Drogith Report post Posted March 11, 2013 0 days and a wakeup. So Blizzard has been doing some smart moves and slowly dling the basics of HotS and integrating it into WoL. The UI is HotS, the replays, it seems like everything except for the campaign mode and ladder are in. So technically, this will be a pretty small download... I'm just really hoping for no "error-37" or whatever it was for D3 pop up for a week. Anyone else ready to go? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Antzarmy Report post Posted March 12, 2013 Got the game today. Will probably see me on sometime this week . Weekend for sure. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Drogith Report post Posted March 12, 2013 Half the people I know were playing the campaign last night by making the game think they were in the SEA area. Those bastards. Although, I'm an idiot for just watching it on stream XD Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Drackooner Report post Posted March 12, 2013 Playing campaign, Unranked ladder, The new AI ladder vs comp., Marine Arena 2. I haven't touched ranked ladder yet, but last season I was in gold league. I'll be on tonight most the night. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
numbers Report post Posted March 12, 2013 Oh, they added an unranked ladder? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tender Peaches Report post Posted March 12, 2013 How retardedly expensive is HotS? Anything over $20 would be overpriced. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blake Report post Posted March 13, 2013 How retardedly expensive is HotS? Anything over $20 would be overpriced. Depends on how much you value the campaign. Considering how you can treat it as a stand-alone single-player game, 20 bucks would be actually under-priced. It costs 40 bucks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Antzarmy Report post Posted March 13, 2013 Did 2 missions in the campaign last night. Not bad. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tender Peaches Report post Posted March 13, 2013 $40 isn't too bad because it's Blizzard and they're a big company with big paychecks that need to be delivered. I'm somewhat pleasantly surprised they didn't go for $50. That said, HotS still seems like a glorified DLC and no matter how I look at it, the content is far from being worth $40. Everyone had good words for WoL's campaign. Well maybe not everyone, but it was considered a strong point of the game, and rightly so. Epic storyline, equipment customization, high quality cutscenes, challenging missions on higher difficulty, and more importantly the missions were extremely varied, which made them stand out among each others. That last point was really lacking in Starcraft I... After a while it just became "build a base, rape more units than the mission before". Anyway back to SC2, my point is no matter how strongly constructed a campaign is, it's short-term material. Nobody plays the campaign for more than a week. Or two, if you're not rushing through the missions. After that, all that matters is the rest of the game, and in this case let's not hide it, people who buy Starcraft II do it for either laddering or custom maps. If you've played their previous titles, you'll know just how retardedly popular custom games are. DotA is obviously the most well-known of them, but so many of them were massive successes on their own aswell. Wintermaul, TDs, Hero Line Wars, Arenas, Footmen Wars, the list goes on (I didn't really play Starcraft 1 online ). What made these so successful is that people could simply play exactly what they wanted by just loading up a lobby and pressing go. It's like a non-random, 1000x more in-depth version of Mario Party. I remember playing some really in-depth and compelling mod of SimCity on the Warcraft III engine... and it was PvP. This is what made so many people buy WC3/FT. This is also what Blizzard pushed aside when came the time to release Starcraft II. The custom games system is horrible. A lot of people complained about it, but it seems like this isn't a feature that's likely to be updated with HotS. So all we're left with is online, regular multiplayer. They're adding a couple of units. They won't add too much, because they didn't balance their game for 3 years only to have an expansion shatter all their precise work. The rest of the game is basically the same. So after two weeks, the only difference you'll notice are the couple of new units (oh and the new GUI lul). It's like comparing two instances of League of Legends a couple of months apart. Exact same game, a tad more variety in champions and items. I'm sorry but in my book, that's not worth 2/3rds the price of the original game, neither is it worth $40 on its own (regardless of the price of WoL). Blizzard doesn't even have to look any further than its own backyard when it comes to an excellent price/quality ratio for an expansion pack : Diablo II Lord of Destruction was a truly amazing expansion, which both managed to add a retarded (in a good way) amount of content without changing the nature of the game. Frozen Throne was also really good in that regard (if you can remember, FT brought in a 4th hero per race, Taverns/neutral heroes, additionnal custom game customization, on top of the usual extra units/storyline/campgains). Those two expansions have set the standard of what a true expansion should be imo, and HotS just fails to live up to them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Drogith Report post Posted March 13, 2013 If you've played their previous titles, you'll know just how retardedly popular custom games are. DotA is obviously the most well-known of them, but so many of them were massive successes on their own aswell. Wintermaul, TDs, Hero Line Wars, Arenas, Footmen Wars, the list goes on (I didn't really play Starcraft 1 online ). What made these so successful is that people could simply play exactly what they wanted by just loading up a lobby and pressing go. It's like a non-random, 1000x more in-depth version of Mario Party. I remember playing some really in-depth and compelling mod of SimCity on the Warcraft III engine... and it was PvP. This is what made so many people buy WC3/FT. This is also what Blizzard pushed aside when came the time to release Starcraft II. The custom games system is horrible. A lot of people complained about it, but it seems like this isn't a feature that's likely to be updated with HotS. You are right, they changed it a few patches ago and made it more intuitive on finding new games both randomly, and based on popularity. I don't know how long ago it was that "Twilight of the Imperial Sanctum" was made, but it's a DotA copy map that would often get burried. Now you can find it very easily and book mark it. Hell, Blizzard even started churning out their own custom player maps and awarding highly played/player created ones with custom portraits. I'd say in the past year to 9 months there has been more focus on custom games and maintaining the casual player base that due those customs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tender Peaches Report post Posted March 13, 2013 Aaah, so I guess that explains why HotS doesn't seem to mention anything about that. At least they realized they fucked up. Good for them... and good for people with imagination Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ScubaFit Report post Posted March 15, 2013 I've spent $60 on video games since 2010. That was spent on WoL. Another $40 on HoTs. So at $3 a month I get unlimited multiplayer realm to pwn and dominate in a challenging RTS. Gonna play the campaign first then join people for some games if you guys wanna group up at some time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tender Peaches Report post Posted March 15, 2013 Wow scuba, that's such a poor decision. Way to feed the money-hungry corporations. Paying for games upfront is completely outdated. I'd rather play some free to play games and keep my money for useful things. take out a zero and this cartoon is accurately me, fml Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Envy Report post Posted March 15, 2013 Don't forgot the ~$300-$600 all of us probably dropped on SG renewals for KRU to do absolutely fuck all :/ Anyway I bought HOTS too! I'm really enjoying it so far. While some of the positive changes are stuff I wish they had implemented during the WoL beta, I'm glad that stuff like unranked play is there at all. The new units seem fun too Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
numbers Report post Posted March 15, 2013 I've spent $60 on video games since 2010. That was spent on WoL. Another $40 on HoTs. So at $3 a month I get unlimited multiplayer realm to pwn and dominate in a challenging RTS. Gonna play the campaign first then join people for some games if you guys wanna group up at some time. Awesome. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Drogith Report post Posted March 15, 2013 Times like this make me glad I have a friend that works at Blizzard, so I got HotS for $10. BTW, proxy 2 gate still works XD Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
numbers Report post Posted March 15, 2013 Times like this make me glad I have a friend that works at Blizzard, so I got HotS for $10. BTW, proxy 2 gate still works XD Can he get me one for $10? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Drogith Report post Posted March 15, 2013 Can he get me one for $10? Not anymore. The employees get like 20 copies for "friends and family" at $10 each. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ScubaFit Report post Posted March 16, 2013 Damn if I were him I would have sold it for $20. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
numbers Report post Posted March 16, 2013 Damn if I were him I would have sold it for $20. Got any for $20? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Drogith Report post Posted March 18, 2013 I do belive Flash v Innovation was the only TvT I was not bored watching. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tender Peaches Report post Posted March 19, 2013 New units seem pretty fun. Especially Viper, Tempest and Oracle. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
