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Preamble: This isn't a review. It doesn't contain critical analysis, just the subjective opinions of one person. The intent is to remember the games I've come across in my life and share the nostalgia, nothing more. And some of those games I didn't play in great depth
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3Zkm7.png)
Starcraft 3
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment (published by ActivisionMicrosoftAppleSamsungBlizzard).
Platform: PC (Windows 9 or Mac OS XII "Tyrannosaurus")
Release Year: 2021
Stephen's Rating: 2/10
I've been "lucky" enough to get a sneak peak at Blizzard's upcoming "Starcraft 3" and I thought I'd share my thoughts on this revolutionary game.
Basic Plot
Raynigon, the slightly-Zerg psionic love child of Raynor and Kerrigan has turned against his parents and has begun taking control of various Protoss worlds in an attempt to take control of the galaxy. The Protoss being psionic by nature are no match for his mind controlling abilities. Meanwhile the Xel'Naga race have scattered after the epic climax of Legacy of the Void. I'm sure you'll all agree, it was epic.
The story revolves around a young Protoss survivor, Xinef, fleeing to the Terrazerg colonies and gathering allies to face off against Raynigon in the final battle.
As a side note; I'm really pleased they got Christopher Walken to voice Raynigon. It added a nice touch of absurdity to this otherwise dark and mysterious story.
Gameplay
After the huge success of Starcraft 2 and its two expansions Blizzard have taken further steps to ensure the Starcraft franchise is accessible as possible to the casual gamer.
The first thing that I noticed right off that bat is that the Xel'Naga race introduced in Legacy of the Void has been removed from multiplayer. This is already causing a huge uproar, especially from pro gamers who have been playing Xel'Naga on the tournament circuit for the past three years and now have to roll a new race. Blizzard has announced that the race will be introduced as downloadable content in an upcoming expansion.
EDIT: Blizzard just announced that the Xel'Naga race will NOT be returning. Instead, in conjunction with Nintendo they're releasing a Pokemon race including Pikachu, Jigglypuff, and all your favourite Pokefriends.
One huge difference from the original game is the way unit upgrades work. Instead of spending minerals or gas at a forge/engineering bay/evolution chamber etc all races have an "auction house" building where players can purchase upgrades for the units in real time with real money using micro-transactions. Players need to top up their Blizzard account prior to playing in order to purchase upgrades. GSL and MLG officials are in talks with Blizzard to see this changed for professional tournaments but the outlook is pretty bleak. Blizzard officials stated that "By providing upgrades for real money we're adding a new layer of metagame to the game. When you have the choice between eating tonight or upgrading your zealots to 3/3/3 it really makes you weigh up your options."
EDIT: The auction house is also rumoured to give you the ability to place destructible rocks wherever you like over the map. A common strategy on the beta ladder was to wall up the enemies half of the map (usually costing around $20-30 for a medium to long game) while you tech up to Ultralords and then sweep in for the kill.
Another huge change in the game mechanics is that all workers have an "auto harvest" and "auto build" function similar to the auto-repair option on SCV's in SC2. Players can opt to have their entire base automated so they don't have to deal with macro at all. Blizzard has stated they wanted to take all that hassle of worrying about macro out of the game so player's could focus on winning battles and admiring the game units.
Special abilities have also been removed and there are no "caster" units in the game. Blizzard stated that "giving units abilities which are hard to micro was unfair on players who can't dedicate a lot of time into the game like pro players, so we've simply removed all of them in favour of automatically triggered abilities".
To avoid questions of balance all units have been given a light attack with range 5. Even zealots and zerglings. Blizzard has stated that this will avoid all arguments about imbalance forever. I agree... but it's also taken everything good out of the game.
The game is now subscription based and you pay $USD30.00 per month for the right to play Starcraft 3. This is model of income is something that has been hugely financially positive for ActivisionMicrosoftAppleSamsungBlizzard in the past with games such as World of Warcraft and of course World of Starcraft. This has also caused a huge stir in the player community with many gamers threatening to boycott the game unless the pricing model is changed. This is especially troubling as the purchase price is still over $USD200. Still, SC3 is shaping up to be the most successful game of the year purely due to the reputation of its predecessors.
Positives
It's a bit off topic but at least SC3 has given the Brood War and SC2 community something they agree upon. It's nice to see the two communities working together in such a way.
Negatives
Pretty much everything.
Memorable Moments
The first time I discovered that you can merge four Battle Hellion's into an Odin I was pretty impressed.
I just re-installed Brood War and have no intention of purchasing this game.
 
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Xenif was awesome! :D I liked the attention to the important details throughout.
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Laughed the whole way through. Thoroughly represents the way I feel about the changes Blizzard is making to their games.
5/5
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On July 06 2012 08:23 zakmaa wrote:
Laughed the whole way through. Thoroughly represents the way I feel about the changes Blizzard is making to their games.
5/5
Also in 2021 e-sport IS sport, and people that actually want to get fit or use their bodies get bullied at school. India and China hold huge try-outs for their e-sport teams starting with a player pool of 100 million + and whittling down the competition in an elimination style to find their team of half a dozen. Korea, Europe, and the US can no longer win their own tournaments and can't qualify for the new big tournaments in central Asia.
Except Nestea. He has an 80% win rate against all races.
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LMAO!!!!
When you have the choice between eating tonight or upgrading your zealots to 3/3/3 it really makes you weigh up your options.
I completely lost it reading that line
6/6
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On July 06 2012 08:55 neoghaleon55 wrote:LMAO!!!! Show nested quote + When you have the choice between eating tonight or upgrading your zealots to 3/3/3 it really makes you weigh up your options. I completely lost it reading that line 6/6
Same for me, this part is damn hilarious, well done XD
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Besides the issues you mentioned about SC3, you've also gotta consider the state of Battle.net 3.0. I'm not a fan of the new Faceoogle+ integration, I just don't see the need to have your units automatically named after your friends. I hope the next patch at least gives us an option to not have the game post on our friend's walls when you get their unit killed in game.
I think they spent too much time on that part too. Do you remember when we could press enter to message other people who were playing the game? These days it's hard to tell if I'm playing another human or someone's robomaid.
And yeah, I've almost memorized the 83 character game key, but having to enter it every twenty minutes to validate your connection is pretty cumbersome. I know it prevents piracy and all, but when I'm trying to defend against an army of marinelings with high infestor support it can be kind of frustrating to quickly enter it in.
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When I read the first sentence of the plot, I thought it was gonna be a dating sim. I was very disappointed to find out they're going with the same bland unoriginal formula of mine minerals -> build units.
Micro transactions in dating sims
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On July 06 2012 09:15 castled wrote:
Besides the issues you mentioned about SC3, you've also gotta consider the state of Battle.net 3.0. I'm not a fan of the new Faceoogle+ integration, I just don't see the need to have your units automatically named after your friends. I hope the next patch at least gives us an option to not have the game post on our friend's walls when you get their unit killed in game.
I think they spent too much time on that part too. Do you remember when we could press enter to message other people who were playing the game? These days it's hard to tell if I'm playing another human or someone's robomaid.
And yeah, I've almost memorized the 83 character game key, but having to enter it every twenty minutes to validate your connection is pretty cumbersome. I know it prevents piracy and all, but when I'm trying to defend against an army of marinelings with high infestor support it can be kind of frustrating to quickly enter it in.
Tell me about it! At first I thought it was pretty funny that one of my first probes was named after my wife, but with the new Faceoogle+ integration it didn't just have her name, it started acting like her too! I swear every time I get pressured at my ramp she pipes up about how I should be mowing the lawns instead of playing Starcraft. And yeah, some of my real life friends have un-friended me because of the unit death posts...
There is another option to the 83 character game key... if you have an iWindroid phone you can install the Battle.net 3.0 authenticator. If you have the phone in shouting distance all you have to do is memorize a small tune and sing it into the phone, and your phone will submit your credentials via wifi or 6g to maintain your connection.
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One huge difference from the original game is the way unit upgrades work. Instead of spending minerals or gas at a forge/engineering bay/evolution chamber etc all races have an "auction house" building where players can purchase upgrades for the units in real time with real money using micro-transactions.
This made me chuckle.
Surprisingly, this post made me laugh a bit more than the other SC3 blog posts I've read recently. Well done 
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Awesome blog
(Though you forgot to mention how the auction house integrates with the destructible rocks)
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Well I for one am looking forward to when top SC2 pros transition over to SC3 and use their 300apm to do some sick multitasking such as eating and sleeping while the game micros and macros for them. I'm also eagerly awaiting the first expansion which should come out within the next five years or so. I hear it's going to add 2-3 new types of destructible rocks for each race. I feel like this is exactly the metagame change I need to make the promotion from "high master league" to "very high master league".
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On July 06 2012 09:22 Purind wrote:
When I read the first sentence of the plot, I thought it was gonna be a dating sim. I was very disappointed to find out they're going with the same bland unoriginal formula of mine minerals -> build units.
Micro transactions in dating sims
There is actually a new mechanic for TvT. All bio units spawn randomly as either "male" or "female". You have no control over it but the models are different so you can tell once you've built them.
Units of the opposite sex do 50% less damage to each other.
And there are some extra resources beyond just gas and vespene. There is the "likeometer" which you use to build special hero units and is only gained by gaining additional likes and comments on Faceoogle+. Also Ultralisks now have a "rage" meter like the Barbarian in D3 which they use to do special abilities (all automated of course).
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6:26 PM - snip: One huge difference from the original game is the way unit upgrades work. Instead of spending minerals or gas at a forge/engineering bay/evolution chamber etc all races have an "auction house" building where players can purchase upgrades for the units in real time with real money using micro-transactions. Players need to top up their Blizzard account prior to playing in order to purchase upgrades. Blizzard officials stated that "By providing upgrades for real money we're adding a new layer of metagame to the game. When you have the choice between eating tonight or upgrading your zealots to 3/3/3 it really makes you weigh up your options."
EDIT: The auction house is also rumoured to give you the ability to place destructible rocks wherever you like over the map. A common strategy on the beta ladder was to wall up the enemies half of the map (usually costing around $20-30 for a medium to long game) while you tech up to Ultralords and then sweep in for the kill.
6:28 PM - sheminyheminyhu: is that supposed to be a joke? i dont really get the context
6:29 PM - snip: no, this is heart of the swarm info
6:29 PM - sheminyheminyhu: its real? there is going to be an AH?
6:29 PM - snip: yeah
sometimes my friend is very gullible...
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On July 06 2012 09:33 DRTnOOber wrote:Show nested quote +On July 06 2012 09:22 Purind wrote:
When I read the first sentence of the plot, I thought it was gonna be a dating sim. I was very disappointed to find out they're going with the same bland unoriginal formula of mine minerals -> build units.
Micro transactions in dating sims There is actually a new mechanic for TvT. All bio units spawn randomly as either "male" or "female". You have no control over it but the models are different so you can tell once you've built them. Units of the opposite sex do 50% less damage to each other. And there are some extra resources beyond just gas and vespene. There is the "likeometer" which you use to build special hero units and is only gained by gaining additional likes and comments on Faceoogle+. Also Ultralisks now have a "rage" meter like the Barbarian in D3 which they use to do special abilities (all automated of course).
Do you remember when they said that the Tempest wasn't going to be in Starcraft 3? Everybody was so let down because it's such an iconic unit in the SC2 franchise. They replaced it with the Hurricane, a far less superior unit. They gave it an upgradable 44 range and each time you wanted it to attack, you had to purchase each Disruptor Meteor shot from the auction house.
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On July 06 2012 10:38 Brindled wrote:Show nested quote +On July 06 2012 09:33 DRTnOOber wrote:On July 06 2012 09:22 Purind wrote:
When I read the first sentence of the plot, I thought it was gonna be a dating sim. I was very disappointed to find out they're going with the same bland unoriginal formula of mine minerals -> build units.
Micro transactions in dating sims There is actually a new mechanic for TvT. All bio units spawn randomly as either "male" or "female". You have no control over it but the models are different so you can tell once you've built them. Units of the opposite sex do 50% less damage to each other. And there are some extra resources beyond just gas and vespene. There is the "likeometer" which you use to build special hero units and is only gained by gaining additional likes and comments on Faceoogle+. Also Ultralisks now have a "rage" meter like the Barbarian in D3 which they use to do special abilities (all automated of course). Do you remember when they said that the Tempest wasn't going to be in Starcraft 3? Everybody was so let down because it's such an iconic unit in the SC2 franchise. They replaced it with the Hurricane, a far less superior unit. They gave it an upgradable 44 range and each time you wanted it to attack, you had to purchase each Disruptor Meteor shot from the auction house.
Now that they've removed Tempest I'm planning to switch from Protoss to Pokemon when the expansion comes out. It's still in the alpha but I heard that early Bulbasaur aggression worked well against Squirtle when he played some of the developers at Blizzard. Apparently the Ratatta rush is pretty hard to stop. Pokemon units are going to be upgradeable by either buying an evolution stone from the auction house (gotta love that AH) while others evolve simply by obtaining a certain number of enemy kills.
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I support Blizzard's auction house. It's not fair for people who contribute the most $$$ to Blizzard Entertainment to have no in-game advantages over the people who don't contribute as much money. I support the game more than others so I should have more advantages than other people. Without me and other top contributors, there would be no SC4 so its only fair that we get stronger units. But, I do disagree with the purchasable destructible rocks. One game, I bought so much destructible rocks at the very beginning of the game that there was no more room to build any buildings. So when my opponent spent 3 minutes kill a rock with his probes, I just built a new one. However, because I only have a APM of 3, I had no time to macro so I was sitting on 6 probes as well. Needless to say, the game went on forever. Blizzard needs to think of ways to give richer people bigger advantages or else this company will lose my support and I will use my money on LoL skins.
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On July 06 2012 11:45 aztrorisk wrote:
I support Blizzard's auction house. It's not fair for people who contribute the most $$$ to Blizzard Entertainment to have no in-game advantages over the people who don't contribute as much money. I support the game more than others so I should have more advantages than other people. Without me and other top contributors, there would be no SC4 so its only fair that we get stronger units. But, I do disagree with the purchasable destructible rocks. One game, I bought so much destructible rocks at the very beginning of the game that there was no more room to build any buildings. So when my opponent spent 3 minutes kill a rock with his probes, I just built a new one. However, because I only have a APM of 3, I had no time to macro so I was sitting on 6 probes as well. Needless to say, the game went on forever. Blizzard needs to think of ways to give richer people bigger advantages or else this company will lose my support and I will use my money on LoL skins.
I want a Bulbasaur LoL skin...
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I think Blizzard's micro-transaction system is a lot better than Microsoft's, so no thank you.
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EPT
