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Starcraft II launches July 27
- d0m 16y agoyep, I'm happy that my final exams are over
- JeeyoungKim 16y agoNot mine... Sigh.
- hartror 16y agoHmm I wonder if there will be a causal relationship between this release and a bunch of startups deadpooling . . .
- metamemetics 16y agoas a Beta participant I'll testify it is addictive. However Ladder games are just high speed chess and really get your mental juices flowing in general. Any fans should check out the HDH Invitational tournament underway: http://www.youtube.com/user/hdstarcraft http://www.youtube.com/user/hdstarcraft , http://www.youtube.com/user/HuskyStarcraft http://www.youtube.com/user/HuskyStarcraft (these guys sportcast SC games and consistently have more viewers than ESPN's youtube channel)
- kentosi 16y agospeaking about addiction - this game ruined my late teen years. i still remember spending an entire day in my room battling it out with guys half-way across the world :-) can't wait for it to come out. thankfully i have a social life, work, and other good things in my life now so i should be able to control myself :-)
- rogermugs 16y agofamous last words
- vishaldpatel 16y agoAh yes, hope springs eternal :P
- algorias 16y agoSecond that. These guys have really been working on their presentation. It's hard to believe they're amateurs doing it in their spare time.
- MikeCapone 16y agoAmazing how a game that hasn't been released yet has such a vibrant community! Makes me want to be part of it and get SC2 when it comes out. I used to play SC1 back in the day, but haven't played that many games since (major exception being COD4 on hardcore/tactical servers).
- patio11 16y agoI prefer being optimistic: it gives me a great incentive to have the new product launched (and thus past the point where I work long stretches of consecutive hours) by 7/27. If I'm still knee deep in Twilio code then, well, no Starcraft for me. If I'm launched and just waiting for Google to start ranking me, blocking on A/B test results, or otherwise not very active, well, I know how to make the waiting more pleasant.
- ohashi 16y agoIt could kill me... I thought I played ~40 games since last reset (1-2 weeks ago?) but I actually counted yesterday... somewhere near 100.
- rogermugs 16y agoi actually had withdrawal symptoms when i quit starcraft 1. what was that like 8/9 years ago? craziness. Zealious... i wonder if he's still out there... (is that even how you spell his name?)
- matthew-wegner 16y agoThe Starcraft II beta is kind of horrifying--their excellent matchmaking ensures games are always very intense. Pardo actually commented on this at the Game Developer's Conference: "If your matchmaking is really good, it means that for every single game, you're kind of the edge of your seat," Pardo said. "After you play an hour or two of games like that, you're kind of exhausted. So we're actually talking about, 'Is that the right matchmaking approach?' You might want to add a little sloppiness to the matchmaking. Maybe that means sometimes you get stomped, but sometimes you have easier games. And sometimes you have the really competitive games. It's got better pacing. (From http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99211-Battle-net-StarCraft-II-Matchmaking-Too-Good http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99211-Battle-net-S...) So there's that interesting human element there--how wide do your want your matchmaking algorithm to get? Personally, I enjoy the nightmare intensity; it means I more easily get my fill for the night. Is only being able to play a few games at a time actually a bad thing? I guess it might be from Blizzard's perspective. If you're in the beta, try playing 2v2 with a friend against the Internet. If you're losing you can at least lose together. Think of it as a co-founder ;)
- hristov 16y agoWell, I am not in beta but I like this approach. It is much better to play a close game than to get destroyed by someone that is so much better than you that there is no contest. And of course while it is sometimes fun to stomp on a newbie, that gets old too. You learn the most from close games. You learn nothing from beating someone much worse than you. And when you are destroyed by someone much better you also usually do not learn much because you are so far behind that usually you do not know what hit you.
- technoweenie 16y agoI end up getting demolished on every round. Starcraft 1 was so long ago.....
- metamemetics 16y agoIf you're in Bronze league, seriously just reaper rush every game.
- hristov 16y agoI think one of the reasons I switched to Linux is to prevent myself from playing this game when it comes out. We'll see if it works. Boy did I waste enough time on battlenet.
- light3 16y agoIt might run under wine, I know warcraft 3 did :P
- heresy 16y agoDamn you Blizzard, for making games I love to play. I just got myself off WoW. Now this, and Diablo 3 coming later... In other news, the Korean economy is expected to contract from August.
- vishaldpatel 16y agoBut you fail to account for all the starcraft 2 related projects that will crop up and the revitalization of starcraft related businesses ;)
- metamemetics 16y agohttp://www.stanford.edu/group/ccr/blog/2009/04/post_17.html http://www.stanford.edu/group/ccr/blog/2009/04/post_17.html "Saving the Economy with Starcraft" >According to Lee, there are almost 20,000 PC Bangs in Korea and they collectively make about 120 billion wons (about 100 million US dollars) every month. Lee has also stated that “This is not the only source of economic influence achieved by gaming. There are three cable channels for starcraft leagues and tournaments, as well as thirteen other professional teams. These game broadcasts have potentials to be exported into other countries, just like how Korean dramas were actively exported throughout Asia during 2002-2006.”
- colbyolson 16y agoOn a side note, I'm still very much waiting on Diablo3. One day...
- Psyonic 16y agoThe purpose of SC2 is to keep your mind off Diablo 3. One day you'll wake up and it'll be there, and you'll be a very happy man
- ZachPruckowski 16y agoFor those who didn't know, you can pre-order from Amazon, Best Buy, or Gamestop and get a beta key, so that Starcraft II can destroy your life before it even ships. Last night, at 7 PM, there were 25,000 people on Battle.net, so it's a fairly large beta.
- nessence 16y agoPlease, not SCII. I'M NOT GOING TO BUY IT. OK? Say it with me: I PROMISE NOT TO BUY SCII INSTEAD OF BUILDING MY COMPANY I PROMISE NOT TO BUY SCII INSTEAD OF BUILDING MY COMPANY I PROMISE NOT TO BUY SCII INSTEAD OF BUILDING MY COMPANY I PROMISE NOT TO BUY SCII INSTEAD OF BUILDING MY COMPANY I PROMISE NOT TO BUY SCII INSTEAD OF BUILDING MY COMPANY
- sonofjanoh 16y agoI will build my Nexus first.
- mawhidby 16y agoYou require more minerals.
- zackattack 16y agoYou require more vespine gas!
- levesque 16y agoYour Nexus... one?
- Psyonic 16y agoDo both?
- truebosko 16y agoI thought with a Linux box and a Macbook I would never really play games on a computer again, minus the odd casual flash/javascript game. Then I got the SC2 Beta from a friend. Oh man, so awesome. (Not addicted .. but oh so fun. Love Blizzard)
- MikeCapone 16y agoI'm also extremely happy that it will be released on OSX too. I hope this is part of a new trend now that Macs are selling better than a few years ago (and the Intel hardware can't hurt).
- Psyonic 16y agoThat trend may or may not be happening, but Blizzard has always released their games on Mac, so I wouldn't use this for evidence one way or the other.
- slyn 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(content_delivery)#Mac_OS_X_release http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(content_delivery)#Mac_OS... "With its release, Valve will include native Mac OS X, OpenGL versions of Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Portal, and the entire Half-Life series. Portal 2, due by the end of 2010, will be simultaneously released on both the Windows and Mac versions of Steam." May 12th! Between steam for OS X, SC2, and eventually WoW: Cataclysm, I'm not going to be getting anything done this summer. =(
- Psyonic 16y agoThat is a pretty awesome development. Hopefully other steam developers will jump on board.
- teebes 16y agoAnd speaking of Starcraft 2 and coding, here is a Raphael.js / jQuery web app that matches up units currently in the Beta against each other: http://scstrategy.com/matchup http://scstrategy.com/matchup
- enterneo 16y agoI have always been AOE follower, I have been observing the hype over Starcraft lately and wondering how is Starcraft different from AOE? (its like is it something huge I am missing)
- baddox 16y agoAge of Empires?
- apu 16y agoYes, there is no contest -- Starcraft is by far the better game. Everything about it is better. The other difference is Koreans. They rule at SC.
- icegreentea 16y agoTotally different style of play. It's very similar to the difference between Halo and UT2k4. Not only do the econs function differently, I always felt that SC was more micro intensive, or at least when it actually comes to combat. SC also used more soft counters compared to AOE with more hard counters. What I mean by that is that in AOE (from what I remember, its been years), counters are more or less put down in stone. If your mass of pikemen ran into a mass of footmen, then your pikemen would more or less get raped. Same with cavalry charging into pikemen. No amount of micro will save you. In SC, even when your army has been countered (your muta swarm runs into a huge mass of medics and marines), it's possible (very hard, but possible) to snatch away at least a partial victory with the proper application of micro. The games also feel completely different when the three races are fundamentally different, as opposed to being more or less the same with different bonuses and special units. Whatever I put above has been clouded by the fact that I have never seen really high level AOE play, and have spent days of my life watching high level SC.
- Psyonic 16y agoWelcome to SC2, where hard counters make an appearance. Rather than only having damage cuts, like SC1, they now have bonus damage, which can make an ENORMOUS difference. If you're zerg and rolling out a bunch of roaches, you'd better make sure he's not building immortals, or you're in for some pain.
- hyperbovine 16y agoThank god. Releasing this before school gets out would have been truly nefarious.
- albemuth 16y agoI'm really lucky it runs really bad on a MBP, if I want to get into that timesink I'll have to invest on a gaming pc, hopefully I can fight the urge for a while.
- MikeCapone 16y agoCan anyone comment on technical requirements (at least of the beta, which should give a good idea for the final game)? Any idea how it would run on a 2008 Mac Pro with the base ATI GPU (2600 HD iirc)?
- brianm 16y agonot sure what the base ATI GPU then was, but I know the GeForce 7300 GTs in mine have driver issues preventing compatibility. Forum with mac beta system reqs listing is at http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=24630623195&sid=5000 http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=24630623195&... In general, folks have been able to run much higher graphic settings on windows in bootcamp than on the mac itself.
- Psyonic 16y agoI'm not sure exactly what hardware that entails, but I'll guarantee you can at least play the game. Perhaps not with every setting on Ultra, but with some fine tuning I'm sure it'd play fine. The game scales well.
- slyn 16y agoI've been playing on my MBP w/ 2.4 ghz c2d and 8600m and its been working surprisingly well. I dialed down the setting just to maximize FPS, but other than weird choppiness with the menu screen the game has been very stable. I'm pretty new to the game but I'm starting to get the hang of it, if anyone wants to skirmish or give me some tips my id is corohd.warpath
- city41 16y agoIn other news, Korea's GDP is expected to plummet starting around July 28th.
- hobbe 16y agoReally way too soon for me to start promoting my little side project, but I guess I could use some feedback on the idea before I start investing too much of my spare time... Anyway, I'm planning on launching something I call the Starcraft 2 University (http://sc2uni.com http://sc2uni.com), which (hopefully) will help people find tutors for personal training sessions (the idea comes from online poker where this is quite popular). I'd love some feedback on the idea - the site currently up is simply just for collecting some e-mails - none of my actual code is up yet (although I'm planning to go with this layout and "design language").
- bittersweet 16y agoThe Mac beta is finally available for users in Europe, I'm currently downloading the 3 GB file, I'm assuming the latest patches are already included because the filesize is significantly larger then on Windows.