Posts Tagged beta
Starcraft 2 beta arrives
Most of you are probably aware that Blizzard’s sequel to the massively popular Starcraft (in North Korea anyway) has been in development for some time, and is finally due for release sometime this year. A closed beta for the game was opened some time last week and keys were handed out randomly to anyone who had enabled the beta opt-in for their Battle.net account. Initial reactions of the actual beta seem to be very positive, as you’d expect. You can check out livestreams of gamers playing the beta and also discuss it over at the GameReplays.org Starcraft 2 section.
For the lucky few who did get beta keys, they had a choice of either activating the key and playing the beta, or selling the key for up to $300. Yes, you read that correctly. Starcarft 2 beta keys are selling for exorbitant figures of over £200 on ebay. I guess this is the price some people are willing to pay to play the game a few months before everyone else. Myself, I’d rather have the cash.
A thought then… Presuming Diablo III will have the same beta service, and a new Battle.net account only requires one Blizzard game activated on it. You could probably pick up a budget copy of Warcaft 3 for less than £5, and every Battle.net account can potentially get a beta key… Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Steam client beta: UI upgrade
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Technology on 24 February 2010
This was unexpected. It was something that Steam users have been crying out for for a while, and last night the opt-in beta for this redesigned UI popped onto our Steam accounts. Taking part in the beta and trying out the new UI is simple, just go to your settings and in the beta dropdown select ‘UI Update’ (if for some reason Steam now doesn’t load for you, add ‘-clearbeta’ to your Steam shortcut).
Almost every feature of the client has been changed for the better. The store now runs on a WebKit based rendering system which replaces the slow cumbersome IE integration of the previous version. The library now shows a lot more information on your games, for example who on your friends list have the game and who are playing it, as well as your achievements. Strangely, the community tab remains unchanged, which to me was one of the clunkier parts of the old client so it seems strange Valve have decided not to update it.
Not everything is hunky-dory though. It seems the new UI suffers from a bad strain of consolitis. Icons are bigger, fonts are bigger, and in general it feels like a lot of space has been wasted. Take the store for example, I keep my Steam window quite small and with the previous UI the store page generally took up twice the vertical space available in my window (e.g. not much scrolling). The new store however is at least five times as big as the window, causing a lot more scrolling. This isn’t the only case, two of the three new library views consist of huge icons which make it a nightmare for users with many games (admittedly, you can now organize your games into categories, but the interface for doing so is less than optimal at the moment).
Watch this space because no doubt Valve will be improving the UI based on user feedback.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 beta unleashed
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Multiplayer, Preview, Shooter on 29 January 2010
The Battlefield Bad Company 2 PC beta was released at 5pm, which will officially be known as the day the internet almost died. The combined might of Fileplay and FilePlanet ground to a halt as thousands upon thousands of pre-orderers attempted to download a single 1.5GB file. Perhaps somebody should tell EA about a little thing called preloading.
Gameplay wise, the game is classic Battlefield (minus the planes, woo), which shouldn’t need explaining. It is very apparent that this is a beta, with high levels of lag on almost all servers, countless people complaining about crashes, and a friend system that just plain doesn’t work. Console origins show through, the game falls short of my expectations for aesthetics and it runs choppier than one might wish for, even on my GTX280. Bloated interfaces that ask you to login, chose your soldier (profile), and then proceeds to spend minutes retrieving your online statistics from EA’s master servers every time you launch the game.
But that’s what betas are for right? Here are my first 10 minutes.
UPDATE! If you want to increase your performance in the beta, put level of detail on low. It reduces the distance you see some objects (noticeably trees), but can REALLY reduce stuttering, at least it did for me.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 beta: try before you buy
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Multiplayer, Shooter on 23 January 2010
The good
The closed beta available to those who pre-order the game from selected retailers is planned to start on the 28th of January, just over a month before the real thing hits the shelves (or fibre wire). Places to get it from are Play.com, Direct2Drive, or Steam, others are not guaranteed to give you access to the beta.
The not so good
A fairly generic campaign trailer has been released, but who’s buying the game solely for the singleplayer anyway? DICE did promise dedicated servers but now apparently only from pre-approved partners, though it has been this way in previous Battlefield games unless you host an unranked server (no stat gain).
The bad
Rumours are that the PC version of the game will have a fixed FoV (field of view), however the details of what the fixed value will be are as of yet unknown. This is a problem for PC gamers who like to change the default FoV to suit themselves, and possibly for gamers with additional monitors or eyefinity. This is a sign of a console port.
The shady
Why have DICE not released any videos or screenshots from the PC version? They are also being very selective about what questions they answer and use their own forums and blogs so content can be carefully moderated… Why would they be hiding things from us?
Your chance to get into the HoN Beta
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Multiplayer on 20 December 2009
S2 Games, creator of the online arena game Heroes Of Newerth is planning a 24-hour only open beta period where you will be able to sign up to play the beta without the need for a beta key. This is from their Facebook page.
24 hours of open beta registration coming this week. We will update all our fans with the special URL to get into the HoN beta. Keep your eyes peeled and you can be part of the HoN craze soon enough! :)
I highly suggest you don’t miss out on this great opportunity.
Update: The open beta is now live for 85 hours from now! Get your account by signing up here.
R.U.S.E: Do want multiplayer beta
Posted by Sam in Gaming, Multiplayer, Preview, RTS on 15 December 2009
This game really intrigues me. RUSE is a game where instead of using ‘uber micro’ to defeat your enemies, you use a set of ruses (ruse – noun. an action intended to mislead, deceive, or trick) to instead beat them with superior intelligence. The developers are definately trying something new, and a concept which has the potential to be either fantastic or unbelievably dull. Multiplayer will always be at the forefront for me, and to keep me playing there needs to be enough depth that you can’t read a guide and determine the best strategy and execute it during a game to automatically win.
Unfortunately, there are mixed opinions being released from people who have access to the beta. Some people say that because the game has been developed for consoles as well as PC, it has been over-simplified to the point where there is almost no micro involved and the macro involves chosing a few ruses from a list and using them to win you the game. However, others say that there is a lot of depth in ruse selection and timing is essential because you need to plan out your attack and ruses long before your troops reach the battlefield.
Another thing is the scale of the game, with zooming done in the same way as Supreme Commander, where if you zoom out far enough you see icons (or board game pieces as is the case here) instead of units, but you can also zoom in and see individual soldiers walking around. I’ll keep an eye out for any beta key give aways because I would love to experience the game first-hand.
The multiplayer trailer looks particularly aruseing.
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