Thursday, December 13, 2012

Post Patch Thoughts

It seems like so long ago when the servers went down. I must admit, I went through the various stages of denial. I thought it might have been my internet connection, or the software. But eventually I had to face the truth. That the HotS Beta servers were down.

It drove me to play a few games of WoL, which, apparently, I suck at now.

But now the beta is back and better than ever.

One of the first things I noticed? That there is a very sexy new way the game handles a win. Fireworks and eye candy. Complete loss of control of the game -- even if you push buttons. Now, when you win a game of StarCraft, there is no mistaking.

It brings me back to one of my first rants on the official SC2 forums. I wanted to know how to add the line "has left the game" to my spam filter. It was an oft used trick, and it got me one day, and I figured I'd solve the problem.

But now, what? two years in? Blizzard has solved the problem for us. No longer will trolls be able to win a small percentage of the games they play for typing a clever sentence. But really, it was about time. I mean, one line output to let the user know he's won? It had to be updated.

The next thing I noticed was that, by default, you cannot select enemy units. It was kind of awkward, to come up on a toss player with a building warping in, but not know if it was a gateway or forge. This slight feature change, seems to serve only one purpose. To get us to look at the settings page and change it. Fine, Blizzard, I'll look at your in game options.

I have to say that the new death animations are awesome! All in all, despite my nit picking, they've breathed fresh and awesome life into my favorite video game.

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