Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 Will Not Have LAN Support

[Purkake]

I'm sure Blizzard will laugh all the way to the bank.

[Morgoth]

Interestingly enough, the petition for Starcraft 2 to have LAN is nearing 250,000 signatures: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?LANSC2

 

Although it may not make much difference, that is still pretty amazing.

 

Anyway, if Starcraft 2 does not have an offline multiplayer mode, I will evaluate it as a single-player game only lacking any multiplayer functionality for the purposes of my purchasing decision and the same applies to Diablo 3. Unless, of course, there is a way to bypass the need for online presence to play multiplayer, perhaps through the setting up of virtual servers through LAN - I guess will have to educate myself on that as I am not sure how that works.

Everything will run through Battle net, there's no bypass.

[RPGmasterBoo]

Note: SCII beta has been "cracked" in such a way that you can watch replays with it (though you still need the key to play online [relax mods, its not piracy]). Grab yours while its hot.

[Oner]

PvPGN, sooner or later.

[Morgoth]

Maybe that sounds nuts, but I deliberately don't watch any gameplay videos or get info on units.

 

The only SC2 vid I've seen was that during the Blizzcon announcment in 2007.

 

When I get the Beta key, I'll sell it on ebay.

 

When the game finally comes out, it will be a completely fresh experience and I will find joy to discover all the new units. First time starting a new Blizzard game is always like birthday.

[Oner]

You just miss fluff, nothing more. Part of it will be available in single player anyway I'd wager.

[RPGmasterBoo]

Maybe that sounds nuts, but I deliberately don't watch any gameplay videos or get info on units.

 

The only SC2 vid I've seen was that during the Blizzcon announcment in 2007.

 

When I get the Beta key, I'll sell it on ebay.

 

When the game finally comes out, it will be a completely fresh experience and I will find joy to discover all the new units. First time starting a new Blizzard game is always like birthday.

 

I advise you to try it out now and save yourself the disappointment. SCII as far as units are concerned has taken the WCIII "cool sh!t" route (meaning some of them make no sense at all, unlike the first SC which had a logical and gritty approach), plus the cheery graphical style. I don't like it, but I suppose the campaign won't be bad.

[Oner]

It may be colorful, but cheery? **** pleeaaase.

[RPGmasterBoo]

The ultralisk looks like a caricature. Like something you'd find in WoW - in short comical. So do the terran marines with their head bobbing animation, and the ridiculous cannon that comes out of their HQ. Etc. Immortals and Carriers look idiotic as well, like a WCIII unit that didn't fit in so they scrapped it. Reapers? Marines with jetpacks and dual pistols??? Come on...

 

Starcraft looked freakish and dark. SC II doesn't.

[Purkake]

[RPGmasterBoo]

Nothing to do with hating, just pointing out the obivous differences in the approach to the two games.

 

I still eagerly await SCII, only not as eagerly as I would had they decided to stick to the original closer.

[yay230]

The ultralisk looks like a caricature. Like something you'd find in WoW - in short comical. So do the terran marines with their head bobbing animation, and the ridiculous cannon that comes out of their HQ. Etc. Immortals and Carriers look idiotic as well, like a WCIII unit that didn't fit in so they scrapped it. Reapers? Marines with jetpacks and dual pistols??? Come on...

 

Starcraft looked freakish and dark. SC II doesn't.

 

I had the same concern, but as someone in the beta I think everything mostly looks mostly fine while you're playing and I'm not as concerned as I was after I got some games in. Still prefer the cleaner 2D of SC1, though.

 

Reapers are a good unit. Potential for some nice harass, something I think Protoss and Zerg are missing right now. At least the kind of exciting harass that say the reaver or potentially even a lurker drop provided in the first game.

 

I'm enjoying it right now and while it's far too early to tell if Blizzard will be able to get this game up to the legendary level of SC1 in regards to balance and having enough uniqueness to keep the game interesting for 12 years, if you liked the first game you will like the second one and certainly get your money's worth (I've probably played the beta longer than I have any other game in quite some time. Well, I probably haven't reached the playtime of my Dragon Age playthrough, but probably will soon).

[RPGmasterBoo]

I had the same concern, but as someone in the beta I think everything mostly looks mostly fine while you're playing and I'm not as concerned as I was after I got some games in. Still prefer the cleaner 2D of SC1, though.

 

You're saying the immersion is sufficiently good not to notice these things, or at least not have them stand out?

[Oner]

Terran voice quips

[Deraldin]

Terran voice quips

 

"Quiet! I'm trying to sneak up on them!" *MASSIVE EARTH SHAKING FOOTSTEPS*

[Morgoth]

I'll not click on this link. I'll resist till the game comes out!

 

Yes.

[yay230]

I had the same concern, but as someone in the beta I think everything mostly looks mostly fine while you're playing and I'm not as concerned as I was after I got some games in. Still prefer the cleaner 2D of SC1, though.

 

You're saying the immersion is sufficiently good not to notice these things, or at least not have them stand out?

 

At least not to stand out, I guess. Depends on what you mean by immersion. Doesn't bother me in multiplayer.

 

There have been complaints about the Zergs creep effects. People have lowered the graphics because they feel they can see the units better.

[RPGmasterBoo]

I just got my beta confirmation... downloading

[Oner]

I just got my beta confirmation... downloading

GIVEITTOME!

You don't like it anyway.

[RPGmasterBoo]

Played three skirmishes to test out all the races.

 

First impressions:\

 

Graphics: the cartoonishness I was complaining about earlier is in there but its significantly less apparent than I believed. In fact the WCIII graphical style only irks me when playing the Protoss which look a bit too high elfish for my taste. Otherwise - the graphics are fine. Apart from the fact that the advanced shader options cause insane things to happen with my graphics card, like the screen becoming tinted red or green (probably some ATI compatibility flaw). The animations are great.

 

Sound: the music is... well I dunno. I like the original terran soundtrack more - as far as the other two races are concerned - its okay. Overall, it does the job. There is an orchestral main menu piece which conveys a very epic space opera feel, but other than that I'm not noticing anything. The sound effects are good as are the VO's.

 

Gameplay: its there. The game plays quite differently but its unmistakably Starcraft. Of all the races I think the Zergs new units fit in best, and I look forward to playing with them. I don't feel that way about my old favorites, the Terrans because they're a little bit too crazy for me now: buggies with flamethrowers, oversized anime robots, medivac ships that heal with beams of light etc... The Protoss were never my cup of tea but now I like them even less because of the gaudy look and the weird new units, like the mothership, colossus...

 

Overall each of the races has some new strategies fixed around old ideas, like Terran barracks being able to churn out two marines at the same time with an upgrade thus setting the stage for a massive marine attack. Additionally they have a radar tower that shows impending attack, which is cool. Buildings fly much faster now. The Zerg's burrow capability has been extended, some units can move while underground and one thing that's especially nice - most Zerg units are now blindingly fast. The main new twist of the Protoss is their ability to call down units wherever there is a Prism affected area which gives them a lot of flexibility. I feel they have too many single purpose buildings, but that might not be strange given how powerful they are.

 

Along with the graphical quirks, I have experienced severe slowdown issues at times which I think is due to the game not being optimized as well as it should be, but that will be fixed in time.