Review – Dark Horse StarCraft: Soldiers # 2
After the fiasco that StarCraft: Scavengers was, in my opinion, I was ready to step back from reviewing StarCraft: Soldiers — a 4-part mini-series.
Author Archive
medievaldragon
Tomas Hernandez is owner of Blizzplanet.com since 2003. I post news about World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard Careers, and the Warcraft film.
Blizzplanet is a leading fansite covering news about upcoming Blizzard Entertainment licensed products. I also post previews and reviews. I have interviewed book writers and Blizzard game developers.
I was previously an employee of the OGaming Network (2003), and IncGamers (2008-2010). I was a guest newsposter for GosuGamers (World of Warcraft) a few years ago and for Diablofans.com (formerly Diablo3.com)
***Fans who would love to watch Blizzard-related panels and appreciate our efforts can support Blizzplanet's patreon in a monthly-basis, or a one-time basis. Our staff are volunteer fans like you. Your donatives will help us travel to all the Blizzard events we attend year-round.
StarCraft II 4.8.3 Patch Notes
The latest StarCraft II 4.8.3 patch notes include the Abathur: Evolved Bundle that will be part of the Twitch Prime offer toward the end of February. A set of 8 comic portraits will be rewarded to those who own the War Chest: Katowice 2018.
Several Bug Fixes across StarCraft II features have been issued in this patch.
StarCraft: Remastered Patch 1.22.3
The StarCraft: Remastered Patch 1.22.3 updated several maps, overhauled the replay info screen and replay file format. It also fixed the replay sync issues. Season 3 has begun.
PATCH NOTES
Greetings Cerebrates, Commanders, and Executors. Patch 1.22.3 has arrived. Welcome to Season 3!
Features and Improvements
New Zerg themed ranked play rewards.
- S,A,B,U rank portraits and frames.
Map Pool Updates
- (2) Cross Game 1.06
- (2) Overwatch 2.2
- (3) Medusa 2.2
- (4) Circuit Breakers 1.0
- (4) Fighting Spirit 1.3
- (4) Ground_Zero 2.0
- (4) Colosseum 2.0
RANKS (Note: For the first two weeks ranks will be MMR bucketed based on last season’s data. After which we will switch to the percentage-based breakdown above.)
- S Rank – Top 1% of players
- A Rank – 7%
- B Rank – 21%
- C Rank – 21%
- D Rank – 21%
- E Rank – 21%
- F Rank – 8%
OTHER
- Overhauled replay information screen and replay file name format.
- Friends presence notifications can now be toggled on and off with the chat commands /f on and /f off.
- /dnd will also ignore presence notifications from friends. Additionally, when /dnd is now toggled feedback will be provided as to wether it’s on or off.
- Added /f o as an alias for /f lo
BUG FIXES
- Fixed a bug introduced in last patch which caused replays to go out of sync when any player left the game. Note: existing replays created under that patch will not be repaired – they will remain broken.
- Re-enabled disconnect stats.
StarCraft II Deepmind Demonstration on Jan 24
DeepMind and Blizzard Entertainment will livestream a demonstration of StarCraft II and DeepMind on January 24 at 6pm GMT. That is 1pm (U.S. East) or 10am (U.S. Pacific).
Join us and @Blizzard_Ent this Thursday at 6:00pm GMT for an exciting #StarCraft demonstration, hosted by @Artosis and @RotterdaM08!
Livestream on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/deepmind
Read more HERE about #StarCraft2 as an environment for AI research.
BlizzCon 2018 StarCraft II: What’s Next Panel Transcript
The BlizzCon 2018 StarCraft II: What’s Next panel revealed plans for the new Co-op Commander Zeratul, and the progress on DeepMind AI.
Among the panelists were:
- Sean “Day[9]” Plott
- Tim Morten (production director)
- Ryan Schutter (UI designer)
- Rob McNaughton (lead artist)
- Kevin Dong (co-op designer)
- Michael Scipione (game designer)
- Oriol Vynials (DeepMind senior staff research scientist)
StarCraft: Soldiers (Volume 2) Paperback
Dark Horse Comics just unleashed the StarCraft: Soldiers (StarCraft Volume 2) paperback details and release date. It will ship on August 20, 2019 and pre-orders are open.
The new details reveal something I was not expecting. StarCraft: Soldiers is not an ongoing comics book series, as I previously posted and assumed. It is another 4-issue limited series. This paperback only collects issue #1-4.
StarCraft: Soldiers #1 will be released as a stand-alone digital download on January 23, 2019 (for Kindle PC and Mobile).
Jody Houser (Stranger Things, Star Wars) is joined by veteran animation and Blizzard Entertainment comics writer Andrew R. Robinson (Overwatch Anthology, World of Warcraft) as they co-plot StarCraft: Soldiers, with art by Miguel Sepulveda (Lone Wolf 2100, Green Lantern).
Newly graduated Lieutenant Shivani Singh wants to defend the Dominion on the front lines, but it will take more than good grades and confidence to survive on the edge of zerg space. After a routine patrol goes awry, Singh launches an investigation to root out threats to the fragile peace between the Dominion and the zerg Swarm.
Collects StarCraft Series 2, comics #1-#4.
StarCraft II 4.7.0 Patch Notes
StarCraft II 4.7.0 was deployed today with a 501.95MB file size download. In this patch, Zeratul has been added as the new Co-op Commander and Announcer. A few quality of life adjustments were made in Versus mode and the Editor. Multiple bug fixes across the board.
PATCH NOTES
New Co-op Commander and Announcer: Zeratul.
- Collect Xel'Naga artifacts to power up your army.
- Customize your abilities to deal with any foe.
- Learn more in our blog.
New Weekly Mutations have been added.
- It is now easier to select an SCV that is currently constructing a building using mouse click selection.
- Added a button to the "Language and Region" panel of the Options menu that manually refreshes ping time to all game servers.
- This fuction is most useful immediately after a connection change such as a switching to a new ISP or moving your computer to a new location.
- Although StarCraft II automatically adjusts networks settings to provide the most responsive gameplay, this function will make these adjustments immediately, ensuring the lowest latency available to you.
- New sub field added: Parent Behavior Link.
- Located under Unit -> Addon On Units.
- Applies the specified behavior to its parent unit from the addon unit.
- Allows control over the parent unit based on the Addon's state.
- Added Height Range field to CActorQuad.
- Allows the quad to change its height based on the position of the player cursor.
CO-OP
- Raynor: Fixed an issue that allowed the Hyperion to still attack even when under the effect of the Moment of Silence Mutator.
- Kerrigan: Fixed a bug that caused the Pneumatized Carapace icon on Overlords and Overseers to appear inactive when it had already been researched.
- Swann: The Vespene Harvester can no longer be cast on enemy or neutral harvesters.
- Vorazun: Shadow Fury upgrade icon no longer displays the Protoss Ground Level 3 icon.
- Karax: Mind controlled Colossi will now properly attack after researching the Fire Beam ability.
- Alarak: Custom hotkeys are now retained for Protoss Weapon and Armor upgrades.
- Fenix: Fixed a typo in his level 11 upgrade on the Co-op Commander selection screen.
- Tychus:
- Fixed an issue with the sound of Nux's normal attack.
- The Odin can no longer damage invulnerable Units and Structures with its splash damage.
- Units affected by the Polarity Mutator will no longer display an icon, even when they are inside a Bunker.
- Temple of the Past: Fixed several areas near ramps that units could become stuck in if they were unloaded by a transport.
MAPS
- Automaton LE, Port Aleksander LE, Emerald City LE: Fixed an issue that caused several ramps and doodads to not display Creep spread.
- Port Aleksander LE: Fixed a bug that allowed players to build structures on a particular ramp.
- Emerald City LE: Unit outlines will now be displayed when units are positioned behind ramps.
CAMPAIGN
- Fixed an issue that allowed players to build units in the second part of "Enemy Intelligence."
- Tal'darim Probes and Stalkers are now using the correct Tal'darim portraits in Legacy of the Void campaign.
- Instigators from the mission "Purification" are no longer missing their 2D portrait.
VERSUS
- Heart of the Swarm: The Mothership Core model is no longer a placeholder model if the Golden Age Protoss Mothership skin is equipped.
- Fixed an issue that caused Broodlings with the Simulant skin to produce overly large corpses.
- Roaches using the Simulant skin now have the Tunneling Claws upgrade indicator on Low settings.
- The Dark Shrine now has a research animation.
StarCraft: Scavengers #1-4 Review
I have been an avid reader of all Blizzard properties that come to books and comics. I had a lot of expectations knowing that BlizzCon was in the horizon. In my opinion, Dark Horse Comics didn’t deliver a satisfactory story in StarCraft: Scavengers #1-4. I will explain in my review below.
Jody Houser is a known writer in DC Comics and Marvel Comics with Justice League of America: Road to Rebirth, Supergirl, Star Wars: Rogue One Adaptation, Amazing Spiderman: Renew Your Vows (2016-2018), and Spider-Girls under her portfolio… to name a few.
OVERVIEW
“After years of terrible warfare, a paper-thin ceasefire is all that stands between terrans and their erstwhile alien adversaries, the enigmatic protoss and the savage zerg. But peace can be a prison for those who wish to make their fortune in the Koprulu sector. All it takes is one ship, one daring crew… and everything could change.”
StarCraft II 4.6.2 Patch Notes
The latest StarCraft II Patch 4.6.2 introduces the BlizzCon 2018 cosmetic Classic skins for the SCV, Probe, and Drone.
Those who purchased the War Chest will receive 17 new portraits.
For those who purchase a BlizzCon ticket or a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, the following items are now available in your Collection:
- New Unit Skins
- Classic Probe
- Classic Drone
- Classic SCV
- New Portrait – Chimera Marine
Those who have purchased a War Chest will receive the following 17 portraits:
- WCS 2018 Trophy
- Maru
- Rogue
- Serral
- sOs
- Classic
- Dark
- Has
- HeroMarine
- Lambo
- Neeb
- Nerchio
- ShowTime
- Special
- Stats
- TY
- Zest
Balance Mod
- The cooldown of the Stalker and Dark Templar’s Blink ability will no longer be paused when under the affects of Fungal Growth.
Campaign
- Fixed an issue that caused Tal’darim buildings to appear as standard Protoss buildings during cutscenes.
Co-op
- Tychus
- The Odin’s anti-air weapon no longer causes friendly fire.
- Fixed an issue that caused Joeyray’s Bar’s Command Card to become locked, preventing the recruitment of new Outlaws.
- Fenix: The hover-text for Probius no longer displays an internal string.
UI
- Trophy Tops have been restored.
- Fixed an issue that caused the Map Preview to not appear consistently.
- Cradle of Death no longer appears twice on the Co-op Mission menu selection.
Versus
- A hallucination of a Disruptor using the Golden Age skin will no longer appear practically invisible.
StarCraft Patch 1.22.1
The Classic StarCraft game has been updated to Patch 1.22.1 which updated the map pool, and ranked rewards.
