Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

[Occhidiangela]

Sorry to not be helping look into D II LoD patch 1.1 beta, but to be frank with you, I am starting to develop a case of "I don't care if they ever release 1.10 or not."

For my son's birthday, I got him the Warcraft III Expansion Pack: The Frozen Throne. He is really enjoying the campaign, and I have gotten to play a few missions. I realize that folks who are not working most days of the week have already run through the entire campaign, and are now doubtless running through it on Hard difficulty, or are trying weird variations now that they have owned Hard as well.

Me, I am enjoying the ride, enjoying the story, with such little gaming time as I can spare, which is not much.

1. Story. Nice to see that the Demon Hunter gets to be in the story again.
2. New race, Nagas, a nice surprise. (I deliberately avoided any news of the Beta, I wanted to enjoy the game unspoiled.)
3. Pandarian Brewmasters: The sense of humor remains. :D
4. When I get done with the Night Elf Campaign, I am looking forward to the New Elf Magicians.
5. Arthas' face on the cover is pretty gross, all verdigris five o'clock shadow. They could have come up with a nicer picture. I took a scissors and tape and did level 1 kindergarten surgery on the ad brochure, the booklet that came with the game, to put the dwarf flying on a Griffon as the cover to the CD case, and the Arthas climbs the frozen staircase on the back. Much nicer pictures, thanks Blizzard art department.

I imagine that it will be weeks before I can finish the game, given my lack of gaming time, but I am enjoying the pleasure of a game played unspoiled. :)

I won't visit bnet forums until I am done. Sometimes, knowing too much hurts the enjoyment value.

[Roland]

And that's all I have to say. ;) When I beat it, you can expect a full writeup. The expansion forces you to do multiple things at once - throughout its entirety. MUCH moreso than the original. I'm finding it about as challenging, per my skill level, as the original, but overall, I'd say it's harder. It's certainly better, at least in terms of gameplay alone. And the story is top-notch, too. The in-game cinematics, as I've stated already, are top-notch, fitting in perfectly and actually ENHANCING the experience instead of detracting. Mucho better than in the original. ;)

The bonus Orc campaign is NOT finished, I learned the hard way. Still, that one Act (out of three) is almost as big as any of the other races' campaigns in their entirety. No joke. :) It's big, it's unique, and it's totally RPG - not an ounce of RTS in Act 1. Later acts may change that, but I doubt it. It does great for showing just what can be done with the new and improved editor (mind-blowing), and also takes a huge turn away from the typical wreck & plunder of the main campaigns. All in all, VERY well done, and a great change of pace. :)

I must admit, I miss those Night Elves. They are my favorite race. :D The ending for them is not what you'd expect, but the storyline is typical Blizzard work (read: good, and involving). Not quite Final Fantasy type epic, but definitely worthy of Blizzard's past praise. :) When you get into the Blood Elf - er, I mean Alliance (Human Alliance, to be more precise) - campaign, try to find the easter egg. I nailed it without even trying, and it was quite an amusing little gem. I actually thought it was part of the campaign itself when I played it - and I sucked, royally. ;) Went back for a second go after getting through all but the last level (Undead is the third, and final, campaign), and actually managed to beat it. :) The story goes on regardless of whether you beat it or not, as it IS a "Secret Level", but it's still a very nice addition. Classic Blizzard touch, like the "Medeival Man" song in Warcraft II. :D

Gameplay is top-notch, much better than in the original. The story is of equal quality, and the new units are a wonderful breath of fresh air. Not to mention the new tilesets - the Winter tileset isn't anything grand, compared to what we originally had (Lordaeron Winter), but the Desert Tilest is simply gorgeous, as I'm sure you noted from that lavish backdrop for the NE campaign. :D Unfortunately, the backdrops only diminish in quality as you go up the line (although the Orc one is almost as good as the NE one), but they're still good, if rather bland. Combined with all the new changes to gameplay and interface - both big and small - and a huge overhaul to the World Editor, and you have yourself a supreme expansion pack. :D Definitely worth the money I spent on it, especially considering what I payed for the original (in Collector's Edition format, no less ;)).

One final note (minor spoilerish):
Expect some history. :) That's all I'm going to say. If you thought this game drifted too far from the past WC storyline, finish the Frozen Throne. You won't be nearly as disappointed. :D

[Sir_Die_alot]

I've had the game since the day it came out and beat the campaign the next day. I found it interesting that they included a AOS type map (you have heros with ally normal units against the same going head to head) and a defense type map in the human campaign. Maybe there are people who work at blizzard that actually play their game. ;) I bought the expansion for the storyline and for some extra units, I was impressed with the storyline but I was laid flat on my back with how many extra units they added. Some were even redone but if you liked the way they used to look you can switch them back in your own maps in the editor. Oh the map making fun I will have. :D

I did kind of see how the undead campaign was going to turn out way back in ROC though, but anyone who read the backstories in their manual probably did too. :)

I Definantly agree with you about 1.10, I think I've killed 3-4 fallen with the new patch, then I went back to playing TFT. :) Hop on over to west if you want to play Occi/Roland you know the place. ;)

[Occhidiangela]

I simply have not developed the key stroke rhythm I need for good Micro, and as I have little to no time for games these days, can offer you not useful challenge. Even on a comp stomp I would be a liability at present.

But thanks for the offer.

[Jester]

... Art of Defence (and its many kin)!

I loved that game (and a few other Use Map Settings) from Starcraft, and I'm enormously glad they put in that fun (but too easy by half) little Easter Egg.

Well, that and the Penguin King.

Jester

[IHateClowns.]

imho for strategic combat in an multiplayer RTS, nothing comes even close to Starcraft.. i'm still a hardcore marine/medic terran player :P

best singleplayer RTS: Total Annihilation.

[Jester]

... zealot rush / tech to templar all the way. Protoss are the only race.

Well, except for those other two. :-)

My friends and I revive that game about once every six months for a few weeks. It STILL hasn't lost it's appeal. Not one whit.

Jester

[IHateClowns.]

That gets old, like mass zerg.. <_<

hit&run w/drops ships can totally cripple a zerg player, download some of Slayer_Boxer's replays if you dont believe me :P
Damn Koreans, they own to hard :lol:

And yea, Starcraft is just one of those games, it will still be fun to play 10, 15, 20 years from now..

[Archon_Wing]

I've been going a lot to starcraft lately, instead of Diablo. Yes, i'm a bad player, but who cares? :D

And yes Terran is very powerful, if played right. Although M+M isn't exactly the best thing against Protoss. Although it is godly against zerg :)

It's kinda sad that the AI is so terrible though.

[Mirajj]

...I hear you about the time and the micro. I don't have much time to play (preferring to spend time with my gf than indoors at my comp, new game or no) so I'm struggling through the campaign. Slowly but surely, that's my motto! ;) I never did like timedmited supply missions, though. But that's just me.

I still have some trouble getting around to everyone, too. Multiple control missions are...challenging, to say the least. I'd be interested in some PvC games, but consider it fair warning that I...um...suck. *L*

[Sir_Die_alot]

I simply have not developed the key stroke rhythm I need for good Micro, and as I have little to no time for games these days, can offer you not useful challenge. Even on a comp stomp I would be a liability at present.

As with any game skill can be learned but finding someone who is worth playing with is a little harder. :)

One of the big games we had been playing on west before TFT (kind of waiting for good maps to come out for this right now) was a UMS game where all you controlled was a single hero. I'm sure you can micro 1 unit to some effectiveness. :P

[Jester]

... if you can click 300 times per minute (and have each mean something), then, my son, you'll be a gosu.

Boxer replays are crazy. I don't know how on earth he does half the stuff he does, but all I know is that I'll never be one tenth that good.

Everything gets old if you do it often enough. I like to mix it up a great deal in my games, even if it costs me a fair number of them. I just happen to prefer to play old skool protoss every once in a while. Is that so wrong? ;)

Jester

[Occhidiangela]

He probably uses a great number of key strokes, has all of the skill, build, upgrade, and uint selectin keys memorized for every building, every race, etc.

Using keys is waaaaaaaay faster than the mouse, IMO. When I was semi OK, I was never gosu, at Starcraft, my keys were what sped me up, not my mouse.

[Archon_Wing]

... if you can click 300 times per minute (and have each mean something), then, my son, you'll be a gosu.

Boxer replays are crazy. I don't know how on earth he does half the stuff he does, but all I know is that I'll never be one tenth that good.

Everything gets old if you do it often enough. I like to mix it up a great deal in my games, even if it costs me a fair number of them. I just happen to prefer to play old skool protoss every once in a while. Is that so wrong? ;)

Jester

Seeing Boxer in action is fairly insane.

See how fast you can go Save a replay first. :) There's also a replay analyzer for Warcraft as well, to go back on topic.

[A.PLH]

yeah, there is nothing quite like watching boxer in action.

there was a video of him somewhere, beating another top player in front of a big crowd with SCV's and a few marines. greatest thing i have ever seen.

a few months back some web site made up a list of the 20(i think) best things they have seen in a replay. he was on the list 5 or more times( mostly in the top 5). just reading what he did was amazing.

bad news recently for him, in that the WCG(i think) decided not to give a free spot in the tourny to the champ(boxer two time defending champ). last i heard he wasn't going to enter, because he wouldn't have time to prepare for the qualification.

[Jester]

... all I can say is SCARY. How does one exactly decide these things? He won that game by a margin of about two seconds. Any more, and the sunkens would have destroyed his marines, and the zerg player would have been unstoppable.

But no.

Somehow, it worked. He made it work. He KNEW it would work. That's what makes him Boxer, as opposed to any other Korean gosu.

(I presume you've been reading www.theinclan.com ? That's where I get most of this junk from. Everything you're saying sounds familiar.)

Jester

[Archon_Wing]

Hmm... the Zerg player did something bad. He should have just sacrifcied the hatchery out there and not let all his drones (mining) get killed. He could have easily gotten some kind of defense in his main base- and sine Boxer SCv rushed, Boxer would be good as dead.

So I heard the Zerg player beat him for the rest of the series. I think he was quite determined to not let Boxer get away with that so easily.