vhgong

Got a copy of Warcraft 3 and all i can say that i enjoyed playing it. If you like the original series, you will enjoy it. It has a few added extra's for main characters (eg: Main characters can gain experience level and various capabilities). Don't ask how i got a copy. So to keep this short, if you like the original, you will probably like this one too. Sorry if this is a repost.

Goblincat

If you enjoy it, make sure you buy it. Give credit where it is due.

vhgong

You ASSume too much!!!!

gross@iastate

I'd buy it if it wasn't $60.

Goblincat

I think not. Post a copy of your receipt in two weeks and then I won't label you a thief.

vhgong

And what then can i label you as?

cartman

If he either works at EB\Babbages\etc or know someone who does, he may very well have purchased it already. I know two of the employees at the EB I go to have already (they've got the stock, just waiting for release date)...

RCL66

>I know two of the employees at the EB I go to have already (they've got the stock, just waiting for release date)...

No way, he is pulling your leg. They don't have the stock and are waiting on release date. They never send stock out that far in advance. It takes a while to duplicate/box/ship 4.5 million copies of a game. Anyone who has it now is pretty much playing a pirated version. (Even major game sites like Gamespot don't have it yet).

gcribbs

I agree they are pulling your leg. the game is only out pirated right now. EB or any game stores do not have copies in the local stores yet.

They will get them shipped to them the day of or maybe if they are lucky the day before.

Jackskeleton

what bothers me is that people have to "prove" to others. by posting receipt's pictures of the exchange at the store, etc.


if the guy is playing a pirated version, what difference is it from a mp3? he wont be able to register it and chances are good internet play will be screwed up since if he was playing a pirated version it would be cracked.

Lets not pass judgement and just talk about the game. remember. Demo's, promo's and many other items for a game are released to a select few before anything is released, I was playing renegade months before it went gold. and it was a legit version. there is plenty of ways to get your hands on a legit version right now. lets not assume or demand to see reciepts from people. that sounds pretty lame to me.

Well whats the plus and minus of the game play? I look forward to playing it.

fmian

Maybe he's a beta tester or a games reviewer.

vhgong

A friend of mine works in the game industry and he loaned me an early copy of the game to try it out. I am planning to get this game but not at 60 bucks. On that note, the gameplay is similiar to the earlier versions but with added features to main characters(as mentioned in my first post). Graphics wise, its been updated quite a bit and looks great. Sound, well, remember when u clicked on the peons and they go , "Yes Master!!", expect that too .
I do not have anything bad to say about this game as i am probably bias towards it. It will send you down memory lane for sure and the bigges plus for me is that the main characters have special abilities and you can level up on them and they can pick up items and so forth(yeah kinda like the Diablo kind). I would probably give it a 9/10 for this game.

gcribbs

so you have a beta copy. Yes the game looks nice. From what they showed at E3 it will be a fun and hard game worth the wait.

The graphics really looked far better than the earlier warcrafts.

I guess all the thoughts that you had a early release of the game were people jumping to conclusions I guess you have one of the beta versions. Of course the differences from the beta to the retail version are not much I bet other than no access to online play and some tweaks.

I will be buying the retail version when it is released and I am looking forward to it


http://www.blizzard.com/images/war3/...s/ss003-xl.jpg
Great looking!

AgtFox

If history repeats itself and you are not interested in the Collector's Edition, Best Buy should have it for cheap either week of release or week after release. I don't work at Best Buy and have not seen ads that far in advance, but with the amount of time between the going gold PR release and actual release date chances are Best Buy has had the time to create ads for the week it comes out.

UPDATE: Nevermind, someone has the 7/2 BB ad in the DVD Bargains section, here is the lowdown on WC3:

Warcraft 3 59.99 Free Warcraft action figure instantly w/ purchase and $10 Gift Card by mail

So, it's not cheap like I said, but you do get some extra stuff with it.

gcribbs

force yourself to play some warcraft and warcraft 2 then when done the price will be lower

I usually force myself to wait a few weeks to a month before buying to get a better price.

Diablo 2 was the exception to that rule. I paid full retail to get it on release day

C-Mart

I find that aside from the use of Hero units, the atmosphere of the game is quite impressive. Things like fog, snow, and rain, and the addition of night time all make this game much better. One thing that I found while playing the custom games (where you choose a map and your race) the computer player is really really fast! I barely get 4 or 5 of the lowest fighting units and I am being attacked by a huge mob of enemy units... including flying units! Needless to say it is really annoying. I have also been playing the campaign mode and am about 1/3 of the way done I would guess (I finished the Orc and Human missions and am just starting the Undead.) Someone who has beaten it please tell me that we get to use the Burning Legions after we beat the game!

-CM

Oh, and I will be buying the retail version close to the release (especially if I can find it cheap.)

RolloTomasi

Yeah, I also have played an *ahem* early version of WarCraft III; before anyone says anything, I am definitely buying the retail version when it comes out - Blizzard could not make a subpar game even if they tried. Anyway...

Warcraft III marks the end of an era. Ever since Westwood Studios created Dune II a decade ago, the 2D RTS ahs slowly improved. I think Warcraft III is the apex, the zenith, the high point of this genre of strategy game. I have no doubt Blizzard is moving into something bold and different for Starcraft II - they're created the perfect 2D RTS right here.

I'll just gloss over the graphics and sound, but trust me, they are very, very good. Certainly they're more cartoonish than realistic, but it's a fantasy game, and they look beautiful nonetheless. The little touches, like the ambient weather and the unit animations, make Warcraft III a joy to behold in action.

Now onto the gameplay. Truth be told, I suck at real time strategy, mostly because I'm a bad multitasker. I was never able to beat Warcraft II, Starcraft, or and of the Command and Conquer games without cheating. However, I found Warcraft III much easier to play in some respects; not because it's less complex (in some cases it's moreso), but Blizzard has made it much easier to comprehend and navigate. For example, spellcasters in Warcraft III can cast some of their spells automatically, reliveing the tedious burden of micromanagement that plagued Starcraft. And if you, like me, found using High Templars annoying to use because you had to select a single one in the heat of battle to effectively use their spells, Warcraft III has subgroupings to make using abilities much more efficient.

Also, the supply limit is set at a smaller number (90, compared to 200), so on average you'll only have at most 30 - 40 units in the field at any given time. But to make up for that, each unit's importance is greatly increased - almost every unit has special abilities, and most of the time it takes more than 7 seconds to kill any one of them. So instead of leading an army full of cannon fodder, Warcraft III allows you to command what can only be described as a party, in keeping with its professed role-playing additions.

About the new role-playing features in Warcraft III, they are certainly a great addition. The hero characters add a lot to battle, and it's certainly great to see them gain experience, level up, and learn new abilities. Certain missions in the campaign feel like a dungeon crawl from something like Diablo, only on a larger scale and without a plethora of annoying clicking.

I haven't played any skirmishes yet; I'm still working on the single-player campaign, which by the way, is really well done - lengthy and very cinematic in its scope. Only 2 more missions to go...

Spicollidriver1

I too have played this game and like it very much. Although I do suck at RTS's also I did beat Starcraft, but I played it a ton. On that note I will have to agree with the statement that this game is easier(to manage not to beat) then the others. Also game companies have released games this early before, but not to my knowledge a game quite this big. You can take my word for it I ran a game store, and worked for a large retailer.

gross@iastate

I wouldn't really call it a 2D RTS. Have you tried zooming in to ground level? It is in true 3D unike Warcraft II and Diablo II. It's similar to Black and White.

RolloTomasi

Yeah, but it's more like a 2D RTS in the Dune II mold than a true 3D strategy game like say, Homeworld. True, it is in 3D, and you do need a 3D accelerator, but it doesn't have the "new school" feel of the current crop of RTSs, it's more classic than that. The "camera" is very fixed - you can't permanently rotate it, and the zoom function is limited at best. The game certainly has more elements that are familiar staples rather than totally new breakthroughs.

C-Mart, about the Burning Legion units, I don't know. I just finished the game, playing at the normal difficulty level, although I wussed out on the last mission, and had to lower the difficulty level for that one. During the ending it said to "Come back when you've beaten the game on Hard"- I wonder what you unlock if you do that...

Breakfast with Girls

Well, it's not like you can zoom through the countryside. I think that's what he meant.

vinhj

I played the beta for a bit and was sort of disappointed with what I saw gameplay wise. A lot of the units went obsolete as the you advanced to the next tier and generally it felt much more restrictive than Starcraft tactics-wise in order to defeat your opponent. But to be fair, Starcraft came out with numerous patches and I'm sure War3 will get better as time goes on. Will definitely pick this up when it drops to $40.

kaempfer

RolloTomasi- I heard that after you beat the game in Hard mode, you can see the trailer for Starcraft 2 running on Warcraft 3 engine. I just finished the Human campaign so I still have a way to go

C-Mart

Thanks for the info... and thanks to everyone else as well. I too have only recently finished the human campaign, and am now on the 2nd or 3rd undead mission. I played with my friend last night and the only way that we were able to beat the computer was to set up us as a team against the computer (Only 1 computer opponent, not 2) When we played our team against 2 different computer teams, the computer took out the other computer team before it took out either of our teams, but it still beat us. The thing that I don't understand is how they (the computer players) get their hero units so high so fast. I barely had a level 5 hero earlier and his were something like 7,8, and 6! Oh well, bacak into the fray, I think I will do some more campaign missions.

-CM-

P.S. In terms of gameplay, I don't mind the 90 unit limit, but I feel that the upkeep feature is way too limiting to the building of an army. If you only have, say 20 units and you attack and lose them all, it is very expensive to rebuild that army, and if you have been on high upkeep, there is typically very little gold to do it with.

Outlaw

To those of you who have played this game, how does this game compare to Starcraft? I've heard that starcraft was based on Warcraft, but I was introduced to this type of game with Starcraft and its the only game I've ever played of this kind. I'm not sure if I'll like it. Also how good of a PC do you need to run it?