Starcraft 2 discussion thread

[Zixinus]

Quick question: why is there a seperate date for Starcraft 2 and Wings of Liberty? Are they seperate games or something? Or is it just VGrelease.com not keeping up to date?

[Pelranius]

Or why Kerrigan (both infested and Sarah) got a voice transplant (in the trailer, Raynor apparently had such a big head since New Gettysburg judging from the transmission of him, and Mengsk changed uniforms). Gotta love Blizzard's art department...

The Magistrate amicably parted ways with Raynor after escaping from Tarsonis. He's probably chilling with the UED captain from Episode V (there are UED Remnants in the Koprulu Sector after all).

My bet is the magistrate is somewhere bumping uglies with his secretary.

In person or through cybersex?

If I recall correctly, the adjuncts were artificial intelligences with pseudo human faces to 'interact' with (or at least they are in SC2).

[Darth Ruinus]

What's up with that planet at :58? Part of it looks like it's hollow?

[Kane Starkiller]

Or why Kerrigan (both infested and Sarah) got a voice transplant (in the trailer, Raynor apparently had such a big head since New Gettysburg judging from the transmission of him, and Mengsk changed uniforms). Gotta love Blizzard's art department...

In the first trailers Raynor also got a different voice but apparently they caved under nerd rage.
Personally I don't understand how they got the impression they need to "upgrade" the voice actors, the original voiceactor did a perfectly good job. It's not as if this is Hamlet or something.
Apparently Kerrigan is now voiced by Tricia Helfer who is...Number Six from nBSG!! Whop-de-do who gives a fuck. She actually does a worse job in that trailer than original voiceactor in the mission.

[Thanas]

Or why Kerrigan (both infested and Sarah) got a voice transplant (in the trailer, Raynor apparently had such a big head since New Gettysburg judging from the transmission of him, and Mengsk changed uniforms). Gotta love Blizzard's art department...

In the first trailers Raynor also got a different voice but apparently they caved under nerd rage.
Personally I don't understand how they got the impression they need to "upgrade" the voice actors, the original voiceactor did a perfectly good job. It's not as if this is Hamlet or something.
Apparently Kerrigan is now voiced by Tricia Helfer who is...Number Six from nBSG!! Whop-de-do who gives a fuck. She actually does a worse job in that trailer than original voiceactor in the mission.

So that's whats been bugging me about her. Yeah, I do not get why they would want to replace her.

[General Zod]

Quick question: why is there a seperate date for Starcraft 2 and Wings of Liberty? Are they seperate games or something? Or is it just VGrelease.com not keeping up to date?

What are you talking about? Wings of Liberty is just the subtitle for Starcraft 2. The official release date pretty much everywhere is 7.27.

[Zixinus]

Quick question: why is there a seperate date for Starcraft 2 and Wings of Liberty? Are they seperate games or something? Or is it just VGrelease.com not keeping up to date?

What are you talking about? Wings of Liberty is just the subtitle for Starcraft 2. The official release date pretty much everywhere is 7.27.

On VGreleases.com there is a separate entry and different boxart for just "Starcraft 2" and a different entry for "Starcraft 2: Wing of Liberty".

I was a bit confused, thinking they'll make an expansion pack on release or make a separate version. But I guess I was just assuming wrong.

[Pelranius]

The Zerg and Protoss campaigns each get their own separate games (it took Brood Wars seven months to come out after Starcraft, but Blizzard certainly likes to take it slow). I just hope I don't have to pay $50 or $60 for each one.

[General Zod]

The Zerg and Protoss campaigns each get their own separate games (it took Brood Wars seven months to come out after Starcraft, but Blizzard certainly likes to take it slow). I just hope I don't have to pay $50 or $60 for each one.

The Protoss-centric game has the subtitle Legacy of the Void. Given it's supposed to be its own game and isn't scheduled to be out until 2011, I'd expect it would be pretty close to full retail price.

[Pelranius]

Hmm, anyways I wonder how much of the plot the trailer gave away already?

[Darksider]

A quick note, for those who don't want to buy the game, but are still interested in the story, it looks like someone is already starting to put the cinematics up on youtube.

Obviously, huge-ass spoiler alert

EDIT: damn it. I wish I hadn't found those. I'm trying to play it spoiler-free and I have no willpower.

[Pelranius]

To be honest, the cinematics confirmed exactly what I would thought would happen since I felt "Ghosts of the Pasts" and Blizzard's interviews pretty much telegraphed the entire plot already.

Looks like they went for the Bioware approach to some of the secondary stuff. That is really going to mess lore up ten ways from Sunday.

[Seggybop]

To be honest, the cinematics confirmed exactly what I would thought would happen since I felt "Ghosts of the Pasts" and Blizzard's interviews pretty much telegraphed the entire plot already.

Looks like they went for the Bioware approach to some of the secondary stuff. That is really going to mess lore up ten ways from Sunday.

I didn't see them (and don't want to yet) but if you mean they've gone with branching storylines it's no worse than what Blizzard's already done in the past. Warcraft 1 and 2 had the human and orc campaigns take place concurrently, with irreconcilable differences (whoever you were playing as ended up winning the war). To rectify continuity for the following game, they simply picked whichever ending they wanted to go with, mashed in some elements from the other campaign, and called it good.

[Pelranius]

I watched all the cinematics (no loss since they pretty much confirmed my guesses about the plot, except for some fluff involving secondary characters).

MAJOR SPOILERS

REVEAL AT YOUR OWN RISK (sorry for the all caps, I just wanted to cover my ass)
Spoiler

So what happened to the Invasion of Korhal mission? I mean, there was even a screenshot of the Korhal tileset with singleplayer only Diamondbacks and Goliaths. Or they just couldn't be bothered to come up with a cinematic for it, like the alleged Aiur mission (both planets have profiles on the game guide on the battle net website).

Since when did the Raiders get multiple battlecruisers at New Folsom (or did the Umojans, Morians and remnant Confederates, UED leftovers finally realize how dangerous Mengsk is?). I mean they're only a rag tag outfit of a few hundred.

And how the fuck did Valerian just grab half the Dominion Fleet and not have Mr. Emperor notice?

Hopefully the in mission dialogue of the single player will clear that crap up.

[dworkin]

But seriously whatever happened to the Magistrate? He seemed like a cool and in control guy even if not too talkative.

Went to the toliet or the fridge and forgot to F10?

[Thanas]

Alright guys, we had our fun, now lets get back on topic.

[Ghost Rider]

After doing what I would've done anyway(watching the entire CGI sequences), I guess as someone said above, it is 22-26 straight missions with a little splash of choice missions. I'll play another of the RTS, and not get something that is new graphics, same engine. And I did play a little of multi on a friend's beta...rather underwhelming on how many old tactics work and how many new little shit manuvers there still are.

Though I have to really, really, really fucking wonder what they are going to do for the Zerg expansion and Protoss, unless they are going to go fuck over this ending and go the 40K route. Sadly given what I've seen, Blizzard will just throw another Deus Ex Machina, and likely at the end of SC2? It'll pave the way to SC3.
Spoiler

If wondering, all through this Zeratul makes some mysterious goobledey gook of Kerrigan being NEEDED. So what does the ending do? Look Jim Raynor, you get your chick back to her nekkid human self!!! Thanks to the Deus Ex Xel'Naga wonder box! Wait, but isn't she needed?! So are we going to have a cliched she's still merged with the Zerg, backstab Jimmy, but in the end do what is needed? Oh wait, the story has gone no fucking where!

[Singer]

I'm mildly interested in SC2's single player and barely interested in its multiplayer. However, all of my friends are getting the game to play multiplayer. So even though I probably would have just waited for a price drop on SC2 and bought it later, I've had to preorder it. Oh well.

I'm the type of person that can still get into a story even after spoilers, so I guess I'll go watch those cinematics.

[Pelranius]

Spoiler

My guess is that someone else might take up the Zerg, hopefully. Duran is out there (and his boss) and they probably could cook up another Overmind or something. There is a player profile pic of the Overmind for Battle net.

[Pelranius]

Spoiler

Arcturus Mengsk is probably the most incompetent tyrant ever. First his son sneaks off with half the fleet (and apparently ran the Moebius Foundation under his nose).

The press conference performance reminded me of the time Sarah Palin got interviewed by Katie Couric.

He's probably lost Korhal (I got the impression that Mengsk was at an 'undisclosed location', just a hunch), might have to do with all those angry Tarsonian refugees, who probably make up a majority of the planet's population, if the Game Guide on the battle net is correct. Thinking about it some more, Mengsk off in hiding makes more sense on why he didn't run over to reign in Valerian and Warfield or just nuke Char during the ending cinematic.

And finally, how hard would it have been to set a remote detonator or dead man's switch in Tychus's marine powered armor, as a failsafe? Raynor shoots Findlay in "Showdown", Findlay's powercells/reactor goes boom.

Speaking of Tychus, who else doesn't think he's dead? Since Blizzard sank so much of their SC2 marketing on him, he might still be around. And we have Stukov's precedent if they really want another Zerg character for Heart of the Swarm.

[Ghost Rider]

Spoiler

Arcturus Mengsk is probably the most incompetent tyrant ever. First his son sneaks off with half the fleet (and apparently ran the Moebius Foundation under his nose).

The press conference performance reminded me of the time Sarah Palin got interviewed by Katie Couric.

He's probably lost Korhal (I got the impression that Mengsk was at an 'undisclosed location', just a hunch), might have to do with all those angry Tarsonian refugees, who probably make up a majority of the planet's population, if the Game Guide on the battle net is correct. Thinking about it some more, Mengsk off in hiding makes more sense on why he didn't run over to reign in Valerian and Warfield or just nuke Char during the ending cinematic.

And finally, how hard would it have been to set a remote detonator or dead man's switch in Tychus's marine powered armor, as a failsafe? Raynor shoots Findlay in "Showdown", Findlay's powercells/reactor goes boom.

Speaking of Tychus, who else doesn't think he's dead? Since Blizzard sank so much of their SC2 marketing on him, he might still be around. And we have Stukov's precedent if they really want another Zerg character for Heart of the Swarm.

Pfft...he'll show up again in the final SC2 cinema going "The true enemy will now show itself!" while smoking a cigar.

Again, more and more of this game looks to be even dumber storytelling then the first mixed with "And for you, Koreans...MULTIPLAYER!".

[Thanas]

Can we please not discuss the story in here? Some (=me) want to play the game in Single Player to find out. (My brother caved and preordered the thing, so I'll get to play it as well).

[Andrew_Fireborn]

I'm impressed with some of the cinematics...

But a lot of it is rather underwhelming... The glass and liquid effects in pretty much ever Raynor cutscene look like they could be pulled off in Quake generation games... The few casings we see are rather glaringly octagonal...

Contrast with Zeratul's smoke effects, which look downright awesome...

Also deeply amusing that they're just now doing what Westwood did almost 2 decades ago now... (Cutscenes between pretty much every mission.)



In anycase: I was mildly for getting it, but the Activisioning of many features had lead teh Neutral-good feeling to a very firm No. Remains to be seen how much of the negatives actually get stripped away... but there's too damn many of them.

[Samuel]

Zeratul did indeed look awesome although watching that scene I couldn't help wondering why Kerrigen has high heels (was there an opening for sailor char?), why she was so overconfident and why he decided to climb out instead of teleporting.

I'm guessing the reason for the varied effects is that they used the game engine to make the cutscene and the items that were poorly rendered are those that are unlikely to be seen on the battlefield or likely to be in such number they want to keep them simple.

[Pelranius]

I'm impressed with some of the cinematics...

But a lot of it is rather underwhelming... The glass and liquid effects in pretty much ever Raynor cutscene look like they could be pulled off in Quake generation games... The few casings we see are rather glaringly octagonal...

Contrast with Zeratul's smoke effects, which look downright awesome...

Also deeply amusing that they're just now doing what Westwood did almost 2 decades ago now... (Cutscenes between pretty much every mission.)



In anycase: I was mildly for getting it, but the Activisioning of many features had lead teh Neutral-good feeling to a very firm No. Remains to be seen how much of the negatives actually get stripped away... but there's too damn many of them.

There are only twenty cutscenes and there are twenty six missions (actually twenty nine, but you can only play twenty six in one go). Maybe there are some cutscenese that didn't make it to the DVD?