Star Craft II

NervousPete · **Posted:** Wed Aug 04, 2010 19:24

Oh, it's changed. 51 minutes now. GNGHN. >:(

NervousPete · **Posted:** Wed Aug 04, 2010 19:28

Now 2 hours. Still at 0.0%. Hmm. Should I restart the patching? Would that mysteriously and inexplicably kick-start it connecting again?

Dimrill · **Posted:** Wed Aug 04, 2010 19:30

I'm struggling quite hard not to say something derisory about PC gaming right now.

NervousPete · **Posted:** Wed Aug 04, 2010 19:32

Dimrill wrote:

I'm struggling quite hard not to say something derisory about PC gaming right now.

Don't struggle. Be yourself.

Ahh, the cunning exiting and restarting has solved it. Properly downloading now and only seven minutes to go with the 28 meg patch. Still, clods.

Dimrill · **Posted:** Wed Aug 04, 2010 19:36

No, no. Because if I do it would lower me down to the filthy pits that that troll who lurks in these threads inhabits. And I don't like eating goats.

NervousPete · **Posted:** Wed Aug 04, 2010 19:41

Dear Game Designers everywhere...

When creating a patching system, please do not have a 'number of kilobytes remaining' and a big percentage clocker painstakingly count down to the fun beginning, only for when the percentage bar fills have the game announce the downloading of another mystery patch and begin all again. You useless cretinous morons.

Still not as bad as the Company of Heroes patching system mind, that made my nose bleed.

NervousPete · **Posted:** Wed Aug 04, 2010 19:42

Hurrah! I cans play! All is forgiven! Stompy fun time! :boots:

sinister agent · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 7046

NervousPete wrote:

Attention!

I have bought this. Ten pound off with some saved up Game points. Excellent. It's currently updating, so I took some time to read the back story in the manual. I'm amused to find that of the dozen or so meetings between opposing forces agreeing to a parley or alliance, not one didn't involve treachery and a sudden turn-around of fortune at the end.

My conclusion: People in the Starcraft universe are thick as shit.

Heh, if that recounts the story of the first game, then yeah, pretty much. But they had to shoehorn in an excuse for every race to fight every other race at least a couple of times. They did quite well - game first, story second (although I enjoy the story and gleefully silly characters of the first a lot), and to be fair, looking at politics in general, it's probably not that unrealistic.

I'm reminded of a line from the first game's manual that struck me as wonderful. I paraphrase slightly, but:

"The bottom of the mound is filled with a twisted, cancerous soup of biological rejects."

Sounds a lot like Hayes.

sinister agent · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 7046

Atrocity Exhibition wrote:

sinister agent wrote:

It will be the same game when it is not more than twice the most I will pay for a game. Forty quid is a ridiculous amount to pay for a game, however good. It's been years in the making precisely because Blizzard might as well own their own mint with their world of warcraft cash cow. If anyone can afford to drop a price, it's them.

Not that I have anything against them specifically for the price, obv - they know there are tonnes of people who will pay forty quid, so I wouldn't expect them to charge much less. I'm not one of them, though.

That's only because the value system around games is so fucked up these days, thanks to vicious price-cutting (especially supermarkets using games as loss-leaders) and the pre-owned market. Not that things getting cheaper is a bad thing, but still, let's keep a sense of perspective.

I've made this point before, but new SNES games routinely cost £50-£60 in the early 90s (I think Doc Glyn said that'd be more like £80+ now, adjusted for inflation), I don't see how £40 is a 'ridiculous' amount to pay for a game as great in scope and content as Starcraft II is - especially considering the backend battle.net system which is essentially free, or at least, doesn't require any kind of subscription. (Unlike, for example, XBox Live.)

In fact, I went for a few beers with my bro on Saturday, two pints of Peroni cost £7.50, four rounds cost me £30. Couple of quid in the jukebox, few games of pool, couple of bags of peanuts - wallop, £40 gone in about three hours.

£40 for Starcraft II is 'ridiculous' how, exactly?

Things being even more expensive twenty years ago (when I certainly wouldn't have bought them) doesn't really change anything. Booze (which isn't even a fair comparison as it's taxed up the arse) being overpriced in a pub (and seriously, £7.50 for two beers? That's when you go to another pub entirely, sod that) doesn't change anything either.

£40 is ridiculous for any game - I've by no means singled Starcraft out for this. Why? Because they don't need to cost that much. Even before the recent trend of price dropping and download services like Steam and Direct "HEY LOOK NUMBERS R KOOL" Drive, you didn't need to pay that to get good games.

Sure, it's better than it used to be, but the fact that the games industry used to be able to shaft customers even more brutally in the past doesn't change the fact that they're still doing it. Hell, they're looking for more creative ways to do it every day.

Grim... · **Posted:** Wed Aug 04, 2010 19:55

That's just for you, though. The sales of SC2 suggest that £40 is not ridiculous at all.

nickachu · **Posted:** Wed Aug 04, 2010 20:00

Grim... wrote:

That's just for you, though. The sales of SC2 suggest that £40 is not ridiculous at all.

I'd buy it in an instant if I have a computer that could run it, or even a computer at all.

Starcraft is easily my favourite PC game.

Grim... · **Posted:** Wed Aug 04, 2010 20:00

It's worth pointing out that the game actually has an RRP of £50, which is what it costs to buy digitally, so it could have been worse.

Of course, it could have been much worse.

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Wed Aug 04, 2010 20:03

Indeed, had I played the original StarCraft, and loved it, I'd be willing to pay that much.

But except in such cases, I'm willing to wait for the first hand price to drop. (Avoid second hand stuffs when possible)

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49232

Shame that system scan tool doesn't understand dual cores or recognise my graphics card.

Grim... · **Posted:** Wed Aug 04, 2010 20:08

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11843

I think you can take that hint then! Frankly though I would be surprised if you couldn't run if your system is less than 2 years old (and isn't a laptop). Mine can almost run it and is 4-5 years old now.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49232

It being a laptop is the issue, unfortunately.

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13382

sinister agent wrote:

Things being even more expensive twenty years ago (when I certainly wouldn't have bought them) doesn't really change anything. Booze (which isn't even a fair comparison as it's taxed up the arse) being overpriced in a pub (and seriously, £7.50 for two beers? That's when you go to another pub entirely, sod that) doesn't change anything either.

These factors are both relevant, you effectively saying 'that's not relevant' doesn't magically make it so.

Gaming is cheaper now than it's ever been, and it's far better as well, I think we're being bloody spoiled with games like Starcraft 2, in all honesty. I used to drop £30 on Amiga games that came on two floppy discs, I pay a tenner more than that now for a PC game that comes with production values to rival Hollywood. (Except the cheesy dialogue, SC2 is cheesy, I won't argue that, but it's a nice kind of cheesy.)

And why isn't booze a fair comparison? If something is taxed up the arse and you still choose to pay the price that's being charged, the taxation rate is wholly irrelevant, you're still choosing to pay however much money the product on offer costs.

Admittedly the £3.75 per pint was in the most expensive (and unsurprisingly also the nicest) pub around here, but what's a pint these days, best part of £3 anywhere outside of a student union I'd guess.

Most folks will drop £40 or thereabouts (if not more) on 'a good night out', but spending the same amount on a game that will last for weeks if not months, is considered to be 'ridiculous', it really makes no sense if you look at it rationally.

Wullie · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 6183

For anything to have value someone needs to believe that it's worth something. The only time it's price is ridiculous is when no-one will pay it, arguing otherwise is ridiculous.

However... to go the other way & argue that someone's wrong because they don't value something the same as you is just as absurd.

Therefore you're both mongs :belm:

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

Well, I'm downloading the trial thanks to a code kindly supplied by Atrocity Exhibition. It's fucking slow though, it's barely achieving 0.5gb/hr.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 11:31

The campaign level design and scripting is bloody lovely. Did the mission with the

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

HUGE mining laser

last night and also the one with

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

Zeratul!

NervousPete · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 11:42

Played the first three levels last night.

Thoughts so far:

Bad thoughts:

I play a complete douche. Great, thanks Blizzard.

Argh! A cigar chomping marine! I hate those guys. Can I go back in time and punch ID in the face, please?

The script is terrible. The humour is clunkingly bad and I still don't get who the UDC are. The Dominion are the big human empire right? But why do the UDC have a news channel pro-Dominion then? Who the hell are the UDC anyway? And why don't they simply replace the plucky truth-telling reporter? Rubbish. All that money spent on a game (in both senses) and I dislike the characters. Grr.

Hmm, they've still got 'tiny fighter/ tank' syndrome. For some reason I get very irritated by a lack of proportionate scale in games.

Menu's a bit sluggish.

Wish I could zoom in and out a bit more and rotate the screen. Tch.

Hold on, this is just Tyranid-Eldar-Space Marine W40K with Confederates, isn't it?

Good thoughts:

Gosh it looks nice, doesn't it?

I like all the little details of the colony. Art director have a biscuit.

Bunkers are fun. I like them. I bet they're all cosy inside too.

Zerg burst satisfyingly.

The first three missions are obviously simplistic 'learn the controls' type things, but they're still fun. I like that I have to gamble and do extra 'above and beyond' objectives.

It's fun. But so far Company of Heroes is still better. ?:|

Grim... · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 12:02

NervousPete wrote:

Hmm, they've still got 'tiny fighter/ tank' syndrome. For some reason I get very irritated by a lack of proportionate scale in games.

The what?

NervousPete wrote:

Wish I could zoom in and out a bit more and rotate the screen. Tch.

You can rotate the screen with Delete and Page Down, I think. And you want to zoom in more? On every single RTS I play I want to zoom out. Except on Supreme Commander. That did it properly.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 12:35

Grim... wrote:

NervousPete wrote:

Hmm, they've still got 'tiny fighter/ tank' syndrome. For some reason I get very irritated by a lack of proportionate scale in games.

The what?

The scale of the vehicles to the marines etc. Only really an issue with the size of the Battlecruiser... not bothered personally by this though.

Pod · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 2568

Grim... wrote:

Pod wrote:

Craster wrote:

How do refunds work on Steam? Is it possible?

Incase no-one answered this: No.

I did answer it. And I said yes. You just write to them, explain what happened, and they take the game away from your account and refund you.

No they don't.
They refused to refund me CitiesXL. I think they might refund you Valve made games. But if it's a third party they just go "so what?".

http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/
See section 4!

Quote:

B. Charges to Your Credit Card.

ALL STEAM FEES ARE PAYABLE IN ADVANCE AND ARE NOT REFUNDABLE IN WHOLE OR IN PART.

The cunts just kept quoting that at me whenever I asked to be given a refund for shittiesXL.

NervousPete · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 13:25

Hmm, this appeared in my Trash box. Suspicious. Not had chance to check. But the typo 'logined' 'we need you follow' makes me super-supicious, as does the general smell. Super-super-supicious.

Quote:

Dear customer,

Due to suspicious activity, the Battle.net account ("Top secret," - Pete) has been locked. You logined your account successfully at 22:39:36 on 2010-8-4 from the ("Again, top secret IP," - Pete), but our system shows this IP isn't your registered IP. We are concerned about whether your account has been stolen. In order to guarantee the legitimacy of your account, we need you follow these steps:

Step 1: Secure Your Computer

In the event that your computer has been infected with malicious software such as a keylogger or trojan, simply changing your password may not deter future attacks without first ensuring that your computer is free from these programs. Please visit our Account Security website to learn how to secure your computer from unauthorized access.

Step 2: Secure Your E-mail Account

After you have secured your computer, check your e-mail filters and rules and look for any e-mail forwarding rules that you did not create. For more information on securing your e-mail account, visit our Support page.

Step 3: Restore access to Your account

We now provide a secure website for you to verify whether you have taken the appropriate steps to secure the account, your computer, and your email address. Please follow this site to restore the access to your account: http://eu.worldofwarcraft.restoreaccess ... thdwatktxs

If you still have questions or concerns after following the steps above, feel free to contact Customer Support at http://us.blizzard.com/support/article. ... leId=20606.

Sincerely,
The Battle.net Account Team
Online Privacy Policy

Anyone else got this or heard anything about it?

Grim... · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 13:29

There has been battle.net spam for ages, since WoW used it.

Grim... · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 13:30

Pod wrote:

Grim... wrote:

Pod wrote:

Craster wrote:

How do refunds work on Steam? Is it possible?

Incase no-one answered this: No.

I did answer it. And I said yes. You just write to them, explain what happened, and they take the game away from your account and refund you.

No they don't.
They refused to refund me CitiesXL.

That's exactly the game I did get a refund on!

I had to send them all my communication with the people that made the game (I forget now), and they read through them and then credited me my cash.

markg · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 16560

Grim... wrote:

There has been battle.net spam for ages, since WoW used it.

How have they got his email address and account name, though?

Grim... · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 13:32

Guessed? Look at the first link, it's blatant phishing.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49232

Yep, the URL they give is a blatant fake.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

Pod wrote:

Quote:

B. Charges to Your Credit Card.

ALL STEAM FEES ARE PAYABLE IN ADVANCE AND ARE NOT REFUNDABLE IN WHOLE OR IN PART.

The cunts just kept quoting that at me whenever I asked to be given a refund for shittiesXL.

They can quote whatever they like, your statutory rights still apply.

devilman · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 13:35

Grim... wrote:

Guessed? Look at the first link, it's blatant phishing.

I had one the other day too, complaining about my WoW account. I do use Battle.net, but only for Diablo II.. I've never played WoW.

Grim... · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 13:37

Now I've started getting "real" battle.net account emails (never played WoW either) the fake ones are getting into my inbox.

NervousPete · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 13:49

devilman wrote:

Grim... wrote:

Guessed? Look at the first link, it's blatant phishing.

I had one the other day too, complaining about my WoW account. I do use Battle.net, but only for Diablo II.. I've never played WoW.

Ahh, thankee chaps. Thought it was, didn't have time to properly check right now.

Grim..., I like to zoom in to observe the little detail during the quite moments. Nowt to do with tactical preferences, for that I zoom out, obv. As for the mangly-phrased 'proportionate' stuff, yeah, it bugs me that the ships and space fighters et al are clearly the size of a camper van. I'm not sure why it irritates me, but it does.

KovacsC · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 13:54

Should I get this on teh way home

lol

Grim... · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 14:57

NervousPete wrote:

I'm not sure why it irritates me, but it does.

You going to hate Space Cows, and it was your idea and everything.

Sort of.

Pod · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 2568

Grim... wrote:

Pod wrote:

Grim... wrote:

Pod wrote:

Craster wrote:

How do refunds work on Steam? Is it possible?

Incase no-one answered this: No.

I did answer it. And I said yes. You just write to them, explain what happened, and they take the game away from your account and refund you.

No they don't.
They refused to refund me CitiesXL.

That's exactly the game I did get a refund on!

I had to send them all my communication with the people that made the game (I forget now), and they read through them and then credited me my cash.

I didn't have any communication from the people who made the game for about 3 weeks. Then they replied in French! They semi fixed something, but not properly. I have an email today saying they've fixed it more...but I bet when I get home it doesn't work and I just have to send them even more emails they won't reply to >:(

What did you say to Steam to get a refund? They just kept saying "see the agreement" everytime I said "they've not responded, can I just get my cash back, plz?"

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

Pod wrote:

Quote:

B. Charges to Your Credit Card.

ALL STEAM FEES ARE PAYABLE IN ADVANCE AND ARE NOT REFUNDABLE IN WHOLE OR IN PART.

The cunts just kept quoting that at me whenever I asked to be given a refund for shittiesXL.

They can quote whatever they like, your statutory rights still apply.

This is what I thought. Apparently it doesn't apply to digital things? At least that's what some people over at the PCG forum convinced me of.

ps: I used to get battle.net and paypal phising attempts even when I didn't have accounts on there -- spam is spam. Always check the links

Grim... · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 17:37

This was about a year ago, when the game first came out. I'll have a look later tonight / tomorrow night, matey.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

Well, I'm downloading the trial thanks to a code kindly supplied by Atrocity Exhibition. It's fucking slow though, it's barely achieving 0.5gb/hr.

Almost eight hours later and it's 75% done. That's pretty shit.

Dimrill · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 19:15

Look at The Doc there, dangling that carrot right in front of my keyboard.

NervousPete · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 20:49

Five missions in.

You know... I don't think this game is actually *that* good. Does it get better? Because I sort of want to punch the screen in the cut-scenes and I hate the way the game constantly forces me into narrow choke points where only a couple of my guys can fire at a time. And I hate the way those retarded evac carriers kept on driving ahead instead of waiting for me the merest second, thus blundering into danger and denying me a cheevo. And I hate the way your men don't move and shoot, but instead jostle stupidly and get killed as they keep following previous move orders. (Why can't they fire AND move taking pot-shots, like in Company of Heroes, eh? Why is the squad AI so much better in that?)

It's fun still - but it just isn't £40 fun thus far or deserving of all these accolades.

Oh well, maybe multi-player is more fun, or maybe when the army gets bigger and less infantry I'll feel less inclined to gripe.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

How many missions are there? I find RTSes don't really find their singleplayer "stride" until you're tasked with a ridiculous number of objectives and it takes three hours and an army the size of the People's Liberation Army to do it properly. Then it gets good. THEN, you know how to play the game properly. THEN, you get your multiplayer on. Then you get rushed and ragequit.

Nemmie · **Joined:** 13th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 1643

Available for £33 now, so when griping remember to use new amount.

http://www.gamegears.co.uk/pc-c3/pc-new ... 1M88bTHl8t

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

Nemmie wrote:

Available for £33 now, so when griping remember to use new amount.

http://www.gamegears.co.uk/pc-c3/pc-new ... 1M88bTHl8t

You make sure you keep the gripers updated! Good work sir!

Dr Lave · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5979

Star Craft is the worse Craft.

Going to start a thread about the best Craft soon.

Oh boy yes.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

Once you're on the between-missions screen (I have Rebel Bloke and Huge Space Marine Guy in bar), how do you select to Save And Exit Game? Escape didn't work, and there seemed to be no on-screen menu. I had to alt-tab to Windows in the end.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 22:57

Top left you should see a slim menu tab (among others) hit that then choose save on the centre panel that appears.

NervousPete · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 22:58

This mission was a bit more fun, and had substantially less cringe worthy lines:

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

They mostly come at night, mostly. Zombieeees!

Zardoz · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 23:00

Glad it's picking up for you Pete. I'm just loving it tbh it ticks all the right boxes for me.

Be Excellent To Each Other

Star Craft II
Is out, I HAZ IT!!11

Who is online

Be Excellent To Each Other

Star Craft II Is out, I HAZ IT!!11

Who is online

Star Craft II
Is out, I HAZ IT!!11