Warcraft III Expansion

Ultra Magnus writes "Looks like Blizzard is releasing an expansion pack to WC3. I've always been pleased with their expansions before, so I hope this lives up to expectations."

Comments

the story is amazing

[stormrage]

Cant belive that they could create another expansion to War3. The story was terrific. Many months have passed since Archimonde and the Burning Legion were defeated at the Battle of Mount Hyjal... The stalwart night elves, led by the Arch Druid, Furion Stormrage and the Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind, have vanished back into the shadows of Ashenvale Forest - intent to heal the ancient lands that were scarred by the Legion's vile corruption. The battle-weary orcish Horde, led by the idealistic Warchief, Thrall, has settled in the harsh, eastern hills of the Kalimdor Barrens. Finally able to claim a homeland of their own, the orcs work tirelessly to found and protect their new nation of Durotar. The human survivors of Lordaeron, under the command of the Sorceress, Jaina Proudmoore, have also settled along the eastern coast of the Barrens. The island citadel of Theramore was erected to safeguard the last, rag-tag remnants of the failing human Alliance. ...And Arthas, the newly crowned King of Lordaeron, has driven the undead Scourge to eradicate the last vestiges of resistance to his iron rule. His kingdom - the once proud bastion of human might and nobility - has become a plagued realm of death and sorrow. Now, driven by haunting visions of the Frozen Throne of Icecrown, Arthas plans to tighten his grip over the rest of the world. * * * ...Still, one dark soul still remains at large... For in some shadowed corner of the world, the wayward creature known as Illidan Stormrage plots... and awaits... and the art was absolutely amazing . cant wait to play this new game . Blizzard says it comes out in summer 2003 . but i seriously hope that Microsoft doesnt buy Vivendi games .If this happens , i wouldnt buy any game from blizzard

I'm not too excited

[sevensharpnine]

Some of the dedicated b.net players are dissapointed by this. The usual Blizzard fanboys are, as expected, frothing at their mouths. But this "expansion" is both ill-timed and a slap in the face to those of us that have been patiently waiting for Blizzard to fix Warcraft III multiplayer. Some of the new multiplayer features (like clan support) were hoped to be in the game originally. Many of the things they're adding are features that have been asked for since the public beta, and Bliz kept giving generic responses -- "We value the fans opinions..." -- leading us to believe they were planning on implementing them. They kept telling us they were working hard to improve b.net and planned many changes, but now we find out the changes are exclusively for the expansion!

And furthermore, the imbalances in Warcraft III are so blatantly obvious that it's sickening. The only redeeming factor is that each race has so many different imbalances it's usually possible to compete between races. But come tournament time, one or two main strategies (sometimes bordering on being bug exploits) appear.

What I'm getting at here is that I'm not excited; I'm dissapointed. Warcraft III to many still isn't finished. Map hackers (and other cheaters) run rampant on b.net, the ladder and scoring systems are in serious need of an overhaul, there has been no mention of Warcraft seasons or Blizzard-sanctioned tournament, and their attempt at "balancing" the game have become so bad that Warcraft III is nothing like what it was originally supposed to be, at least judging from the beta. (Need to kill high-ranking undead abominations? Mass frail spellcasters and rush them in headlong! No melee support needed!)

Blizzard led us all to believe that they were intent on fixing the broken multiplayer system. Now I find out that for $30 I can have the game I was originally promised. Way to go Blizzard.

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Re:Disappointed

[dghcasp]

I got the feeling that part of the reason that StarCraft was so fun was because you could be creative and play strategies that the developers hadn't intended. [...] in WC3, they capped the unit limit much lower and added the annoying concept of "upkeep".

Strategies that the designers hadn't intended? You mean "Zerg Rush from the left instead of Zerg Rush from the right?" Or BattleShip Rush with 24 battleships instead of 8? Or (insert whatever here) rush?

Almost every RTS degernates into "he[1] who gathers resources best wins, regarless of everything else." I remember reading an interview when they said that they were trying to change that model for WC3, hence the upkeep and small caps.

[1] I almost said "he or she;" what was I thinking?

Re:But, we're boycotting WC3 this week, right?

[sstamps]

>(Besides, it's Vivendi you're after..)

EXACTLY, and who gets the lion's share of the money from my purchase if I buy a Blizzard game? Why, Vivendi, of course!

No, I don't hold Blizzard blameless in the bnetd fiasco. If they really wanted Vivendi to 'let it be', they could, because they have absolutely no financial reason to attack bnetd. It's purely a control issue; one which they never had to begin with, and the bnetd folks pointed out so ardently.

Please, don't bother reciting about the piracy issue; it isn't one and never was.