Does last year's HoS leaked ending seem more or less likely after HoS update?

[tjny699]

SPOILER ALERT: Don't read if you haven't seen the leaked HoS clip from last year!!!!!!!

I just went through some of the new material about HoS and started thinking about that leaked, very crude, ending cinematic that got leaked last year.

At first I thought it made sense given the new update--Kerrigan spends HoS regaining her badassness (and those sexy wing-claw shits) and then proceeds to lay the gooey smackdown on Grandpa Mengsk.

But now I suspect that maybe the leak was an alternate WoL ending or that Blizz changed the HoS story around after the leak cuz Kerrigan looks all human, kinda like a Rasta zerg, and I can't see her gettin all reinfested.

Anyway, what do you all think?

[Gradius]

It was the legit HoTS ending at the time.

[Sheliek]

It could be they just used the Queen of Blades model for convenience. I think it is indeed the leaked endiing for HotS.

I think it'd work better as a mid-story climax; the death of Mengsk as closure for Raynor and Kerrigan's plot before focusing on the hybrid for the last half or quarter.

[Triceron]

I think minor changes will be made, but for the most part that is going to be the ending.

Kerrigan still has a beef with Mengsk from the HOTS trailer. 'Control of the Swarm' seems to be a major theme for the expansion (making the ending where the Zerg are 'free' a proper ending twist). They hit most of the big notes, I don't think they're going to make a radical change from there. It takes a long time to make a cinematic, and if they were anywhere deep into production of it, it's going to be difficult to write a new script and dialog for the ending.

But that might be what they are doing as well, since HOTS doesn't seem like a 2011 release. For all we know, they could be delaying it all to get a new, proper ending.

[sandwich_bird]

It could be they just used the Queen of Blades model for convenience. I think it is indeed the leaked endiing for HotS.

I think it'd work better as a mid-story climax; the death of Mengsk as closure for Raynor and Kerrigan's plot before focusing on the hybrid for the last half or quarter.

The reason I don't want that is that it's impossible to tell 2 stories like that decently within 20 missions (the number of missions they said HotS will have).

[imdrunkontea]

It could be they just used the Queen of Blades model for convenience. I think it is indeed the leaked endiing for HotS.

I think it'd work better as a mid-story climax; the death of Mengsk as closure for Raynor and Kerrigan's plot before focusing on the hybrid for the last half or quarter.

Not sure why they would just use it as a placeholder, since they used her wings as an active element in the storyboard...unless she just regains her wings, or something.

In any case, I think it was a concept they had at the time, but that they'll probably change it (perhaps retroactively) for the final product.

[Sheliek]

The reason I don't want that is that it's impossible to tell 2 stories like that decently within 20 missions (the number of missions they said HotS will have).

I hadn't taken that into consideration. With something like WoL, you could fit in multiple plots pretty well.

[Turalyon]

The reason I don't want that is that it's impossible to tell 2 stories like that decently within 20 missions (the number of missions they said HotS will have).

I think that this will be a good challenge for the Blizz writers to tackle. Keep in mind that in SC1 they were capable of pulling off two stories within 20 missions before, namely that each races campaign consisted of 10 missions and they each had full self-contained and satisfying stories.

They really need to dedicate some time to the DV in this expansion I reckon because if HotS ends like it does in the leaked ending, we essentially have two parts of the trilogy focusing on primarily Terran matters (the Mengsk stuff) despite the primarily Zergy backdrop in HotS and it may potentially jar with the sudden focus-shift to the DV as the enemy when we get to LotV. In fact, the thing I'm most interested in is how (or rather if) they'll weave and/or transition into the DV plot from the seemingly Mengsk-heavy plot that we seem to be having so far in HotS.

[mr. peasant]

The reason I don't want that is that it's impossible to tell 2 stories like that decently within 20 missions (the number of missions they said HotS will have).

Regarding the 20 mission count, I wouldn't read in too much into it. First of all, Blizzard said HotS would have around 20 missions (meaning, it could be 18 or it could be 23). Moreover, as it is an estimate, it would probably be a conservative estimate since people aren't going to complain if the game shipped with 25 missions when they had previously said 20, while they would if the game shipped with 20 missions when they had previously said 20. Hence, the number they quoted was probably at the lower end of the range.

[Wankey]

People need to understand that small companies are outsourced to do quick previz. That was a previz of a possible ending. I might've been the ending of the first one. Who knows.