StarCraft II Hasn't Been Delayed Again Yet

[Valiance]

I've enjoyed a lot of RTS games since the announcement of Starcraft 2.

Dawn of War 2 was awesome.
Supreme Commander Forged Alliance is/was awesome...
Command and Conquer 3 was kinda meh to me, but a lot of people thought it was alright...
Empire Earth 3 was pretty good.
I never got to try Universe at War or World in Conflict.
Dawn of War Soulstorm came out, but I never got to play it.
Sins of a Solar Empire I still need to buy, but I've played it, and combine SupCom with MoO and there's the game. Incredible.

Anyway, what I was going to get at is that Blizzard is not trying to revolutionize the industry. They are not trying to compete with any of the other RTS games coming up like Command and Conquer 4 or SupCom 2 (which is coming out probably the same year), or the next Sins of a Solar Empire expansion.

Blizzard is going to make a sequel to Starcraft, and that is what it will be. Single player will be a "Dawn of War 2" sequel for me. A new interesting campaign mode that has upgrades/unlockables like everything has nowadays (even Order of War, lol). It will be easier than the original, have yet another compelling story, and it will be wonderful for 2 weeks, tops.

The multiplayer, well...



It's going to be different than anything I currently play, and I hope it holds its own, but I get the feeling it won't be nearly as competitive as the first game, even though they're designing it to be. It will probably be ~War 3 style where 150 APM is more than enough to do anything (Not that this is a bad thing!), and mobile armies and jumping/climbing over terrain will probably be the brunt of most strategies.

Of course it will get into WCG, PGT, WGT, iCCup (if that's still around?), GGL, ESL, NGL, whatever, just because it's "WHOMG, STARCRAFT 2" even if it's not balanced, good, interesting, skillful, if the packaged maps suck, etc.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All I mean is that it's going to be a huge financial success, but probably won't be remotely as personally satisfying as I hoped it would be. The more I see of the game, the worse it is, and the less impressed I am by it. Features I have come to expect from RTS games are things that they're bragging about: Multiple Building select, ranked online matches, recording/replaying demos, infinite unit select, etc.

It seems that the game has features that Total Annihilation did BACK IN 1997, because those have become standards of the industry today. And that Starcraft has nothing interesting or special to make it stand out aside from its storyline and its fanbase. And if people just love a game because millions of others purchased it as well, then... Then I guess I just won't ever understand.

By the way, if you ever play Starcraft Competitively and are interested in a few things, check out Team Liquid [http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=101195], who have also gotten plenty of time with the SC2 closed beta.

I've been following this stuff and it just seems ridiculous, simply ridiculous, and I know Blizzard will change things and use their development band-aids, but when you have a baseline design that has problems like these, they might need to work their balance from the ground up (again).

TL;DR:

I don't care if it hasn't been delayed again, even if it comes out in 2010, it won't be good enough, if it comes out in 2011 it won't be good enough, if it came out today it wouldn't be good enough to bear the name Starcraft 2.

 

[Valate_v1legacy]

World of Starcraft: Release date: Why do you care? You'll be dead!

I'd play it...

 

[Worgen]

well its blizzard so you can rest assured it will be delayed at some point

 

[samsonguy920]

I dunno Root, I doubt Blizzard are going to go bust anytime soon...

I was more angling for the idea that DNF would have had to cure cancer for it to have been accepted after all this time. When they dumped the Ghost Stealth game, and all the rest of the Starcraft goodies I was upset, and with the amount of units they're talking about, I can't see how anyone is going to cope with anything more complex than a Zerg/Tank/Arbiter rush.

I'm inclined to agree here. I am starting to think Blizzard is getting too attached to its precious game (yes, I said it), that they will probably overwork it to the point that a lot of people will be in for disappointment. I guess with the money that gets funnled in with WoW, and with the added resources of Vivendi, they can spend more money to fine tune it. Never mind the fact that one can put too much into a project. I expect if this game doesn't come out til the latter half of next year, I think we can kiss a lot of flexibility in the game away. I'm still planning on getting the first part with the Terran campaign, but Blizz, if the Terran campaign doesn't wow people, and if you really disappoint with B-net, don't get your hopes up on good sales with the other two chapters.
Of course, by the time SC2 is about to be first released, we'll already have Star Wars:Old Republic and Star Trek Online, so Blizzard may just decide to say, screw it, lets make the new mmo Planets Of Starcraft instead. We'll have it out by 2020 no problem, and it will make tons of money! I'd want to see how they try to sell that to their stockholders. (Cookie to anyone who sees what I just did here) [/cynical thread]

 

[dududf]

No LAN no SC2 for me.

Anyone else noticing that gaming companies are getting a hella lot more money grubby these days?

 

[Kirosilence]

Wait.. isn't "A press release by Blizzard Entertainment in which they do not delay a game" one of the signs of the apocalypse or something?

 

[ffxfriek]

sad sad day. i want this game to come out sooo badly.

 

[Infernai]

..Lets hope this doesn't become the new Duke Nukem Forever

 

[badgersprite]

Two things stand out to me from reading this thread;

First: You know there's something wrong when you start a thread "Hasn't been delayed again yet"...

Second: Duke Nukem Forever, or DNF in short, is race term for Did Not Finish. Spooky.

Freudian slip to the extreme.

It would only be creepier if StarCraft II had the sub-title, "Tassadar's Legend: Defying Rushes!" oO

 

[Robby Foxfur]

TBH, Starcraft 2 has gone the route of Duke Nukem Forever. It's going to have to tear my world apart now before I think of coughing up for it, especially if Kotick's involved.

darn i was gonna say it looks like "3D Realms syndrome" has claimed another title.

 

[DTWolfwood]

lol if it releases on time great, but i really wouldnt hold my breath. i mean D3 isnt coming for another 2 years T.T

Blizzard needs to throw us non-WoW players a bone or two here and their man. As a Blizzard fan im literally starving here ._.

 

[Say Anything]

Future news for November 6th, 2009: StarCraft II has been delayed to the later portion of 2010.

 

[Capo Taco]

In other news, a man hasn't been decapitated by a shark-mounted-laser and Frederik Miller didn't have sex with Jack Thompson after a wild night of wii fit.

 

[Nicragomi]

I think Blizzard is afraid to release SC2. Since most WoW players are avid StarCraft fans, at least 10% of them anyway, and will probably be like me and stop playing WoW for 6 months to play this game. Hell, I might not go back to WoW until the next expansion.

 

[John Funk]

SNIP

I understand the skepticism - I was plenty skeptical when I saw the game at PAX a year ago - but ... for all that SC2 doesn't innovate in the genre, it felt right in a way I really can't describe when I got my hands on it at BlizzCon. Like, I recognize the innovation (and quality) in Company of Heroes or DoW2, but SC2 was pick-up-and-play friendly and had a smoothness to it that's really rare. Obviously they need to keep it still recognizably StarCraft - which is why they're not making huge changes other than the things you mentioned like multiple building select, etc.

I read that TL thread a while back, and I'm not convinced, if only because Blizzard has some of the top SC2 players in the world playtesting the hell out of the game, and if TL can come up with a strategy like that it's hard to believe that the Koreans can't. Besides, that's what a beta is for, isn't it

(Speaking of which, I'm fairly sure the actual closed beta hasn't started yet. It's still internal and special events)

But yeah. I was pretty skeptical myself, but I came away from BlizzCon feeling like SC2 had easily been the highlight of the show, even with D3 and Cataclysm being totally awesome. It kept Keane and me going back to play a game whenever we had 30 minutes, and we're hardly RTS fanatics.

 

[Eric the Orange]

I'm not sure if you were going for humor here or not. While it is a source of humor to poke fun at Blizzards "release schedule", I'm not sure if that is what you are doing here or if your trying to be serious.

If so, yes yes, good fun. Though I'm more looking forward to Diablo 3, which probably wont come out till Christmas 2013.

If not I don't really see how this is news worthy. You could post an article saying this every day and it would technically be true, but it would make more sense to report delays.

 

[John Funk]

I'm not sure if you were going for humor here or not. While it is a source of humor to poke fun at Blizzards "release schedule", I'm not sure if that is what you are doing here or if your trying to be serious.

If so, yes yes, good fun. Though I'm more looking forward to Diablo 3, which probably wont come out till Christmas 2013.

If not I don't really see how this is news worthy. You could post an article saying this every day and it would technically be true, but it would make more sense to report delays.

It was half joke, half report that the game was still on track (as well as all the other stuff Morhaime said that was Blizzard-related).

 

[Captain Pancake]

I wonder if they'll ever make a world of starcraft...

 

[Valiance]

SNIP

SNIP

Like I said, I think that most people are going to buy it, go through the single-player campaign, and enjoy it. I've never played it. You have. So I really don't know how it feels. I know that 90% of the people who are excited about Starcraft 2 don't really play other RTS games, and it will probably be a great upgrade with enough changes to make it a different game, but familiar enough to still be, well, "Stacraft."

I really hope it's good, and the campaign looked good from your article and from the PC Gamer article I read, but it seems like it just combines good elements of RTS games that already exist and mix it all together in the Starcraft world - which is a great thing, but I just wish it had more defining aspects.

Hopefully there's more about the economy I don't know and understand yet, or more about the mobile units that I don't know or understand which will make it a unique and compelling multiplayer melee experience. Else, it'll probably just be a "popcorn RTS" for lack of a better term.

And that's okay, but I want a sci-fi epic, not a re-skinned Age of Empires 2.

To be honest, I hope, I really hope it exceeds my expectations, but it just seems like more of a cash-in than a sequel. The campaign will be good, the multiplayer customs will be good, the "competitive ladder" will be the same joke it's been since 1998, but it will still be a place to find good games, but I just ask myself - is it a game I'll still be playing in 10 years, like I was with Starcraft one?

I just hope there's some lasting appeal I haven't seen yet; that's about it. But perhaps the appeal is that there -isn't- big innovations. I know several people who refuse to even try Supreme Commander because it "looks too complex." I think people will enjoy Starcraft 2 because it probably won't expect too much of a starting player - it'll be playable without having played the original, and it'll be loyal to fans of the original too, even fans who haven't played the original in 8 years.

So it will be a huge marketing success, but I just don't know if there's room for over-analytical number-crunching NetHack-playing people like me on the SC2 blimp.

 

[John Funk]

SNIP

SNIP

I just hope there's some lasting appeal I haven't seen yet; that's about it. But perhaps the appeal is that there -isn't- big innovations. I know several people who refuse to even try Supreme Commander because it "looks too complex." I think people will enjoy Starcraft 2 because it probably won't expect too much of a starting player - it'll be playable without having played the original, and it'll be loyal to fans of the original too, even fans who haven't played the original in 8 years.

So it will be a huge marketing success, but I just don't know if there's room for over-analytical number-crunching NetHack-playing people like me on the SC2 blimp.

I definitely think that the lack of huge game-changing stuff is part of the appeal. It's being designed to be very accessible for people who played the original only a bit - or even not at all - and even though Keane wasn't a big RTS guy at all, he very noticeably improved in each of our matches, and we both had a blast. I think they're going with "simple, sleek, elegant, ridiculously well-balanced."

But that's not to say that there won't be room for over-analytical number crunching nor will it be friendly to the hardcore crowd. I mean, have you seen those battle reports? There is no lack of strategy at high levels, I can tell you that.