Starcraft 2 - Which campaign will you be buying?

[darkxshade]

Lets not turn this into a Activision/Blizzard greed debate. We all know they will be selling the campaigns separately w/ no LAN. There are (or will be?) threads devoted for those boycotting and we know how well that turned out for MW2. I'm more curious as to which copy you will be buying on release. So what is your preferred race?

That said, any idea if they will be releasing all 3 campaigns simultaneously or will they release them individually one after another? Since the original SC were played in a specific order, I'm worried they might do the latter which could also be taken as trying to milk the system for more money.

Anyway, I got a couple friends who plan on buying them so between the 3 of us, we'll each be buying a copy and swap campaigns when we're done. Personally I already got dibs on the Protoss campaign. I always liked their style of play even though I was better at the Zerg.

 

[dank69]

I don't know if I'd call myself a die hard fan, but I will get all 3 and I'm sure all 3 will be worth the money.

 

[ScorcherDarkly]

They're releasing them one after another, not simultaneously. The Terran campaign, "Wings of Liberty", is first, with the Zerg "Heart of the Swarm" second, and finally the Protoss "Legacy of the Void". Basically, they're pre-planning the expansion packs. I don't think it is known whether you'll NEED WoL in order to play the Zerg and/or Protoss campaigns. If they're released as expansion packs, I would imagine you will need one to play the other. Since they're all supposed to be the same story line, it wouldn't make much sense to be playing the second part without having any knowledge of the first.

Honestly I don't understand what the big controversy over this is. Instead of making 3 separate stories over the main game and 2 xpacs, they're making one longer story. Its essentially episodic gaming, with massive amounts of content in each episode. Leaving out LAN support is something I understand getting riled up about. Being upset that you're getting a bigger and better campaign experience isn't.

 

[Liet]

Honestly I don't understand what the big controversy over this is. Instead of making 3 separate stories over the main game and 2 xpacs, they're making one longer story. Its essentially episodic gaming, with massive amounts of content in each episode.

Bolded by me.

IF this were true, I'd be just fine with it... However, I have little faith in large gaming developers anymore, and wouldn't be surprised if they caved to the pressure from console ports and felt that 10 hours storyline per game is acceptable.

I want a looong game, dammit. A game with the length of CoD4 is unacceptable.

 

[darkxshade]

ahh well, then that pretty much kills my poll.

So the Zerg & Protoss campaigns are essentially expansion packs without new units(for the terrans) like Brood Wars was? Wow, that certainly throws a wrench into my plan. :hmm:

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I assumed this thread was a necro from when sc2 was first announced as I could have understood the confusion then. I am disappoint to see that it's from today. I might be wrong, but I have the same impression scorcher has that the two other campaigns will be expansions; in any case, they're not being released at the same time. That would be like Dragon Age retarded right there and BA isn't EA quite yet.

 

[invidia]

I don't recall Blizzard saying if they were going to be expansions or stand-alone games. Too early to tell.

If I'm wrong, please correct me with "Blue" posts/official announcement.

 

[Udgnim]

must be a lot of misinformation or misunderstanding of information going on

there is only 1 campaign that will be initially released and that will be the Terran campaign. Protoss and Zerg campaigns will be released later as expansions (MSRP unknown).

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Bolded by me.

IF this were true, I'd be just fine with it... However, I have little faith in large gaming developers anymore, and wouldn't be surprised if they caved to the pressure from console ports and felt that 10 hours storyline per game is acceptable.

I want a looong game, dammit. A game with the length of CoD4 is unacceptable.

Yea but given Blizzard's track record, Im not too worried about this one.

 

[zylander]

So there is not going to be any LAN play with SC2?

.....what.....the...fuck... Guess my friends and I will be stuck playing SC1 on our Wednesday SC LAN nights. If this is indeed true then I wont be buying any of them, Ill just pirate them off bittorrent...fuckers.

 

[vshah]

So there is not going to be any LAN play with SC2?

.....what.....the...fuck... Guess my friends and I will be stuck playing SC1 on our Wednesday SC LAN nights. If this is indeed true then I wont be buying any of them, Ill just pirate them off bittorrent...fuckers.

you can still play with your friends, you just each need a copy of the game, which being die hard sc fans, i'm sure you would buy anyway, right?

 

[MJinZ]

Look at it this way - one main game (terran) and 2 expansion packs are confirmed. But they are "stand - alone" packages, so for any fan of the games really, why wouldn't you buy all three?

Obviously it's Blizzard's way of raping you for money, but they are one of the few remaining PC developers out there making good games so they deserve some tight ends.

 

[shortylickens]

None until I play some demos.
And I wont boycott out of anger. If it doesnt interest me I wont buy. I know theres more than enough die-hard fans here in Anandtech who will test the game for me on opening day.

 

[Pantlegz]

I don't understand why people have an issue with the way they're releasing SC2. each campaign will have more missions, and play time than the original SC did and you'll get all 3 races for MP from the start. It's not like you're getting 10 missions or whatever for $50. I can sort of understand the lack of LAN being a downer but really?! it's that big of a deal? I guess you guys can be like the L4D2/CoD MW2 guys and 'boycott' the game...

 

[zylander]

you can still play with your friends, you just each need a copy of the game, which being die hard sc fans, i'm sure you would buy anyway, right?

That would entail us all getting on Bnet on one internet connection in the same house.

Ill probably still end up buying it, thats just really lame.

 

[darkxshade]

Look at it this way - one main game (terran) and 2 expansion packs are confirmed. But they are "stand - alone" packages, so for any fan of the games really, why wouldn't you buy all three?

Obviously it's Blizzard's way of raping you for money, but they are one of the few remaining PC developers out there making good games so they deserve some tight ends.

They are not "stand-alone" if you need one to play the other. If they come as a single game and 2 expansions for all 3 campaigns as hinted, I'd buy all 3 for the fact that you would assume(and expect) the expansion packs would be charged like expansion packs(and not like a stand alone copy at $60). Because the full $60 for the actual game come with the campaign and bnet the while expansion are just campaign add-ons. I wasn't about to buy all 3 copies at "stand alone" prices and Blizzard doesn't get a pass to charge like that just because they have a great track record. There is such a thing as drawing a line.

 

[Kabob]

They're releasing them one after another, not simultaneously. The Terran campaign, "Wings of Liberty", is first, with the Zerg "Heart of the Swarm" second, and finally the Protoss "Legacy of the Void". Basically, they're pre-planning the expansion packs. I don't think it is known whether you'll NEED WoL in order to play the Zerg and/or Protoss campaigns. If they're released as expansion packs, I would imagine you will need one to play the other. Since they're all supposed to be the same story line, it wouldn't make much sense to be playing the second part without having any knowledge of the first.

Honestly I don't understand what the big controversy over this is. Instead of making 3 separate stories over the main game and 2 xpacs, they're making one longer story. Its essentially episodic gaming, with massive amounts of content in each episode. Leaving out LAN support is something I understand getting riled up about. Being upset that you're getting a bigger and better campaign experience isn't.

+1, you're going to have to buy Terran, the others will be expansions.

 

[Maximilian]

Look at it this way - one main game (terran) and 2 expansion packs are confirmed. But they are "stand - alone" packages, so for any fan of the games really, why wouldn't you buy all three?

Obviously it's Blizzard's way of raping you for money, but they are one of the few remaining PC developers out there making good games so they deserve some tight ends.

Yup exactly, ill be buying all 3. With the lack of good PC centric games around im glad there will be 3 new starcraft games instead of just 1. Gives us RTS fans somthing to look forward too.

 

[Fenixgoon]

i don't play WoW, but I'll pay whatever blizzard wants for SC2 (all 3 campaigns)

 

[zerocool84]

But they already said that you'll get the full multi-play experience with any of the stand-alone games you buy. The only difference so far they've said is the single play.

 

[lsv]

Will you be able to play online without purchasing the extra packs? I want to be able to play Protoss without having to buy all three.... Also I won't be playing the campaign, just online heh

 

[invidia]

Will you be able to play online without purchasing the extra packs? I want to be able to play Protoss without having to buy all three.... Also I won't be playing the campaign, just online heh

Yes, you get the whole multi-player package with one game. The expansions are primary to add onto the single-player experience.

As for the NO LAN support, it won't be like that for the rest of the games. If you kept up with the news and tidbits, you'll know that LAN support is more than likely possible in the future.

 

[simonizor]

Bolded by me.

IF this were true, I'd be just fine with it... However, I have little faith in large gaming developers anymore, and wouldn't be surprised if they caved to the pressure from console ports and felt that 10 hours storyline per game is acceptable.

I want a looong game, dammit. A game with the length of CoD4 is unacceptable.

You obviously know absolutely nothing about Blizzard. They are not going to half ass any game that they put out, let alone one that's been in planning for over ten years. What in the hell kind of nonsense are you babbling about console ports? Blizzard is one of the top PC developers and hasn't released a console game in 15 years, what makes you think that they are going to "cave into the pressure from console ports" and release a sub par game?

To those of you who are "boycotting" SC2 because of these pre-planned expansion packs, good riddance.. Less idiots to deal with in game. They are obviously trying to make SC2 an epic game by releasing each race's campaign separately so they can have a huge amount of content in each race's campaign, not just to rip you off. Blizzard is one of the few PC developers left that is in the business of making great games instead of trying to make as much money as they can with as little effort as possible (like Infinity Ward).

Comparing CoD to anything that Blizzard releases is just ridiculous. Infinity Ward has been porting their PC games from consoles since CoD2. Blizzard has never and probably will never do this.

And to all of you bitching about no LAN play, Blizzard has this little server invention thing called BATTLE.NET. You connect to it, there's a chat lobby, you can find all of your friends, host games, join games, and many other things. Why do you need LAN play? The only reason that I can see for anyone to absolutely need LAN play is if they're too cheap to afford multiple copies of the game and want to have a single copy running on multiple machines, which is EXACTLY what blizzard is trying to get rid of. If you want to play with your friends, have them buy their own copy and connect to Battle.net. What's so hard about that?

 

[Maximilian]

You obviously know absolutely nothing about Blizzard. They are not going to half ass any game that they put out, let alone one that's been in planning for over ten years. What in the hell kind of nonsense are you babbling about console ports? Blizzard is one of the top PC developers and hasn't released a console game in 15 years, what makes you think that they are going to "cave into the pressure from console ports" and release a sub par game?

To those of you who are "boycotting" SC2 because of these pre-planned expansion packs, good riddance.. Less idiots to deal with in game. They are obviously trying to make SC2 an epic game by releasing each race's campaign separately so they can have a huge amount of content in each race's campaign, not just to rip you off. Blizzard is one of the few PC developers left that is in the business of making great games instead of trying to make as much money as they can with as little effort as possible (like Infinity Ward).

Comparing CoD to anything that Blizzard releases is just ridiculous. Infinity Ward has been porting their PC games from consoles since CoD2. Blizzard has never and probably will never do this.

And to all of you bitching about no LAN play, Blizzard has this little server invention thing called BATTLE.NET. You connect to it, there's a chat lobby, you can find all of your friends, host games, join games, and many other things. Why do you need LAN play? The only reason that I can see for anyone to absolutely need LAN play is if they're too cheap to afford multiple copies of the game and want to have a single copy running on multiple machines, which is EXACTLY what blizzard is trying to get rid of. If you want to play with your friends, have them buy their own copy and connect to Battle.net. What's so hard about that?

This post is full of WIN. :thumbsup:

Yeah i totally dont understand the people moaning about LAN, i think its just code for "ah heck i cant pirate it now". Ive been using battle.net since 98 and its been great. I can play with and using steam chat talk to friends etc, no need for a LAN.

 

[zylander]

And to all of you bitching about no LAN play, Blizzard has this little server invention thing called BATTLE.NET. You connect to it, there's a chat lobby, you can find all of your friends, host games, join games, and many other things. Why do you need LAN play? The only reason that I can see for anyone to absolutely need LAN play is if they're too cheap to afford multiple copies of the game and want to have a single copy running on multiple machines, which is EXACTLY what blizzard is trying to get rid of. If you want to play with your friends, have them buy their own copy and connect to Battle.net. What's so hard about that?

Have you never heard the term 'LAN Party'? My friends and I get together Wednesday nights and have a SC LAN party and yes, we all have retail copies of the game. Getting all your friends together in one house to play is a lot more fun than playing together over Bnet.