Starcraft 2

[Anarky]

I got in the beta I'll be posting thoughts and updates

[Flip]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. g4u.

[Eric]

I've been playing since the 10th, it plays to have friends in video game places.

[Anarky]

I've been playing since the 10th, it plays to have friends in video game places.

Add me!

taber.taber

[Julius Seeker]

Are you guys actually properly QAing or just dicking around? =)

[Eric]

It's a process, you get comfortable with it, then you start providing feedback.

[SineSwiper]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

Got too many damn games!

[Anarky]

Prepare to lose many hours to this game if you loved the original starcraft.

I've been playing 1v1 as Terran and lovin it.

If you have any questions ask away, but I have to say the shoutcast replays are addicting!

http://www.youtube.com/user/BlizShouter

[Flip]

but I have to say the shoutcast replays are addicting!

http://www.youtube.com/user/BlizShouter

I agree, i havent even played this game and i feel like i could be pretty good only by watching replays, lol. I think this debunks Don's games are entertainment thread, RTS replays are cool, period.

[Don]

When's the last time you saw RTS replays on TV in any nation not named South Korea?

There's a difference between watching something for free (like on Youtube) and actually having to pay for it. You might not be paying for it on TV but clearly someone is paying for the time and the opportunity cost. The gaming industry seems to be chasing this elusive 'e-sports' thing but I can guaranteed you if they make a channel just showing RTS replays or MMORPG raids or whatever, it'll flop horribly, which is probably why it's not done in anywhere in the world aside from South Korea.

[Shrinweck]

Yeah I'm going to go with Don on this one. Even when I actually care about an RTS I hate watching replays. Watching MMORPG raids on TV sounds even less entertaining then Leno.

[Don]

I understand plenty of people watch these replays on stuff like Youtube, but here you're essentially freeloading off Youtube, and it's not even very clear if Youtube has a profitable business model and they're involved in some copyright issues. Iron Chef might be more entertaining to watch than watching a guy telling you how to cook hamburgers, but there are still stuff about how to cook hamburgers on TV. The Food Channel might not be making money left and right but presumably it's a sustainable operation, and is there really more people interested in cooking or say the Weather compared to people who are interested in WoW or Starcraft? So I don't buy the lack of audience issue. There are certainly many channels I turn to TV I can imagine having an established base that's much smaller than WoW.

There seems to be almost something intrinsically un-presentable for games. Sure we all play them, and yeah you look at replays and videoes too, but I can guaranteed you if "Paragon's first Lich King Heroic 25 Mode Kill" was on at some game channel it's not going to be very exciting to look at. Maybe shows about games do have to be more like Iron Chef and WWE than actual gaming.

[Anarky]

Don, there is a demographic for everything, this is why shitty reality television exist.

I doubt a gaming network would succeed in the US, but I know I watch Street Fighter 4 streams, and SC2 streams plenty.

[Anarky]

Pre-order the game from amazon or gamestop and you can get in the beta

[Don]

Don, there is a demographic for everything, this is why shitty reality television exist.

I doubt a gaming network would succeed in the US, but I know I watch Street Fighter 4 streams, and SC2 streams plenty.

Which is actually why it's pretty weird you don't see shows about games on TV.

[Anarky]

Don, there is a demographic for everything, this is why shitty reality television exist.

I doubt a gaming network would succeed in the US, but I know I watch Street Fighter 4 streams, and SC2 streams plenty.

Which is actually why it's pretty weird you don't see shows about games on TV.

SyFy does:
http://www.syfy.com/wcgultimategamer/

[Flip]

Pre-order the game from amazon or gamestop and you can get in the beta

Yup, saw that today and ordered. The game key said it should take 5 days to arrive, about the same time as my comp. Fuckin killa sweet.

[Anarky]

Pre-order the game from amazon or gamestop and you can get in the beta

Yup, saw that today and ordered. The game key said it should take 5 days to arrive, about the same time as my comp. Fuckin killa sweet.

Let me know when it arrives, we can get in some 1v1

[Tessian]

I preordered as well... but I already hear this is tanking the Bnet servers so I won't hold my breath

[M'k'n'zy]

I got my beta key but havent set it up yet, am planing to soon.

[Tessian]

Got my key this morning. Played a few AI games to figure out the units... played a FFA and got CREAMED although I'm not really surprised.

I'm Tessian.zhan on Bnet

[Eric]

If you guys are trying to learn2play I recommend any of the TL User Streams here: http://www.teamliquid.net/sc2/

[Julius Seeker]

Great! Everyone is going to be all practiced up before I get in on this =P

[SineSwiper]

Well, I'll probably play through the single-player campaign first before I dive into Bnet. For one, Bnet is going to be down for several days after launch. Trust me, it just will. And two, I'll get some experience with how the game actually works before diving into multiplayer.

Oh, and the story for Starcraft 1 was pretty sweet, so it's probably worth going for that.

[Shrinweck]

Oh, and the story for Starcraft 1 was pretty sweet, so it's probably worth going for that.

It's a Blizzard game. I'm not sure I needed any more justification.

Oh and I'm in the beta as shrinweck.shrinweck because I'm super creative like that.

[Eric]

Well, I'll probably play through the single-player campaign first before I dive into Bnet. For one, Bnet is going to be down for several days after launch. Trust me, it just will. And two, I'll get some experience with how the game actually works before diving into multiplayer.

Oh, and the story for Starcraft 1 was pretty sweet, so it's probably worth going for that.

The single player is a different experience then the online play.

For instance the 30 missions in the first game are all Terran and star Jim Raynor, Blizzard already said they have 2 x-packs planned with 30 missions for the zerg, and 30 for the Protoss after that. So 90 mission campaigns over 3 games with new features added each time.

In addition some units in the single player won't be in the multiplayer experience, the goliath, and medic are the 2 most prominent you'll probably be wondering why you can't build. For online balance they made the medic a Tier 1 Flying unit called the Medivac which heals your infinity and also serves as a drop ship. The Goliath's replacement is the bulky Thor, it's not as good against say Carriers(Original Goliath had like 12 range?), but is destroys smaller and clumped air units and has a decent range for doing so, it's ground damage is also pretty nice. If you want a heavy AA unit you'll probably be using the Viking, which replaces the Valkyrie. Air-to-air unit that can transform into a ground unit, but can't serve both functions at once.

[Don]

Pretty sure the range upgrade on Goliath just put them at the same range as Carriers, which is either 8 or 9. Only Siege Tanks and Spawn Broodling can hit over 10 game units in Starcraft 1. If you don't have the range upgrade you pretty much can't hit a moving Carrier but it can hit you.

[Julius Seeker]

I'll be joining you guys July 27 when the game officially releases.

[Flip]

Are you kidding me... this DL is estimating at 3 hours?... was that normal for everyone else?? Im at 45MB out of 1.6 gigs!!! This computer is supposed to be fast and im the most impatient person ever, raaawwr!

[Shrinweck]

If you use the Blizzard peer to peer thing in the patcher you get it quicker. I think they cap the download speed directly from blizzard at 250-300kb/s. Don't expect to be playing a game tonight unless you're staying up for another several hours. The initial beta download is small-ish, but it isn't patched. The patching takes quite a lot of time as well.

[Anarky]

I'm

Taber.taber

but if you ask my opinion its much better to add friends via email

taber64 at gmail dot com

[Shrinweck]

That's a good point. I'm shrinweck at gmail

[Don]

Blizzard's torrent system makes you wonder how something like torrent could have ever worked since it's a very inefficient way to distribute stuff. I think Blizzard shares the blame though since the torrent system seems to work fine for stuff like, piracy. Yes there's a scale issue but you'd think they'll have more resources available than your average pirate.

[Shrinweck]

Their torrent system is god damn stupid. When I was a freshman in the dorms and playing WoW I was unable to cap my upload on the patcher and we were limited to 650mb uploaded a day - an hour or longer on that stupid patcher with how great the upstream was where I was? Well, I can't remember, but short story finished, it's a shit ton more than 650mb and that shit can get you in trouble and gets your account highly limited for 24 hours, sometimes more. And it attracts the attention of administrators, luckily there isn't anything questionable about hitting your limit because of Blizzard being too fucking ridiculous to let you cap download and upload speeds.

Hell, even when I was at home it would hit the maximum upstream my cable modem/service provided and completely destroy download speeds (sub 50 kb/s)

Sorry, it's been like 5 years and it still makes me angry haha. I just expect more out of a company like Blizzard.

[Flip]

I'll be joining you guys July 27 when the game officially releases.

Ah cool, i'm glad they finally decided on a release date and i'm happy to get a few months with the beta before it is out.