I just got my beta invite. Downloading now, I am so excited.
Anyone else here have a beta account?

Id's:
Marmelada: Iaurt.iaurt
Migu: Migu.ribeiro \ miguelrds@hotmail.com
m3n: stan.thompson
Chad: Chad.archlurker
Dekar: dekar.dekar
EB: evilbunny.spa
Sebas: sebas.seabass

Congrats mate.
Can't wait for this game!
Hope I'll get an invite soon too.

EDIT: OMG, I got an invite too. FUCK YEAH!

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Ze Ãœbermensch

I hate you all. :[

I only get spammed by "Blizzard Notification About World of Warcraft Account" emails even though my sister took my account long ago.

Awwhh, wish I had a beta invite, still waiting for mine :<
Enjoy it Marmelada, and hatch a few roaches for me please, it would make me happy :')

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"There is a simple, logical explanation... and there is nothing under the bed.”

You should check your blizzard accounts because I didn't get any mail notification, I just had sc2 beta added to my account.
I'm Zacusca if anyone wants to play a game.
Oh and from my 10ish games I played this morning I deduced I suck

Yeah, didn't get any mail either...Just checked because of your thread and it was in my games list!
Just finished installing.
I'll add you marmelada.
And no worries, I should suck too.

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Ze Ãœbermensch

Seems you need the identifier as well for adding friends, so I'm Zacusca.zacuscus

I hate you guys

Have fun guys!

*checks email* Drat! And Double Drat!

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Comfortably Numb

You lucky lucky bastards!

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So it seems Blizzard send a new batch of invites today to bad you got to have some blizzard games in the account to have a chance at the beta

I do. So I have a chance. But no key. I've tried playing with the chance since I don't have a key, but it's no fun, the A.I. sucks.

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Comfortably Numb

MARMELADA I LOVE YOU LONG TIME! ! <3<33<3!
Just checked my battle.net account and there it was! A very shiny SCII beta, just lying there waiting for me to download it! :D
Gonna have some fun soon :D

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"There is a simple, logical explanation... and there is nothing under the bed.”

I've played the beta a few times now.
Gotta say, it plays exactly like SC1. A few different units with different abilities, but overall it's the same. The graphics look like the game is a WC3 mod. Lowest poly-count on a 3D model I have seen in recent years ^^

Aye, it is much like the original, as they said it would be, with some different stuff.. really miss the lurkers :<
But on the other hand the Ultralisks can now burrow! And the 2 of the zerg units can move while burrowed!
Imagine, I wished the zerg had units like that when I played it like what? 12 years ago! And now it's no longer a dream!
It's like my childhood dream has been realized! :O

hmm... maybe makes me sound a bit over enthusiastic about SC2, but I really love the universe they got there. Just wish they'd do something else with it other than a RTS. My passion for that genre isn't as warm as it used to be back in the days :)

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"There is a simple, logical explanation... and there is nothing under the bed.”

So I've played a few rounds and yep, I suck at Starcraft.
Didn't really play the first one long enough to get at least decent at it, so I'll have to improve now with time.
But the game is really fun, and feels like the first Starcraft with up to date graphics and a lot of improvements.
Loving it so far!

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Ze Ãœbermensch

Wouldn't mind a key but it seems Blizzard don't want me to have one

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a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig

As always I'll be the naysayer here but SC2 is an example of the most safe, nah, COWARDLY design I have ever witnessed. Blizzard was so afraid to lose their fanboys that they literally made a game as if it was 1998 and SC wasn't exactly a technical marvel back then either. Clunky interface, clunky controls - all in the name of Korean 300+ actions per minute progaming. It's laughable, really, although it will doubtlessly be a major hit... Why go for revolutionary or even evolutionary when you can sell people the same paper-paste McDonald's stuff over and over again? -.-
Beyond Good & Evil, Psychonauts, I call upon thee! Oh wait, Ubisoft put Beyond Good & Evil 2 on hold because it didn't want to invest in a relatively lesser know franchise. FUUUUUUUUUU!

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War does not determine who is right - only who is left. - Bertrand Russell

The players don't want it to be changed much as far as I understand it.

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a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig

I don't blame them, I wouldn't want you to have one either!

Kyaaaah!!

That's why players aren't game designers and aren't paid thousands and thousands of dollars to design new games.

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War does not determine who is right - only who is left. - Bertrand Russell

If by up to date you mean 2004

What happened to "if it ain't broke don't fix it"? Do you really want Fallout3 kind of sequels? I sure as hell don't. In fact, I'll take the old game, with nothing but graphics changed any day over crap like that.
Starcraft: Broodwar was perfectly balanced for multiplay. Why the hell would they change that?!
Warcraft 2 on the other hand was not, so they revamped it for W3. Great stuff.

As long as they add some seriously badass singleplayer campaigns and keep the multiplay spirit of the old game it will be awesome.

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Comfortably Numb

Come on demm, its an RTS game...look at other recent games of this genre. Yep, not much better.
I like the graphics, so I don't care.

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Ze Ãœbermensch

If only I could remember my battle.net password.

Fallout 3 was brilliant? 0_o
Exactly the kind of sequel you want - keep the general idea but change the game to fit the times...

If you're in love with SC1 so much and if it's so balanced, why not play it instead? ;-)
Games like SC2 don't move video games as new media or even an artform a single step ahead - in fact they move it almost 12 years back. I've seen retro titles with pixellated graphics that had more original gameplay ideas. Love it or hate it but for me this year's award for innovation in game design when it comes to big budget titles goes to Heavy Reain (already) and I don't even own a PS3 (but I played it =). It has components that have been used before but it reassembles them in a new kind of way. There's absolutely nothing new about SC2 and I knew it ever since I had my hands on the first press preview release.

What happened to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"? I'm not a person who would say that in the context of a game as a whole. I ranted about how Zelda strayed from its roots but I didn't mean that it shouldn't have evolved - I just meant that it evolved in the wrong direction, which incidentally isn't anything new either, just crap borrowed from other games, not fitting Zelda at all.

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War does not determine who is right - only who is left. - Bertrand Russell

Agreed.

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All roads may lead to Rome, but all Wikipedia pages eventually get you to the Third Reich. - m3n

They only thing brilliant was the soundtrack. It was Oblivion with guns, and with that I surely want to include the empty dialogues. It's a multiplayer focused RTS. It has nothing to do with artform. For that I play The Void.


As for Heavy Rain, I don't own a PS3 but right now, if I had the money, I would buy one just for that experience.

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Comfortably Numb

Yes, it was Oblivion with guns - and the Fallout universe. That's exactly the reason why I didn't like... OBLIVION. Oblivion had the right gameplay mechanics but the world it was set in was so utterly boring and unoriginal that I couldn't stand it. Innovation in games doesn't necessarily mean reinventing the wheel over and over again especially since this usually results in weird unplayable gimmick titles (see Fret Nice for a recent example of this). Falout 3 combined the Oblivion 3 gameplay mechanics with the Fallout world, both existing separately in the past, to create something new and fresh. Innovation, however, does never mean treading in place like Blizzard is right now, taking existing ideas and mechanics and combining them into... uhm... the same existing ideas and mechanics. ;-)
Every game has something to do with that - even the graphics design is done by artists. I have a hard time distinguishing screenshots of SC1 and SC2, they're so similar. And don't give me the "oh, but it's the same universe, you see" kind of response.

There are DOZENS of multiplayer games, no matter the genre, that innovate on the gameplay each year - it's not that difficult to do and it should be even simpler for a company like Blizzard who have dozens of millions of Dollars at their disposal. The more games Blizzard releases, the less original it is becoming... What has become of the company that was once releasing flawed but brilliant classics like Lost Vikings? They have been cutting off coupons of their established franchises for like a decade now, axing projects that might have had even a spark of originality to them like Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans or StarCraft: Ghost. It's pitiful that a company that can slap a *Craft sticker to any turd (not saying that they released a turd yet) which would still sell millions is afraid to risk even a single Dollar.
I once loved Blizzard for the hundreds of hours I spent playing their games, especially Diablo 1, but now I grew to literally HATE them since they represent everything that's wrong with the video game industry - they have become the Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich of video games.

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War does not determine who is right - only who is left. - Bertrand Russell