Back in 1998, as a follow up to Diablo, Blizzard released the first RTS I ever played online. The single player actually had a good story, the graphics were simple, but amazing and the CG cut scenes blew me away. I must have watched them near 100 times. The multiplayer was balanced and more intense than any online game I had played prior. It was near video game perfection.
While tons of fun, StarCraft was never a game I excelled at. I always partied up with friends to play coop vs. the CPUs, "comp stomp", or custom map team play. I never played solo. It was intimidating. I did attempt to get better at the game though. A friend even built a custom training map for me once. It could be reset from in game to allow for timing your build order. Eventually I went back to first person shooters and eventually feet first into MMOs. That was many years ago though.
Now StarCraft 2 is finally here, some 12 years later. Wow, really 12 years. It has got to be hero focused, with no base building and fullly rotatable 3D right? Nope! Try a fixed isometric view, with old school game mechanics: base building, micro-ed massive armies, rushing, the whole lot. They essentially took their now classic game and made it like technology advanced, but time didn't. It is great!This go round all of the friends I used to play with have moved on and not to other video games. Maybe that is something I should reflect on later. This is a video game post though, not a "why is a Adam a 29 year old man child" post. Moving on. I'm playing SC2 with a whole new crowd and even tackling 1v1 matches when I have time. It has been loads of fun so far, but playing solo still gets me ten kinds of worked up. It is partly that I don't like losing, but mostly that my nerves are on edge the entire match. There is so much to do and so many ways to screw up. Winning feels great, but the process is mentally draining.
If you'd like to play or at the very least see my record, your best path to that end is here, through my account profile.
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