Saturday, January 03, 2009

Starcraft: the one thing I'd take to a deserted island

There are few games so perfect that after years of playing it you can pick it up and still find it fascinating. Starcraft is one of those games. Love, obsession, passion are things this game has conjured up in the ten years since its release. The Koreans still consider it the best competitive video game around. It tickles me to think that lots of kids in their teens probably haven't even heard of it, or for that matter played it... although I suppose that could be a completely wrong to assume. I remember being a young man back around Senior year of high school (the late nineties) when this game came out. I played it A LOT. Whats more you could play online (Blizzard, the games creator, basically created the online gaming experience) for free against people across the world.

I picked up a copy of the game and the expansion "Brood War" for only $20 this holiday season. I'm now hooked once again, playing through the single player campaign. Although the graphics and such are a bit dated (the plot acting is horrid on re acquaintance, although the voice acting isn't bad) they don't detract at all from the experience. Actually playing it on my 20 inch iMac feels pretty good. I was using a 14-15 inch CRT back in high school. Maybe by the time I've tired once again of Starcraft I'll be ready to move to Starcraft II which is coming out in 2009 (ten years after the first).

2 comments:

1zero1 said...

If they EVER release Starcraft 2!! But, like you I still love firing up Starcraft time to time. After playing WoW for about a year, going back to Starcraft I was amazed at just how simple the development trees are. I agree the graphics are dated, but they play fast on any machine now. :)

robottaway said...

Yeah good point, I can remember a time (on a Pentium 75) where they didn't play so fast ;)

BTW check out http://www.starcraft2forum.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=33 they've got a great forum going on SC/SC2.