I have been extremely excited for StarCraft 2 ever since it was announced back in 2006. Even though I sort of had a rough relationship with the first one, for some reason the second always felt like a game I would thoroughly enjoy. Maybe it was because coming to StarCraft so late in its life, there was always a sense of being unforgivably late to a really awesome party and discovering the tone had shifted from "let's have a good time" to the inevitable "I don't want to go home alone."

However, I got the chance to come into StarCraft 2 as one of the few people in the world with the chance to actually play it, and though a lot of strategies from the original are present, there is certainly the opportunity for new players to jump in and compete, as I will discuss later in this preview.

But enough about that. How does the new Battle.Net look and feel? Pretty dang good, actually. It's sleek, well-designed, and a real treat to maneuver. It's also easy to see how the revamped service will become the backbone for Blizzard's games in the future. The influence of other online services such as Steam is readily apparent, and from what we've heard, the social community will be fairly robust even though the tab associated with it is currently inaccessible.

So, let's take a quick look over the new Battle.Net interface and how StarCraft 2 is integrated!

The Main Screen

Take a quick glance at the header image of this preview, as that is the first thing you will see when you jump into the StarCraft 2 beta. The top left has tabs for Single-player and Muliplayer (only the multiplayer tab is accessible right now), as well as tabs, from left to right under the gameplay tabs, for Home, Replays, Ladder, Social (grayed out), Achievements (grayed out), Profile, and Help (also grayed out).

In the upper-right corner, you can see my nickname and my profile picture. And if you look to the bottom, you will see your Options menu to the left and buttons for muting your microphone, opening your Friend's List, and a clock on the right.

starcraft-2-battlenet-friends-list

The Friend's List is pretty nifty, and though I don't have any friends yet (/tear), it will be a really nice utility once StarCraft 2 is released. Through the Friend's List, users will be able to chat, see what games their friends are playing (WoW, Diablo III, SC2, whatever else Blizzard drops in the future), and invite them to competitive matches in StarCraft 2. The chat will also be cross-game, where someone playing World of Warcraft can talk, through Battle.net, to a friend playing StarCraft 2 for example. Anyone who has used Steam knows how this works, but it's nice to get that functionality in the new Battle.net. Supposedly, World of Warcraft will get a patch around the time StarCraft 2 is released to enable this feature.

Profile

The profile page offers a nice snapshot of everything pertinent to your StarCraft 2 existence. On the left side, you will find tabs for many features that aren't currently in the game, except for the option to change your profile picture as well as access your specific ladder. Some of the things on the left can be seen in other places (such as replays) but we don't yet have access to things like achievements or player maps, which I assume is where a player will be able to see all the maps they've created and uploaded using the map editor that we may or may not see during the beta.

starcraft-2-battlenet-profile

In the middle, you get a quick snapshot of your statistics, with career wins, your best map, the highest rank you've achieved in your league, and your best race. It also shows your current rank on your ladder. The little arrows in the top right of the box allow you to switch between statistics for 1v1, 2v2, FFA, etc.

Underneath that is a summary of your last five matches. As you can see, I played all 1v1 matches and won three out of the five. If you double-click on any of the games, you are able to see specific game statistics, economic breakdown, and build order for all players.

Continue to Part 2: Leagues and Ladders, Replays & Multiplayer...

Leagues and Ladders

This area is a little embarrassing for me, but I will try to sound authoritative despite my poor league showing. When you begin StarCraft 2, the game asks you to play ten qualifying matches for whichever game mode you are interested in (1v1, 2v2, etc.). Based on your performance, you will be placed in a league. The breakdown goes, from highest to lowest skill level: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Copper. Within each league, players are assigned to a division of around 100 players.

starcraft-2-battlenet-league

It seems these players will be your primary opponents when playing ranked games. It looks like if you spend enough time at the top (see that dividing line after the eighth place person?), then you will eventually be moved to another ladder. As you can see, I was assigned to the Copper league, which does quite a bit in telling you how awesome I am at this game. From what I understand, there is quite a bit more than your win-loss ratio taken into account from your qualifying games when placing someone in a league, such as actions per minute, economic breakdown, etc.

The qualifying system isn't perfect yet, even Blizzard admits this, and there have been people complaining of being placed in divisions that are too easy or too hard for them. Also, an inherent flaw in the system is the comparable difficulty of different divisions. The fiftieth-ranked person in Division 10 of the Platinum league may be better than the top-ranked in Division 8 of the Platinum league, for example. I haven't found it to be too big of a problem, and I seemed to be placed fairly well, winning around fifty percent of my matches. Blizzard has stated their commitment to getting this hammered out, so I think the system will be much, much better come retail release when there will be a much larger pool of players to choose from.

Replays

The bread-and-butter of StarCraft 2, for sure. The system Blizzard has created for replays in StarCraft 2 is such a vast improvement over the original that it may be the best thing about Battle.net. Basically, the game saves all of your replays automatically, and all you need to do is click on the handy Replays tab, find the game you want, and load it up.

starcraft-2-battlenet-replays

Want a share your game with someone else? Simply highlight the replay and click "Save" on the right. It will make a permanent copy in your multiplayer folder and all someone has to do is throw that file in their respective multiplayer folder and load up their client. There are also databases popping up on some of the StarCraft 2 fansites where people can upload their games and anyone can download and check them out. I foresee this being a huge deal once the game comes out and people rush to find the best replays so they can pick apart the strategies used.

The replays are also extremely detailed, and players can pause, rewind, switch views between everyone or first person for any player, and bring up menus that track things like unit production, economy, actions per minute, armies, and build order. It's very helpful when trying to figure out where things went wrong or how your opponent was able to build all of those mutalisks so quickly.

Multiplayer

Took me long enough to get here, but there is just so much cool stuff in the Battle.Net interface. Anyway, this is your main screen to jump into ranked matches or play custom games. You can even set up your map preferences which the game will take into account when trying to find you a game.

starcraft-2-battlenet-mutiplayer

Playing "Quick Match" is how you compete in ranked games in your league. After choosing your game mode and race, Battle.Net begins looking for an opponent. I must say, the matchmaking system is really good. I've never had to wait more than ten or fifteen seconds for someone to be found and a match to start. As I understand it, the matchmaking looks for someone in your division first and then expands out to other divisions in your league until it finds someone as evenly ranked as possible.

Continue to Part 3: Custom and Unranked Games & The Conclusion...

Custom and Unranked Games

All of the custom games are unranked and will not effect your place on your ladder or within your league. Players have two options for custom games: joining one that someone has already created and made public or creating their own.

If you decide to join a custom game that has already been created, this is what you will see:

starcraft-2-battlenet-join-custom

You can do all the normal things here, such as filtering based on game type, map preferences, etc., as well as get map details and see the popularity of different maps. Once the map editor is out, there is also where you will be able to join user-created games and maps. I assume user maps will show up in the leagues eventually, but they will probably have to go through some sort of approval process by Blizzard.

If you go the route of creating your own game, you will be presented with a map list:

starcraft-2-battlenet-create-custom-map-list

Once you select a map, you can edit the game by adding AI opponents, players, and choosing whatever game types that are supported by the specific map. Also, there is a button to "Make Public" and by clicking that you place your created game in the public forum to allow strangers to join. In the bottom right, you can also see a mini-lobby for communication before the map is fired up.

starcraft-2-battlenet-custom-teams

Conclusion

Make no mistake, the new Battle.Net is awesome. Blizzard has learned quite a few things about user interfaces, matchmaking systems, and creating an overall online platform to support their products since the last iteration of Battle.Net. Make fun of World of Warcraft all you want, but both the resources as well as the lessons learned throughout its development are what made this new system possible. Not only is Blizzard at the top of their game, but I think there is a pretty good chance they will reassert themselves at the top of the PC industry once StarCraft 2 and the revamped Battle.Net roll out.

Some may argue Steam is the better online platform, and I agree, but only so far as what each claims to be. I think of Steam as a platform for digital distribution and a sort of "library for games," where I can find things I want and keep them all organized. Battle.Net may only be for Blizzard's games, whether you think that is a strength or a weakness is up to you, but what it does, it does so damn well. And we've only seen a shadow of what the new Battle.Net is so far. Once StarCraft 2 and its map editor are released and we begin to see the social community around StarCraft 2 develop, I think this thing is going to become something far more robust than we can even fathom.

I hope you enjoyed this quick preview of the new Battle.Net seen through the eyes of StarCraft 2. Stay tuned for more StarCraft 2 beta impressions as I give a nice rundown of the multiplayer, including the races, maps, gameplay, and overall balance.

StarCraft 2 is currently in beta and will be released for the PC in 2010.

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