I've played through the first seven or so missions so far, and it's incredibly fun... though at times the mission objectives are kind of tedious (Escort the INCREDIBLY SLOW moving colonists to escape the zerg!).

There seems to be an ending mini-cinematic for many of the missions, and they make me lol. Showing the zerg overrunning my base or something, even though I've maxed out my supplies with marines and there's no way they could've gotten through my defenses.

There's a lot of interesting new stuff to do in between missions. Watch the news, talk with people, play arcade games (stare at the holographic stripper over there...). There's little bits you can click on in each scene that spark a conversation with Raynor, talking about Kerrigan, the war effort, etc.

And I just noticed that the holographic stripper in this bar is doing the Night Elf dance from World of Warcraft. There's a Level 800 Elite Tauren Chieftains advertisement on the television.

Also, an "iPistol" commercial, showing a marine dancing in the style of the "iPod" commercials, with a black silhouette and a white gun.

 

Se7en: I wonder if anyone will do a 'C&C Renegade' style Starcraft themed map? Or perhaps a DotA style map where your 'hero' is in first person? I know someone is already working on 'World of Starcraft', so I guess the DotA thing is only a matter of time, now.

By the way, I know of two people who are apparently aiming to recreate the C&C Renegade game on the Starcraft II engine, using the original Renegade assets. I can't wait to see if anything comes of that, since C&C is one of my most favourite series (except Tiberian Twilight).

Hmm...do you think I should start a seperate thread, discussing the modding potential of the Starcraft II game?

Militis: I paid £34.99 for mine, not exactly sure what the exchange rate is between pounds and dollars though, so it might be about even. By the way, if anyone in the UK is reading this and if you're planning to order it online, do it via play.com, you get 10% off of the price and there's no postage and packing fee. Takes a few days to get to your door though, but then again, so would another site's delivery via the post.

Also: I hate all of you for getting to play the game this early. I still have several days to go, heh. Is it living up to the hype, so far?

 

LOVE.


Also: Whoa, near-naked Kerrigan in the artbook. Was not expecting that one.

Raynor's Dog Tags are awesome. I'd be such a dork to wear them, but I can't help but really really want to.

 

Well, she is technically a zerg -albeit a rather unique- breed now: zerg aren't exactly known for wearing clothes.

EDIT: Wow, I expected the game to be dispatched today and then for it to be on my doorstep in three or four days time, but imagine my surprise when the post came today and Starcraft 2 came along with it!

Let's just say I'm really fucking happy right now!

 

We probably should have a new thread for who we are and such, but since we don't and I don't feel like making it...

Character name: Zennith
Code: 872


And yeah, I'm loving it so far. Still figuring out the new troops, but absolutely loving the game itself.

 

Been playing the campaign for the last seven hours. Bloody addictive, if a bit predictable. I do wish that the Zerg's return was a sudden twist in one of the early docile missions though, e.g., you're fighting the Dominion and suddenly there's a huge invasion of zerg coming out of no where: you're stuck in Hell, trying to survive until evac' arrives. The original Starcraft had such missions. Good times, good times.

 

The dog tags (really a single tag, which is necessarily large) are metal and with a light on the part of the tag with his info (lights up when plugged in).

After installing SC1, the tag has 739 out of 1.95 GBs on it. I didn't install the game directly to the tag, though, so it's entirely possible that I was supposed to use the tag for that. The dog tag USB drive icon (in My Computer) is of a disc with a red Wraith on it.

The CE is huge and actually kinda heavy. The box is a lot of thick cardboard with a lot of shit in it (like, for example, the artbook, which is hardcover, huge, and about 180 pages).

There are a few other things in the CE, like special decals and portraits. Overall, I'd say it's worth the extra $40.

 

Oh my god. I just played through the entire campaign in something like 10 hours on hard. So freaking fun. My character's Poobah, code's 225 (same as the beta, oddly).

 

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. The CE comes with a goddamn comic.

 

Not confirmed and I doubt it will be but

Enter "terribleterribledamage" for god mode.

's been floating around...

And now maybe I should have shelled out that extra 40 for the CE... D:

 

Played a few missions and had a one on one match online, which showed that both me and my opponent were total noobs.

Really like the game so far, this coming from someone who didn't play the first Star Craft (was always into Warcraft III TFT) so I have a bit trouble finding into the game. I will play through the campain to get a real feeling on the units before I make my way into competitive online play. In a week or so, I shall join you guys in real online matches.

 

I can confirm that "Terribleterribledamage" activates God Mode. However, it will also disable your achievements until you start a new game or load a previous save.

Stupid me used it in the middle of a mission, so now I have to go and start over because I like my achievements.

 

Glad they made it so you can't farm the achievements while cheating. Very nice job on that one Blizzard.

 

Spoiler

Near naked Kerrigan in the end cinematic of the campaign aswell.

All the talk about the CE makes me wish I took my lazy ass to the store and bought it instead of the digital version.

Currently 'teaching' an irl to play and probing my way through the practice league. Anyone tested the difference between the practice league and just random matches? 'Cause I'm meeting pretty useless people atm.

 

Practice = unranked and you play against the lowest tier of players.

Normal/Random games = ranked and you play against a wide range of players.

 

Usually Gold or higher who like trolling the noobs.

 

It's also worth mentioning that the practice league matches play completely different from normal matches due to the rocks.

 

Yeah, I personally don't like novice maps. You're lulled into a false sense of security when you start playing on non-novice maps. I picked up some bad habits because of it.