far for me on my 24" iMac, but I haven't tried to jack up the settings yet either.

Naman, on 27 July 2010 - 08:16 PM, said:

Well, so much for Blizzard's track record. First time I ran it, it hung loading the campaign. Second time, it wouldn't load the main menu widgets. I restarted, and it worked, but it runs like ass on my Mac Pro twin dual-core 3 GHz machine with 6 GB RAM and an nVidia 8800 GT. I keep lowering settings, and it plays okay, but it seems to progressively get choppier and choppier until it became unplayable a few missions in on the campaign. :/

[dojoboy]

XxtraLarGe, on 27 July 2010 - 09:15 PM, said:

15 minutes? When I played it, the time limit was 20 minutes. Maybe you're playing on casual instead of normal?

Well, I just finished it, and it did say 20 minutes.  I swore I saw the timer begin at 15.  It was definitely on normal.

[Ranger_Joe]

I agree with Dojoboy about the lame dialogue. The missions are rather straightforward, but I'm not going after all of the bonus objectives. Also, I have not had any of the tech glitches mentioned by others.

[bookman]

Well, I ended up going out and buying it. It isn't often I get the play the latest greatest on my Mac the first day it comes out. Had time to play the first mission and 1 multiplayer match, and so far so good. It runs pretty well on low-end hardware.

[ltcommander.data]

Naman, on 27 July 2010 - 08:16 PM, said:

Well, so much for Blizzard's track record. First time I ran it, it hung loading the campaign. Second time, it wouldn't load the main menu widgets. I restarted, and it worked, but it runs like ass on my Mac Pro twin dual-core 3 GHz machine with 6 GB RAM and an nVidia 8800 GT. I keep lowering settings, and it plays okay, but it seems to progressively get choppier and choppier until it became unplayable a few missions in on the campaign. :/

Are you on 10.6.4? Starcraft II is probably effected by the same nVidia driver performance issues that Vavle is seeing in 10.6.4. Valve was actually recommending people hold off updating to 10.6.4 if you have a nVidia GPU.

[fabforrest]

ok, so i was WILDLY wrong on my game play assumption.    

the starcraft site doesn't give a lot of gameplay info and i never had the original starcraft.  is it possible to describe game play or is there a video somewhere that shows an example?  i would like to have some idea before buying it.

[dojoboy]

fabforrest, on 28 July 2010 - 09:54 AM, said:

ok, so i was WILDLY wrong on my game play assumption.    

the starcraft site doesn't give a lot of gameplay info and i never had the original starcraft.  is it possible to describe game play or is there a video somewhere that shows an example?  i would like to have some idea before buying it.

You Tube MP Match

[bobbob]

fabforrest, on 28 July 2010 - 09:54 AM, said:

is it possible to describe game play

The defining skill is the player's actions per minute, or APM. How fast you can click the mouse and hit some keys. The 'strategy' involved is guessing the opponent's choice of rock-paper-scissors, and countering with a stock response. Remember base layouts and tech trees, and practicing, practicing, practicing getting them up in time. Finding the opponent's base is typically fixed for each map, but sometimes you can choose to mix it up and you might have to make some guesses and send a worker out. Sometimes the opponent will do something cheezy that hinges entirely on them pulling it off and you thinking they'll do something more tenable, but typically they'll go mass marines and you'll go mass zealots and they'll all meet near someone's base and take turns slapping each other until the last one falls. 'Mass', of course, being like 12 guys, total, which you can train from new recruits in a couple minutes, and APM gets involved in that you'll be directing each unit individually to make each attack, dodge every one of each individual enemy's attacks (remembering of course that an attack once initiated can never miss so you have to move out of range before the starting animation), and basically just clicking like it's farmville for Warhammer 40k fans. At this point you're probably ready to build an expansion base in the middle of the fire trucking battle, so you'll send out your lone worker to plop it down at the pre-arranged and well-defined expansion location for your starting area. I think I should mention economic management is the second-most important skill beyond APM, so micro those workers' every move like they're on the second front. That Vespine ain't going to carry itself back to the Nexus, you know, which is why you build so many Drones because they're obviously the most efficient way to transport gaseous materials an advanced race could possibly come up with and the Nexus is the most obvious place to take it since nothing is built there and you're entirely capable of teleporting anything to any of your other random buildings or even some units. Did I mention APM? If you can't keep it up, you won't make it to the end of the standard 10-minute game. God help you if someone cheezes you.

[fabforrest]

thanks, bobbob    

and dojoboy too!

[badger2d]

I feel like I've seen an angry post from bobbob in every SC related thread that ever existed on this forum.  I never have and never will understand why there are people who hate particular games and yet spend their time posting slanted rants about those games instead of doing something, I don't know, that they might actually enjoy, and leaving others in peace to enjoy the things they like in turn?  Call me crazy!  

[devSin]

I think somebody has APM envy.

[bobbob]

badger2d, on 28 July 2010 - 02:45 PM, said:

I never have and never will understand why there are people who hate particular games

I don't hate StarCraft. I like to play it, sometimes. Singleplayer, mind, because I have APM envy like the guy said. Also, I don't like micro-heavy speed-matches of rock-paper-scissors. That 'slanted rant' is actually a fair description of competitive multi, missing specific build orders and unit counters, so I'm just saying that's what the game's fundamentals are.

[badger2d]

bobbob, on 28 July 2010 - 03:40 PM, said:

I don't hate StarCraft. I like to play it, sometimes. Singleplayer, mind, because I have APM envy like the guy said. Also, I don't like micro-heavy speed-matches of rock-paper-scissors. That 'slanted rant' is actually a fair description of competitive multi, missing specific build orders and unit counters, so I'm just saying that's what the game's fundamentals are.

You seem better-humored than I had first thought, tone is such a guessing game on the internet.  I think your post is perfectly fair if it's taken as a humorous description of how your first few games online may feel if you've never touched an RTS before.  But it does not capture the real meat and potatoes of the game, any more than beer-league softball captures the essence of competitive sport.

In the world of physical sports it's not exactly a secret that if you don't practice hard to be fit and strong and fast you won't do well.  Anyone would laugh at you if you complained of a sport that it isn't fun when you're completely out of shape, or claimed that the clumsy chaos of a beginner rec league soccer game where nobody has the faintest idea where the ball is going next is a fair example of competitive soccer.

"E-Sport" is a hokey term, but it fits for games like competitive Starcraft because of how well you can draw the analogy to physical sports.  Practicing to gain and maintain the ability to play fast in Starcraft is analogous to staying fit to run on a field.  If you asked any athlete what are the fundamentals of his sport he would list skills and strategy unique to the sport, not just repeat that "you have to run fast".  That part simply goes without saying.

...all that said, one thing I really hope goes particularly well in SC2 is the matchmaking.  SC1 Battle.net didn't even have a matchmaking system, which made it all too common for "athletes" to be matched with "rec leaguers" if you tried to find random public games, no fun for either.  I think if the matchmaking is really good in SC2 it should be lots of fun at all levels, just like sports can be just as fun to anyone so long as they're in the right setting for their skill level.

[dojoboy]

You guys add me in Battle.net:

RaynorShyne

You can thrash me in MP.  Never played a Starcraft MP game b4.

[the Battle Cat]

badger2d, on 28 July 2010 - 02:45 PM, said:

I feel like I've seen an angry post from bobbob in every SC related thread that ever existed on this forum.  I never have and never will understand why there are people who hate particular games and yet spend their time posting slanted rants about those games instead of doing something, I don't know, that they might actually enjoy, and leaving others in peace to enjoy the things they like in turn?  Call me crazy!  

I think it's a fair post in my experience of this kind of game, and helpful to the asker of the question.  Read it like it is a Zero Punctuation Yahtzee screed and fill in the visuals in your mind.  It's actually a very humorous post as I read it.

[Mister Mumbles]

I actually got my copy in the mail much earlier than expected. Only a day after release. Good stuff. Installing it right now. I assume I won't need the disc after installing the game since it is tied now to my battle.net account, as all my other Blizzard games post-Starcraft.

Looking forward to getting some playtime. I don't have to work tomorrow either, so this was great timing.

[dojoboy]

Stayed up way too late playing SC2 last night.  

[Thain Esh Kelch]

So what is the verdict? On the 10 scale?

[bookman]

Thain Esh Kelch, on 29 July 2010 - 07:11 AM, said:

So what is the verdict? On the 10 scale?

At least 8.something, probably 9+. I haven't played enough to give a definitive opinion, but I like the game a lot so far.

[Mister Mumbles]

I certainly like the base interface in between missions. As someone said elsewhere, it does have a bit of a Wing Commander vibe going on there. Not at all a bad thing. Hopefully, once Apple decides to fix the horrendous NVIDIA drivers I might be able to ratch up the graphical settings a bit. So far it performs decently, though some of the conversation close-ups look fugly as hell with my current low settings. That doesn't detract it from being a fun game though. I can't see why people complain about the dialogue/story part though; it seems pretty good to me thus far. Granted, I'm only a few missions in, but, taking that into account, I only expect it to get better from here on out.