Starcraft 2

[Axeclown]

Just a heads up that it's looking fairly shyte. Same game, new graphics, nothing new to see here.

In fact I'd say the new graphics are far too cartoony.

It'll do well just because of hype and the fanbase, but don't get too excited because you'll probably be disappointed if you're expecting too much.

[Mireden]

think i'll still probably buy it and play the single player campaign once, i never did play the 1st starcraft campaign before though, neither was i a starcraft franatic

[boars]

I hardly played the first one at all so it matters not if it's "samey" ... looking forward to it actually.

[Axeclown]

Bloody kids, EVERYBODY played Starcraft, how on earth did you miss it?!?

I think the worst part is when I see people asking "What's Starcraft?", then saying things like "Oh wow, I was only 4 when that came out", in various forums. I never knew I was so old.

2 will be great for those who didn't play SC, or for those who only had a brief game or two of it, but I'm still looking forward to Achron more than SC2 simply because Achron has something I've never seen or heard of in a multiplayer game. It won't have the production values or marketing, but I'd rather try the something new on the off chance it takes off.

[boars]

I'll wait for you to let me know that said other random game actually takes off

SC was around when I was playing games... I think I was just distracted by CIV or something at the time

[Axeclown]

I'll be too busy trying to create some kind of crazy time paradox so I end up with an invulnerable unit which can never be killed, or when it does, it just comes back to life again because of the wacky time vortex I've setup to ensure it can never die!

[Koenyg]

SC2 doesn't interest me. Do they still expect you to pay for three different versions of the game depending on what race you want to unlock? I still find myself playing Brood War on occasion, but like Axe says I'm not going to pay money for essentially a re-skin.

Personally, I think I'll just stick with TA and Homeworld if I want to scratch an RTS itch.

I'm looking forward to Achron as well. Maybe we'll be able to collapse the universe in on itself

[Nib]

Hmmm, I'm rather looking forward to Starcraft 2. Played a bit of the 1st one but not enough to really work out the great super strategies. I think I will probably buy it and get my micro skills up .

[Axeclown]

It doesn't have "micro" skills! Company of Heroes, Dawn of War, any RTS with a cover system, THOSE need micromanagement. When losing a single soldier from a unit can lose you the fight, and you only lost that soldier because you didn't position them behind a wall correctly, that's micromanagement. Spamming out 500 billion zerglings, highlighting them all, and telling them to head somewhere isn't even in the ballpark!

I still think it'll be a fun game to some degree because of the production values, but I'm not getting my hopes up for anything amazing because it doesn't try new things, it's just a redressed already well over-done RTS format. Send in Achron!.

[Nib]

pfft, where's the South Korean side of you Axe . need to get me a 500apm.

[Koenyg]

It's not exactly hard to hit 500 apm when all you're actually doing is randomly clicking the ground waiting for your worker units to spawn

[Axeclown]

I don't even know what an apm is, I guess it's been too long since I played SC1.

By the way Nib, I hear your new business venture had a bit of a problem with it's servers lately?

http://games.on.net/article/8534/GameCr ... ing_demand

[Nib]

Which business venture would this be?
Seriously I'm lost but for the sake of it yes, the servers are sooo bad!

[Koenyg]

APM = Actions Per Minute

A third party programme tracks how many times you do *anything* with the keyboard or mouse. A lot of the top RTS gamers sport APM up in the 300-500 hundreds, but it's from doing nothing but random clicking or building selection spam.

Not even the AI makes 12 definitive actions per second when it comes to swarming a factory with zerglings...

[Axeclown]

Oh that stuff. I remember seeing that tracked in some other RTS, maybe Empire Earth? I used to get pretty crazy numbers of clicks/key presses because I'd always be spamming control groups to make sure I had the right one selected, even when I already knew I had. I don't think you can put much stock in APM's.

Dungeon Keeper used to track it too I think, or at least tell you how many mouse clicks you'd made per map. At the end of the day, the only metric which matters in any tournament is whether or not you won. If you're just playing for fun, then having fun is the only important bit.