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RTS Starcraft 2 goes free to play

Venser

Erudite
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Starting with November 14th, SC2 becomes free to play. This includes episode 1: Wings of Liberty campaign and multiplayer (ranked laddder, co-op commander...).
If you alrady paid for Wings of Liberty, you get Heart of the Swarm campaign for free.


 
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Grif

Learned
Joined
Nov 4, 2016
Messages
231
Is this a tacit admission that Starcraft 2 is more or less past its life as a viable commercial product?
 

Teepo

Scholar
Joined
Jun 24, 2011
Messages
892
I would think so. I played the Protoss campaign recently and it felt very dated. Paint by numbers campaign with a paint by numbers story. Kinda sad to see.
 

mwnn85

Savant
Joined
Aug 14, 2017
Messages
210
Is this a tacit admission that Starcraft 2 is more or less past its life as a viable commercial product?
Is that even up for debate? The game is several years old now plus it didn't have anywhere near the same impact as Brood War did.
Wings of Liberty is regarded as being the best campaign. I imagine virtually everyone has played it by now - one way or another.

Not entirely sure why it doesn't hold my attention like the original did, Starcraft 2 sounded great on paper.
I can knock off points for the online only DRM, plot and splitting the game into 3 sub-par parts.
It's not grimdark and it lacks the black humour the original had i.e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apgUUwwMvEE
Unit selection was a mixed bag; I didn't like the THOR, looks like it belongs in a anime cartoon.

I do think it has excellent unit path finding - probably the best I've seen.
Some people are against it but I'd like to have to option of playing Brood War in the newer engine - complete with the original cutscenes and balance.
 
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Venser

Erudite
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Nah, it's just they recently added skins, voice packs etc so they have different ways to monetize the game so this makes sense. Free to play is the future of multiplayer and it'l help grow the playerbase.
 

yellowcake

Arcane
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Alas! in my skull
Apparently you can get the Zerg part for free if you own Wings for Liberty, download this Blizzard App and log in between 8 nov and 8 dec. I loved the original, mostly because of the world, story and production waluses. Played a lot, after completing campaigns many times mainly SP skirmishes and MP with a neighbor (we had a coaxial cable thrown over the road on telephone poles for some hot IPX/SPX action).

Bought WoL on release and did not like it at all. Haven't touched it since. This made me install this battle net app already. I want to check out kerrigans ass for the last time.
 

Venser

Erudite
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btw for those who didn't know the original StarCraft and Brood War are also free to download on the Blizzard website.
 

MilesBeyond

Cipher
Joined
May 15, 2015
Messages
716
I actually thought LotV was SC2's best campaign. WoL and HotS had pretty crappy writing but with LotV it became even worse and plunged into "So bad it's good" territory.
 
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Too little too late, imo. I highly doubt there are that many people left on the fence that wanted to play this game but just haven't yet for some reason.

Some people are against it but I'd like to have to option of playing Brood War in the newer engine - complete with the original cutscenes and balance.
Sounds like Mass Recall is the game for you, kiddo.

You can't play Brood War in the newer engine complete with the balance though unless you're willing to make the selection limit 12, remove smart-casting, most autocasting, multiple-building selection, fuck around with the pathing so that units don't clump together the way they do in SC2, etc etc. So much of BW's balance is mechanical, i.e tied to the quirks of the game engine and the player's skill at manipulating those quirks. E.g certain unit comps (like corsair-reaver) just don't work unless you have enough APM/precision to force them to work, and anything in the game can basically kill anything else if you control it well enough.
I think if the balance was non-mechanical like SC2 (i.e tied to the devs changing some units' stat numbers and totally devoid of the player's physical skill input or reasoning), that part of the game would completely disappear and you'd be left with something incredibly shallow and far less dynamic in comparison.
 

luj1

You're all shills
Vatnik
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That's a good post. I think SCR is the best iteration of StarCraft. And those quirks/engine bugs are really features which I think is awesome in a way.
 

mwnn85

Savant
Joined
Aug 14, 2017
Messages
210
I have seen that mentioned before but I'm an awkward bastard so probably can't be pleased either way - especially if it looks amateurish.
Way back then AoE 2 was my favourite, followed by RoN. Not forgetting Total Annhilation followed by SupCom.
I've seen my share of Korean Starcraft videos, it's amazing what they can make the units do. I don't aspire to that level of play.

For me as far as Remastered is concerned:
Some of the new unit portraits are bloody awful and/or have been retrofitted to fit in line with Starcraft 2.
I think they've wiped out the grime/dirt/character of the units/buildings/spites by cleaning them up and adding neon glow everywhere.
Never liked the low selection limit of 12.
The unit pathfinding/behaviour is none existent compared to something like AoE 2 (which was excellent with it's formations)

Starcraft 2 felt underwhelming overall but I like small touches like the new supply depots (never had a unit get stuck in one!) and some of the new units.
Are the Koreans even playing the Remastered release?
Quite frankly if they're not using it then surely the project was a bit of a failure?
I don't see it as being worth ÂŁ13.

All I really wanted the original assets sharpened up, movies cleaned up, widescreen support and the pathing/formations improved - ÂŁ5. The unit selection for all three factions and the differences between them was always perfect.
It seems like a bit of half baked product which struggles to please anyone; the die hards will still be playing Brood War with all it's quirks in 20 years time.
 
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ArchAngel

Arcane
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All I really wanted the original assets sharpened up, movies cleaned up, widescreen support and the pathing/formations improved - ÂŁ5. The unit selection for all three factions and the differences between them was always perfect.
It seems like a bit of half baked product which struggles to please anyone; the die hards will still be playing Brood War with all it's quirks in 20 years time.
No they won't because SCR brought automated matchmaking.
 
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Are the Koreans even playing the Remastered release?
Yes they most certainly are, lmfao

AfreecaTV Starleague is at the end of Season 4, and Season 5 will be starting shortly after. The Korean pro-scene is back (albeit not at the scale it was during the Kespa era, but then again SC2 isn't at its 2012 peak either so what can you do) and people are playing the game. The remaster did not fail by any stretch. Just because Westerners can't be happy and want the game to made dumbfuckstupidforcasuals doesn't mean it failed.
 

Space Satan

Arcane
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I wonder if SCII going F2P will bring some life to it. Because every online player coming to SCII will know that at some point there will be a plank of no-life nation and upon reaching it their progression will stop.
On the plus side. SCII is THE ONLY RTS which is somewhat alive and being supported.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,889
Best thing about this for me is that I will get access to 2nd campaign for free since I only bought WoL. Hopefully I also get full access to new Commanders that were normally unlocked by having 2nd campaign.
Commander Co-op missions are best part of the MP for me since I gave up on 1v1 matchmaking long time ago.
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
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I wonder if SCII going F2P will bring some life to it. Because every online player coming to SCII will know that at some point there will be a plank of no-life nation and upon reaching it their progression will stop.
On the plus side. SCII is THE ONLY RTS which is somewhat alive and being supported.
Age of empires 2 mate,there is still pretty active community. I enjoy a game from time to time. Far superior game than sc2.
 

Grif

Learned
Joined
Nov 4, 2016
Messages
231
Best thing about this for me is that I will get access to 2nd campaign for free since I only bought WoL. Hopefully I also get full access to new Commanders that were normally unlocked by having 2nd campaign.
Commander Co-op missions are best part of the MP for me since I gave up on 1v1 matchmaking long time ago.
Why would you want to play the HOTS campaign though? The story is a pile of dogshit, and Kerrigan as hero fucked up the balance for the rest of the campaign.
 

Wulfstand

Prophet
Joined
Jul 13, 2009
Messages
2,209
I'll play some ladder now that we've access to all of it for free. I quite enjoyed the design behind SC2's zergs, they look far cooler than their sc 1 counterpart, in my humble opinion.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,889
Best thing about this for me is that I will get access to 2nd campaign for free since I only bought WoL. Hopefully I also get full access to new Commanders that were normally unlocked by having 2nd campaign.
Commander Co-op missions are best part of the MP for me since I gave up on 1v1 matchmaking long time ago.
Why would you want to play the HOTS campaign though? The story is a pile of dogshit, and Kerrigan as hero fucked up the balance for the rest of the campaign.
Where did I say I want to? I am talking about getting access to more Co-op Commanders. I got the basic 3 to max level already :D
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
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Messages
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I'll play some ladder now that we've access to all of it for free. I quite enjoyed the design behind SC2's zergs, they look far cooler than their sc 1 counterpart, in my humble opinion.
You prefer this plastic shit
Hive.png

over this beauty ?!?!
tumblr_nsqbr3pkO91skasmxo1_r1_500.gif
 
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
7,308
I like art direction and sounds of original better but I can't stand those controls anymore. For MP I definitely prefer SC II. All the UI conveniences and that perfect pathfinding.. But that's just me, dirty RTS casual. If Blizzard didn't mind risking mass korean suicides and also upgraded controls along with visuals for Remaster I would be playing it.

Anyone else here playing SC II at casual level? I started getting into it only a month ago. Wouldn't mind adding people for private or team games. I'm only Silver League though.
 

Venser

Erudite
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Aug 8, 2015
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dm6
Diamond 2, started playing with Legacy of the Void.
 

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