Probably the biggest news in the MMO world today is the release of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. Published by Blizzard, Starcraft was first released in 1998 after a major overhauling due to a poor showing at E3 in 1996. Blizzard made the right move, as Starcraft has sold over 11 million copies from 1998 till 2009. Now enter Startcraft II, the long awaited sequel. It again will follow the story of Terran (outcast human) Jim Raynor on his quest to survive Zergs, Protoss, and well, other Terran. If you don’t want to go the storyline route you can play any of the three races to try and dominate the galaxy. And now, for your viewing pleasure, Starcraft II: Wings of LIberty.
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty trailer
Jul 272010
Apr 182010
So I’ve been playing SC2 for about a week and I can’t quite get the hang of it. But I do know that RTS games have a pretty big learning curve. (I never played the original Starcraft.)
So far in the beta, the only part of the game available to play is multiplayer. Playing through the storyline is probably what I’d like more. Blizz has implemented a new system through their Battle.net site to allow SC2 to search for players, which is kind of like the battlegroup based search for cross-realm PUGs in WOW. So I’ve not had to wait very long in queue to play any of my matches, which is nice. Coincidentally, I’ve not had to play each match very long to have my butt kicked. Perhaps the reasoning behind only having multiplayer content available is to work out kinks in the Battle.net system and make sure its running smooth before moving on to the next phase. I, for one, am anxious to see the storyline component.
There also won’t be any LAN play in SC2, a fact that some people, including Hitler, are pretty upset about. (I promise this will be my last Hitler video.)
More later!
Perhaps the fad of changing Hitler videos into funny videos has passed. But I don’t care. This one is hilarious–and it isn’t a WOW video! This is even funnier to me because of my continuous losses in Starcraft 2 beta. Everytime I think I’m going to win, a Protoss mothership comes and kicks my ass. Enjoy!
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Dani
Dani
The box looks like it'll stand up to a Zerg rush...
It’s a rare day when $99.99 doesn’t seem like a stupid amount of money to pay for a video game. Steel Battalion, with it’s “you’re going to need a bigger boat lap” controller was one of the earliest titles to hit the century mark. Blizzard seems to have found a way to justify separating us from a C-note with the Collector’s Edition of StarCraft II, even though there’s no release date set yet. For those of you who haven’t seen the trailer yet, Dani posted about it here.
In addition to the sequel of the wildly-popular original, a Duke Nukem-esque ten years in development, there are a whole passel of goodies tucked into that big honking box:
- THE ART OF STARCRAFT II: WINGS OF LIBERTY – 176 pages of concepts and 3d renderings
- JIM RAYNOR “DOG TAG” USB DRIVE – Replica of Jim Raynor’s in-game dog tag is a 2GB USB thumb drive, pre-loaded with the original StarCraft and Brood War Expansion
- BEHIND THE SCENES DVD – Dev interviews, all the cut-scene animations (with director commentary), and discussion of the original SC’s place in gaming lore
- STARCRAFT COMIC ISSUE #0
- GAME SOUNDTRACK – 14 tracks from the game itself, plus a couple of bonus tunes. I’m a sucker for game soundtracks – they make the daily commute suck less, that’s for sure.
- WORLD OF WARCRAFT IN-GAME PET – Maybe you’ll want Baby Thor as a companion to your shenanigans in Azeroth
- BATTLE-NET DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT – Unlockable goodies, including in-game army icons, unique avatar portraits, and an exclusive version of the in-game Thor unit
This is where I make everyone’s head explode by admitting I never played the original StarCraft (I was a Command & Conquer guy), but this list of goodies does make my wallet itch, just a little.
After a month off to tend to various injuries (Krys hurt her wrist, and Grim busted up his knee), Krys and Grim are back with another SnarkCast. Everyone and everything is fair game for our snarktastic duo this time around. If you, or the game you love, find yourselves in our cross-hairs, take solace in the fact that you aren’t alone. We snark because we love. (Except Gold Farmers, nobody likes those little idiots.)
In this week’s show, we snarkify (otherwise known as “show notes”):
- E3
- Booth Babes
- Underwear as Swag
- A “Stripper Game”
- News from Sony Online Entertainment
- Free Realms
- The Agency
- Hong Kong Shuffle
- Star Wars: The Old Republic
- Global Agenda
- Bogus “Awards” given at E3
- DC*MMO takes a studio tour
- “Open All Night” demo at Dragon*Con
- Sony Fan Faire
- Star Wars Galaxies
- Zombies
- User-created content
- The Gungan Gun
- SOE’s big party at Dragon*Con
- Star Wars Galaxies
- Blizzard
- No LAN play for Starcraft II
- What’s Wrong With WoW?
- Special Interview w/Dr. Tran
- WoW Faction changes
- WoW may be an MMO with training wheels, but it serves an important purpose.
- EVE Online
- Age of Conan
- Huge upcoming patch
- “Fixing” stats and itemization
- Problems with questing in AoC
- Warhammer Online
- How to “Kill 10 rats” correctly
- Public quests
- Mark Jacobs leaving Mythic
- Mythic is now part of Bioware
- How will Bioware change WAR?
- City of Heroes
- Issue 15 is coming
- The 5th Column is back!
- New costumes and facial options
- Is it better to look good? or have uber stats on gear?
- Dragon*Con stuff
- Schedule is done!
- 50 panels and events scheduled on MMO track
- WoW trivia event being combined into Hardcore MMO Trivia contest
- 5 different parties planned on the MMO track this year.
- Closing Music and gag reel.
