The beta for StarCraft II began today. Or yesterday. Maybe early this morning. Honestly, I don’t really care, but I suppose there are plenty of people who still do.

In my humble opinion, the hype-machine started far too early for Blizzard’s latest iteration of the big daddy of the modern RTS, and I just can’t find any trace of excitement left inside me.  All signs point to it relying on the mechanics established in the original, which I suppose is fine, but I can’t help but think that the whole experience is just going to feel old, flat and tired, much like the recent Command and Conquer games.

Visually it’s an upgrade, but it’s nothing monumental.  Thestagnant art direction makes it look far too similar to the original to pique my interest there.  I can understand not wanting to change too much for fear of alienating the huge built-in fanbase, but come on, Blizzard, make me feel like you’re trying at least a little…

I’m sick and tired of the StarCraft- and Dawn of War-style space marine, alien and vehicle designs.  I always kind of assumed it was a limitation of the graphics of the time, but the fact that this nonsense has continued has me wondering who the hell is in charge of this crap?

If you still think this looks cool, I no longer consider your opinions valid.  Any of them.

People tend to treat Blizzard with a great deal of respect, and rightly so; they’ve earned it with a solid track record and staying power.  But that certainly doesn’t mean they’re infallible, and in a world where we’ll ridicule Infinity Ward for a lack of innovation, we had better call out Blizzard for making a “new” game using the same formula they employed twelve fucking years ago.  At least Call of Duty games could try to blame it on a retarded release schedule.  What could possibly be Blizzard’s excuse?  In the past fifteen years they have only released titles in three franchises: Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft.  If you don’t count expansion packs, that totals seven (7!!!) games (including StarCraft II).  If you do count expansion packs, it brings the total up to thirteen.  For comparison, the Call of Duty franchise alone has crapped out nine “full” games in seven years, ten if you count expansions, and twelve if you count PSP and Nintendo DS iterations.  Looking at the fact that CoD has produced almost more “full” games than Blizzard in less than half the time, you could almost forgive CoD for being such a lame snoozefest that fails to bring anything new to the crowded FPS table.  Almost.  StarCraft II has not been subjected to such a release schedule.

I can’t help but feel as though Blizzard is too concerned with playing it safe, trying to make sure they don’t piss any of their fans off with this release.  I suppose that’s admirable to a point, but in the end I think they’re doing the fans a disservice.  StarCraft was a genre-defining game, and it seems like Blizzard is trying to do more of the same rather than try to redefine anything.  I’m not saying that StarCraft II necessarily has an obligation to do this, but I think many people, though they may not realize it immediately, are expecting the second coming.  Of course, I haven’t played the game.  And the chances of being chosen for the beta are slim to say the least, so I don’t plan on trying it unless there’s a demo, which of course means I could be wrong to question the greatness of StarCraft II.  I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong if it proves to be everything the fans are hoping for.  But don’t be surprised if it turns out Blizzard are just chasing their tails on release day.