Buy Starcraft Online

Starcraft 2 is honestly one of the best games ever made. And that's saying a lot for a sequel. Most sequels never quite get it just right. They either lose the feel of the original or are just plain silly. Movies too, but with starcraft 2 Blizzard was able to get a game that is cutting edge with a ton of changes that still feels exactly like the original game did. And that's not easy to do. And perhaps one of the coolest things you can do now is buy starcraft online, an option that just wasn't available even just a few years ago.

Even just five years ago high speed internet access was a lot more iffy, not to mention slower. But as that kind of technology takes some tremendous leaps forward, it has ushered in the possibility of buying games, downloading them and never having to mess with driving to the store and using the cd's or dvd's in the box. It's still going to be a lot faster to do that, unless you live like 500 miles from the nearest store.

So really all you have to do to buy starcraft online is go to battle.net and create a free account there. Once you have a battle net account you can buy a game key right from the interface and get the installer for starcraft 2 in just a few minutes. Now, the game download itself is absolutely massive, so be prepared for a wait - probably a long wait. Unless you're on a T3 connection or something it's going to take the better part of a half a day, or even several days if your connection is wonky.

You can also buy starcraft 2 online from other vendors, but let the buyer beware. there are some very good game sellers out there that have good customer service and slightly better prices than Blizzard itself, but you're also opening yourself, and your computer up to heaven knows what. It may cost you a few bucks more, but at least with Blizzard you know what you're getting and you can be sure you're getting it without viruses and sypware and any other little nasties you might potentially get from other sources. We have used vendors like _________ before and found them completely reliable, however if the few bucks is important to you.

And that's all there is to buying starcraft online. It really couldn't be any simpler, although it could be a lot faster. But that's not really Blizzard's fault after all, we'll just have to wait another five or ten years until connection speeds (hopefully) can catch up to the sheer size of these games. Perhaps that internet 2.0 we've all been hearing about will help by getting rid of the whole packet protocol, but that's a little ways off at least. But for now, this is what you're stuck with, but at least you can buy starcraft online right now if you want to.

how to play starcraft

Starcraft 2 is one of the most anticipated games in a long time. The original starcraft, along with the brood wars expansion had a nice ten year run - like a lot of Blizzard games. and it was still just as playable as it was the day it was released. But it was in need of a facelift and starcraft 2 has not been a disappointment, to say the least. If you've never played starcraft, you owe it to yourself to go grab a copy of the game right now and experience the very best RTSG (real time strategy game) ever made. It's taht good, honest. And here's a little bit about how to play starcraft 2.

The first thing you have to do is get an authorized copy of the game. The best way to do this is go grab the box from your local retailer and pop it in your computer, but there is another way to do it as well. You can go to Blizzard and sign up for a free Battle.net account - buy a game key and then download the game straight to your computer. It's a BIG game, so that download is going to take a while, like a half a day or more depending on your connection speed. But if you have a fast connection and don't like getting out of the house, it's certainly an option.

Once the game is loaded you're in for a treat. It's a beautiful game and so much fun it should really be illegal in most states. OK, I may be overstating a little, but not very much. 

Starcraft Replays

Starcraft replays have always been popular, and there are good reasons why. With the next generation game starcraft 2 now on shelves (you've got your copy already right?) those replays have even more cool features like stats and all kinds of ways of looking at them. In some countries like Korea (duh) those replays go onto television with almost screaming commentators making sports-like color commentary along the way through the match. Starcraft as a sport seems a little over the top to me but there are some really good reasons to get into those replays that you might not have thought about yet.

Starcraft is an especially complex game because it is RTSG (real time strategy game). Strategy games are complex enough as it is, but when you add in the time factor it speeds up the amount of strategy you have to do in the shortest possible period of time. You can think if it asa bit like chess where you only have one second to make a move. Chess is hard enough when you have fifteen minutes or even hours to analyze what to do next, it would be brutal if you had to play it as fast as possible.

Those replays let you in on the secrets of power playing that the pros use. You know, those guys who are playing starcraft for big bucks on television overseas. The pros are the ones who develop all the killer builds and great micro strategies that trickle their way down through the rest of the ladders, and the best way of figuring out the current state of the art when it comes to starcraft strategies comes from watching those epic match replays.

You can learn an almost infinite amount of information by watching starcraft replays if the thing has a good announcer and you know what to look for. It's even better if you can get the original file and watch it with all the statistics and stuff at your fingertips. Dissect what the very best players in the world are doing with their macro and you're sure to learn a few things that can really help you improve.

There are lots of places to watch good starcraft replays such as battle report and HD, but it remains to be seen exactly how everyone is going to use the replays from starcraft 2 with all the nifty upgrades they include. But I'm sure it won't be long before you will figure out how to make the best use of those replays once they are hitting a broadcast website near you. So get to watching and you're sure to improve your starcraft 2 gameplay by leaps and bounds.

Starcraft Trainer

 I've been playing video games longer than I care to tell you about. Probably too long, as a matter of fact. I couldn't even begin to tally up the number of hours (or money) I've spent on gaming over the last - well - a lot of years. But games are fun and a bit addictive and provide a great escape from the everyday without too much in the way of side effects. Sure, there are those who think that games make people more likely to go on mass murdering sprees and all sorts of other nonsense, and there are probably much better ways to spend your time, like with a good book, but overall I think that's it's a pretty innocuous pastime. But with every new generation of games there are those looking for an unfair advantage, and starcraft trainers are no different.

I went through a stage like that myself actually. Looking up cheat codes and what not on the old original nintendo. It was a lot harder to do in those days to be sure, but the internet has changed all that in a huge way. Now cheat codes and hacks and cracks are available all over the internet at virtually a moment's notice. One quick search and you can figure out how to cheat in way that basically make you a godlike entity in the game. A virtual NPC if you will. Able to easily beat what you once found almost impossible, or maybe even completely impossible to do. But after a year or so of using cheat codes back in the day I quit, for good.

It turns out that using cheats makes the game not a game anymore, but rather a rush to the end. And the end of cheating leaves you with a bit of an unsatisfied feeling. Actually it's completely unsatisfying. There is no challenge to a game if you hack it. That's what made those old huge console games so much fun for so long. They only had three buttons and there was no way around having to play the game against the rules. I'll never forget a friend and I finally beating Rastan (yeah I'm old). We whooped and yelled and jumped around like we had actually done something worth yelling about. But it was fun - playing with cheats and beating the game? Not fun at all in the end.

So when it comes to starcraft trainers you can be sure that they will always be around. But really, what's the point in using a trainer to simply finish the game? You'll rocket through the campaign that you paid good money for and then you'll just be done - and bored more than likely. It's a complete waste of time and has some other negative potential consequences as well.

Many trainer programs are actually viruses or spyware in disguise. No elite programmer is going to sit down and spend several hundred hours hacking a game that's just going to change in a few months without some kind of motivation. Typically that motivation is money. But sometimes it takes the form of simple punkness. THey can get a cheap thrill knowing that they are crashing the computer of every person silly enough to load their little subversive program - a program that probably doesn't do anything to starcraft at all.

So in the end, it's my opinion that starcraft trainers and cheats and hacks in general are just dumb. Why pay money for something and then not get anything out of it? It seems a little weird to me, but only because I already know that I've tried cheating and it was a whole lot less fun than doing it the good old fashioned way - and just beating the game outright all by myself. It's a whole lot more fun and satisfying to win.

Starcraft 2 Protoss Strategy part 2

We looked at a few of the things you're going to have to keep in mind when it comes to starcraft 2 protoss gameplay in part 1. Now let's look a bit more precisely at builds so that you have an better idea of what starcraft 2 protoss gameplay looks like from the inside. Of course, we just don't have enough space here to give you a complete strategy, but there are some excellent guides available to give you all the nitty gritty details.

The nice thing about protoss if you like to micro is that the standard opener is pretty simple to handle on a macro level. With fewer decisions to make everything becomes how you use your smaller unit numbers to defeat your enemy who is probably massing lots of bad guys against you (especially zerg). So the standard opener goes like this:

Probe, Probe, Probe -> Build Pylon

Chrono Nexus, Probe, Probe

10-12 supply, Gateway

That's pretty much all there is to it. Once your gateway is up all that's really left is tactical decisions based on expanding and unit choices or upgrades to counter what your opponent is doing. Effective scouting is a must for protoss strategies of any kind to work well. You have to be able to see what your opponent is up to and try to move before he does so that you have time to get your (typically) slower units into play against his weaker (normally) forces and stomp them out.

One build that will get you shooting up the competition ladders is called a 4 gate push. You won't see it all that much in platinum and diamond leagues, because the players are good enough to know how to stop it with highly coordinated and precisely executed micro, but for anyone who is short of very very good, it's really hard to stop a protoss player who is good at a 4 gate push.

Start just like we outlined before and then go for a cybernetics core. Build one assimilator after that and warp gate tech research as soon as the core is done. Then build a few more probes while the assimilator is finishing and get them working. At 150 minerals after this grab 3 gateways and after that it's just zealots, stalkers and 2 or 3 sentries while the warp gate tech is finishing up. By the time you can use the warp gates you have a nice little army to send through it. This whole time you need to be scouting and get a pylon close to to his main base while not letting him find your extra gateways. If you can get a gate close to both the natural and an expansion you've pretty much won. Pop through one gate and hammer away for a bit, then when you start taking to much of a beating just hop through to the other base and wipe it out.

And that's kind of what protoss strategy is all about. With shields you can use the warp gates to get right up close to an enemy base, run in and fire away while your shields hold and then warp to another location. He will be pulling troops to fight off your attack in one spot, but before he can do much more than break through your shields you can be in another spot where there are little to no troops or reinforcements. It takes a lot of good micro to do this, but if you get it down it's hard to stop.

Starcraft 2 Strategies part 2

The rest of multitasking is execution speed and tactical triage. before you can even think about doing any of this your macro has got to be perfect every single time and completely second nature. You can't do five things at once if you can't do one thing well. Start with great macro and you're more than halfway there - to victory. The next part is perpetual motion through high execution speed.

If you watch matches between good players you'll notice that there is always a LOT going on. There is rarely a time when a unit that is not designed for static defense isn't moving. But if you watch weaker player's games you'll notice things like units sitting around a lot doing nothing, buildings not churning out more units, scouts not scouting. The difference between pros and nubs is how many plates they can keep spinning at once, and how many locations on the map they can keep in constant motion. The micro of all that stuff isn't quite as important as all the stuff moving itself.

Which brings us to tactical triage. You can't ever fall into the trap of watching a battle unless it requires macro in order to turn the tide of the match. And before you enter a battle like that you better make damn sure that you have two or three other attacks already in motion to put pressure on somewhere else in your opponent's bases. Idle troops on one side of the map while you try to win with micro just isn't nearly as good as doing a little bit of micro here and there and keeping all of your troops in perpetual motion. Units should never sit still, even if they are not attacking anything. If anything just to keep your enemy guessing about what the heck you're doing moving all your chess pieces around the board.

If you know what to watch and what to ignore you are well on your way to good tactical triage. Get that little cluster of zerglings moving and never let them stop. It really is like spinning plates. If you are zerg against terran and are relying on your arbiter you need ot be able to get into action before he gets emp'd. That's execution speed and triage. But even if you lose that arbiter you might still be able to win if you've got three other small attack forces already in motion that will hit them where they are not looking and not prepared. The more things you give your opponent to react to, the better chance you have of keeping them playing defense while you get to go on the offensive.

They say defense wins championships, but that's bull. At least in starcraft. In order to win consistently in starcraft 2 you have to keep the pressure up and get ahead of your opponent's economy and unit resources. That means taking things out as often and as widespread as you can. Just a worker here and there along with a marine or two and maybe a building - it all adds up over the course of a match. If you can kill that worker or three in one spot while you also take out a small expeditionary force over there and a building at their expansion - well, the game is practically in the bag because you were able to multitask three attacks at once without dropping the ball on your macro.

Starcraft 2 Strategies

I almost hate to tell you this, but I'm not really very good at PvP games. At least, i wasn't until I drew on a lesson I had learned much earlier in life in an entirely different game. As a matter of fact, it wasn't even a computer game at all. For a while I thought I wasn't all that good at RTSG's like starcraft because I'm getting over the hill. You know, old guys just get whipped by young studs right? That should be hogwash in a strategy game. It's not all about how fast you can push buttons in weird combinations and it certainly has nothing to do with how much I can bench press. It does have a lot to do with how fast you can think, and I should have an advantage there - older and wiser you know? And that's how I really improved my starcraft strategies, by relying on an old rule and a different kind of natural talent.

The old rule I mentioned? The best way to get better is by playing against those who are much better than you. Way back in the day I was pretty good at table tennis. Or so I thought. Then this little guy from the Philippines showed up and was beating me like 21 to 3 every single game. and he had this shot that you couldn't return - I mean it was basically un-hittable. But I didn't get mad, I just played him about 500 games. And it forced me to improve. By the end of a semester I was able to make the matches respectable, and even win a decent percentage of the time. I never did get as good as he was, but I got a lot better myself.

And that became a sort of rule for me from then on. Any time I wanted to get better at something, I just went and put myself around the folks who were the very best at it and constantly compared myself and my performance to theirs. I figured out what they were doing that made them so good and then emulated their every move until I was good enough to add some flavor of my own to the process. And it works, every single time - and starcraft strategies are no different.

If you really want to get good - the answer is to get your butt handed to you about 500 times. Honestly - play against really good competition and just grow a thick skin. They are going to laugh at you, kick dirt in your face, and all the other crap bullies do, but every time you get blown up you'll know one more mistake you can't make. eliminate a mistake here and one over there. Get a little faster at this and something else. Know how to work against a 4 gate push and a 6 pool - before you know it you'll be a LOT better than you ever were.

Starcraft 2 Gameplay part 2

Now we know what macro is when it comes to starcraft 2 gameplay, so it's time to put that preliminary knowledge to good use. We'll go with an example here. Perhaps the strongest build currently for protoss is the 4 gate push. If you can get good at a 4 gate push it's very hard to stop. Players in the very highest competition ladders use the 4gp with devastating results. Combined with good macro it's a build that is a winner.

The first thing you need to do is figure out exactly what it takes to execute a 4 gate push. We cover the basics in another article, but a little searching around will find you other good resources that will give you a great overview and even in depth analysis of the build. And that's the second part of good macro. You already know that when playing as a protoss that you need to use a good build and then learn to macro that build well. Now you know that a build called the 4 gate push is a great build. next, you need to have an understanding of why it's a good build and what all the parts of the build mean.

Once you've gained the first two things - knowing what to do, understanding why to do it, you're ready for the last bit - and that's practice. The best way to begin practicing macro is in single player mode. Just run the build over and over in real time against the computer. Use the stats analysis in the game to figure out what you're doing well compared to the pros (you can look at replays of the build along with stats) and just keep practicing that one build until you can do it without even thinking about it. This will free up your mind in matches to worry about micro without dropping the ball on your macro.

Practice will get the build into your subconscious and train you to hit all the right hot-keys every few seconds. It will ensure maximum worker uptime and resource collection as well as precision when it comes to getting the proper units and buildings into play the instant the materials are available. Once you can do all of the build at just the right times - you're ready for practice under pressure in matches. And that's where the rubber really meets the road. Get good at the build in solo play, but perfect it under pressure during matches.

Playing one build over and over until it becomes second nature is the very fastest way to improve your starcraft 2 gameplay. All you need ot do is know what to do by finding the best builds, study those builds so that you understand them, and then practice the build in solo and match play until you can do it basically with your eyes closed. While that may sound like it will take a ton of time, it's really not that bad. And since it will improve your gameplay more than anything else you can do per unit of time - why not give it a shot?

Starcraft II Gameplay

In the next two articles we're going to cover something you may have heard of before, but might not be sure exactly what it is, or how to get better at it. starcraft ii gameplay is highly dependent on three things: macro, micro and multitasking. And the first of these, macro, is absolutely essential if you are going to raise your skill level from just pretty good to really great. Without great macro ability you'll be stuck in the lower ladders and never be able to rise to the more competitive divisions.

What is macro anyway? Macro is all of the "big picture" things you have to do in every match - whether single player or match play. It means building units, watching your economy and building structures. Everything else is micro. Scouting your enemy positions, sending units in to harass, countering and attacking with your main force - that's all micro. Without good macro you will never be able to be in the right place at the right time with the right units to do any micro effectively. In other words, if you don't macro well you've lost already to a good player.

The nice thing about macro is that it's the easiest part of your gameplay in starcraft ii to fix. All you have to do is start with a few simple rules and you'll be well on your way to the next ladder before you know it. All it takes is knowing exactly what to do and then practicing it until you don't even have to think about it any more. That's all there is to it really. It's not that complex, there is no reinventing of the wheel, you just ahve to know what works and then practice it until it becomes second nature to you in match play.

Let's start with an example from the game. Just in case you don't know what a build is - it's macro. A build is what to build, in what order, in order to set you up for everything else you're going to do. Each race has several "go to" builds that work for even the best players. As a matter of fact, the best players are the ones who develop these builds. That means you don't have to go and figure out what works, you just copy what the very best players are doing point by point. We've published several of the best builds before, but you can find them pretty easily. And that's where good macro starts; with a little research into the primary builds. Once you know what you're supposed to do and when, that only leaves understanding and practice. We'll cover those in more detail in part 2.

This New Bioshock Trailer Seems Off...

Something seems different about this Bioshock trailer....no, it's not the poor quality, or the lack of it being uploaded to youtbe because the upload page keeps giving me a 404.....

See if you can tell the difference:

Oh, that's right I added Guile's music from Streetfighter 2. Man, it really does go with everything, doesn't it?

What is Wrong With the Campaign

Is the SC2 campaign the greatest single player RTS campaign ever created? Yes. Now that that's out of the way, I'm going to tell you what Blizzard could (and should) have done better.

Where are the Open, old-school style missions?

Every single mission in the campaign has some little gimmick it's using to make it different. Trains with possible adjutants aboard, angry Protoss probes closing off gas veins, and crystals that create large death fields only Battlecruisers can handle.

What happened to the standard, here's your base, here's the enemy's base now go fight missions? The ones without that annoying (so friggin annoying) dwarf man giving you the exact unit that will preform best in every single mission right when you need it?

While this is a mainstay of the RTS genre (generally you are denied the upper end of the tech tree until you've beaten missions with only the lower end on a gradually increasing difficulty curve) you get the exact unit you need to win that mission. Example, for "Outbreak" what works best is a crapload of Hellions. The only use in the game I found for Diamondbacks was for stopping Dominion trains, and Wraiths? Ok I guess, but only used on the "Wraith" mission.

This system makes the brilliant and depth-increasing upgrade system seem arbitrary. Why bother upgrading units when you get the unit you're supposed to use on the mission it works best on? Where is the choice in that?

For experienced players who say "fie on you dwarf man I'm making marines because I want to, screw your Siege Tanks" there is plenty of experimentation with strategy, but the game almost discourages it by saying "Here's the exact unit you need to beat this mission, make a million of them and you will win."

The lack of open missions make the campaign seem shorter than it is. The only time you may feel like you need upgrades for your units is the last few missions on Char. After an entire campaign of honing strategy, you only get to really use it on one mission.

I think one way to solve this would be to allow for a "campaign custom game" or something of the sort. I want to play a 1v1 (or 1v2, 1v3+) vs an Insane computer with all my units/upgrades/research available. That would be fun.

The Most Epic Game Ever.

So checking HD's youtube channel, as I do daily, I found this game:




Now, let me tell you. I've watched thousands of replays (from WC3 and SC2) in my day, and this is close to the most epic game I have ever seen. If you want to have a serious nerdgasm, you've got to see this game.

Here are the links to the videos (in order):
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Go watch now! Yes, it's long, but trust me. It's worth it.

Starcraft 2 Protoss Strategy

As with most things in starcraft 2 you're going to have to keep a few things in mind when it comes to the differences in starcraft protoss strategy from the original to the new game. There have been so many changes that it's actually quite interesting how much the game has managed to stay so much like the original starcraft and yet be such a great new groundbreaking pleasure to play. But there are some new mechanics and things you're going to have to keep in mind. We won't go into much compare/contrast here because it doesn't matter all that much what used to be, the only thing that matters is now and starcraft protoss strategies start with these things and then continue in part 2 with builds.

First, you'll simply have to make use of chronoboost. It's an interesting ability that draws from your economy to speed the build rate of a structure. You'll have to figure this in to your planning and be very tactical when applying chronoboost in order to win with the protoss. Since protoss buildings build more slowly and have to gather up energy you're going to fall behind if you let a Nexus just sit there and wait for it to hit full strength. You can almost figure in the cost of chronoboost into certain unit builds in order to get them fast enough to counter your opponent for certain must have units and upgrades like the observer and thermal lance.

warpgates are also simply awesome and you really need to get them figured into your builds and strategy. There are five units for protoss that can use the warpgate anywhere there is a power field. This levels the playing field against the much faster zerg units since you can just "warp in" zealots, stalkers, sentries, high templar and dark templar units at strategic locations.

Next come shields. every protoss unit has them and they regenerate much faster than in the original game mechanics. Shields basically work like an extra life bar. As long as your shields are up you're not taking any health loss. If you can figure out how to micro manage your shields on your units you can know when to pull back and let your shield recharge. Really, this is one of the keys in the new version of the game. I like to call it pecking at the foe. You run your units up and blast away for a bit, and then retreat to keep from losing any units. Take out what you can bit by bit without losing much yourself - if at all. It takes great micro to do that, but if you can enter the mid game without having lost anything while at the same time taking down maybe half of your opponents units, you're almost sure to win the match. We'll go into the specific build strategies in part 2.

Starcraft 2 Protoss

There are a lot of changes in starcraft 2 from the original, but most of them have to do with the game engine itself. Sure, there are some changes to the races and units and how everything fits together, but the neat thing is that Blizz managed to completely overhaul an entire game without making it a different game. Which is kind of a hard trick to pull off. Usually when game makers do sequels they fail because the sequel is just not as good a game than the original or is so different it's nothing like the first game, or they fail because the new game is too much like the first game so that not enough has changed to keep it interesting. The starcraft 2 protoss race is a good example of just enough different while remaining mostly the same.

The best way of looking at the way starcraft 2 works is to start with the units themselves. The zealot is pretty different than in the original but the function is the almost exactly the same. The zealot, like all protoss units is powerful by itself. In a straight up fight the zealot can take out 3 to 5 marines or zerglings all by itself, but it's slower than either. As a result the zealot makes a great meat shield for any stage of the game, as well as a good unit for harassment of economies and other functions. And you'll probably end up using them a lot. You will find that in starcraft 2 you'll be in far more need of gas than minerals and you can just blow those extra minerals on more zealots since they are so useful in many different ways.

The sentry is another great protoss unit. They do the same amount of damage as a marine, but include three special abilities tat make any protoss task force much more effective. The force field ability does just what it sounds like. It puts up a block that enemy units cannot penetrate. It doesn't last forever, but it has cool uses like cutting an enemy force in half or blocking them from getting away or even entering battle. The sentry ability reduces incoming ranged damage to your units. They also have hallucination, but that one doesn't get used as much. Hallucination creates a unit that doesn't really exist. You can hallucinate a Colossus to fool your opponent into thinking you are making them even if you haven't.

Stalkers are great as well. They can hit both ground and air units and hit hard. When you add in the blink ability it allows them to move up cliffs in order to escape or attack from flanking positions. Blink also allows you to get away from a zergling rush or siege tank fire into a much more favorable position - the one that doesn't get you killed and let's you wreak havoc on the enemy.

And that's just three of the protoss units in starcraft 2. But they give you a good flavor for the highly technological and very alien feel of the protoss from the original game. In other words, they fell the same, but you play them differently than before. In that way, they are just as good as the original, just in a new game that's even better than the original. 

Zerg Build Order

There are basically two build orders for zerg in starcraft 2 coming out of the beta. There are sure to be a lot more coming in the next few months and years as Blizz continues to tinker with balance, but as of now, these two builds are what you will see from power players. The first one is the one base build, and the other is the fast expand. the fast expand is the most used version since zerglings make such a great unit in the first part of the game. They can give you an advantage that is hard to recover from if you can get enough of them right out of the box.

The one base goes like this: Drone, Drone, Drone - 10 supply -> Overlord, Drone, Drone, Drone - 12 supply -> Spawning pool, Drone, Drone, Extractor, Drone, Drone, Overlord, Spawning pool finished -> Queen

For fast expand you will do: Drone, Drone, Drone - 10 Supply -> Overlord, Drone, Drone, Drone, 14 supply -> Spawning Pool, Drone, Drone -> Extractor, 15 supply -> hatchery at base 1, Drone, Drone, Overlord, 18 supply -> Queen,

You can also go for a 6 pool build but it is rather risky. Instead of worrying about anything else, you spend all of your initial resources and time getting a spawning pool from a single drone - it goes like this: Drone, 200 minerals -> Spawning Pool, Drone, Drone, Spawning pool finished -> Zergling X3.

You are going to get attack units in the form of zerglings faster than anything else and can get into his base and start attacking before he can even get a single building built. But unless you can kill off five or six of his workers your economy may never recover from going short handed with drones yourself.

After the standard openers there are two basic strategies you can use. The first one is Zergling/Mutalisk, and the second is Roach/Hydra. the first type works best with the fast expand opener with a few zerglings and a spine crawler or two to beat off early attacks. Get the speed upgrade for zerglings with your second 100 gas, and use the first 100 on the lair upgrade. Once you're done with those two items spend everything you've got getting the spire upgrade and then past that it all goes into Mutalisk creation. Once you get five or six Mutas you can go to work killing off workers. Make sure you don't get any of them killed while you get more zerglings for a full frontal attack. This strategy devastates your opponents economy and makes it very unlikely they will ever recover while you run up more and more fast zerglings to take out whatever they can manage to build.

The roach/hydra build doesn't rely on a fast expand. Defend your natural base and send some zerglings out for early pressure. Get a nydus worm in a good spot and continue to harass while you build up a good force of roaches and hydras to make the killing blow. Use an Overlord to give you vision of the back side of his base and then just pop out through the worm in a surprise spot and catch them off guard and out of position.

You can always choose to mass just about any unit as Zerg and overwhelm with sheer numbers. The best units to use for this are Mutalisks and Hydralisks, but even zerglings can work if you can get enough of them in the right place at the right time. We don't have the time to go into all of the specific strategies for the zerg in this article, but the two standard openers combined with the two basic following builds will work nicely most of the time.

Starcraft 2 Zerg Gameplay

If you've played starcraft since the original a lot of this isn't going to be big news to you overall. But consider it a review before we get into the new bits in part 2. Since most of the pros tend to hang out in their own secret internet lairs discussing the finer points of macro micro and cheese that means I'm talking to just about 95% of the SC2 population. It's a great game and the zerg are certainly a lot of fun to play. Blizz did a great job with balance right out of the box and throughout the beta, and the end result is fantastic both in single player and on battle.net. So let's get into a little starcraft 2 zerg gameplay discussion so that you'll be ready for those matches once you hit the end of the campaign on your own.

Let's start with the burrow ability. You may be tempted to overlook this one and try to mass units and use other upgrades, but it's very important and you don't want to skip it. As a matter of fact it needs to be pretty high on your build priorities list. This is for two reasons. The first is that it's really easy to lay little ambush traps for your opponent with burrow. Every single zerg ground unit can burrow, including the ultralisk. It's pretty sweet to run a little group of units up to an expansion when you've got him preoccupied with beating off a little zergling harass somewhere else and burrow them and just let them sit there. Later, when he is trying to make a big push you can just pop out your burrowed team and wreck his economy. If you get in trouble - just  burrow and live to fight another time.

The second reason for burrow is another zerg high point; Since every single zerg unit is biological they regenerate health over time. Not very fist, mind you, but still. This health regeneration speeds up when burrowed, so if you are taking a beating you can just burrow everything and go do something else for a few minutes. Which leads us to another point about zerg. Run away. the more of your units you keep alive, burrowed or hidden away somewhere after each scrap, the more likely you are to be able to do what zerg do best, and that's swarm. There's no need to just sacrifice a pack of zerglings just because they are cheap. Use five zerglings over here to kill a few workers and then run away before they get slaughtered. Another five over there, here a few, there a few, if you don't let very many of them get killed you've got thirty in no time - thirty zerglings can take out a whole bunch of stuff - but only if they are alive.

Next, be sure to make good use of your overlords and creep tumors to spread your creep all over the map as you move around. It's cheap and easy and can really give you an advantage. All of your units move faster over the creep, which is one advantage, but another is the ability to see everywhere your creep is. Creep tumors cannot be seen without detection but allow you to see everything around them. using creep tumors to build a "creep highway" takes a bit of extra micro, but it can be worth it in the long run. Just have your overlord crap out some creep as he oozes his way across the map and before you know it there's creep everywhere, and that's good for you, not so good for your opponent.

Starcraft Zerg

My yard has an infestation of spiders. I mean they are everywhere. Park your car for a few hours and there will be three full webs tying it to the ground everywhere. Once I played Starcraft 2 (it's been a long time since the original I played a bit) the zerg kind of remind me of those spiders in the yard. Persistent, amazingly fast and everywhere. Starcraft zerg is an infestation of the map. You overwhelm your opponent with speed and numbers. You swarm and spread almost inevitably. You surround and tear them apart with claws and teeth and goo and poo. Just like those spiders you harass your enemy at every expansion and choke point - you just get everywhere.

In SC2 the zerg have the ability to do something that no other race can do - and that's switch tech very quickly. Which brings even more speed to your builds. You can counter what the other side is doing more rapidly than terran, and certainly faster than the protoss. It's also cheap as far as resources are concerned. You can be sneaky and slimy and make sure your opponent never gets the upper hand.

The zerg also make a lot of use of what can best be described as pooping all over the place. It's pretty nasty, really, but just like a bug. Those spiders leave long sticky threads  all over the yard, apparently most of them at mouth level. Zerg bases rely on the creep, that purple goo on the ground that has to be there in order to build a building. Zerg forces move faster on the creep as well, and you can expand your creep with buildings and the Creep Tumor ability of the Queen. But Overlords can also hover around pooping creep all over the map. By using overlords and creep tumors you can build what is often called a creep highway - a long band of purple poo all over the map to increase the speed of your troops as well as extended vision. Creep tumors require detection to see, but give you the ability to see what's on your creep highway.

While the zerg spent some time at the top of the food chain in the original starcraft, zerg in starcraft 2 are more balanced to the other races than ever before. You're going to have to work at it to win against other races, and against other zerg it can turn into a long match a lot of the time. That balance makes the game a lot of fun, since everyone doesn't just play one race, but the zerg are still lightening fast. You can churn out zerglings and other units and start harassing within a few moments of the start of the match and then keep the pressure up all the way through.

It feels like fighting off the spiders in my yard. You can't find them all, and even if your could they seem to breed by the hundreds. next thing you know there is creep all over the place and hidden enemies to pop out and poop on you no matter where you turn. They are nice and gross too. They explode goo, rain poo and are generally disgusting in every way. If that's your cup of tea, the sick and macabre, the zerg will be a lot of fun to play. If you're more like me, it's kind of nice to beat off an infestation of bugs in less than thirty minutes. Now if only I could get a mech suit for the front yard.

Starcraft 2 Terran - part 2

So by now you've gotten your copy of the game (you have, haven't you)? You've worked through the campaigns and you're ready to hit Bnet with a vengeance and climb the ladders. Before you jump in with both feet there are a few things you need to keep in mind and we're going to cover a couple of those here.

First, is that you're going to need to be able to adjust the build you are working on according to certain things your opponent is doing. So you need to scout well and know how what they are doing and how to counter it effectively. You might not change your whole strategy, since you can get a lot done with almost any terran unit combination, but the upgrades and other things you'll need for those units will certainly change according to what your opponent does during the match.

The most common build you will see for the terran is the bio build. In the bio build you will be going for marines, Marauders and medivacs -  abbreviated as MMM. Support units for the bio build can include Ravens, Vikings and ghosts (especially vs. Protoss). The bio build is very hard to counter because Marauders get a big bonus to damage on armored units as well as slow effects from concussive missiles. Add in the Stimpacks for more dmg and medivacs for healing and this build is really hard to stop. Your opponent will try to counter the marines with roaches, but the marauders will tear them to bits, or the units that aren't armored like zerglings and zealots get slowed and then wiped out by the marines who are being healed. It's just tough to whip a well microed bio force.

The other build is the mech build. Where bio has you building the units that have a person inside a suit, the mech build focuses on Hellions, Tanks and Thor - all of which are mechanical units. That doesn't mean you won't want to use marines and other support units, like ghosts, it just means you'll be more focused on things that roll instead of walk. Early in the beta the bio build was all you would ever see in competitive matches. But a change to build times and unit costs for tanks made the build viable alter on. It takes more time to get a big pile of tanks on the ground than a bio build, but it's a lot of fun. And with a few marines in support it's virtually unstoppable.

In the mech build the Thors will take out any ari units and do splash damage to units like mutalisks that would otherwise wreak havoc in your forces. Stick a bunch of marines in with your tanks and thors and you can just rumble through the map blasting through anything in your path. It will take a while, and part of the problem with this build is that it is slower so you'll have to effectively counter any harasses and attacks while you build up your main force. But if you can get it all built it's virtually unstoppable.

Which brings us back to our original point. Terran strategy for starcraft 2  is very versatile, but you have to keep your forces balanced. There is no single do all end all unit in the terran race. By using your units in combination with other units you can have a force that is very hard to kill and can handle any massing of other units by your opponent. No single unit can get it all done by themselves. Even mech heavy builds will have a bunch of marines and a couple of ghosts running around, and that's why they take so much micro, and are also a ton of fun.

Starcraft 2 Terran Gameplay - part 1

With the coming of Starcraft 2 people are flocking back into what is, in my opinion, the best RTSG (real time strategy game) ever. as a matter of fact, it's kind of like it has no close second place in the category. And even though Starcraft 2 is technically a sequel, and sequels tend to be not as good as the original, that just ain't the case with SC2. It's a fantastic game all around, and perhaps the most welcome set of changes came with the Terran race. They got stronger, they got more versatile, they got awesome. here's a little overview of Starcraft 2 Terran gameplay.

Of course, there is way too much to go into when it comes to any one race, or even any one aspect of playing a game as complex as Starcraft 2 to deal with in a little bitty online article. But we can give you a good overview of what to expect and some of the nifty tricks the pro players are using right out of the box.

The first thing you will need to know is that the terran race is the most versatile in the game. So many of the units can do several different things, but that also leads to its own set of problems when it comes to playing the Terran race effectively. Being versatile means that you're not specialized. Which means that at times you may have to make far more choices about what kind of units you want to use and how you want to use them. that also means that you have more ways of defeating your opponent of another race. It also makes for fantastic mirror matches (terran vs. terran).

So you're going to have to be able to do two things in order to pwn face with the terran. The first thing is that you're going to have to learn how to play very efficiently and with a good set of tactical goals in mind. Since you have a lot of options for how to achieve those goals, that means you'll need to master a number of them. The second thing is that Terran need to be micromanaged a lot. You can't just mass a single unit and have them plow through everything in their path. You have to be able to control a lot of smaller control groups on the micro level, and that takes practice. All of this means that the terran are really easy to learn and really easy to win with, but they are also hard to master. In part 2 we'll go into more specifics about starcraft 2 terran gameplay strategies and tactics.

Starcraft 2 Terran

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the last few months you know that there is a new game in town. It's not just that Starcraft 2 is another RTSG (real time strategy game) or a sequel (although its a GREAT sequel) it sets a new bar for excellence when it comes to gaming period. Say what you want about Blizzard, but they make games that last. And they last because they are wicked good games. In Starcraft 2 Terran got some tweaks and upgrades which have made them the most versatile race to play. And since we're all human, after all, they are a lot of fun.

I mean, unless you're some sort of hippie or religious nut you've probably thought at least once in your life about being some sort of space marine right? Who wouldn't want to hop into some uber mech suit and lay waste to outer space bad guys? Plus, they keep making movies about that kind of thing, so it's not like you've never wanted to do that. The terran race in SC2 is all that and more. You can now live out your little fantasy, and win a lot with the terran.

Now, it goes without saying that versatility has a few problems of its own. Because the Terran in Starcraft 2 has so many options they are also a little bit tougher to play really well. In other words, easiest to learn, hardest to master. They have unique ways to harass economies in unexpected ways. They have a lot of options when it comes to choosing the road to victory - more than the Protoss or the Zerg. You're not boxed in to having to do certain builds and progressions with Terran, but that also means you have to be very strategic in your thinking and gameplay in order to stay on top of things.

Terran have to be controlled more micro than the other races. You have to be a tactical thinker and and pretty good at micro managing your units and strategy in order to perform at the most effective level to win. Protoss have fewer options, which means they can focus more on what the Protoss units do best. With the Terran there are so many choices it can actually be a bit more difficult to narrow down what you need to do in order to counter what your opponent is doing.

With all that being said, the Starcraft 2 terran race is a lot of fun to play in a game that is completely engrossing on almost every level. And it doesn't matter if you're a computer gamer or a console freak. SC2 is just a damn good GAME. Platform doesn't matter, genre doesn't matter. If you like games, you'll love SC2 and a big part of that is that the Terran is so much fun to play. Don't get me wrong, the other races are excellent too, in their own ways. But for me, strapping into the reaper or loading into a hellion or siege tank it satisfies so many of those rather primal urges and fantasies. Living vicariously through metal firepower? Hell yeah!

Terran Marine

With the release of Starcraft 2 the gaming world is all abuzz. I'm a big fan of Blizz games, and I can tell you from first hand experience that there must be a lot of us out there. The day after SC2 hit the shelves there was like nobody on WOW. Random dungeon queues for DPS toons have always been long, but on July 28th you could wait around for hours and fall asleep. I was a big fan of the original Starcraft, but since PvP in most games has never been my thing, I kinda skipped the whole Brood Wars thing.

But SC2 is a breath of fresh air, and a big part of that is because of the upgrades. And I'm not just talking about the graphics of the game, although they are stunning. But the whole thing changed in some subtle ways that bring the feel of the game, especially for the terran race a bit more in line with how the wars should have always felt to me. That's just me, and I'm sure you can find your fair share of those who will flame Blizz for just about everything they do, but SC2 is awesome, and the Terran marine is part of the reason why.

The terran marine is to the Terran race what the zergling is to the Zerg - only better. And one of the keys to the usability of this unit in the game is based on their range. They can hit anything and do so from a good distance. And since all of the new game maps have a nice little choke point at all of the expansion areas, it's cool to be able to flood those chokes with a band of marines and just pwn. The marine makes a great offensive attack unit against almost everything as well as a terrific defender, especially when you load them into a bunker.

But the marine is also the most cost effective unit in the entire game. Not only are they versatile, they are cheap. Not as fast as churning out a crew of zerglings, but far more powerful per unit. If you compare how much damage they can do per how much it costs to build one, you will find that there is not another single unit in the game as good as the marine. Even if you take into account the upgrades, such as stim packs and weapons, they still remain at the top of the heap in raw power per cost.

So when you begin the campaign there is a really good chance that you're going to fall in love with the marine as your go-to unit when playing the terran race. While there are sexier units for Terran, or the other races for that matter, it's still hard to beat a big pack of upgraded terran marine units charging around the map laying waste to your opponent. And if you haven't laid your hands on SC2 yet, it's high time, as a matter of fact you're late!  

Starcraft Secret Mission Part 2

Spoiler Alert! Both part 1 and 2 of this article contain major spoilers for the single player campaign of Starcraft 2.

So once you land on the platform in orbit around Castanar, you get about 5 Marines, 2 Medics and 1 Jim Raynor. You get to use a bunch of abilities in this mission and find ammo for them. You get a bazooka, grenades, a breaching charge, and even a fancy alien “Chrono Field” to slow your enemies (which you will need).

There are also a series of computer terminals that allow your adjutant to hack into the Lab’s mainframe and turn the automated defenses on the Dominion forces, which is always fun.

As you make your way through the lab fighting various and sundry Dominion forces, you discover that Mengsk had been funding a project that was trying to combine Protoss and Zerg DNA. Once you blow the reactor, a hybrid breaks out of its cage and destroys everything. All hell breaks loose and it turns into a race as Dominion forces are fighting you and Zerg and Protoss specimens they had been keeping around.

The whole time this giant, indestructible monstrosity chases you throughout the complex. There’s fallen debris in your way, of course, and Zerg eggs that hatch miniature Ultralisks. Use the bazooka or grenades on the debris and use Chrono Field on the Hybrid when he gets close.

On my first play through on the easiest setting I managed to make it to the dropship with only Jim Raynor left. This is a great mission and should get your heart pumping because the hybrid is fast and can slow all your units down for a short time. At a certain point, you have to decide to just keep running and dodge the enemies in front of you and ignore the Zerglings killing off your friends just so you can make it out alive.

The secret mission adds another unique mission to the already robust and exhilarating Starcraft  single player campaign. If you have not gotten your hands on this game yet, you need to. 

Starcraft 2 Secret Mission part 1

Spoiler alert! If you do not wish to spoil your experience of the Starcraft 2 campaign, then read no further.

In the Secret Mission in Starcraft 2, it is revealed that Mengsk had a top secret science lab conducting very dangerous experiments in a far off corner of the Galaxy. The mission is called Piercing the Shroud. You control Raynor and a small group of Marines and Medics

In order to get access to the Secret Mission in Starcraft 2 you have to start a new campaign. Simply going through the archives to replay a mission won’t work if you’ve already begun your assault on Char. Remember the warning sign that came up and said once you begin your assault on Char there’s no going back? Well they mean it as far as the secret mission is concerned.

I suggest you play the missions on casual so they go faster and easier if you’re just trying to get to the secret mission, or you could try to pick up the achievements you missed on the way, but you’ll need to get to the Media Blitz mission. That’s the one where there’s a parade on Korhal for the fabulous Odin war machine and Tychus starts blowing the place up. Alternatively, if you have a saved game before the invasion of char, you can load it and start from there.

In this mission, there is a Science Facility in the bottom right corner of the map. It’s colored red like the rest of the Dominion forces, but when you mouse over it the building will appear neutral and the tooltip will actually say “Korhal Citizens” on it. When you kill this building “Secret Documents” will drop, and you’ll have to move a unit over it to collect it just like you were collecting Protoss or Zerg research items.

Then, when you finish the Media Blitz mission, your mission selection screen will have a new planet on it called Castanar. It will also say “Secret Mission” on it so you’re not confused.

After the cutscene you will be able to take Raynor and a crack team of Marines and medics to the orbital platform to investigate just what’s going on in that secret lab. As you already know, secret labs are never doing anything good.

Starcraft 2 Guide

There are a lot of guides out there now for Starcraft 2. Because it is a brand new Real Time Strategy game, many people are having trouble competing online. They don’t know what units to build, how many or in what order, and they get consistently slaughtered by people who have been playing Real Time Strategy games for years.

Well, after reviewing several of the guides out there, I will give you the skinny on the pros and cons of each and recommend which one you should spend your money on. In order to really enjoy the game, it helps to have someone more experienced explain what you should be doing and why, and the only way to get that outside of buying a guide is to know someone who is very good at the game and is willing to give you lessons.

Shokz Guide – I was very suspicious of Shokz guide because he claimed to have a complete campaign guide included before the campaign was even available. This guide came out in the beta before anyone outside of Blizzard Entertainment had ever played the campaign.

Shokz guide is really flashy and has fancy video links and a forum in the members area. The guide does a good job teaching specific build orders for Terran, Zerg, and Protoss, but it doesn’t really explain WHY you should be doing the things you’re doing. This would be like in school if your math teacher taught you that 20 divided by 10 was 2, but never taught you how to divide. I think in order for new players to really get better, they’re going to need to know the WHY behind what they’re doing.

T-Dub’s guide had good graphics and is organized very well, but let’s just say that whoever he paid to write it really had no idea what they were talking about. Yes, they watched HD Starcraft and HuskyStarcraft videos and talked about a few good strategies, but one of the strategies in the guide is, get this: “Build a Mothership, 8-9 Colossus and 4-5 Sentries. When the enemy attacks, use the Vortex ability on their army then surround it with Force Fields. When the enemy units come out of the Vortex, have your Colossus positioned around them in a circle and insta-kill their entire army.”

If you’re a new player, this is a TERRIBLE strategy. Do you realize how much gas is required to make that many Colossus, then also tech up to a Mothership? Oh, and Sentries are 100 gas each, too. By then your opponent could have 10 Battlecruisers, which your Colossus can’t even hit.

Also, some of the links to videos in T-Dub’s guide actually link to videos that are only available to people who have purchased Shokz’ Guide.  Not very smooth there, T-Dub.

Gavin Garrett’s Guide, a.k.a. The Ultimate Starcraft 2 Guide, may not be as sexy as those others, but the information in this guide is priceless. I don’t know about you, but when I buy a game guide, I want it to teach me how to get better at the game, not impress me with fancy graphics and videos and have a bunch of filler crap in them.

Gavin’s guide only has strategies that work, but on top of that, it teaches you WHY you should be doing the things you are doing, so that with study and practice, you will know how to adapt to the unpredictable situations you’ll see when playing against real people.

Other guides are paint-by-numbers systems that tell you what counters what, what all the hotkeys are and different build orders. Gavin’s guide does all of that but with theory and expertise behind it so eventually you won’t need the numbers to paint anymore and you’ll even start painting your own original pictures.

For more information about Gavin’s Guide here.

Starcraft Campaign Review part 3

Welcome to our third and final installment of our three part review of the groundbreaking Starcraft 2 Campaign.

If you are new to Starcraft, or new to Real Time Strategy games in general, then you really need to start out on either Casual or Normal difficulty. As a die-hard Starcraft veteran who also played Warcraft 3, Company of Heroes and Dawn of War, Hard difficulty was, well, Hard.

Following on the footsteps of Blizzard’s (and the entire  worlds’) highest grossing game of all time, World of Warcraft,  there are achievements in Starcraft 2 for everything. And now, there are no single player “cheats” you can use to get the achievement since you have to log into Battle.net for the achievements to count.

Because of the achievements the Starcraft 2 campaign will have a lot of replay value for a lot of people. On top of the missions being extremely unique, there are achievements for doing “bonus” objectives on certain difficulties. These achievements also reward the player with portraits they can use on their online Battle.net profiles and are a great way to show off your gaming prowess to your friends.

The story is epic, but the end is such a cliffhanger that you may not feel satisfied by it. That’s probably what Blizzard wants because they want you to purchase the two upcoming expansions featuring the Zerg and Protoss campaigns. I’m not going to tell you the ending, so if that’s what you’re looking for, go play the game!

Because it does a great job combining RPG and RTS elements, has very deep tactical and character choices for the player to make, excels at making each mission unique and memorable, and has a ton of achievements to keep players coming back, the Starcraft 2 campaign is a great leap forward for the single player experience with Real Time Strategy, or any other kind of game. 

Starcraft 2 Campaign Review part 2

This is part 2 of our three part review of the Starcraft 2 Campaign.

Another groundbreaking feature in the Starcraft 2 campaign is the ability for you to upgrade units and buildings and even choose different research paths to augment your forces and increase the tactical depth of the game.

The campaign is mainly controlled from Raynor’s flagship, the Hyperion. On the ship, you can talk to other characters on the Bridge, visit the cantina to pound a few brews, purchase mercenary contracts or even play a mini Galaga-style arcade game, go to the Laboratory to choose your next path of either Protoss or Terran research, or go to the Armory and purchase powerful upgrades for your units.

This brings a level of choice to the game. On a single playthrough, you will not be able to afford all of the mercenaries and all of the upgrades. You will have to choose which units you like to use the most and upgrade only those. This makes the units you build on a mission that much more strategic. Should you go with upgraded Vikings or non-upgraded Goliaths to deal with enemy air? This makes the choice that much more significant, and that much more appealing for gamers.

There are also a few missions in the campaign that force you to choose what to do. This will have an effect on how the stories of certain characters end up. Blizzard has also hinted that the choices you make in this campaign may have effects in the upcoming ones. Since what paths you chose

Mercenaries are a different avenue a commander may take. Mercenaries are basically “super” versions of normal units that are available for an increased cost and in limited amounts. They could, however mean the difference between success or failure on a mission.

More on the Starcraft 2 Campaign in Part 3.

Starcraft 2 Campaign Review

Starcraft 2 Campaign Review

This is the first of a 3 part review of the Starcraft 2 Campaign. There’s a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started right now.

The Starcraft 2 campaign is the greatest campaign ever for a Real Time Strategy game. Game maker Blizzard Entertainment delivers a top-notch RTS experience combined with compelling characters and a storyline that makes you feel almost as if you’re playing an role playing game.

The story follows rebel leader Jim Raynor who was a hero who helped save the universe in the original Starcraft but has been painted as a terrorist by the diabolical Arcturus Mengsk, the dictator of the “Terran Dominion,” which began as a rebel movement against the galaxy’s former corrupt government, the Confedaracy. The Dominion under Mengsk’s rule turned out to be just as, if not even more, corrupt than the Confederacy, which is why Raynor quit following Mengsk and why Mengsk uses the controlled media to mar Raynor’s reputation.

In the beginning of the campaign, you find Raynor at a small bar on a fringe world and fallen on hard times. He is confronted by his old partner in crime Tychus Findley, and it’s not really clear whether Raynor can trust him or not.

The campaign is designed beautifully with compelling cut scenes featuring the best digital animation created to date. The story unfolds through a twisting mire of unique missions that challenge the player to do something new in each one, often adding a new unit to command in the process.

For example, in one mission your objective may be to harvest a special type of gas from a planet while evil and overzealous Protoss are trying to seal the geysers forever, another mission tasks the player with stopping Dominion trains before they reach their destination, and in yet another the player takes control of a single unit that fights alongside friendly computer-controlled forces to assault a massive enemy base.

These are not your run of the mill RTS missions. Perhaps the single best thing the Starcraft 2 campaign accomplishes is making every mission unique.

More on the Starcraft 2 Campaign in Part 2!