What does the honest trailer for the last surviving game in a near-dead drama look like? Even the folks on Reddit are willing to admit that the Honest Trailer for StarCraft II is both funny and sad because it’s true. Watch as the trailer takes you from the campaign to the multiplayer dominated by David Kim to the competitive scene that is even farther beyond your skills. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, it’ll become a part of you.
After five years, the story of StarCraft II comes to a conclusion in its second expansion. In the great tradition of the franchise that first launched in 1998, StarCraft II played out in three parts, each focusing on one of StarCraft’s three races. The third and final part of SC2, Legacy of the Void, not only focuses on the Protoss as they try to take back their homeworld but also includes an epilogue to wrap up the series’ story.
I’m not sure if November 10th will go down as a landmark day in gaming history but to investors in Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, it certainly will. Both companies had their big holiday releases last Tuesday with Fallout 4 and StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, respectively. Both companies are reporting millions of units sold within hours of their games launching.
While the rest of the world is fanboying out over Fallout 4 or Rise of the Tomb Raider, my plans for the evening involve taking back Aiur in StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void. And it wouldn’t be the launch of a new SC2 expansion without a new song from Viva La Dirt League. The group has made numerous StarCraft themed song parodies over the years and have put together another epic based on Years & Years’ Shine for Legacy of the Void.
One of the hottest tickets in gaming right now is an invite into the closed beta of Blizzard’s new first-person shooter, Overwatch. One of the quiet sub-plots is speculation over what the business model will be. With early comparisons of Overwatch being to Valve’s free-to-play Team Fortress 2, it was expected that Overwatch would also be free-to-play.
However, a Game Informer report suggests that Overwatch won’t be free-to-play. At least, not at launch. Sources tell them to expect it to be a $60 full price release.
Last weekend was the final stop on the road to BlizzCon. This weekend, the world of eSports has its eyes on Anaheim as Hearthstone, StarCraft and Heroes of the Storm have their World Championship finals at BlizzCon. There are some other regional events and qualifiers in other games happening but all the big money is at BlizzCon.
Did you know that today marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of StarCraft II? On July 27, 2010, Blizzard released StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, the much-anticipated sequel to 1998’s award-winning RTS and eSports dynamo StarCraft.
To mark the occasion, the team at SC2HL put together this retrospective of the best moments of competitive SC2.
So while I should be spending a lot more time writing, I’ve spent way too much time playing Heroes of the Storm. According to Raptr, I’ve put in some 50 hours since closed beta started and have played near 400 games logged on my in-game profile. Suffice to say, I’ve seen a lot in my time playing HOTS.
Now, I’m not a very good gamer. HOTSlogs says that I’m a gold level player which allegedly means that I’m in the upper half of gamers. However, I have learned a bunch of things that new players should be mindful of before they get too far into the latest entry into the MOBA genre.
Apart from free-to-play mobile tower defence games, I’m not sure there’s a more crowded genre in gaming than MOBA. At the top of the pile, you have League of Legends and Dota 2. Smite is probably the #3 MOBA though Heroes of Newerth would probably give it a run for its money. You’ve also got the like of Strife and Infinite Crisis too. There are probably plenty of other that I can throw in there but I don’t want a 1,000 word intro.
The problem is that while each game has its little intricacies, they all feel fairly similar at the end of the day. You play one member of a five-player team on a three-lane map with towers that you must power through in order to destroy the central structure of the enemy base.
Heroes of the Storm doesn’t completely revolutionize the basics of a MOBA. It’s still a five-on-five match to destroy the enemy team’s core. However, Blizzard has taken the standard Point A to Point B approach to MOBAs and turned it on its head. What results is the most unique MOBA on the market right now.
Have you heard of H1Z1? It’s the latest MMO from the artists formerly known as Sony Online Entertianment (now called Daybreak Games). While SOE’s MMOs are all free-to-play, H1Z1 has launched as an Early Access title on Steam for $20. That price gets you immediate access to the game along with a few other perks. By all accounts, it’s quite obvious that it’s in the alpha stages of development.
The problem most people are having is that it’s a triple-A company that have gone the early access route. SOE has a few popular MMOs on offer already and with their financial backing from Sony and now Columbus Nova, it’s not like they should need the funding from Early Access sales to complete and polish the game.
But H1Z1 is the popular example of Early Access gone wrong. They aren’t the only example out there right now. Imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago when I launched Battle.net and saw Heroes of the Storm waiting for me to click. The problem was that it wasn’t there to download. HOTS got a spot on my Battle.net launcher so I could spend $40 on the Founder’s Pack which includes immediate access to the game along with a few other perks.
So how is SOE and H1Z1 getting blasted for releasing an alpha of their game as early access while Blizzard is getting a pass for Heroes of the Storm?
et geekera 