Gonna party like it's 1999
Andrew Cory
With StarCraft 2...
I hate waiting...
About
A note on our important Editorial Policy.
Your donations help make Dean's World possible.
Or you could buy something for Dean from his WISH LIST!
Dean Esmay
Editor-In-Chief
Freedomist Network
Individual postings by contributors copyright by their respective authors.
Editor-In-Chief
Contributing Editors
Celia Farber
Categories
Music, Movies, Books, and Etc.
Questioning the HIV/AIDS establishment
Subscribe
Archives
Old Archives
We Support
|
Dean's World uses and recommends:
I love siege tanks.
Alas, he found out a few months ago that it most likely will never ever see the light of day in any format.
After I saw the trailers for StarCraft II, I went to EB Games and bought the StarCraft battle chest, with the game and the expansion (and their strategy guides) for $20.
This is a fun little game.
RTS:
Starcraft
Command &Conquer
TBS
Civilization
Heros of Might &Magic
A little of both
The total war series (e.g., Medeival Total War)
Now the delayed zergling swarm (not the zergling rush, that's different) was pretty darn good, but in general, if the other side knew what tactic you were pursuing, you were toast.
I'm very interested! I've given strategy games a try and they just don't grab me. I can't figure them out. I've got Battle for Middle-earth 2 sitting on the floor just to my left and a Command &Conquer collection nearby. If I turn I'd see Star Wars: Empire At War and it's expansion within my grasp.
I've given the genre a try. I think I just move too slowly, consider my actions too long, to get much out of them.
Well, call me old school, but for ScFi &many other games, I still prefer miniatures over conmputers or video games.
My son and I have a rather large Warhammer 40K collection, and I really like that game system. I also like building the figures, vehicles, designing terrain, etc. many hobbies under one roof.
Now, don't get me wrong. There are some computer games I like. Most are older, but I like Wolfenstien, DOOM, and SWOTL, plus Aces Over Europe. Silent Service was a good one too. I also had some fun with Ages &Empires.
All in all, however, given the choice I'll opt for miniatures over electrons. That's not a rap on PC games, not at all. Just sayin'.
My son, now, he was drooling over the Starcraft 2 trailers.....
Respects,
Have you tried games along the lines of Panzer General?
I tried Company of Heroes. That's the only WW2 strategy game I gave a go. Well, not much a go. I thought it was a FPS. When I saw it wasn't I didn't touch it.
How fun? I first started playing 14 months ago. It can still keep me up until 4am...
I know I've never been amazingly good at RTS games, although I've played a little bit of Empire Earth and am trying Starcraft some now.
I think the balance of Blizzard games is why people are so excited about Starcraft 2. They're one of the few game companies that has repeated success with game balance, as noted in that there still isn't a dominant strategy for Starcraft, even after almost a decade. A well-played game by any side is the key to winning. The same is true about World of Warcraft, another Blizzard game. While other MMORPG's have balance problems between factions and classes, in some cases so bad that whole classes become abandoned because they are just not viable, WoW has done well keeping every class viable in both Player Vs. Environment (PvE) and Player Vs. Player (PvP) action. Certainly, there are expected outcomes, but even those can be avoided by skill on the player's part.
You know what's really sad? Starcraft 2 is gonna come out in some crazy special edition that's going to be, like, $40 over retail or something.
And I'm gonna buy it.
I totally agree with Dan. Balance and continued support for their games--ten years later they still occasionally issue patches for Starcraft--are what makes Blizzard games successful. I watch professional Starcraft games from time to time (yep, there is money to be made if you're that good at it!) and the gameplay depth is amazing. There is no surefire winning tactic for any race and players are constantly adjusting their tactics to react to what their opponent is doing. Even what is considered a good tactic seems to change over the years.
First make sure you have a recent patch for the game (it will automatically check this when you go to Battle.net through the multiplayer option). Then download some replays at a site like this. Make as if to start a one-player game and choose the "Load Replay" option. While watching a replay you can click on whichever part of the map you like and see what's happening there.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.