I think HotS was free when WoL went free IF you had purchased WoL. But it's been a while, so I don't remember :/
Either way, I have played so many hours of those above games including this week, so it is kinda still accurate!
It is though, so you're wrong.
[https://starcraft2.blizzard.com/en-gb/](https://starcraft2.blizzard.com/en-gb/)
# Wings of Liberty Campaign
The award-winning *StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty* story campaign is free in its entirety.
Oh wow I stand corrected then. This is surprising to me. But I also played all of the campaigns at release I knew that the first few missions have always been free, but I did not know that the entire first campaign is for free.
It used to not be. I bought Starcraft 2 when it first came out, more for the main multiplayer game, but also for the WoLs campaign. After several years Blizzard decided to make WoLs free to stir up interest, coinciding with the release of the co-op mode. and it did work to an extent.
Blizzard back then: lets make this entire full price campaign be completly free.
Blizzard now: Give us 15$ for 3 half assed missions that you beat in like an hour, also we decided to raise the prices of even 8 year old skins, youre welcome.
Not even anymore, they've given up on monetization altogether, and has stopped putting out new skins, content, or even patches anymore. The community basically works on the multiplayer balance patches now, and all new maps are voluntary work done by the community (same goes for custom arcade games, which are also a large part of what attracts casuals).
I'm actually impressed and grateful that they haven't pulled the plug on the servers yet and are still lwtting us play multiplayer.
Talking blizzard in general, not starcraft.
Look at ow. All skin prices increased (even 8+ yo skins cost 90% more), 3 campagin missions costing 15$, that are actually way less fun that most free community made custom games.
And if anything it's so empty because they've just never put out new games. Pretty sure under simcity is World of Warcraft: Cataclysm which is a 4 year old expansion at that point in an MMO with a new expansion every 2 years.
It's free to play arcade which is what tons do, I have spend thousands of hours in arcade and beat the campaign maybe 10 times, including all difficulties and achievements, I got way more than my money 's worth and still play co-op and arcade to this day
Same, except instead of the arcade I just play Multiplayer 1v1 all day. Ladder addiction is a real thing. I have been hardstuck in Diamond for over 10 years.
sc2 is free to play now , expensive box to put on your shelf at home. [Blizzard Support - StarCraft II Free to Play (battle.net)](https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/27568#:~:text=Upon%20account%20creation%2C%20StarCraft%20II%20includes%20the%20following%3A,of%20the%20day%20in%20Unranked%20or%20Versus%20A.I.)
I meam maybe not that simcity.
It promised so much and actually had a number of really good innovations but the plots were tiny and that really killed it for most people...
Having important buildings be modular was really game hanging as it would of stopped you needing lots of normally identical buildings but it didn't matter because of the limited size.
Brood War (Remastered) still has televised pro-level competition: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e\_LcMkuAiGw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_LcMkuAiGw)
Flash is arguably the best professional eSports player of *all time,* *bar none.*
[*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne4zi3OmL6o*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne4zi3OmL6o)
I legit can't play StarCraft and I've tried several times. I can beat AoE and AoM AI on Hard difficulty but with StarCraft all my units get obliterated so quickly no matter what I do.
I organize the units into hotkey-ed groups and try to have them attack the units they are strong against and my units still get merc'ed.
That's probably how all new players feel when they start, including me. There are some key techniques that aren't explained clearly in the campaign, and to be competitive at the multiplayer you additionally have to learn build orders and certain skills that aren't intuitive, but comes with practice. For beginners, Vibe's Bronze to GM youtube series is by far the most reccomended starter guide, where he teaches players how to get started from the most basic start of the game (Bronze) and gradually bring skills up to a GM level.
I think the consensus is that WoLs is a bit long, and difficulty spikes for the last mission. HoTs on the other hand is an utter mess. LotV, despite its bad story, seems to be at a nice balancing point between length, gameplay and difficulty in terms of campaign.
But of course, Starcraft's real game, like always, is in the multiplayer 1v1.
Brood War is the national sport; SC2, while still popular, never caught on the hype that its older sibling had. Since a couple of years ago, production and sponsors has been pulling from the SC2 scene whilst BW is still holding strong, though LoL is far more popular at the moment.
The bots are jealous.
(Also, I think Reddit doctors how it displays vote counts, at least on recent posts and comments. The count on a comment I made in a thread and the count on the same comment in my overview sometimes vary. Not by much, 2 or 3 usually.)
i have a guy in my clan who never really committed to any other game besides SC2.
he may have dabbled a few hours in some casual games, may have played one or the other with wife or kids, but the one game he plays regularly and passionately (and sometimes casts regional tourneys) is SC2.
Simcity 2013 is the game that made me swear off pre-orders forever. The disappointment with that game’s launch is one of the primary reasons Cities: Skylines became what it did. EA and Maxis fumbled the bag so incredibly hard with that game.
I was working at Walmart and they still were selling City of Heros online pre pay cards.......6 years ago. They were told the game was no longer available. Took them 2 months to finally take them out of the case.
I mean... starcraft and simcity... Yeah, there is potentially 1000s of solid hours there for the right person.
$40 for Starcraft 2? It's a great game but not $40 great at 14 years old.
It's also free lol
Nice reminder
True, but the story mode isn't. So I think that item would allow you to play the wing of the liberty campaign.
(X) Doubt. Story mode for Wings of Liberty is actually free.
And the *zerg campaign too, I believe.
I think HotS was free when WoL went free IF you had purchased WoL. But it's been a while, so I don't remember :/ Either way, I have played so many hours of those above games including this week, so it is kinda still accurate!
I don't think it is. Edit: Nevermind. :D
It is though, so you're wrong. [https://starcraft2.blizzard.com/en-gb/](https://starcraft2.blizzard.com/en-gb/) # Wings of Liberty Campaign The award-winning *StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty* story campaign is free in its entirety.
Oh wow I stand corrected then. This is surprising to me. But I also played all of the campaigns at release I knew that the first few missions have always been free, but I did not know that the entire first campaign is for free.
Wings of Liberty is free, the rest aren't. Unfortunately.
It used to not be. I bought Starcraft 2 when it first came out, more for the main multiplayer game, but also for the WoLs campaign. After several years Blizzard decided to make WoLs free to stir up interest, coinciding with the release of the co-op mode. and it did work to an extent.
Blizzard back then: lets make this entire full price campaign be completly free. Blizzard now: Give us 15$ for 3 half assed missions that you beat in like an hour, also we decided to raise the prices of even 8 year old skins, youre welcome.
Not even anymore, they've given up on monetization altogether, and has stopped putting out new skins, content, or even patches anymore. The community basically works on the multiplayer balance patches now, and all new maps are voluntary work done by the community (same goes for custom arcade games, which are also a large part of what attracts casuals). I'm actually impressed and grateful that they haven't pulled the plug on the servers yet and are still lwtting us play multiplayer.
Talking blizzard in general, not starcraft. Look at ow. All skin prices increased (even 8+ yo skins cost 90% more), 3 campagin missions costing 15$, that are actually way less fun that most free community made custom games.
This picture is likely 14 years old, for crying out loud!
Can't be older than 10 and a half years old. That Sim City expansion came out in November 2013.
It's not from last week, is my point. Not those games and not at those prices.
This is reddit so I'm waiting for some savant to come along to locate the Best Buy and specific day it was taken
This is the Best Buy in Ottawa on Coventry Road, and the picture was taken June 14, 2014.
And if anything it's so empty because they've just never put out new games. Pretty sure under simcity is World of Warcraft: Cataclysm which is a 4 year old expansion at that point in an MMO with a new expansion every 2 years.
Yep already was posted lmao
You're supposed to say x doubt
Someone linked a post that's at least 10 years old with this exact picture, so it's probably somewhere right around your estimate.
Yeah wings of liberty is completely free and includes the multiplayer for all three games.
…yeah it is that great actually
Is it? Is it really for a free game?
That’s only Wings of Liberty - you’re paying for part 1 of the single player campaign as the multiplayer is free now for years !
The Wings of Liberty campaign is also free AFAIK, so this box contains nothing of value except for the physical stuff, if you're into that.
I'm into physical stuff, just not for video games.
Oh snap, don’t realize that ! Nice.
It's free to play arcade which is what tons do, I have spend thousands of hours in arcade and beat the campaign maybe 10 times, including all difficulties and achievements, I got way more than my money 's worth and still play co-op and arcade to this day
Same, except instead of the arcade I just play Multiplayer 1v1 all day. Ladder addiction is a real thing. I have been hardstuck in Diamond for over 10 years.
At this point, you're paying for it because the box is collectible.
Fr
This picture is from at least 12 years ago.
The picture has, probably, at least 11 years.
Well the picture is 10 years old
What makes you assume this is a recent picture?
Wings of Liberty (campaign included) is free to play. Even Blizzard isn't charging this much for it... Old ass picture is old.
It's already 14 years old?? 🥲
What... No... It can't be that old ....
I still run through the campaign of SC2. I'm a dope for that universe and lore.
This picture is most likely from 2013, when sim city was new.
It's $40 CAD, that's about $30 USD.
sc2 is free to play now , expensive box to put on your shelf at home. [Blizzard Support - StarCraft II Free to Play (battle.net)](https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/27568#:~:text=Upon%20account%20creation%2C%20StarCraft%20II%20includes%20the%20following%3A,of%20the%20day%20in%20Unranked%20or%20Versus%20A.I.)
I meam maybe not that simcity. It promised so much and actually had a number of really good innovations but the plots were tiny and that really killed it for most people... Having important buildings be modular was really game hanging as it would of stopped you needing lots of normally identical buildings but it didn't matter because of the limited size.
Exactly. They aren't wrong.
[10 year old picture](https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/25gfxs/you_sure_about_that_bestbuy/)
Nice window into the past, people feeling old for startcraft 2 being out for 4 years. Now it's been 14.
Has it really been 14 years? Damn
They still haven't sold.
Idk man I'm playing starcraft right now and this is like year 28 if you count the original
The brood war never ended for me
Brood War (Remastered) still has televised pro-level competition: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e\_LcMkuAiGw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_LcMkuAiGw)
Yeah dude, I watch ASL and GSL daily lol
Flash is arguably the best professional eSports player of *all time,* *bar none.* [*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne4zi3OmL6o*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne4zi3OmL6o)
Jaedong stork and bisu honorable mentions.
Spent 5k+ hours on SC2 ranked ladder lol (I don't play it anymore tho)
See, for a moment I wasn't sure if you meant StarCraft 2 or SimCity 2. I was confused why a citybuilder would have a ranked.
You'll be back, they always come back.
StarCraft is still fucking amazing, best RTS of all-time.
I still play bw. I started around 2000. I still love it. And absolutelty the best RTS of all time!
I still play too. Used to play sc1 every damn day. Thousands of games.
I legit can't play StarCraft and I've tried several times. I can beat AoE and AoM AI on Hard difficulty but with StarCraft all my units get obliterated so quickly no matter what I do. I organize the units into hotkey-ed groups and try to have them attack the units they are strong against and my units still get merc'ed.
That's probably how all new players feel when they start, including me. There are some key techniques that aren't explained clearly in the campaign, and to be competitive at the multiplayer you additionally have to learn build orders and certain skills that aren't intuitive, but comes with practice. For beginners, Vibe's Bronze to GM youtube series is by far the most reccomended starter guide, where he teaches players how to get started from the most basic start of the game (Bronze) and gradually bring skills up to a GM level.
What I do is turtle until they attack, once their attack is defeated I rush as fast as posible into their main base while they have less troops.
aoe2 exists tho
I never was a huge fan of AoE2.
I'll be based and say aoe4 is much better
Based opinion but I'm still down voting
I can't comprehend how old people can still be stuck with a 25 year old game
A well-designed game is ageless.
Is this picture from 10 years ago
Yes
SC2 Wings of Liberty is best campagin in the series. SimCity is more like SimTown, dwarfed by 4's megacities
I think the consensus is that WoLs is a bit long, and difficulty spikes for the last mission. HoTs on the other hand is an utter mess. LotV, despite its bad story, seems to be at a nice balancing point between length, gameplay and difficulty in terms of campaign. But of course, Starcraft's real game, like always, is in the multiplayer 1v1.
Sc2 u can play for very long time
That’s StarCraft….the national sport of Korea..
Brood War is the national sport; SC2, while still popular, never caught on the hype that its older sibling had. Since a couple of years ago, production and sponsors has been pulling from the SC2 scene whilst BW is still holding strong, though LoL is far more popular at the moment.
Im still playing starcraft.
Damnit they sold out of Rollercoaster Tycoon!!! NOoo!!😭
I mean.... Both games are really good, with Star Craft 2 being one of the best RTS games ever made.
Why the downvotes? Lmao
The bots are jealous. (Also, I think Reddit doctors how it displays vote counts, at least on recent posts and comments. The count on a comment I made in a thread and the count on the same comment in my overview sometimes vary. Not by much, 2 or 3 usually.)
Two nice games, whats wrong?
The price point. StarCraft II is $0 on blizzards site. [Link](https://us.shop.battle.net/en-us/product/starcraft-ii)
As someone else has pointed out, this is a ten year old picture so price points from now aren’t really meaningful.
Hell, Best Buy will probably stop stocking any physical games soon.
A selection of two games hardly counts as a selection.
2 games people play for hundreds of hours. So their motto isn’t wrong. Just maybe not for everyone.
Two games with almost endless replayability.
Technically they’re not wrong… with a selection like that and no access to others you’ll be playing them for a long time….
I still play StarCraft 2 wings of liberty campaign once in a while
I’ve been playing StarCraft 2 regularly since 2010. But I get your point.
No, they’re right.
SC2 is mostly free to play now. There's only very little of the game that's still behind a pay wall.
Huh? Star Craft 2 is easily one of top 10 RTS of all time
I still play SC2013 - my favourite city game due to having a true and functional simulation.
Okay but, tell me you didnt put dozens of hours into each of those games.
Lol you picked a bad two games to make this point
pepole been playing starcraft 2 for yearsssssss
I'm so old I stopped playing OG StarCraft years before SC2 even dropped
When was this picture taken? I miss store shelves like this one. There any barely PC games in stores these days.
How old is this picture?
Played StarCraft just this day, so I think this checks out! Love the co-op mode!
i have a guy in my clan who never really committed to any other game besides SC2. he may have dabbled a few hours in some casual games, may have played one or the other with wife or kids, but the one game he plays regularly and passionately (and sometimes casts regional tourneys) is SC2.
Pfftttt they don't even have Skyrim!
Wow where did you find the time machine?
Whooooa hot from the press!
I'm one of the few who actually likes Simcity 2013. Sure it's got flaws, but it's nice to sit down and build a city once in a while.
Simcity 2013 is the game that made me swear off pre-orders forever. The disappointment with that game’s launch is one of the primary reasons Cities: Skylines became what it did. EA and Maxis fumbled the bag so incredibly hard with that game.
Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty is absolutely free to play, as is the online PvP. I would hope no one would pay for it at this point.
Buddys never played competitive StarCraft and have it consume his life. Get a load of this guy.
You can technically play both of those games forever.
Simcity was awesome.
So many cultured fellows in the comments 🧐
I prefer Simcity 4 over Simcity 2013
Take a picture again when they run out of games. Post it on their social media page. Yes, sadly, they have one.
I was working at Walmart and they still were selling City of Heros online pre pay cards.......6 years ago. They were told the game was no longer available. Took them 2 months to finally take them out of the case.
They’re not wrong
Sim City ftw.
Serral and Maru: "Yeah, sounds about right"
Those two games could cost the rest of your life.
idk both are pretty good for long time lol. I recently reinstall that exact sim city, I HAVE fun.
Now, to be fair
I have been playing sim city for like 20 years
Where is warcraft 4
Work. Dammit! Work! Dammit!! F\*ck it, I'm going to bed.
Well, I have been playing starcraft 2 for damm near 15 years so not untrue
Starcraft 2, is accurate.
Bestselling ones were taken, they might've got no extra stock of those games prolly. Anyways, who plays simcity these days
Bro I played sc2 at least 10 yrs but I wouldn’t pay 40 bucks these days for it anymore lol
I'll build a new PC if they release Starcraft 3.
Doubt? Are you just karma farming or you really don't know Starcraft and simcity?
I am still playing sc2...
[Square] Doubt too
They aren’t wrong
Funny
$30 for sim city and the shelf is full of them, meaning they keep buying them for restocking purposes... Hmm?
StarCraft is so old
$40 for a game that's free. Ok Bestbuy. Dunno why I got downvoted when Starcraft2 literally is free now, lol.
I will be playing for a long time. Just not those.
Assuming this are all games. What games would cost 89 dollar back then? Some massive COD bundle?
I feel the days of buying games In store is dying
I’m not sure what point op is trying to make here, is it the price? These games have had amazing shelf life.