StarCraft 2 Review: Multiplayer

[RoosTa]

Tried loading Starcraft and experiencing problems. Installs on my mac and on update patch 1.0.1 at 66%, get an error message saying that it has multiple errors saving data. Everything just stops there. Can't get further. Please help.

Try delete the update files and try again. Its possible your download got corrupt. Also look at blizzards FAQ for setting up your firewall and NAT ports.

 

[Jan]

What all reviews seem to miss is the fact that you do get to play a couple of Protoss missions in single player as well. This is definitely not a third of a game, seeing that the original starcraft had about so many missions in total! I enjoyed the campaign SC2 a lot more than the first one.

I specifically didn't mention this because I didn't want to spoil it for anyone. It was a nice surprise. That and the fact that my review is clocking in at around 3000 words as it is

 

[Jan]

RealID is for Real Friends and not for adding every Tom Dick and Harry you run into. Hand it over only to people you trust (and there is a confirmation box that pops-up).

I've given out my RealID to friends that play WoW and SC2 and it definitely a positive thing, rather than negative as this article makes it out to be. You just need to be a bit cautious to whom you hand it out, but there is nothing preventing you from blocking someone if they are griefing you. The author seemed to have reviewed battle.net from what he read in other articles, rather than personal experience.

While I appreciate your input I can assure you everything written is from personal experience and own thought except for the region locking and custom maps issues because they hadn't directly affected me until recently.

I fully agree that you should only add people you trust in your RealID list, similar to other "real name" services like Facebook.

The issue is that you never know who your friends might add and inadvertently grant visibility to your real name and account name. I suspect that this is a non-issue for most people, but I've had enough close friends raise concerns about this particular aspect of RealID that I thought it was something a potential buyer should know about.

My intention wasn't to be negative about RealID, but to ask why Blizzard couldn't just allow you to choose to be hidden from friends of friends?

 

[*SynergyX*]

hyperions pawn all!! played a 2v2 lastnight 2 terran vs 1terran+1protoss......geezzzz....protoss+terran didnt stand a chance against them battlecruisers and yamato cannons!!

 

[Neo_X]

Also completed single player a day or so ago, and then jumped into the multiplayer.

Only small question i have - why is not all of the nice terran single playerupgrades available on multiplayer. Would have been even more awesome to have the research options reflected - for example to see some terran buildings with automated heal, and others with tech reactors(pending on the choices you made while completing the single player).

Mebe this will only follow after all 2 /3 / 200 expansions...

 

[*SynergyX*]

Also completed single player a day or so ago, and then jumped into the multiplayer.

Only small question i have - why is not all of the nice terran single playerupgrades available on multiplayer. Would have been even more awesome to have the research options reflected - for example to see some terran buildings with automated heal, and others with tech reactors(pending on the choices you made while completing the single player).

Mebe this will only follow after all 2 /3 / 200 expansions...

nah doubt it...makes the match unfair if someone has the upgrades and the other doesnt - also maybe they could incorporate it into the battle.net matching system, but i would think it would take longer and be less sucessfull in finding matches.

 

[RoosTa]

Hi Jan,

Well I've been using RealID for some time now and have never experience any issues with it. When you click the "View Friends", you get a list of names without information what their nicknames or emails are. You then need to add them to your list and they need to accept it in order to see their personal information. This is the same as adding someone on social networks like Facebook.

No one is forced to use RealID either. So I honestly don't see what the problem is here.

 

[Nerfherder]

Also completed single player a day or so ago, and then jumped into the multiplayer.

Only small question i have - why is not all of the nice terran single playerupgrades available on multiplayer. Would have been even more awesome to have the research options reflected - for example to see some terran buildings with automated heal, and others with tech reactors(pending on the choices you made while completing the single player).

Mebe this will only follow after all 2 /3 / 200 expansions...

I presume that those upgrades are balanced so it wont matter what upgrades you get

 

[Jan]

No one is forced to use RealID either. So I honestly don't see what the problem is here.

Agreed, no-one is "forced." I personally don't have a big issue with the system, but the concerns have been raised.

Consider this hypothetical situation. Your parent/sibling/uncle/grandfather plays WoW and they send you a RealID request which you receive in StarCraft 2. You know that family member has friends you would rather not disclose your account name and/or real name to.

Now you *want* to use RealID, but you don't want your information made known via your family member, but you don't want to offend them by declining their RealID request.

For the most part it's not a huge issue, but there are those out there who are affected by the current design choice.

 

[Chris_H]

hyperions pawn all!! played a 2v2 lastnight 2 terran vs 1terran+1protoss......geezzzz....protoss+terran didnt stand a chance against them battlecruisers and yamato cannons!!

Pheonix???

Well, to scout, and then void to kill

 

[Boerewors]

For me who cannot play online due to bandwidth or just no inclination to PvP against anyone, I must say R450 for 15-20 hours of gaming entertainment is really not worth it. Best to wait to get all 3 in a battlechest for a fraction of the price in 2 years time to play single player.

I am just disappointed that there is so little to do in the game. Great as the detail in the storytelling and game sounds. It is a little short ;-(

 

[Desertfoxza]

Hi

Please tell me, Will I be able to play online with HSDPA 3.6 wihtout lag ?

Anyone tried it before ?

 

[Cloudster]

For me who cannot play online due to bandwidth or just no inclination to PvP against anyone, I must say R450 for 15-20 hours of gaming entertainment is really not worth it. Best to wait to get all 3 in a battlechest for a fraction of the price in 2 years time to play single player.

I am just disappointed that there is so little to do in the game. Great as the detail in the storytelling and game sounds. It is a little short ;-(

the multiplayer is so awesome... I'm trying to drag myself away from the multiplayer in order to finish the campaign ..... difficult for me to quantify how many hours of gameplay you will get from the multiplayer experience but it's far more game time than you will get from most games out there. In my case I've already played more starcraft 2 than any other game this year; well maybe I amassed more hours playing mass effect 2 but will soon catch up

This game totally owns, worth every cent... I had such high expectations and for me to say all those expectations were met + more is a very bold but true statement.

If you dont have it, go get it... if you pirated it and cant access battle.net, don't expect to get something you never paid for in the first place. (this last statement not intended specifically for the poster)

 

[Chris_H]

Hi

Please tell me, Will I be able to play online with HSDPA 3.6 wihtout lag ?

Anyone tried it before ?

Hey, I am playing on ADSL and 1 out of 3 games I lag to death...

Also, there are different types of lag... one is where you click, wait 2 seconds and then the unit moves, the other is where you have the click lag but also every 3 seconds everything stops and then moves again... the latter is usually for all the players on the map.

 

[Boerewors]

the multiplayer is so awesome... I'm trying to drag myself away from the multiplayer in order to finish the campaign ..... difficult for me to quantify how many hours of gameplay you will get from the multiplayer experience but it's far more game time than you will get from most games out there. In my case I've already played more starcraft 2 than any other game this year; well maybe I amassed more hours playing mass effect 2 but will soon catch up

This game totally owns, worth every cent... I had such high expectations and for me to say all those expectations were met + more is a very bold but true statement.

If you dont have it, go get it... if you pirated it and cant access battle.net, don't expect to get something you never paid for in the first place. (this last statement not intended specifically for the poster)

Nope, don't have it, won't buy it till I can get it a LOT cheaper. Balancing my entertainment costs is important and as someone who has no interest in playing the MP at all, the SP campaign is not worth R450. Rather play my MMOs, lot cheaper, lot more hours of fun.

Now Diablo 3, that I can buy at that cost, the replayability will be awesome, the hours spent, hundreds and online play will be Co-Op, awesome.

 

[AfricanTech]

The game is awesome - played the original all those years ago, and they have definitely met/exceeded expectations. MultiPlayer really increases the longevity of the game. Am very, very rusty though - go my head handed to me on a platter in my first 1v1 game last night.

 

[Cloudster]

Nope, don't have it, won't buy it till I can get it a LOT cheaper. Balancing my entertainment costs is important and as someone who has no interest in playing the MP at all, the SP campaign is not worth R450. Rather play my MMOs, lot cheaper, lot more hours of fun.

Now Diablo 3, that I can buy at that cost, the replayability will be awesome, the hours spent, hundreds and online play will be Co-Op, awesome.

then you really have no reason to complain or feel "disapointed" with the campaign as you were too cheap to pay up for a really good game. people like you are the reason why I don't have super street fighter 4 on PC.

freekin cheap pirates

Oh and I'll bet that when Diablo 3 comes out you'll just pirate that too because it will be "too expensive".

 

[Lycanthrope]

Most South Africans are likely to buy the game at retail since the client is a chunky download at around 7.1GB. This excludes the amount you'd have to upload since Blizzard use their own torrent-based downloader.

For the record, you can set it to download via HTTP only, just like WoW's download manager.

I'm madly in love with SC2. I suck at MP but I'm enjoying that too

 

[Boerewors]

then you really have no reason to complain or feel "disapointed" with the campaign as you were too cheap to pay up for a really good game. people like you are the reason why I don't have super street fighter 4 on PC.

freekin cheap pirates

Oh and I'll bet that when Diablo 3 comes out you'll just pirate that too because it will be "too expensive".

Alrighty, calm down with the assumptions there bud. No need to flame me for expressing my opinion on how short the SP part of the game is. Yes, I know, it is a great MP game, good for it. Not everyone who plays PC games play MP, I am sure of that. Neither does everyone who does not like the cost of a short game title go and pirate it.

If you must know (just to clear some of your assumptions up), I play MMOs 99% of the time, which means I actually pay for my entertainment, I actually pay R120 + bandwidth costs per month for my 100 hours a month of gaming time. I don't pirate. When a good PC title comes along, I buy it, but only if it can offer me more than 20 hours of gameplay. I bought, played and played for a long time my copy of Dragon Age, which I considered value for money.

If Diablo 3 comes out and offers 20 hours of gameplay in the SP then I will not be buying it either, or pirating it. I have a very small budget and evaluating the cost vs entertainment time is a major consideration for me.

You lose your bet.

 

[bcboomslang]

It is a really awesome game, but I have to play offline. For some reason I can not log on to Battle.net servers. I struggled like an hour the first time just to create a player and since have not even gotten past the "enter here" screen when loggin on. So now I just keep logged off, wait for the play Offline and then do the campaign. I so want to play the multiplayer, but it seems not to be possible.

I have tried everything I could think off. I first thought it was my firewall, so I changed the settings - didn't work. So I turned it completely off - still doesn't work. I think it may be my iBurst - which is working perfectly fine, I am one of the lucky ones probably getting decent speeds, probably got something to do that if I open my window I can see their relay. So I think I will probably just except it and go on with my life...

Unless one of you wizards here has any idea what I can try.