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StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Released
Today Blizzard launched its first expansion to StarCraft 2, titled Heart of the Swarm. When initially developing StarCraft 2, Blizzard made the decision to split the game into three parts, each with a campaign as long as the original StarCraft. The initial release in 2010, Wings of Liberty, centered on the story of the Terrans. The newly-released Heart of the Swarm is focused on the Zerg. The final release, Legacy of the Void, will dedicate its campaign to the Protoss (and does not have a projected release timeframe yet). In addition to the new campaign, new units have been introduced for multiplayer and new maps have been added, which ought to shake things up in the competitive landscape. Blizzard has also made long-awaited improvements to the social system, including support for groups and clans.
I started playing the campaign for Heart of the Swarm today, and am very pleased with it so far. The cinematic sequences are really well done, and it has a great storyline so far.
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The issue here is cost
I'm cheap and I'd rather not pay for content I have no interest in using. Especially in this instance, where that extra content is virtually identical to the extra content I already purchased two years ago.
Probably a losing battle though, in the age of full-retail-price map packs for Call of Modern Battlefield, and full-retail-price roster updates for Madden n+1
This signature is false.
Spoken by someone who's never had to do voice overs.
You have no idea how expensive and time consuming voice works and pre-rendered cinematic's are.
Also if you think the engine in HOTS is exactly the same as the engine that was released in WOL, you need your head examined. There's been continual patching. I've only played the first 5 levels of HOTS but you can spot a lot of work put into level design, they haven't simply slapped together some new maps with voiceovers. This isn't COD and EA for fucks sake, they actually put some work into it.
Frankly $40 for an expansion pack (yes, it's an expansion pack, like what we used to have in the Good Old Days(TM) before DLC) that has almost as much content as the original is a godsend when they charge $5 for a hat and $15 for a single map DLC.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
How am I stealing anything? I haven't taken anything and left one less copy in anyone's inventory. I wouldn't have paid for it anyway - if it was impossible to pirate, I just wouldn't have played it. Either way no money would have changed hands.
Am I dishonest? ABSOLUTELY. Does it matter? Depends. I used to feel the same way about principles, but getting older I've learnt that sticking to being legal all the time ultimately fucks you over. Companies still treat the buying like shit with continually more aggressive always-on DRM and activation bullshit, so it's not like sticking to your principles is worth anything if you don't get anything out of it.
Also, the "pirated" edition doesn't have binary cracks per-se. Everyone uses the same technique as I do - offline cache files a license generator. The mandatory account is a new thing as part of the 2.0.4 update.
As for real change? Huh! Major corporations don't give a shit. I buy indie games, not AAA titles.
I'm not making excuses for piracy. I'm merely explaining why I do it. I don't care if it boils your blood - you can't physically do anything to stop me. But I will stop if it becomes impossible to pirate anymore - say if the majority of games are hosted on cloud servers and so cracks are impossible. But if that happens I'll probably just give up gaming entirely.
Raenex is a dickhead
no lan ability is honestly why I haven't bought Starcraft 2. We still play Starcraft 1 at LANs and for a more modern strategy game it usually falls to Sins of a Solar Empire... Starcraft II doesn't even enter into the list due to the connection requirements. My house connection can't handle the retarded protocols with 8 computers going at it even with a 75mbit connection just due to the latency increases. My internal LAN doesn't even bat an eyelash at it though.