Blizzard Reveals New StarCraft II Expansion

[exfileme]

The new expansion is called Legacy of the Void.

Blizzard Reveals New StarCraft II Expansion : Read more

 

[ib2007]

*yawns* All that gave a negative rating are haters.

 

[coolitic]

The SC2 trilogy storyline sucked pretty bad so far especially when compared to SC1.

Since Legacy of the Void isn't bringing anything new to multiplayer (which is also noticeably inferior to SC1), there isn't much incentive to buy this expansion.

 

[coolitic]

And by multiplayer I meant the main multiplayer, not other gamemodes.

 

[giovanni86]

I was always more a fan of Protoss in SC1. In SC2 i liked the terran but missed playing Protoss. By far i look forward to the story of the protoss more then the last two expansions, and thus concluding Blizzards reigh of terror in my life in video games. I think what they've done to the trilogy was a bit sad. Of course this is just my opinion, but removing things from the game and adding new untis made me sad. Also the early beta units they had and then removed was also sad. What i'm trying to say is, SC1 and then the expansion Broodwar, they never removed anything only added more too it. So i'm glad that its finally coming to an end the trilogy. I still worship 1 more then 2, even though 2 looks and plays nice on my screen. GL to blizzard on new IP's that fit there style because overwatch is very sad.

 

[alkarnur]

In SC2 Blizzard retconned the living c**p out of StarCraft's story.
Kerrigan in Brood War was one of the most interesting characters ever. Easily more interesting in terms of character story arc and pathos than Darth Vader. But in SC2 they retconned her into this generic, bland, politically correct "strong female character" that's actually good at heart. God forbid a female character be actually evil.

What SC2's story is and what I was most looking forward to was Raynor vengeance against Kerrigan for killing Fenix along with killing, infesting (e.g. Razhagal), or tormenting and forcing into exile (e.g. Zeratul) half the characters in Brood War. But then SC2 HotS is released and then Raynor and Kerrigan are b***buddies? Really?

Not to mention that before that, in SC2 WoL, they retconned Raynor, probably the only honest-to-God in the whole of fiction into this cliche overly muscled guy with the cliche backstory "haunted by his past and has an alcohol problem" BS.

I could go on indefinitely but I will stop here.

 

[alkarnur]

...honest-to-God good guy* in the whole of fiction...

You know what? I'll share a bit more.

Before SC1 was released, when Blizzard previewed the game, one of the major criticism at that time was that StarCraft was essentially "WarCraft/Orcs in Space". At that time, Blizzard listened to the criticism and changed course and as a result one of the most creative, refined, popular, revolutionary (in terms of eSports, and of RTS balance of asymmetric factions), iconic and cult titles of all time was made.

But then SC2 comes along, I changed it back to being "Orcs in Space":
Zeratul = Medivh in space. Prophet character that tries to warn others of the coming return of the Xel'Naga / Demon army.
Xel'Naga = Titans in space.
Amon = Sargeras in space = fallen Xel'Naga/Titan
Hybrid = Demons in space, except Demons are fiery and red, while Hybrid are lightningy and blue. Amazing!
Zerg Roaches = Crypt Fiends in space
The Overmind = the Lich King in space.
Kerrigan = Arthas in space.
The Overmind is created by the Xel'Naga Fallen One / Demon Lord to create and lead an army. The Overmind / Lich King with his massive psychic powers, hatches an elaborate plan, where he plans events many years in advance. The plan consists of finding and converting a champion, Arthas / Kerrigan, to the side of the Undead Scourge / Zerg Swarm so that champion can then free the Overmind/Lich King and the Swarm/Scourge from Amon/Sargeras (and Kil'Jaeden).

It's like Blizzard are plagiarizing themselves.

 

[aule10]

Tomshardware this is not an expansion in what you normally would call an expansion, it is an stand alone title, you don't need the other games to be able to play it.

 

[Lutfij]

I can already see more rebranded Razer branded Starcraft II peripherals that were released way back when Wings of Liberty launched but with Legacy of the Void on the box.

More gameplay time with this new game!

 

[Ning3n]

.

 

[LostAlone]

Of course there are going to be changes to multiplayer. Of course there will be. There will be at least one or two new units and a bunch of other stuff will get changes. That's what they did with HotS and that's what they'll do again. And they'll do well at it I'm sure. They'll do it for marketing reasons as much as anything else. Remember - The expansions are sold at the same price as the base game. The only people who still care all that much about starcraft are the multiplayer people, and Blizzard needs to make sure they feel happy about buying the new one. If they make the LotV exactly the same as HotS then people will be angry and it won't sell well.

Put simply, this is a game that banks on it's multiplayer scene to make money. That's the same reason why every CoD and Battlefield game has new maps, new weapons, new perks, new scopes etc. Because if you don't make the experience feel new then old players will feel hacked off that it cost them 60 bucks to keep on playing, and it'll make new players feel hacked off that they get outclassed from the outset simply because they didn't buy the old game and learn the ins and outs of everything for a thousand hours. It's a huge deal to at least refresh the multiplayer.

They won't reinvent the wheel or anything, but it's almost certain that they'll mix things up a little bit - Slightly tweaked costs and build times, a new unit that's useful only against specific existing army compostions etc. That last seems very likely to me. One protross unit or upgrade that's really good against marines, marauders and medivacs; maybe it reduces healing in a certain radius or makes using stim less good or something. Just little things like that which don't make current strategies irrelevant but do give players new builds to explore and counter tactics to employ.

 

[balister]

...honest-to-God good guy* in the whole of fiction...

You know what? I'll share a bit more.

Before SC1 was released, when Blizzard previewed the game, one of the major criticism at that time was that StarCraft was essentially "WarCraft/Orcs in Space". At that time, Blizzard listened to the criticism and changed course and as a result one of the most creative, refined, popular, revolutionary (in terms of eSports, and of RTS balance of asymmetric factions), iconic and cult titles of all time was made.

But then SC2 comes along, I changed it back to being "Orcs in Space":
Zeratul = Medivh in space. Prophet character that tries to warn others of the coming return of the Xel'Naga / Demon army.
Xel'Naga = Titans in space.
Amon = Sargeras in space = fallen Xel'Naga/Titan
Hybrid = Demons in space, except Demons are fiery and red, while Hybrid are lightningy and blue. Amazing!
Zerg Roaches = Crypt Fiends in space
The Overmind = the Lich King in space.
Kerrigan = Arthas in space.
The Overmind is created by the Xel'Naga Fallen One / Demon Lord to create and lead an army. The Overmind / Lich King with his massive psychic powers, hatches an elaborate plan, where he plans events many years in advance. The plan consists of finding and converting a champion, Arthas / Kerrigan, to the side of the Undead Scourge / Zerg Swarm so that champion can then free the Overmind/Lich King and the Swarm/Scourge from Amon/Sargeras (and Kil'Jaeden).

It's like Blizzard are plagiarizing themselves.

That's because Chris Metzen is head of the story writing at Blizzard and absolutely sucks now when it comes to writing a good story. In fact, I don't think he's ever been good, he probably just been the grammar boy for most of the stories written. Diablo and Diablo 2 were primarily written by Max and Erich Shaeffer along with Bill Roper. When they left Blizzard North, Buzzard (as they were affectionately called because they were original Condor before Vivendi and Blizzard bought them) was working on D3, but because of the loss of talent Vivendi ordered Blizzard to cancel the project. Now, you have Metzen having some part in "writing" those two stories, but when he had full liberty on D3 (since the Shaeffers and Roper was gone), look how that story turned out compared to the overall story that was D and D2. So, that's just one example of many of how Chris Metzen has completely ruined the various Blizzard IPs.

 

[aule10]

Balister, you obviously dont like a good story. But because you dont understand D3 story, does not make it bad. Try read the novels, it might help you understand what have happened.

 

[MarkW]

"Unfortunately, the company did not reveal when this expansion is expected to ship."
Obviously, the author of this article is not too familiar with Blizzard. They never tell you a release date until almost a year after they announce something, then they spend the next year dribbling out bits and pieces of whats in the expansion, and eventually, sometime 2-3 months before the release, they let you know what that date is.
Look at the current expansion for World of Warcft as an example... Warlords of Draenor was announced last year. Several months ago they held a live event in California, webcast to the entire planet that Nov 13, 2014 would be the release date.

 

[soccerplayer88]

D3 had a good story?! It was like I was playing through a Power Rangers game with generic one liner bad guys.

"No! You closed the rift! But that is no matter, I have other rifts opened!" Seriously...? Why would you tell me that you had other rifts open. Shit they could have had Tyrael tell you he "senses" more rifts but no, big bad Femblo fills your quest log and gives you more to do.

D3's story was a joke.

 

[bloodroses75]

I would consider it if I didn't have to keep changing my password for battle.net every 2 weeks due to blizzards lack of security. I got so fed up with it that I just plain out uninstalled the game along with anything else ever Blizzard related.

 

[balister]

Aule10, I very much do like a good story, D3's was not a good story. The only decent story in the 4 acts was act 1 and that was lackluster as best. The rest of the story of D3 went down hill quickly (anyone that didn't realize the kid was the demon from the first time they ran into them is blind, the fact that act 3 had no story to it, and that act 4 just left you facepalming about the drivel it was).

As noted, SC and SC:BW was well written, but the storyline presented in the first two installments of SC 2 has really sucked.

And let's not forget the retconning and back tracking that happened with WoW once tBC and onward (Metzen shat all over the prior WC lore and while tBC didn't horribly retcon everything and had a decent story and WotLK story had it's ups and downs, the storyline of WoW just got worse as time went on).

Guess who was in charge of all those stories? Chris Metzen

So yeah, I like a good story, but Chris Metzen can't weave a good story if he tried (and he's tried several times now and failed horribly each time).

 

[aule10]

Balister try read the novels to the game, try actually play the story. The story is fine, it is better than most game story's. I feel sorry for people like those in here, that just hating because of hating.

Chris metzen have made a lot of good lore, or else he would not be where he is.

But haters gonna hate, i feel sorry for you when you can appreciate something, because you have set your mind that is is bad, from the start.

 

[bloodroses75]

While normally I'd agree with you aule10 about reading the novels to a piece of entertainment to understand it better (like movies based off of novels), this particular case I'd have to side with Balister.
The main reason is that they are novels of the game, and not the source material. If I want to be able to enjoy a game's story line who's universe was written originally as a game, I shouldn't have to read a book as well just to understand or care about what's going on. It's not like games are written on a floppy disk anymore where storage space is a premium and the storyline may be clipped as a result.
Balister is also correct, Starcraft 2's storyline was pale and boring in comparison to the first game. Diablo 3, I cannot say as I've never played it.

 

[aule10]

Bloodroses, Diablo Warcraft and Starcraft have always been supported by novels to understand the universe, That is the way they decided to tell their games story. And they do that because, when it is supported by novels, they can make a tons more lore. Games like dragon age and elder scrolls do the same.