Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void

Yaaay, release date! Guess I'll have to play the prologue missions sooner rather than later (preordered back in July :razz:).
 
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I pre-ordered this on Best Buy yesterday (GCU!)

Just out of curiosity, am I the only one here that will own all three parts of Starcraft in physical form?

 
Blizzard Physical CE's for Diablo 3, WoW & SC2 are great. Their older ones were pretty decent too, but these new boxes are fucking awesome.

Anyways, here's a new video that gives some Protoss lore (kinda) prior to Legacy of the Void events.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQnmfEka3vw

 
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'Cause they're... y'know... Zealots. *cough*

Anyways, it looks like they're revamping the UI for 3.0:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXB6sIVdg04

 
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I forgot this was releasing so soon. Here's the launch trailer, but it's mostly footage they've already shown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UyMAPr-G44

Oh and they're doing some DLC Nova missions that are coming out in Spring 2016. The first of several planned it seems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NImK4R5wEfg

Feels like a kick in the balls because we never got Starcraft Ghost.

 
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Woo!

sc2lotv.jpg


Sorry for the crappy photo quality :razz: Also, continuing to be glad that Blizzard has such sturdy CE boxes, as Amazon's packaging this time was worse than usual (not a single one of the paltry amount of air bubbles in the box had any air in them). This CE suffered only a couple of very minor dents.

On a related note, brushed up on the lore this weekend to prep myself for LotV. I hadn't heard about this before, but apparently, Artanis was retconned to be the player Executor in the original StarCraft. This is such a minor thing compared to other retcons, though, so I'm not even mad, just a little bewildered. Suppose it'll make sense in the LotV campaign.
 
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Enjoying the campaign so far (I'm about four or five missions in now), but maaan, there's some heavy shit going down in this story…

RIP Zeratul :cry:

And later on...

RIP Shakuras  :cry:

 
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I was a bit late on starting it, but yeah the early missions hit pretty hard narrative wise. I'm up to the Rift missions, which I assume is about halfway through the game? Maybe. Taking it a little slow compared to my usual speed.

Heard some people say the ending is terrible, but I guess I'll see when I get there.

EDIT: Oh man, John de Lancie as Alarak is perfect.

 
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Draekon said:
Heard some people say the ending is terrible, but I guess I'll see when I get there.
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Finished the main campaign and the Epilogue today. The overall ending's not terrible, but there is one part at the very end which is pretty bad.

Ending rant (edited):
"Tassadar" actually being a Xel'Naga mimicking him-- that's okay. So is the whole Kerrigan becoming Xel'Naga thing. Everything up through the final battle against Amon is somewhat contrived in that Special Blizzard Way, but I can live with it.

That final cinematic with Kerrigan (or "Kerrigan") showing up at Joeyray's and Raynor walking off with her…what. The. Hell. Guess there can't be an ending where Raynor learns to live with Kerrigan's sacrifice and move on. What this ending means is, I guess:
- Raynor's dead and is joining Kerrigan in the afterlife or whatever.
- Kerrigan is really dead, but Raynor's gone nuts and thinks Kerrigan's still alive.
- Kerrigan's alive (somehow) and no longer Xel'Naga (somehow), which makes her sacrifice seem less significant and takes a good deal of the punch out of the ending :wall:
…or…
- Kerrigan is really dead, but her spirit is still with Raynor. Basically, Kerrigan is Aeris; this is probably the best, or at least the most logical, interpretation that doesn't rob the rest of the endgame of its impact.

I never liked the whole love story angle of SC2 anyway, so whatever its meaning, that cinematic was pretty :roll:

ETA: Thought about the ending some more while in the shower. Rethinking things, there wasn't ever a guarantee that Kerrigan was going to die at the end, however the implication about her permanently becoming Xel'Naga was pretty strong. That said, two "Kerrigan is really dead" theories above could have "or Kerrigan is still Xel'Naga and/or in the Void" amended to them.

And yet, given that Xel'Naga clearly have (had?) the means to travel between the Void and Koprulu sector, a fifth theory:

- Kerrigan left the Void, lost her Xel'Naga powers (through the Keystone or a device like it), and went to Joeyray's from there. Maybe the DLC will flesh all this out :razz: Still doesn't change the fact that this ending was MAD CHEESY.

Also, Xel'Naga look crazy freaky.

General story stuff:
- I liked how the Khala and the Void were treated in this expansion; they felt more "real" (for lack of a better word) here than in other StarCraft games.
- I kinda flipped out when Robo!Fenix joined the cast, Fenix being one of my favorite 'Toss :razz:
- Vorazun being Raszagal's daughter was a nice touch.
- Rohana's rant about Terran mouths was kinda funny.
- All the things I like about the Protoss, I still like about them.

I think that's all the thoughts I had for now :razz: Fun campaign, but that ending could indeed have been better.

Draekon said:
EDIT: Oh man, John de Lancie as Alarak is perfect.
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Yes! Quite possibly the best voice acting in the game.

 
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R. Kasahara said:
Ending rant (edited):
"Tassadar" actually being a Xel'Naga mimicking him-- that's okay. So is the whole Kerrigan becoming Xel'Naga thing. Everything up through the final battle against Amon is somewhat contrived in that Special Blizzard Way, but I can live with it.

That final cinematic with Kerrigan (or "Kerrigan") showing up at Joeyray's and Raynor walking off with her…what. The. Hell. Guess there can't be an ending where Raynor learns to live with Kerrigan's sacrifice and move on. What this ending means is, I guess:
- Raynor's dead and is joining Kerrigan in the afterlife or whatever.
- Kerrigan is really dead, but Raynor's gone nuts and thinks Kerrigan's still alive.
- Kerrigan's alive (somehow) and no longer Xel'Naga (somehow), which makes her sacrifice seem less significant and takes a good deal of the punch out of the ending :wall:
…or…
- Kerrigan is really dead, but her spirit is still with Raynor. Basically, Kerrigan is Aeris; this is probably the best, or at least the most logical, interpretation that doesn't rob the rest of the endgame of its impact.

I never liked the whole love story angle of SC2 anyway, so whatever its meaning, that cinematic was pretty :roll:

ETA: Thought about the ending some more while in the shower. Rethinking things, there wasn't ever a guarantee that Kerrigan was going to die at the end, however the implication about her permanently becoming Xel'Naga was pretty strong. That said, two "Kerrigan is really dead" theories above could have "or Kerrigan is still Xel'Naga and/or in the Void" amended to them.

And yet, given that Xel'Naga clearly have (had?) the means to travel between the Void and Koprulu sector, a fifth theory:

- Kerrigan left the Void, lost her Xel'Naga powers (through the Keystone or a device like it), and went to Joeyray's from there. Maybe the DLC will flesh all this out :razz: Still doesn't change the fact that this ending was MAD CHEESY.

Also, Xel'Naga look crazy freaky.
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I believe there's on you hadn't considered:

Like Tassadar being Xel'Naga in Protoss form, Kerrigan can do the same to 'leave' void space because when Xel'Naga die in normal space, they go back into the Void. That would mean that she didn't die in the last mission of course. There's the potential that she had them leave because she couldn't leave the window to normal space open and being in there is detrimental to normal space races without protection.

But yeah, the story was wrapped up pretty thoroughly. I can see why people may not like the ending and it definitely has those high levels of Blizzard cheese. I do with the post game scenes had a little more info on what became of the Protoss though.

 
Draekon said:
I believe there's on you hadn't considered:

Like Tassadar being Xel'Naga in Protoss form, Kerrigan can do the same to 'leave' void space because when Xel'Naga die in normal space, they go back into the Void. That would mean that she didn't die in the last mission of course. There's the potential that she had them leave because she couldn't leave the window to normal space open and being in there is detrimental to normal space races without protection.
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Wait what about Tassadar? The impression I got was that Ouros had been impersonating Tassadar the whole time, to both Zeratul and Artanis.

I agree that if Kerrigan didn't physically die, she must've returned from the Void, but there's still the matter of how she shed her Xel'Naga self. I also agree that she sent them away because the Void is dangerous and the portal to it had to be closed as soon as possible.

 
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R. Kasahara said:
Wait what about Tassadar? The impression I got was that Ouros had been impersonating Tassadar the whole time, to both Zeratul and Artanis.

I agree that if Kerrigan didn't physically die, she must've returned from the Void, but there's still the matter of how she shed her Xel'Naga self. I also agree that she sent them away because the Void is dangerous and the portal to it had to be closed as soon as possible.
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I'm referring to their ability to manifest themselves in Normal Space in a different form. He took a spiritual type of form with Tassadar, but I see no reason why they can't manifest it in other ways. Besides, the original form of Kerrigan shouldn't be hard for herself to replicate.

I'll probably just chalk that up to "Lol, Blizzard." I'm not too big into theorycraft.

EDIT: I did not know this, but apparently you can play the co-op missions with someone who doesn't own the expansion using 'spawning' that was released a few years ago:

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/buy-now/spawning

Not sure if this works for pre-existing accounts the own the previous two games or if that person needs to have the Starter Edition installed or both. Going to try this with a friend who can't buy the new expansion yet.

 
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Just happened to look and found this topic...

^

I don't have LOTV and I can play co-op, surprisingly. It just limits me to Artanis, Raynor and Kerrigan. Can play all of the maps AFAIK. Pretty cool! Reinstalled just for that, pretty much. Not sure if I'll get LotV... saw some campaign gameplay and it doesn't look as fun as the other two, but we'll see. Tempted.

 
Yep, it allowed him to play the first three heroes when partied with me like you said. It's rather nice as it gives me another co-op game to play with him and nobody needs to spend any money on another copy for him.

The campaign though I liked for the most part. Though it's mostly because I'm heavily pro Protoss. There were one or two missions that I didn't really care for, but I liked it more than the other two campaigns.

 
I love the 'Toss too, but I still think HotS had the best campaign, both in terms of story and missions. LotV felt like something of a retread of HotS as far as gameplay went (though that one mission with the sliding panels was pretty inventive), and Artanis is, sadly, pretty bland compared to certain other characters.

I'd like to play through all three campaigns again sometime, mostly for missing achievements but also to see how it all flows together. It would be a hell of a time investment, though, and I have so much else to play.

 
Figure I'll go ahead and mention that the first of the three Covert Ops Mission Packs will be releasing this week. I'm not sure if it'll remain $15 after the first mission pack releases or not, but it will eventually be $22.50 which is somewhat pricey for nine missions. Also includes the other useless junk that come with Blizzard pre-orders these days that will be gone after the first pack goes live as well.

Here's some extra information on what the covert ops missions will be like:

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/20063101/

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/nova-covert-ops/

Betrayal video released for it as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEQKmy5Julw

 
Iffy on whether or not I even want to play these mission packs. Nova's a neat character, but Ghosts in general are one of my least favorite Terran units. The $15 preorder price is much better than the full one for nine missions, though. Hmm...
 
I bit on it because I have no idea when they'll have a sale that's 33% off or better. Plus I think Ghosts can work well when you design levels around them as the main hero unit. At $1.67 per mission, it's not too bad compared to $2.50 per mission. Oh and I really wanted Starcraft Ghosts to be a thing and then Blizzard said, nope, it's not going to be a thing.

Pretty sure I still have some swag from Starcraft Ghosts promo stuff all those years ago. That and my Calendar that's been hanging up is still an old 2013 calendar showing Kerrigan in her Ghost form. Though that's mainly because I haven't bothered to replace it since I started using my email/phone calendar more.

I'm probably not the best person to keep you away from buying it, obviously. I'm just clinging to a long dead hope.

 
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Finally completed my CE set of this trilogy, including an autographed Wings of Liberty.  Scooped the LotV CE for $50 at GameStop.  Now I need to finish HotS, but I suck so bad I can't even maintain a base.  I probably should start over...

 
So it looks like the first Nova Mission Pack is out, and the bundle is still $15. Has anyone here played it yet, and if so, what do you think?
 
I keep meaning to play the third mission so I can finish it, but I never get around to it. So I figure I should chime in before I completely forget.

It's not bad and is pretty interesting for sure. Unfortunately though Terran is my worst race, so I put off doing the third mission at the time. If you played Blizzards Starcraft April Fools joke this year, the first mission has that in there in a slightly different fashion. It also feels more challenging than the normal campaign. Though I'm not sure how much of that is because I suck as Terran though.

 
Necro but I just decided to launch my SCII launcher today, because of all the snow why not lol, and I noticed they're having a 50% sale so I grabbed Legacy of the Void for $20.

FYI

 
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