Given the previews and commentary circulating now – a full six months before the game is out – it’s worth noting that the Idle Thumbs podcast spends a lot of the August 17 episode talking about Starcraft II.
(I don’t listen to many podcasts, but Idle Thumbs is on my subscription list.)
Looking at the video Tom posted on Fidgit – will someone please explain to me why I’m supposed to be excited about drag-selecting 20 Space Marines and right clicking on a building? Did no one at Blizzard play Company of Heroes?
I played Company of Heroes. Drag-selecting units and clicking on buildings made a huge part of that game.
@Troy you guys should talk about reconnaissance in strategy games.sometimes.
Gathering information/keeping secrets plays such a huge role in war, but it also seems to be the first thing that gets stripped if designers think about making a game more accessible. At least in real time strategy games (most turn based games still care a lot about intelligence).
For example, in Relic’s games, you always know how strong your enemy’s economy is compared to your own. There are no secret expansions, and a look into your enemies base does not reveal much about his plans. Similar with DoTa-style games like Demigod or the tactical battles in the Total War series.
In “Starcraft-like” RTS games, scouting and keeping secrets is such a huge part of the (multiplayer) experience.
@Benjamin Ferrari, if you like your RTS with proper scouting, you should take a look at AI War: Fleet Command. Your Galactic Intel is completely reliant on your ability to scout the planetary systems around you. Beefing up and cloaking your scout ships can also help maintain their journey so you can widen your field of vision. Scouting Intel is also a snapshot in time of a system, so the longer you go without re-assessing a planetary system, the more unreliable the original scout information is.
From what I’ve seen of SC2, it looks “traditional” in the sense of the tradition that the original SC help mould. The environment looks like they’ve taken a chunk out of the Diablo 3 engine for it. I wasn’t all that sold on the original SC, so I’m ambivalent about SC2 – but I’ll wager I’ll give it a go. But games like AI War, Endwar and even the bugged and ill fated Stormrise seem to be more at the cutting edge of RTS development and they and their like are where my real strategic interest lie.
@spelk thanks for the tip. AI War is already on my to-play list since Tom recommended it recently. I will have to get this soon now.