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StarCraft II Beta Signups Open
motang writes "StarCraftWire reports that Blizzard has started taking beta sign-ups for StarCraft II. Quoting: 'Interested parties must simply visit their Battle.net profile page, choose to opt-in for the beta, and re-submit their current system specs by way of a small downloadable piece of software.' Blizzard's Chris Sigaty said in an interview, 'As with previous betas for our real-time strategy games, the StarCraft II beta test will be multiplayer only, and players will have access to all three races — terrans, protoss, and zerg — and all of their units. We'll include a selection of multiplayer maps, but they won't necessarily include all of the maps that will be in the final version of the game. We're making some great progress on the single-player campaign, but we don't plan to do a public beta since we want to keep the story under wraps until the game's out.'"
I signed up for this yesterday but so far haven't received any notification. My guess is Blizzard will just select from the pool of everyone that applies, possibly selecting based on hardware specs for a wide variety of system configs.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
I was beginning to feel old when I used the term "Zerg Rush" to describe anything involving lots of people swarming to get at something. By younger IT colleagues would roll their eyes at the "old man" with his dated terms.
Now there will be a new generation of geeks who will learn the power of the Zerg...
It's worth noting that this beta signup also allows you to opt into Diablo and Warcraft universe beta testing as well.
It should be noted that in order to sign up for the beta, you apparently need to have at least one Blizzard game CD-key signed up with your battle.net account. Otherwise you get this message:
You need to have at least one Blizzard Entertainment game attached to your account in order to set up your beta profile.
Well, there goes the remainder of my academic career. For Aiur!!
If you have the cards from Blizzcon or the World Wide Invitational you can use those for this beta too. Just use mine so once invites start going out should be getting mine.
I am personally glad that Blizzard decided to put a lot of extra time into this game. The longer the better in my opinion. Too many gaming sequels have been short changed because of a such a rush to get a product out there while the market is still hot(first one that comes to mind is Halo 2).
Starcraft 2 is going to be an excellent sequel because of the fact that they are not rushing it.
Are you kidding? Starcraft is remembered more for its multiplayer than for its story.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
No Linux, no interest. I won't make my machines susceptible to zerg infection in order to play.
The reason Starcraft's multiplayer is so well renoun is because of the near perfect level of balance it had.
Which kept getting updated and updated and updated... every Blizzard game has "balancing fixes" with each update. Starcraft has had plenty of updates as well. Sure, it's nice they try to keep the game balanced over time, but after a while it's like "how are they changing the gameplay this time? what are they going to nerf?" Too many of one character (or too many victories from one class) to them means it's overpowered and needs adjustment, because it's not a 50/50 split.
Disclaimer: I am not god.
We may not be created equal
But we can be treated equal.
Seriously, I am more scared of South Korea going ballistic over Starcraft 2 than North Korea having the technical aptitude to get an ICBM together.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Actually, since Blizzard only has 3 IPs, or 2.5, if you wanna consider Starcraft an offshoot of Warcraft, Blizzard should care that I don't care. If there's going to be 10 years between installments, they need to bring something new to the table. The same 3 races with the same basic attributes are not something new. People will just find equivalents to the old units, and the game will feel much like the first, with prettier graphics. You know the first bit of excitement I had over SCII? The April Fool's Day prank about the transforming base. I knew it was a prank, but I wanted it to be real, because that'd be something new. It wouldn't even be a precident, really, since they have units that combine to new ones (Templar to Archon), buildings that receive add-ons, (Machine Shop to Factory, for instance), and units that changed attributes on deployment (Siege tanks). So takes those ideas together, and make it so you need to build the components together, and they need to deploy, and take time to change. It would be a magnificent addition. Late game high-tier unit rushes would be counterable by making your base defend itself!
Instead, they take the idea, and make it a joke.
So, we have nothing substantially new gameplay-wise in SCII. WoW means we won't see a Warcraft IV for ages (WCIII sucked. I like massive battles. An 80 unit cap is unacceptable. Otherwise, it tried new things, so I can't completely hate it.) Diablo III again looks like more of the same, right down to including a bunch of the same classes. Blizzard's stagnant, and should hear from fans as to why they lose interest. I literally put hundreds of hours in to each of their previous games. I WAS their core audience. Delays may make for a better game, sometimes, but if they're not using that to innovate, but instead just polish the pixels, how many others are just going to shrug to themselves, and joke about how that's "so 90's."?
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
I registered my old Starcraft cd-key from 1998 for the first time and was really surprised when a) it actually worked b) I could download a whole new installer with Brood War included. I had a similar surprise when I registered my old Half-Life cd-key with Steam and got all the HL1 based games for free.
That's OK. Go is thousands of years old and they keep changing the komi.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
Carriers are nearly worthless against zerg, they can be plagued and ensnared, they can be scourged, and hydras can be dark swarmed making them invulnerable for a considerable amount of time. They are expensive investments and while you are producing them your ground forces stand a good chance of being overwhelmed.
Honestly you sound like I would have a year ago. I suggest you make an account on iccup, patch up your broodwar (or download a non legit copy on iccup), use their anti hack launcher and proceed to be humbled by some D- players. It is more fun than it sounds. The community is much more mature than it used to be and the meta game and map pool has advanced a ton. There is also more of an international mix of players now.
I started watching pro matches on youtube and on gomtv.net and it pulled me back in the game after 8 years. The worst broodwar players today would be better than the best players of 8 years ago. There were over 2 million games played on iccup last season (that does not count battle.net), and it is even more fun now than it was then. I suggest you give it a shot.