Starcraft 2

Starcraft 2 was announced by Blizzard Entertainment today.

The first iteration of this game had me so hooked, I blame it as the primary reason I lost my scholarship so early in college. Certainly nothing to be proud of, but you get the idea that I was pretty into this game. Its sequel, ten years later, looks to be just as addicting. New units for all the races, with new abilities and environments. It looks like the game might even be in 3-D. Hard to tell from the screen shots.

Starcraft is what is called an RTS game. That stands for Real Time Strategy. Basically you start with a building and some collector/builder units. You collect minerals and gas and then use those minerals and gas to build buildings and train/build fighting units like Marines, Tanks and Battleships. There are 3 different races to choose from: Terran, a human race; Zerg, a bug-like race, and the Protoss, an advanced alien race. Each race has their own units and abilities. Once you build up your forces, you attack your opponents. Thats where the fun really comes in. Some people really get into the strategy part of the game and use some pretty interesting tactics in their attack patterns. It also forces you to become very familiar with the game’s AI and understand how it will react in different situations. Everyone has their own favorite go-to strategy as well. From the standard zergling rush to early Vulture attack to Tank drop to Carrier assault. There is no end to the challenge of this game.

Hello computer upgrade. Goodbye productivity.