Forbin

I wasn't implying that you got the launch date of Starcraft wrong, but to claim that SC2 doesn't have the polish or innovation of a typical 2010 game is crazy. There's not a lot you can do with a single player RTS game, and though some people don't like the story that much, I have to say it's probably the best anyone's ever done with a campaign. And the multiplayer has been massively successful. With tournaments offering the highest cash payouts in e-sports history, diverse gameplay and recognizable celebrities the pro scene is flourishing. While players of all skill are able to play in an un-smurfable ladder, that matches them against players of their skill level on a consistent basis. And there are a ton of spectators, since it's actually fun to watch, and doesn't require intimate knowledge of the game. If the entire criticism of SC2 being dated, stems from it being an economy based game without RPG elements, I just don't buy it. There seems to be an assumption that the genre evolved and Blizzard ignored what others were doing. But to be honest, the genre only evolved because it couldn't compete. Starcraft has been the dominant game for over a decade. The metrics on things like this are shady at best, but I think it's safe to say even the most successful RTS games over the past 10 years were just a blip on the radar compared to SC:BW. Just because Starcraft 2 isn't a tactical squad rpg, doesn't mean it's out of date.

10/10

The problem with the criticisms such as the one made on 3 moves ahead, is that they take for granted the quality of other RTS games. DoW2 is not a strategy game so much as a bare bones RPG. Also, to write the single player of SC2 as "1999" is a bit ridiculous.

The image isn't mine, but I was refering to the type of nonsensical twists Capcom has perpetrated. ie: Bionic Commando's Wife-arm

it's pronounced "Congrats Nick"

The way Capcom would have ended SC2: http://i.imgur.com/M7CMh.jpg

imuse?

It's just a little extra incentive. I have no interest in dropping money on the mann-conomy TF2 store for items, but this game is so cheap and will pay for itself anyways. And those unlocks are an interesting way of putting "real" value in a single player poker game.

This TF2 update pushed me over the edge: http://tf2.com/post.php?id=4608&p=1

wife-arm is not directly equivalent to shark jumping, but it may be worse.

A castro situation in Black ops: http://kotaku.com/5677841/you-wont-believe-who-is-killing-zombies-in-call-of-duty-black-ops

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confirmed. Tears incoming. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcFZRg_O4OI#t=1m56s But does it count if it's from music?

8QY8MjsnC_g lol, I love the visual of him dragging the items into the bucket in front of the shop keeper and guards.

Yeah, exactly. I can see how it's tempting to limit all attacks on blow to the "game's can't be art" crowd. But I'm certainly not in that group, just look at the Roger Ebert thread.I just don't agree with art that's obscure to cover up any potential disagreement or defend against being dismissed. It's the Emperor's new clothes. He fits the definition of pretentious: Most people that create obscure art are willing to discuss it at length, Blow just doesn't want to. To me it comes off as defensive. But I really look forward to The Witness.

This makes me want to buy the game even though I have no time to play it right now:

I'm not going to play those worgen flirt videos and assume it's just yiffing. RE: PvP I've been browsing some of the liveblogs of Blizzcon, and it definitely feels like they're main priority will be the rated battlegrounds, and not the arenas. They've said things like "we know we can't forget arena, but..." and they gush about how great rated battlegrounds will be. They've even said that certain classes/specs may not need to be "arena viable" because they'll have their place in battlegrounds. Considering their earlier remarks about how Arena was a huge mistake (in terms of it's impact on balancing PvE and vice-versa), and the fact that Diablo 3's going to have arena combat, I would say that it's unlikely to be well focused in WoW. I just finished watching two 20 minute stalemate 3v3 matches on the Blizzcon stream, so I don't think that's such a bad thing. Also, there will be a new CTF map. I think blizzard has learned it's lesson, that you don't need every battleground to have a unique game mode. I think they lost a lot of people with Eye of the Storm, and I have friends that have played for 5 years that haven't spent the time to learn how Wintergrasp works. Speaking of which, they've confirmed that Tol'Barad(sp?) will be very similar to wintergrasp in function, and that there should be enough motivation for world pvp in it's downtime.

All I said was that he said it was the final straw, and yeah I understand the "logistics" of the saying. Honestly, I don't need your examples, if you want some I did provide a link to a few of them. I'm not arguing that they don't exist.What I'm saying is that the game is so vast, those elements are not everywhere. As much as they seem huge intrusions, they really are just bits of text written by low wrung designers. While the rest of the team is making fantastical environments that not only look amazing, but tie into a more thought out fiction, and are amazing works of social engineering. So personally I find it easy to ignore an NPCs name.

1) it is just flavour text. We're talking about names of NPCs that are well off the beaten path. Haris Pilton for example is in World's End tavern in the Lower City in Shattrath. Tucked in behind the bar, you're more likely to notice the band with pyro-techniques than the name of the bag vendor. Blizzard has had a notoriously hard time getting players to actually pay attention to quest text rather than just following UI helpers killing X monsters and collecting Y widgets. I suppose there are some people that read absolutely everything, but it's a hard position to defend that the text in this game is invasive to most. 2) Chris said it's the final straw, and the tone of the conversation that followed seemed to reinforce that it's a big deal. Maybe people are just venting a frustration.

I still think that letting something like flavour text put you off WoW is silly. No matter if the pop-culture references are increasing or decreasing, they still represent a very small portion of the content. There is something unique about what comes out of a development team so large, with an almost unlimited budget.

On the one hand, I see why he has to make a statement like that, on the other... that dude is such a pretentious twat. Also, I liked the maze puzzles.

Vanilla wow had the entire Link quest line "it's dangerous to go alone", Larion and Muigin (Mario and luigi), Chasing A-ME, Donkey Kong barrels dropping from Gorillas. The "Greench" stole christmas, Gahz'rilla was in ZF... ok well i'm mostly just cribbing from this article on WoW Wiki. The point is that there's always been a lot of pop culture references, some of them are more jarring than others. But others are subtle easter eggs like Edward and Tyler having a fight club in UC, or Innkeeper "Bates". This is certainly a lot more fuel for the argument that there's too much of it in the game, but I think if anything Blizzard has toned it down recently. The goblin starting zone in cataclysm is an exception.

ToKIkw3LIoQ This engine is so broken.

It's certainly not impossible to have strict control over tone, but it's not very productive. Either way I still don't agree that the humour is somehow an aberration of the WarCraft universe. Ever since the first games they've had a juxtaposition of a "serious" story line, and NPC piss lines. In general I think they're good at avoiding the quirky writing in the starting zone content, waiting till players are out of their honey moon phase to introduce them to a character like "Haris Pilton".