SC2 Campaign Review

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

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.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

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. 

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

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.