Karimi

Innovative gameplay for one ? The writing in general is terrible for a game of its production values, sure other games may not be as good but they aim to do what SC2 set out to.

Guess I'll toss in my two cents. I think there's a fine line between being intentionally obscure, and difficult to access. Look at men like Carl Sagan, capable of communicating extremely important information without being long-winded or pretentious. Carl Sagan was smart enough to use the kind of rhetoric that would make him very hard to understand, and it would have impressed some theorists no doubt, but there is a much greater intelligence to being able to explain complex ideas in a simpler language. The more difficult and obscure the language you use - and try to justify it as being specific to a certain group - the less thinking you have to do. Back to gaming, Planescape for example some may say was not the most accessible game. Planescape did try to make itself accessible, its just that for some people the dialogue is off-putting, and for others the gameplay is just not their cup of tea. This is different from requiring your player to write an essay on the role of semiotics in modern psychology before playing the game to make sure that only people that will 'get it' play the game. "If he doesn't get Chomsky he certainly won't understand my game !" A good college-level science book will try to explain complex subjects in an easy language, it may be inaccessible to a first grader but it does not try to make it 'exclusive' to college students. I realize a lot comes down to 'intent' but theres also a matter of skill. I'm not saying accessibility is mandatory, BUT what I am saying is that if you can't pull it off it says something about your ability to communicate. A talented writer/designer/etc. can make their work rich AND accessible, without relying on an obscure language to make it seem more dense. Now you can say well what if the author doesn't want to make it accessible ? What if he just wants to write something obscure and elitist ? Well then, don't complain when people say its obscure and elitist .

Its survived my absences just fine too...

I'll agree that the maneuverability makes them very effective, but you can work wonders with roaches and zerglings in the beginning of the game and once the creep is down hydralisks are monstrous. Terran in particular has the banshee and viking which can go all over the map harassing your expansions, but I think a few overseers and some early scouting can help against that. One thing I find helps slow down air units is putting the pressure on their main, if they start hitting your expos, a t1 ground army can start knocking at their front door and they'll rush back to defend. Again, as zerg its always about staying ahead of the other guy, you gotta see him putting that starport and figure , alright, he's either gonna go banshees or vikings,I'm gonna build some hydralisks, get overseers and put up a spore colony or two. I'll also see if he's got any defense, if he's walled I'll get some banelings and try to give him something to worry about. If not then run some speedlings and harass his main.

I think achievements have been to some extent a way to encourage some creativity - now someone's saying "Hey , we notice if you kill X in under 20 seconds" - but I'll agree that the way people play games has gotten more "straight-forward". Not to sound silly, but maybe storytelling has gotten to the point that people don't want to play around in sandbox as much as go through the game in a more linear fashion ? Or people want to be told when they're in a sandbox ? "Hey, this game is like GTA, make your own fun pls".

The thing about zerg is that your units are essentially always worth half of another race's units. Ie a zealot is worth about 4 zerglings, and so on. So in a battle of 200 cap vs 200 cap you will nearly always lose to protoss and terran (unless you scouted and countered what they were building). What zerg have in their advantage is the ability to pump out units and control the map. You WANT your opponent to turtle, it means you can expand to your hearts desire, you just have to make sure : 1. you're taking advantage of it, spreading creep and expanding, 2. you're upgrading your units - never have more than 500 mins and gas AT ANY TIME 3. You pressure like nobody's business. You can't really let it go to tier 3 , but if it does you've got to make sure they don't have the resources to keep it up .Terran players are starved for gas, if they turtle they can't get enough air units, they can turtle well but your counter to that is a wave of banelings. I've yet to see a base that can't be taken opened up by 20-or-so banelings. Zerg are very versatile, but pretty much to the point that they are a reactive race, you've always got to be one step ahead, scouting and finding out what your opponent is doing.

Lets make it happen. Now.

Playing Diablo 1 for the first time, only just started though, the music is amazing and the atmosphere is still pretty creepy.

How is it ?

Karimi - 731 - EU I'm friendly on the internet.

Well, its more like, why remake ? If I wanted to play a game like starcraft 1 , I would play starcraft 1, the game is too good and is still playable today. Classic RTS was great, but it still has its issues, there are still gameplay problems they could have addressed. The singleplayer is not at all better than the original, the multiplayer is the same, and the game doesn't even run that well. Why is Starcraft 2 a good game ? You said "Cowardly is in the intent" , well I say they intended to make money, not make a better game. The only thing they did improve is the graphics, thats it, and I'd argue that the original is still better in that regard (in terms of art at least).

The Full Throttle and DoTT intro music, and of course : <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUt84LyH2JI&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUt84LyH2JI&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

FINALLY ! Finally someone else notices it too ! I've been telling my friends it feels like the game has been made by an Asian studio. Even Raynor looks like something out of a JRPG (he kinda looks like a southern Solid Snake). I don't know what it is. Ariel in particular could be replaced with any annoying female character from the first Metal Gear. Finished the campaign ten minutes ago. I thought it was decent, much like anime there was a LOT of filler. Out of the 26 missions I'd say at least half had nothing to do with the story at large, with no consolation in the form of any character development AT ALL. Tosh may be the only character that isn't completely one dimensional, and even he is meh at best. Tychus is interesting but clearly expendable to the overall arc of the trilogy. The character development was nonexistant, and all went as predicted. To think I'll have to play through another two games to find out what happened. The first Starcraft was just soooo much tighter , 10 missions a piece, all plot all fast paced. This one kinda dragged on, which confirms that the necessity of three games to tell the story is complete bullshit. This game has low-hanging fruit written all over it. Anyway, to sum it up : Blizzard has sold out. Now for some multiplayer.

Been in the beta for a month or so now. There are players that go for those cheese tactics but there are some really easy counters, any ones in particular that bother you ?

Anyone played the new Aliens vs Predator yet ?

Finished Dragon Age - No comments , fun game decent story, could have been better though, still not Baldur's gate though it came close up to and including the high dragon fight. Finished Dawn of War II - The future of the RTS genre ? Lots of fun, wish it had a bit more macro to it , but I haven't tried multiplayer yet. Playing Starcraft 2 beta - Its weird to be playing sc2 at the same time as dow2, the game is fun but the gameplay feels kind of dated.

The deals in the past week have just been too good to pass up. Bought Plants vs Zombies, Braid,Trine, Machinarium and Torchlight.

Bought a few games over Christmas, and just completed this one an hour ago. Overall a great experience, I thought the story was pretentious but the gameplay,graphics and music were phenomenal.

Well, I can't decide if I like Brutal Legend or not. Having completed the main campaign, I've been reflecting on what has overall been an odd experience. The gameplay isn't that bad, I wouldn't say its the most graceful combination of modes but certainly not the most convoluted. After a few battles it makes complete sense and is fun to play. The storyline is pretty straightforward, but i feel like there were points where i did not know what was going on. It seemed like i missed a cutscene or some conversation at times because they'd talk about certain characters as if they had been introduced (they hadn't). I think the things this game really had going for it were setting and storyline, both of which seemed really compromised by the end. Lets address this as a Tim Schafer game, not just any game. The game was too short, dialogue was disappointingly sparse (thats what you get when you have celebrity voice actors i guess) and the character development lacking. I didn't love Psychonauts's gameplay, but that was by and large glossed over by the amazing storyline , characters, and overall awesomeness. Thats what Brutal Legend lacks the most I feel, it does everything except what you want the most from Tim Schafer - a story.

Activion's evil makes Karimi sad...

Its a good game, but I wouldn't consider it a classic. Worthy of mention , but for me not in the same league as Deus Ex or Halflife.

THANK YOU ! I've been telling this to everyone who said that Bioshock is one of the best FPSs "Ever111!!!!". The only thing it had going for it was good art direction. It pretended to be a lot more philosophical than it was, it basically said "you have choice !!! just kidding"

Overall meh I think, it was ok, better than some of the Sam and Max episodes. Started off a bit weakly, but ended well. I think the overall art direction ruined it for me, I wasn't a huge fan of the EMI graphics but they seemed a lot more lush than ToMI. Summary : Its good to be back at the beach, but the water is cold.

Looks beautiful, like zomboid said , sort of Jacek Yerka meets T.Gilliam. I think they've got my money.