The Starcraft 2 Journal: Day 1
Alright, well it’s going to be a pretty monumental task to review Starcraft 2, as I might have mentioned before that I’ve been waiting over ten years for this game, and now that the beta is over and I’ve got an official copy on my computer, it’s time to dig in.
I’ve spent the better part of the day throwing myself into the campaign, as well as playing a few multiplayer matches as well to see if the crowd has changed since beta. This will be the first in a series of journal reviews I post as I go, and they’ll probably last past my usual three-ish week limit that occurs with most console games.
And speaking of console games, this is a PC game, and I’m actually quite bummed out about that. Why? Well, up until today, I thought that my Sony VAIO that I paid well over a grand for a year and a half ago was a perfectly nice computing machine. But trying to play Starcraft on it has been an immensely frustrating experience.
I can only play with the graphics on low, and when I say low, I mean god DAMN these graphics are shitty. It’s barely a step up over the original game at this level, and I can’t even see death animations for god’s sake. I’m going to detail more of my frustrations with this in a column tomorrow, but needless to say it’s greatly impacting my gameplay.
It’s almost depressing to see pictures like this and know what the graphics SHOULD look like.
But the graphical issues are not the game’s fault, and I’ve seen 1080p gameplay that looks gorgeous. I’m just going to have to do my best to ignore these horrendous textures and polygons, and just focus on the game itself.
Multiplayer, I can touch on briefly, as there isn’t a whole lot to say about it just yet, only six or seven games in.
I steamrolled past the first few people in 1v1, mostly using mass Protoss Warp Gate-age, though I did a quick Banshee build in a Terran game which caught one guy off guard. 2v2 went quite poorly, as my partners seemed to be noobs, and my opponents seem to have had their eyes glued to the beta for the past few months.
All in all I was about even, much like I was in the beta. I have a feeling that the kind of people devoted enough to get this game on Day 1 were probably the ones with beta keys in the first place. Protoss is still my favorite face, as you can get just ass tons of units quickly. Terran is good as well, though strategy is a bit harder to nail down with army composition. I didn’t play as Zerg, partly because it’s the most multitasking you have to do, and I just didn’t feel like it. Protoss just seems the most straightforward to me, though I’m sure as time goes on I’ll develop strategies with other races. Thanks to everyone I played today for not six zergling rushing me. Whenever that happens I want to throw my laptop out a window.
During the beta, I didn’t notice too many balance issues, save one. Void Rays. Good God, Void Rays. The Protoss air unit can hit air and ground, and once it charges up after targeting one unit for a few seconds, it’s virtually unstoppable. It doesn’t have tons of life or armor, sure, but when all your units are dead in two seconds, it doesn’t really matter. If you get 10 or more of these things together, there is VERY little that can stop them if the whole gang is fully charged, and I’ve seen entire bases decimated in under thirty seconds with them. I’ve done this to other people and it’s been done to me. They need to be nerfed in some way, either with their charge revoked or the ability to only hit ground. SOMETHING needs to change.
You might as well just quit.
Alright, more on multiplayer later. Campaign is what we haven’t seen yet in the beta, and I have to say, I’m quite impressed with it so far, though I’m a little uncertain how deep it goes.
The mission structure is a lot different than the previous game. Rather than a simple text-heavy intro before each mission, you now actually reside on Jim Raynor’s Battlecruiser, where you talk to your crew, and customize your weapons, tech and team. You actually now earn money and “research points” from doing missions, and invest those in upgrades for you units on the ground. For example, 60.000 credits might buy you armor plating for your Marines so they starts with more life. 80,000 might make your Hellions’ flamethrowers shoot farther. Many of these are in-game upgrades in multiplayer (though many are not), but here they become permanent effects once bought.
Scientific research is a bit different. You unlock either Protoss or Zerg research points by completing bonus mission objectives during missions, and when you get enough, you get one of two options at a few different levels. At the first level of Zerg upgrades you can either give your bunker more life, or have it start with a turret on top. The first level of Protoss is you can either upgrade your units damage or their armor. Simple decisions at first, but later on when the choices produce some really useful features (refineries that don’t cost SCV, Supply Depots that build instantly), the choice between options gets a lot tougher.
The last thing you can spend cash on are merc troops you can call down during missions. They’re upgraded “hero” units of a certain type, but they cost a lot of cash, and I haven’t found them that useful yet, but perhaps I will later.
Oh hai Kerrigan!
The missions themselves I’ve found to be enjoyable, as they’re far from your typical, “build mass units, steamroll computer” fare that often populated the first game. You’ll rob trains, hold off infested terran zombie hordes, and extract minerals from worlds overflowing with constantly rising lava. The plot is pretty basic at this point, with Raynor doing random acts of kindness rescuing refugees fleeing from Kerrigan’s new Zerg invasion, balanced with mercenary missions stealing Xel’Naga artifacts for a mysterious corporation.
The most interesting thing I’ve noticed in the campaign mode so far however, is the addition of a large number of units that aren’t in the multiplayer. So far, they’ve brought back the medic (which has been replaced by the transporting medivac), the firebat (pretty much the Hellion sans wheels) and the Goliath (the upgraded version of which is now the Thor). But all these units show up the single player, along with a new one, the Diamondback, a kind of dune buggy with a laser gun attached to it. All cool to see, but it’s a little surprising to say the least to see all of these here. Guess you don’t have to worry about balance as much in single player?
My biggest question so far is wondering how deep this campaign goes. I’ve done a lot of missions as Raynor so far, and have explored his ship top to bottom, but I have to assume that there will be a similar mission structure for Protoss and Zerg, right? They wouldn’t dare save each race’s campaign for each expansion, would they? Would they? I’m sure I could look this up, and it’s probably actually common knowledge, but I think I’d rather be surprised if it turns out not to be the case. If it is true, I’d be pretty disappointed, but Blizzard knows how much of a cash cow expansions are, so frankly I don’t blame them, it’s just a bummer.
Am I really stuck as Terran this entire campaign?
I’m enjoying the game so far, but it’s tough. My shitty computer is making playing a chore (single player is somehow slower than multiplayer despite not requiring an internet connection) and I feel like the graphics are SO bad, that I’m losing a lot both in the gameplay and the cutscenes. If anyone has an easy fix for this, please let me know. I have a Sony VAIO VGN-FW200, with a 2.00 Ghz processor and some sort of Intel video card that clearly isn’t good enough. Is this even possible to rectify for a reasonable amount of cash?
I’ll keep marching through the campaign here, and try to hone my multiplayer skills, and I’ll be back with another battle report for you next week. En Taro Tassadar!
the intel graphics card may be fine for 2D stuff but is pretty much useless for 3D games. Seeing as you can’t replace graphics cards in laptops there is nothing you can do. Makes more sense to get a computer where you can upgrade all components separately.
I’d guess your video card is probably your #1 problem. You can probably find a pretty decent Nvidia or ATI (I think that’s the other company I’ve always used Nvidia) card for around $100-200. Those are really the only two companies in the GPU business and if your video card isn’t from one of them it’s bound to be pretty subpar.
You probably don’t need to go cutting edge if you don’t need for it to look perfect. Plus a video card is generally a pretty easy install, just open the case and plug it in, attach a few wires turn on the PC and install the drivers and you’re set.
I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic with your comments re: the protoss / zerg campaigns being in expansions.
If you’re actually series and don’t know the answer, you are going to be deeply disappointed when the game ends with the last terran mission.
That’s what you get for buying brand names with enormous marketing budgets (Sony VAIO). I bet with the same money you could have gotten a perfectly nice Toshiba that would run the game on medium-high.
Yep. Got a Toshiba Satellite 2 or 3 years ago for about a grand and I can play Crysis on medium. It beats the shit out of my aunts mac that she JUST bought about a month ago and which cost 500 dollars more. Slightly less CPU (2.0 dualcore vs 2.6 dualcore) but it has twice as much RAM (4 gigs) and a far superior graphics card (ATI Raedon 3650 vs Nvdia eightysomethinglowend.
@Warren
You cant replace the video card on a VAIO.
Starcraft 2 has been split into a trilogy of games. Each expansion will have the next race’s campaign in it. We are quick to point the finger to Activision for the split, but Blizzard claims that each campaign is the length of the original StarCraft. I am only 3 missions into SC2 so I cannot comment on that.
They have not announced the pricing for the 2 other campaigns.
It is entirely possible that we may pay $180 for the full StarCraft 2 Experience
Hey I have a Sony Vaio as well. It’s a VGN-FW350J and after hearing about your problems with the game on your Sony I was wondering what kind you have and if you think I should even risk getting the game or not.
**POSSIBLE SPOILER**
Not sure if it really is a spoiler… this has been pretty common knowledge among SC followers…
My understanding is that there is a basic learner campaign for zerg and protoss but there is not plotted/storyline campaign for them.
Blizzard wanted to put forth more a deeper and more complete story for each character/race by giving 25ish missions to each. But to do that, they “had” to make them different games/expansions. I believe each expansion will have between 25-30 campaign missions with some additional multiplayer units or tweaks.
If you have any complaints look at WC3. It had approximately 6-8 missions per race; equaling 24-32 missions total. The expansion had only 3 real campaigns (about 18-24 missions). The Orc being more like D2 than WC3.
No offense to anyone but thats kind of sad…he said he wanted to be surprised about the other races campaigns and thats why he wasn’t looking it up yet everyone was so quick to spoil it for him.
@Shevaa,
The guy was in the beta and admitted he’s been waiting 10 years for this. In my mind that makes him a StarCraft fan, and he seriously didn’t know this? That’s his own fault and not the fault of those who clarified it for him. It’s practically common knowledge if you follow gaming at all.
@Paul
That’s what happens with laptops. They are just not meant for gaming. Most come with the integrated intel video instead of a real video card. You can put together your own top-of-the-line gaming desktop for about $1500 but a laptop at that price won’t be able to play anything above low or medium graphics. Plus with a desktop you can upgrade parts as required. My computer I built two years ago which I just upgraded the video card in for $200 plays this game at 1080p on Ultra settings without a hitch.
Actually, thinking back, slight error in my comment above. I built the computer FOUR years ago. For $1200. And a $200 upgrade allows me to play at 1920×1080 and Ultra settings.
The reason why the single player is slower than the multiplayer for you is down to the power of the laptop. It is quite common for single player games to have better graphics (IE: more detail and extra polygons) than the multiplayer side, as they do not have to send that extra data across a network connection as well. If you look at first person shooters especially, the single player levels are much more detailed than the multiplayer only ones. Very noticable a few years ago, but they are getting better at optimising whilst keeping the style.
The first level of Starcraft 2 I was gobsmacked at all the little details they had put in with the town and the people running around. Completely different to the (I now realise) bland multiplayer levels.
PS: I am not saying the multiplayer levels are ugly, but in comparison with the singleplayer. Both are stunning.
PPS: If it is the graphics card which is the weak point, try lowering the graphics card only effects (shaders, high textures,etc) but keeping the rest to a medium level. Does your graphics card have a control panel for the card where you can set up the default anti-aliasing and other features of the card? ATI have the “Catalyst control centre” program with the drivers.
Your video card is an Intel 4500MHD with total graphic memory 1750MB max.
Putting everything to the lowest level does not always give you the best performance. Make sure your resolution matches your system (probably the largest setting) Try changing the resolution, and adjusting the anti-alias settings. I don’t have a machine with an intel video card, but after you’ve installed the new drivers, open up the Intel app and set the 3D settings to performance.
Other things you can do: disable your AV while running starcraft, if your running Windows 7 – plug in a USB thumb drive and configure to increase system performance.
If you haven’t yet, download and install the latest video drivers directly from Intel. (Google Intel 4500 driver)
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Graphics&ProductLine=Laptop+graphics+controllers&ProductProduct=Mobile+Intel%C2%AE+4+Series+Express+Chipset+Family
Greetings.
Just thought I’d let you know that I have the exact same issues with my Starcraft II gameplay experiences. Though I actually have a desktop, it’s quite an older version of Windows XP and could really use some upgrades, but I’m clearly too lazy to lay out all the specs. My single player experience is in fact slower than multiplayer, and in both, I get often lag spikes which tend to be small, but very damaging when I myself am trying to do that six Zergling rush to destroy their worker units. I’m in fact a terrible Starcraft player and couldn’t even summon the skill to defeat a medium ai player, let alone a real human player. I’m going to be stuck in the practice league for a while. I am a Zerg player, and yes it does in fact take A LOT of multi-tasking. So, as you said, you’re not up for that, and I can really support the Zerg’s title as “most difficult race to play”. You have to evolve each and every unit to a specific type, depending on your opponent’s gameplay, your Queen requires a lot of attention, injecting your hatcheries and the such to produce extra larvae, and if you don’t you’ll get screwed over by those mass Protoss armies or those heavy Terran forces – not to mention, you have to be really careful with your Zerg unit choice before doing anything. Upgrades are a MUST, otherwise, your mass amounts of units will be decimated. Yes, you have the Roach unit, the strongest first tier unit, but it’s also the easiest unit to counter. A Marauder or an Immortal is tough when taking on the Roaches, so if you do go against Zerg, those are good counters for those pesky high-regeneration pests.
Anyways, I’ve been rambling, so I’ll end this comment. I’ll be looking forward to your next journal entry. Until next time, farewell.
Sincerely,
Bleed.
Hey man im having the same kind of issues with my vaio, just downloading the intel 4500 driver like adam reccomended, hopefully itl make a difference, ive been waiting 12 god damn years for this game and if im gonna play it i wanna play it properly to do it justice. Hope this site see,s afew more reviews and stuff to cos i could really do with some sort of techy pro to make my vaio (which should more than meet the requirements for this game) run starcraft 2 to a decent enough level. i just wish i could run it good and proper so i can get rinsing out online already, me and my mates have had starcraft 1 LAN parties for years, pretty much since the 1st one came out so cant wait to get this up and running anyways, keep the comments coming if anything helpful can be said about making the old vaio work this game properly
Natty
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