Monday, August 2, 2010

#16 - StarCast: "Epic Launch Detected"

Episode 16

*News*

The obvious:
StarCraft II launches worldwide.  
Analysts predict sales of up to 7 million copies by the end of the year.  Generating $350 million in sales.
Links: http://games.venturebeat.com/2010/07/23/starcraft-ii-could-generate-350m-in-sales-this-year/
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/07/28/analysts-predict-starcraft-2-sales-in-2010-to-be-out-of-this-wor/
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6271382.html

Name Thing
Your StarCraft II character name will be the only one you get.  When logging into SC2 we were greeted with this:
“Welcome to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.  When logging into StarCraft for the first time you will be prompted to create your character.  This is the name you’ll go by on Battle.Net and while playing in all multiplayer games.  You only get on shot to choose your permanent character name.  So make it count!”
AKA ButtFuz

Reviews come late  
This is normal with beefy, large-content games.  Much like with MMO’s, gaming sites like IGN and Gametrailers need more time to make a complete review of the game.  Overall reaction to the game is positive however.  But honestly, it’s a Blizzard game.  No surprise there.
Kotaku’s Review: http://kotaku.com/5600857/starcraft-ii-wings-of-liberty-review-upgrade-complete?skyline=true&s=i
Gametrailer’s Score: 9.5
Gametrailer’s Review: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-hd-starcraft-ii/702433

StarCraft II’s campaign can be finished in 16 hours.

Strategies

Mar writes:
hey guys.
Here is a strat that will really make your jaws drop. a proxy hatchery. on a 1v1 map u put all of your drones to work BUT 1. the one that u leave out send him to your appoints base and hide him in a dark corner. then as fast as you  make a hatchery in his base. when you start the proxy work on a pool at your main base. then make zerglings from your main to attack the front and make drones from the proxy for spine's.... with a queens and lost of spines/ zerglings you can win in about 8 mins. if you can talk about this strat on the show I'd love it....i love the show it makes work go by very fast.

Grimdore writes:
I was listening to your podcast, and one of the writers asked about which race combo works best in 2v2, and you mentioned a double zerg team with ling rush is deadly.  This is very true as well as a reaper rush when your playing protoss.  The thing that saves over all is to build to early cannons, and proxy your base around your economy line with the cannons resting behind your bigger buildings. This prevents the lings easy access to your cannons and supply long enough for your cannons to mame.
Thanks,
Grimdore

Matt asks:
What is a good counter against roaches?

Roger writes:
Hey guys,
A lot of the listeners seem to have a wrong opinion about Dark Templars. They are amazing units but don't nearly have the potency that some of the listeners describe in the higher tiers. DKs have the distinct disadvantage of diminishing returns, the more you use them the less likely they are going to be useful later (there are exceptions to this of course since it will make the opponent wary of attacking without detectors and may tie up robotics facilities and starports).
Think about how many structures are needed before you can fast rush with DKs, You need a Gate, C-Core,Twilight Council and Dark Shrine, if your opponent attacks with a small diverse force you won't be able to defend. For example I once lost against a force of Marines and Hellions.  
However thats not to say that Dks are bad units. They are a scalpel unit, use them to make small surgical cuts in your opponents forces that keep him/her busy enough to strike with your main forces.
For example using stalkers to attack from the front while you perform a DK drop with warp prism into mineral lines is a great way to use them. Stalkers are your fastest units so you can always pull out if you dont think you can win, but in the mean time your DKs will decimate a mineral line. A single DK does 45 damage and if you have 2-4 dropped while your opponent is distracted it is devastating.
It is probably the single best unit against a fast expand zerg. If you can kill drones while keeping forces engaged your opponent will have a hard time balancing production.
Anyways love the show, but wish you guys had a toss player. If you guys ever need one though let me know, my favorite race is toss and then terran and although I'm not the best player in the world I know and understand each and every unit and structure.
Thanks

Emails

Anonymous writes:
Hi guys it's mr anonymous again and I was wondering what you guys thought was the worst unit. Also what do you guys think is the least used unit.
Great show 5/5

Mr anonymous

Richard writes:
I love listening to your show, talking about Starcraft is great!  Every week I mean to write in to say something great about the show and add a few cents.
For example, a few shows ago when talking about Steven Colbert you guys were trying to remember the name of Pow Wow, FSU's version on Gator Growl.  Almost every year FSU gets better guests then UF does, but you've got to be an FSU fan so remember to take the good with the bad.
But I'm writing today to say one thing, Dont buy a Mac book to play Starcraft!  You guys dont sound like you are made of money, why would you throw away so much cash so frivolously?  Obviously you guys like Apple products so I'm not going to bore you with logic about why its a poor investment other than to say this.  Every Mac / Windows cross platform game requiresmore horsepower on the mac platform1, 2, 3, and at the same time every equal horsepower device costs so much more under the Mac banner.  So you'll end up paying a lot more for something that will be obsolete sooner.
You'd be much better off building a desktop system for gaming, get a cheaper laptop for running Diablo and all your usual portable needs.  While you're in Florida I'll even build it for you!  But if your lifestyle really requires you to game on a laptop, invest in a linux / windows based laptop.  You'll find more apps available for less money on this platform, and honestly it 'just works'.

But if you ignore everything I just said, keep up the great work on the show.  I love it!
Richard

Granite returns with:
hey everybody just wanted to say that in the ghosts of the past trailer, the badge matt handed raynor was his old marshal badge, from when he was marshal on mar sara. Also you should really read heaven devils the book it explains so much of the lore.
Granite
PS. in reference to comments made last week my email is my real name .
PPS. have you heard anything about a Ryk Kyde in wings of liberty

Zes writes:
Hello starcast. i recently played my placement matches and won 5/5 of them, placing me in the platinum league. so i was wondering, how do you get up to diamond league? i figured 5/5 wins would put me in the best one.
Thanks, sincerely,
Zes

Ivan writes:
Hi,
I really enjoy the show, thanx..keep up the good work.
I live in the wonderful country of South Africa, but unfortunately do NOT have Internet at home :( so I'm one of the many people who are appalled at the fact that SC2 is only online. I never played allot of SC1 but did and still do enjoy WarCraft 3, especially DotA.  (I got this uber cracked version of SC2 with a maphack which lets me play against ai without ever having to connect to Bnet which is wonderful for now but would like to play against people at some point when my game is respectable ;).... SssssHHHhhh, don't tell anyone!) But i would really like to play the campaign as well, which i also cant do.. this really sux!
Anyway, hope to get Internet soon and then maybe (if i can afford it) SC2. If/When I do get internet and the game which server (US/Euro) should I play on?
Thanx again, sincerely your loyal listener / fan / subscriber... ;D
IvanTheTerrible