StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty - Mac, Windows

After the release of Starcraft, almost 10 years later the second part is here that will continue the story of Zeratul, Kerrigan and Raynor!!! I think that the prize is worth it, but i would like better a special edition, that it included the Ghost edition of Starcraft. If you play Starcraft, buy it. If you don`t, buy it.

This is an incredible game and a great sequel to the original. Graphics are wonderful and have lots of customization, so I can play it on my 3-year-old laptop and my beast of a desktop - both of which still look great. As for the price, yes it seems a bit steep, but it's completely reasonable. I did a quick search to find the MSRP of Starcraft I when it was released in 1998, and along with MANY jetskis for sale, I found what I was looking for: $40 for the game ($30 for the expansion). With inflation, that would be about $54 today. With all the work Bizzard puts into making near-perfect balance, gameplay, and variety, the $60 MSRP for Starcraft II is completely fair. Also considering that the PC gaming industry is being destroyed by piracy, I'm glad Blizzard is still releasing a great game at a reasonable price. This brings me to another point that others have complained about: Starcraft II does not have the traditional LAN capability. All players players must have valid copies of the game and be signed into Battle.net, but the servers still detect that you're on LAN and give you host. This means that LAN games can still play at practically the same speed as traditional LAN games. Others have also said something about needing to buy the game 3 times to get all the races. This is a bunch of bull. You get the full game with all capability, as well as the campaign, for the $60. In my opinion, you should ignore any reviews of a product if the writer hasn't actually purchased it. Most of the negative reviews on this game (at the writing of this review) were written before release. This means they based their review on the beta, speculative or rumored information, or on irrelevant data (such as Blizzard's new policy for forum-posting). Take advice from people who have already bought it. Starcraft II is excellent and worth the $60. If you just want LAN play, then bite the bullet, buy the game, and be surprised how happy you will be.

The singleplayer portion of the game falls short of the original. (The original camapign was more of a long tutorial for the online game) The missions while unique from each other lack the strategic structure of the starcraft 1 missions. There are about 30 mission in this game,about as much as seen in the original. Casual players may enjoy the missions alot more than the nostalgic players. My main disappointment was the watering down of the characters compared to how they were portrayed in the classic starcraft. The script feels childish and unconvincing at times. Multiplayer is where the game truely shines. When you first go online,you are given the opportunity to try 5 practice matches before going onto 5 more placement matches. The results from these placement matches determine your league. (higher leagues being more skilled players,lower leagues being less experienced players) Balance seems to work best 1 v 1 games. However,Starcraft 2 is not for everyone. Units in Starcraft 2 tend to require alot more "manual control" than in other RTS'es. In other words,you cant expect a unit to take care of itself,that is where micromanagement kicks in.If you are looking for a cover system,realistic vehicle physics,or innovation Starcraft 2 is not for you. Not expanding,not spending your income,or turtling tend to be losing starategies in Starcraft 2. Air units clipping into each other is an intentional feature of the game implimented from Starcraft 1. (Pro players would do this to prevent multiple air units from being targeted) As of the latest patch,chat channels have been implimented. People who spam the chatrooms can easily be muted. Player invites can also be done by right clicking on the player's name. Graphically,the game is gorgous.On my quad core (2.6ghz) pc with a hd 4670,it manages to look great on at a 1080 x 1920 resolution on medium settings running at around 60fps. Note: An internet connection is required to install the game,however it is possible to play the game offline by selecting "log in as guest"

Hello everyone, I'm currently playing the SC2 beta and I've put about 200 games in. I'm a top 8 platinum league player in both 1v1 and 2v2RT. Most of my 2v2AT teams are in platinum too. The game is already quite polished overall. As of 4/9/10, it has gone through 8 patches already, each one containing balance changes and bug fixes. At any given moment, 8000-140000 players are logged in the beta on the new battle.net system depending on the time of the day. The user interface is familiar like it's predecessor's, but has quite a few improvements that make it more friendly to new players. Almost all hotkeys have been moved to the left side of the keyboard for easier access. Easier rally points setup and production queues make macro much easier. Smart-casting allows you to cast spells with multiple units without single-target selecting them. At the higher levels though, there are plenty of things that require your attention, from queen's birth larvae to chrono boost from the nexus, and even those with a very high APM (actions per minute) count will be busy macroing and microing at all points of the game. Even if the game was released today, I would definitely buy it, as even if it wasn't balanced perfectly as of now, Blizzard will definitely keep the game patched well and fix all bugs and imbalances. Personally, I am preordering the collector's edition from Best Buy as soon as it's available, so I can pick it up from the store on release day!

If you like the original Starcraft then you will love SC2. Blizzard has held onto the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." SC2 kept the old elements of the original SC and added some new twists to the single player campaign to add more depth to the game. Anyone who has played the original will be able to drop into SC2 without any major adjustments of how to play. Yet the strategies will be new as more units, a better AI and added elements such as between game upgrades ,research, mercenaries and even selecting your own mission path give the game more depth I have been playing it since yesterday and have enjoyed every minute of it. If you are expecting flashy graphics or a flood of new elements, its not here. the graphics are better than SC but nothing too fancy. Your units will not get lost in a clutter of colorful background and unnecessary foliage. Could of used a little more flash in the firing and explosion department, but it is still a nice looking game. (For those who complain about the lack of graphics, go play your Xbox or PS3. This is a computer real time strategy game, not some pretty click fest mind numbing shot em up game.) Only played multiplayer once and it was easy to connect and find an opponent SC2 allows you to practice online first with a real opponent before you start get into the racking and ladder part of online play. Yu can also play in a skirmish mode and there are training games that allow you to do your best at different scenarios and enemies, The only bad I have to say about it is that there is no manual to speak of, you must be online to play even the solo games ,and it seems to move a little to fast for me, even n the lowest speed setting. While the game is only set up to play the Terran in the campaign, it last long enough to not be that big if an issue for me. All in all if you liked SC then you will like SC2. Looking for a good strategy game in real time, this is it.

I purchased this game when it first came out and still actively play to this day. The story mode was very fun to play through (sucks you can only play as terren but i guess its okay because of the expansions coming out hopefully soon). The fact that you get to choose your path with different outcomes made me want to play the campaign more then once and i did but the real fun is the multiplayer aspect of the game. Battle.net for SC2 is much better the the Brood war days and more accurate to match you with someone with similar skill so you don't just get walked. And with the frequent balance adjustments to each race and maps the strategy's are always evolving so it keeps gaming pretty fresh. The co-op versus AI is pretty fun too. Sometimes i don't feel like thinking and playing heads up games and just jump into a random co-op vs. ai matches and you can meet some chill people and try new builds as well. i guess to sum it up If you loved Starcraft and Starcraft:Brood war, you'll love this game. The new units, updated controls and interface, and Battle.net match making system are great. I can't wait for the expansion to come out.

I was a big fan of the original StarCraft that was released in 1998. It was the greatest game of it's time, and 12 years later Blizzard has done it again with StarCraft 2. I have never seen such an in-depth campaign focused around the player and their choices in a real time strategy game, or any game for that matter. The storyline keeps you sucked in and wanting to play more to see what is going to happen. On easy difficulty anyone should be able to play the game and have fun, on normal you will be challenged if you have experience with RTS games even, and of course the 2 harder difficulties will challenge you even more. There are tons of things to unlock, including unit/building upgrades, multiplayer portraits, score for completing challenges, and much, much more. The graphics are also very scalable. On my 13" MacBook Pro with onboard nVidia 9400M graphics and only 2 GB of RAM I can play in low settings, which still look amazing, with no problems. On my iMac in ultra settings, it is just amazing. As always Blizzard has outdone themselves with the cutscenes and the HD videos that they bless us with. This game is easily a 5/5, and is definitely worth a buy. Whether you are new to RTS games, or are a seasoned veteran, you will love StarCraft 2.

So I've been trying StarCraft 2 Beta. Aside from its much improved look and the new units and modified units, what really sells this as a worthy second to the first StarCraft is what *hasn't* changed. Dispite the changes made, if you played the first StarCraft you can jump stright into StarCraft 2 with almost a zero learning curve. That being said your not play just a "prettier" StarCraft. Starcraft 2 does stand on its own two feet as its own game. Think of it being the better looking, stronger, smarter, faster, and better looking cousin of the first StarCraft.