Starcraft 2 Beta due out this month!

[Rob]

YES YES YES! Apparently during an investor conference Blizzard CEO Michael Morhaime said we will be playing the Starcraft 2 beta this month. This is great news :) Starcraft is one of those games that just rocks on every level and I can't get enough of all the coverage of SC2. During my WoW crack like addiction I went to Blizzcon and played SC2 and even back in late 2008 the game looked and played like a dream. I got a beta key for SC2 back then and have been eagerly waiting for an announcement for the beta release.

My Starcraft love runs deep. When I was 17 SC:Brood War was released and I woke up at 8am and stormed towards town. I never made it because I was so excited and driving like a madman I ended up launching a beautiful 67' Ford Mustang off a hill and drilled a Pine tree about ten feet off the ground. That was all at about 50-60mph. No injuries (im superman) but the car obviously did not survive although during the complete flip the broken tree actually cushioned my fall.

Later that day I had a friend I didn't know that well drive me to town and I got SC:BroodWar. I'm not that crazy anymore but... well.. haha :)

[Rob]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELhtXtnV3pg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSjRXI5XHw8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZL3sYcUI_0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3nS1zVKbh0&feature=related

[Konrad]

I was never too big of a Starcraft player. When it was new, I was young, when I was older it was a thing of the past.

I would certainly like to try this out, though I can't imagine it having such a massive following...

[Rob]

Blizzard is the massive success that it is now because of Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft. It wasn't until WoW and modern broadband that Vivendi/Activision picked them up. Although warcraft 1/2/3 was the foundation for their cash cow MMO its SC that really got global attention.

Unless i'm blinded by my fangasms then this game is going to destroy sales charts. Maybe times have changed since the first game came out.

[Konrad]

It's the times that worry me. It's not often that we see games with such a ridiculously strong following nowadays, and the community of gamers has largely shifted along with their expectations. I worry that SC will only receive a small cult following, everyone else dismissing it as a dated poor attempt at reviving a genre and why isn't this a sandbox game.

Of course, I HOPE I'm wrong. What I did play of Star-Craft was brilliant fun and if this game lifts off that's great. I certainly will be buying it, perhaps even pre-ordering... But it doesn't mean I don't worry. The main issue will also be the old playerbase, which is by all means not noob friendly. Unless they manage to make this appeal to the more casual audience, or at least somehow separate the men from the boys, most of the boys will leave.

[Rob]

I know what you mean but since I have owned every game Blizzard has released from SC-Diablo-Warcraft I know that they deliver. They take a long time to release sequels and it's for a good reason... Blizzard does quality and not quantity. I have been burned many times by other game developers but not once by Blizzard.

You nailed one of the biggest issues with the original SC and even the Warcraft games. Their multi-player had no matchmaking and I routinely got crushed by other people who were far to good. The learning curve was so steep that I never got into the public pvp game. In the end I relied on playing coop and some pvp with friends. Back when SC was new I was still hauling computers to friends houses for LAN because I was that cool. :)

Things are so different now. BNET is getting reworked from the ground up to provide a immensely different multi-player experience. There will be full matchmaking. The only downside is that LAN play has been removed from the game so you will need a decent internet connection to jam with friends. And even if you still manage to meet ultra fanboy after ultra fanboy with their 1000-5 w/l record then thats why (will not happen) - this forum is going to be a great place for us to pull regular gamers. At least thats why I am sticking around. :) Now if we can just get Jason to buy a decent fn machine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB81TKFjcfY

SC will be big. I sound like a broken record but this game is going to f*** some s*** up.

I forgot to mention that this game will be a trilogy. The Terran campaign will be released along with full multi-player and due to the scope of development Blizzard will release two sequels to cover the Protoss and Zerg campaigns. I'm pretty sure new units will be introduced for multi-player in the expansion. This is one of those times that I believe that Blizzard really is doing so much work to fine tune and create an amazing experience that they have to release 2 xpacs to finish the game. It's worth it.

This is my biggest post yet haha.

[MyNameDidntFit]

For those of you unaware: the closest thing you can do to 'signing up' for the Beta is going to (or creating) your Battle.net account (www.battle.net), adding a game you own to it and opting into beta releases.

You'll have to download a thing that gives Blizzard your system specs, but it only takes a few seconds.

I'm definitely hoping to get a key for this. I never played the original, but I'm strongly considering looking into this -- especially if the MP is going to be far better than DoWII's.

[Konrad]

Huh, that's really cool that they allow you to download a client for a game you own from battle net.

Signed up, registered ancient copy of Warcraft III, did test, waiting.

[CemeteryGates]

The manager at the LAN house I occasionally go to had a Beta key pass and he was gonna let some of his best customers (myself included) in on it, but he quit just recently. :(

[Rob]

I downloaded the SC2 beta last night and wow this game is sexy. Its everything I remember about SC except now its on crack cocaine (before it rots the brain and teeth) and has had massive amounts of successful plastic surgery.

The new Bnet interface really does look nice and as soon as my friend gets his beta key we are going to test out the voice and text chat features. Unfortunately I have only had time to play one game with the Terran race but I will definitely be checking out the Zerg sometime later tonight. The Terran THOR unit is beyond cool looking and stomps around the battlefield doing massive damage. The game still approaches combat at a quick pace and requires a lot of micro management in order to keep you units from failing miserably in battle but thats all a part of starcraft.

[Jason]

except now its on crack cocaine (before it rots the brain and teeth) and has had massive amounts of successful plastic surgery.

So it's the Tara Reid of gaming?

[Rob]

So it's the Tara Reid of gaming?
...... lasting successful plastic surgery. My mistake :)

[Konrad]

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?LH_BIN=1&LH_IncludeSIF=1&_nkw=starcraft+2+beta&_sop=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m301

/me wishes he had gotten one in the mail. :p

[MyNameDidntFit]

$450 for the Beta of a game that wont be more than $60?

... madness, much?

[Konrad]

Maybe round two will bring in at least $100. Or maybe even more since there are only two planned I think so it's the last chance!

Email from Blizzard get.

[Rob]

The beta is supposed to be 3-5 months which means that the game will most likely be here by summer 2010. That would be fantastic.

As there can never be too much SC2 here are a few links to keep it fresh.
Blizzcast (podcast) #13 which has tons of SC2 beta talk. Link (http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/blizzcast/archive/episode13.html?rhtml=y)
Teamliquid SC2 Beta videos/discussions. Link (http://www.teamliquid.net/sc2/)

[Toups]

Can't wait for the game to finally be here, I've been waiting forever :-P

[Konrad]

Oh sweetness, I just got an email about getting to play with the beta.

I wonder if I can sell the account for a kajillion moneys. >_>

I. am. so. bad. at. this.

I played four games so far, and got completely annihilated three out of four. The third time I actually gave someone a run for their money, but only because he was very new as well. Everything just happens so fast, and the fact that the game is so zoomed in all the time just makes it ever more confusing. Perhaps I was spoiled by Supreme Commander, but I really wish I could get a larger look at the battlefield in this game.

[Konrad]

I think it's only appropriate that I try to revive this, though it seems only rob and I are in the beta atm.

I just finished my 10 ranking games and got put in something called 12th Copper. Not sure what that means, will have to read up on the ranking system. The ten initial games were enough training that I can hold my own against most players I've encountered so far, and I even won the last two games.

When you're not getting swarmed and owned within a few minutes this thing is ridiculous fun. But it's also very exhausting. The fact that this is such a fast paced game means you really don't get a second to rest. Base building has to become more of a reflex than anything else so you don't sit there with three build units, unsure of what to do with them.

[Rob]

What race have you been using the most? I use Terran, but I think Zerg are the best race in the hands of an expert player.

I'm sure more skilled players then me can use strategy in their builds, but I end up racing towards a certain tech tree hoping to god the other person doesn't decide to do the opposite. Sometimes when I get stomped I wonder how some people manage to keep enough minerals coming in to build a sizable attack force and counter build against my units within a minute or two of seeing what I have. I absolutely build towers every time to keep spys out of my base. The element of surprise is the only thing I have going sometimes.

Was it someone here that mentioned Blizzard speeding up the matchmaking service for the beta to get more people in game. Something about gimping the matchmaking a bit? I'm tired :)

[Konrad]

The matchmaking service note is actually even mentioned in the game menu news somewhere. It says that they prioritize speed, not equality of matches.

I generally play Terran, simply as it seems to be the most straightforward race. I think the Zerg are just really cool, but I can't play them well yet. My strategy so far is really limited to stacking a few units, rather than actually thinking about what I'm doing. The past three games I found myself with all the resources I could eat, and limited by the 200 unit cap:

I start collecting resources and build a refinery immediately. I keep building engies until I have one per mineral, two for refinery and one builder. I start building Supply Depos as a sort of gate in front of the closest choke point (about 3) and then proceed to build my first Barracks and add Tech Lab upgrade immediately. By that time I have enough resources to build three more engies, two of them build and collect from a second Refinery while one of them becomes my second builder.

I start building a few regular soldier units as a "just in case" defence, and wait until I can afford to build a second "base", which I then fly to the nearest (preferably blocked off) mineral stash. Initial process repeats, one engie per mineral, two per refinery. Since most maps have an area only accesible by air units, I also build a lot of AA guns around it. I find that this will give me a really solid infrastructure, but I later try to expand to a third location.

Once I do this, I start focusing on building up an army. I start building Heavy and Regular troops from my Barracks (about a 2:3 ratio) while building a vehicle factory and all the necessary upgrades for those robot walkers I can't remember the name of. I keep a steady buildup of Supply Depots and a slowly AA turrets spread around the base. The combination of the walkers, regular and heavy troops seems to have done wonders for me thus far. I can target ground and air units, and have speed and armor. And I use them pretty much as defense turrets while they wait around.

First time around I didn't bother with a Starbase, last time I did and I ended up building a bunch of Dreadnoughts (again, name?) which really only sealed the deal as I could easily take out targets on higher ground.

[Jason]

I don't know if you've heard the rumours banded about that SCII was going to have an online monthly fee to play online, but it's now been confirmed, although so far only for Russian gamers.

Blizzard had previously said they would adapt the monetizing of the game to individual regions and it looks like Russians have been deemed more accepting to monthly fees than other parts of Europe.

The game comes with an initial period of online play (I'd guess 30 days), and after that, it's hands in wallets time. Blizzard have not yet confirmed the exact price, however.

In some good news for other European gamers though, Blizzard have specifically confirmed this will not happen in Poland, which is where information about monthly fees first came from.

[Rob]

That's sad that they are charging for Bnet access in some regions. Where did you hear that? I find it hard to believe considering SC2 is not a persistent world that requires the kind of resources to maintain like WoW. As far as I know Bnet was always a free service before. Even if Blizz tries to make Bnet into a full blow content delivery service like Steam then they would be crazy to charge fees. Is it the norm for Russia to get the shaft like this?

[MyNameDidntFit]

It's a weird, weird, weird story, Rob. I did some looking into it and here's what I found:

Firstly, Battle.net is not to become subscription based [yet?], this is purely contained to the Motherland.

What is happening is that Starcraft II will be available to Russians in 'instalments'... what does that mean? Well, it's complicated, but here goes...

The Russian version of the game will come at a reduced cost to standard European version and come with either 4 or 12 months of Russia-limited online play. These two versions will come at US$17 and US$34, respectively. After these initial free months there will be a monthly fee of US$4. However. HOWEVER. And here comes the craziness (rather, more of it): Russian buyers can pay US$40 to 'upgrade' their game to allow them to access European Battle.net with no monthly fee -- so, basically, you get the same version as the rest of the EU.

Right, yes, confusing. More confusing is Blizzard's justification for this: they state their reasoning as this being an option for those who cannot afford the full version of the game, allowing said poor Russians to buy the cheaper version and, I don't know, see if they like it, or something.



In summary:

Battle.net will NOT become a paid service.
The Russian version of SC2 will have the OPTION of a subscription based payment for online play, or Russians can 'upgrade' their game to the standard European version for what amounts to approximately the same price as the European version.



Sources:
1 (http://starcraft.incgamers.com/blog/comments/monthly-fee-for-battle.net-in-russia/) , 2 (http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=24262386737&sid=5010&pageNo=2)

[Jason]

Good sleuthing. Rep++

[Rob]

Yah x2

Are Russians really that poor?

[Jason]

It would certainly explain the higher instance of pirated games coming out of the country - often the first versions of cracked games to hit the black market are Russian in origin. The thought occurs that this may even be a subtle ploy on Blizzard's part, taking that into account.