Starcraft 2

by Dave
(Canada)

For my fellow gamers out there, I must make a post about Starcraft 2. Although it's not typically the FPS (First Person Shooter) or MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), the strategy and game play make it fun, plus since my friends had it, they wore me down so I picked it up.

Since I've never played the first one, the learning curve for this game was huge for me. It is intensively based about managing every single unit, managing your resources, and countering effectively to be the most deadly and take out the opponent.

I started playing shortly after it was released. The good thing with the Blizzard system of ranking is I don't consistently have to lose to players that are way out of my league. After your initial 5 entry matches, you get placed with players with similar skills, so you not only have a chance to learn how to play the game, you can do it a little more gracefully.

It's easy to see why the standard to this game for being the benchmark of measuring a gamers skill is out there. It is very well balanced. The races all have a good chance against one another, none being superior. Although personally, it feels like the chain of command would go Terran, then Protoss, then Zerg. But I've been put into place with authority by each of them.

Currently, I must say, I'm all kinds of hooked on the map Nexus Wars. It falls completely out of the standard as far as game play goes. It changes all the rules, and everything is completely different style of play. You simply build the structures, don't worry about resources in the normal way, the units then mindlessly attack everything trying to kill the other teams base.

I like it for a number of reasons, it teaches you how to counter everything against everything much more effectively than one on one game play. It's 4 v 4 and plays in such a way that you still have more time to visit with team mates, and it forces 2 of you on either side to work together, and if need be, the 3 or 4 can step in to help. Since team play is something that I really enjoy, this is a win for me.

For now, when it comes to gaming, that's probably where I'll be, at least until the release of the next video game that's worthy of my short attention span.