Starcraft II Beta

[The Dreaming]

Some of you may know that the Beta recently came out. Well, I got a beta key (YES!!!). I just wanted to say that the game is amazing. Visually and Aurally the game is unspeakably pleasing. (The new Terran music in particular is really cool). The pacing has been tweaked and accelerated to make matches move extremely quickly. Every race has several new ways to surprise enemies and make choices that win games. Its not just an economy grind anymore. The pace has been increased to the point where good Macro is what seems to determine every match.

In addition, the new Battle.net was worth the wait. The game divides players into clearly delineated skill leagues (and gives you 5 slow practice matches, and 10 full speed placement matches before it places you in a league) Then, there are divisions of about 100 players each of approximately equal skill levels. (No more smurfing!!!) As a result, you play pretty much the same groups of players frequently, instead of perfect strangers every time. (maybe just a beta thing, but I hope they keep the divisions of 100 for release, its a great number. There tend to be maybe a dozen online at a time, so you really get to know players fast) Organizing the ladder like a sports league was an amazingly good idea.

If anyone else is in the Beta, please PM me. I play terran and have developed some pretty nasty tricks. I cant get enough of this game! There are maybe a couple of balance tweaks that are still needed, but it runs like a dream, there is NO ping to speak of, and it feels DONE.

In short, its gonna be worth the wait guys. I haven't been this excited since I first got my hands on Diablo II.

[Rigel]

What kind of machine do you have, and how does it perform?

[The Dreaming]

I've got a 3 or so year-old custom built PC running windows 7. My Video Card is pretty outdated (ATI 2600) but I have a crapton of RAM. Honestly, this game runs better than wow does. In fact, it runs smoother than SC1 does. The only game I can really compare it to is Street Fighter 4 on the PS3. (Or Blazblue, but the graphics more closely resemble sf4) For the first time, an RTS really feels like it has the twitch and responsiveness of a real fighting game, which is just as exciting as it sounds. Starcraft 1 on its fastest setting PLODS compared to SC2.

Like most blizz games, the level of detail is astounding. I've noticed so many little things that add so much to the visual language of the game, like the way creep pulsates, or the way protoss buildings lose their internal lighting when they power down due to a pylon being taken out. Every action is visceral but has great friction, like Marines loading into a medivac (the new version of the drop ship, it functions as a medic and a drop ship at the same time!) in one smooth motion (as opposed to the tedium of the first game) Or the way reapers effortlessly hop around the map. It feels GREAT, which is the mark of a truly great game. You can talk about numbers, polygon counts, rack off a list of features, or you can make a game with taut visuals and controls.

[Damelon]

I've been watching beta youtube videos. It looks very good. I'm downloading it for the Tuesday release.