The Glade 4.0

Doesn't bother me one bit that they are releasing Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void at a later date. I've been waiting 11 god damn years to continue this story. And 30 missions of advancing that story is fine with me. HotS and LotV
shouldn't(shouldn't, but probably will) take too long since the game is a finished product now and all they need to do is the single player campaign. They've already said they aren't too hot about adding new units to the multiplayer side of the game.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

Wasn't each race's campaign 10 missions in the first one? Complaints about this being an unfinished game based on only one campaign I think are ridiculous.

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The Dude abides.

Yeah. The original came with 10 missions per species, with Brood War cutting the Terran and Protoss campaigns to 8 missions each. Zerg got 10 in Brood War, plus the bonus mission. Wings of Liberty has 29 missions. Due to choices you must make, only 26 are playable per play through. This gives Blizzard a much better opportunity to really focus on each species to really flesh them out. Instead of having to cram all three into one game. Sure, we'll have to wait a bit longer to get the entire Starcraft 2 experience, but what we get will be a much higher quality product.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

Personally I don't care too much about the 3 game thing as much as I'm saddened by lack of LAN play. Since the primary way I've played SC is at work after hours.

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There's nothing precluding LAN play. You just have to have a connection to the internet and independent copies of the game. You can still set up custom games where all the players are local, and when you do so, it's still peer-hosted so no gameplay traffic should need to get out so even poor connections to the internet ought to be adequate.

I'm just glad Terrans are getting a full campaign this go-around. The original StarCraft Terran Campaign had a big chunk eaten away by tutorial missions that the other races didn't have to teach general game mechanics.

Presumably this time, since each will be at least a semi-stand-alone product, the tutorialish stuff will be present for all races equally.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

The first mission of the terran campaign was tutorial...ish. The actual tutorial that came with the game wasn't part of the 10 terran missions. The first mission where you meet up with Raynor doesn't really have any substance, though, I'll agree. But from that point on, I wouldn't call any of the remaining missions tutorialish at all.

Anyway, they might have a stand alone tutorial in Starcraft 2, but I don't really see the need for one. The game really hasn't changed that much from the original. They do have 9 challenge maps(that aren't part of the 29 story missions) that are designed to make you competitive in online play. Similar in scope to the co-op missions in Modern Warfare 2. They have stars to earn and everything.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

Tolkien could have written 600 more pages about Hobbits in Hobbiton. Doesn't mean I want to sit there and read about nothing but Hobbits. For the people who love Hobbits and/or anything Tolkien, awesome. There you go, you got your Hobbit on Hobbit action. But for me, I want to read about the elves, the nazgul, the riders of rohan, and the rest.

I shall wait until the game is done.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

It's not going to be all hobbits. There are going to be zergs and tossed salads and super awesome pew pew pew. Screeech! Boom! Ratta tatta tatta!

And firebats.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

He could have also taken out the story of Rohan. But instead he chose to give a more fleshed out story. Your criticism is lame.

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The Dude abides.

I gotta side with Blizzard on this one, it sounds like they identified that they wanted to tell more story, and to do that they had to pick one race and run with it. Sounds like to me Starcraft fans just get 3 times as much game as Starcraft 1, that's not really a bad thing.

Of course if the game comes out and it's 20 minutes long, I'll change my opinion.

I doubt b.net will go through a non-SOCKS proxy firewall.

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Ah, I see the problem you're anticipating now; that makes more sense.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

This, but I am anxious to see the conclusion. Hopefully they don't take too long releasing stuff, like Half-Life ep3. WTF Valve?!

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Don't forget about the protoss mini campaign that will be in Wings of Liberty! Also, possibly in Heart of the Swarm!

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

WTF seconded. Especially after the ending of Episode 2. For the love of God, WTF?

One more day!

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The servers are alive.....

Damn those Aussie bastards finally getting a gaming bone thrown their way.

Is there a digital download available for this? I really don't want to go to the store for it.

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The Dude abides.

There sure is. I'm downloading now from the Blizzard store. Purchase will be available online at I think 10 PST?

Yeah, you can get a digital download version here. You can even start the download now. You can't install it until 10am PDT tomorrow, however. Hell, you can't even purchase the digital download version until 10am PDT tomorrow. But if you don't plan on getting a physical copy, start downloading now, so you can buy and install right away on Tuesday after 10.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

Well crap, I misread it. I thought I could buy the digital version later tonight. Hrm, decisions decisions.

Really, unless you are going to stay up tonight and play it all night because you don't have work tomorrow, the only reason to not get the digital version is because you want a physical copy or you wanted the Collector's Edition. However, I happen to know that some Walmarts have already started selling their copies right now.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

So I just got this game, but realized I think I made a terrible decision to do so. Is this one of those freaking online only games? Meaning, if you don't have a connection to the internet, you can't play it? In less than one month, I move to a place where I have no internet. I'm worried. I suppose I can test it in about 15 minutes, when it's done installing.

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I just discovered it the hard way...

My internet is so sporadic, it goes down at least 3+ times a day. Typically, it's only down for 5 minutes to an hour. I just experienced a disconnection right after you replied. Taking advantage of the crappy situation, I thought I'd test out this theory in SC2. As it turns out, there is indeed an "offline mode" within the game, where you can continue your campaign. However, what hasn't been said yet is how you lose ALL ability to access your profile, other than just clicking "continue campaign." Achievements? Gone. Stats? Gone. Rewards? Gone. Basically, all of the fluff content that comes with the game, gone. It all disappears until you get back online. I'm 99% sure you can't earn achievements while offline.

To some, this may not be a big deal. To me, I find it unacceptable. I paid $60 for a retail disc. Requiring an internet connection to have my features unlocked is BS. I guess I'm just happy I can at least play the game while offline, which I worried I wouldn't be able to do earlier. Regardless, I'm very disappointed with Blizz.

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