"I've never read War and Peace, so I'd look pretty foolish trying to quote it to be classy in a blog post" - UltimateHurl
So I briefly mentioned in a previous post that I played Brood War. I played Protoss, because as a youth 'Oh wow they have laser blades!' made them the best, regardless of 'facts' about strengths and weaknesses. Generally I've stuck with single-player games since my NES days, because I loved a good story (Legacy of Kain series anyone?), but I got into Starcraft: Brood War in an odd way.
You have to admit, laser blades are pretty badass
Multiplayer PC games were always the realm of a specific sort of social gathering, the LAN party. A quick aside at this point: I live in Ireland, and some misconceptions exist about the Irish. We occasionally get told our English is very good for a second language and some assume we all live in farms, both incorrect assumptions, but if anyone ever imagined an Irish LAN party looked like the following they'd be right;
Well, we usually have more sickly-people, and sweets.
Far from the likes of the WCG I was raised! I grew up on the mean streets of Dublin, macroing poorly before I even knew what it was called, ignoring drunks getting sick in the Liffey at midnight as my Dragoons sort of wandered about like they didn't understand my commands.Playing against an elite group of 4 or 5 friends, and by 'elite' I of course mean 'random', we had epic games that started with "No rushing for the first ten minutes guys, I'm serious!" and ended with "That was a good 3 hour long game", or occasionally "Hey, you rushed!". Here I'll relate a few choice stories of my heyday, far from the skill-level of the iCCup ladder.
We played four-player games frequently, and I usually loved this, as short rush distances meant I could get some good units out fast enough to fight. In this particular game we each held a corner and no-one showed any aggression for the first ten minutes. Then 20. Then 30. by this time I had done what every seriously bad Starcraft player does when faced with absolutely no threat: created a fully blossomed tech-tree. I had at least 2 of ever unit, so no matter my fate the glorious Protoss race would continue!
Unfortunately everyone else did the same for their forces, and the next 3 hours, yes three hours, was spent throwing balls of units at each other to see what stuck, broken by tense cold-wars as we expanded to other bases to replenish. In one such epic clash I discovered my zealots worked well against lings, and made slightly more of those. This resulted in a swift victory over one of my opponents, as another (a Terran) defeated the fourth on our map. After 3 and a half hours I was ready to end it, so , with a newly built fleet of Carriers I blotted out the sun as I attacked his main....which was defended with missile turrets and marines. That's the reason I still (even in SC2) don't bother with Carriers, bad memories
But they still look amazing
The second tale shows how little I knew of the mechanics of the game at these early stages. Another 4v4, this time with SirJolt, who was only marginally more experienced than me at the time. As the game starts SirJolt, being a good friend and what-not sends an 'allies' request, which I dutifully accepted. We then built our armies, he made 10 control groups worth of zerglings and hydras, and I made... photon cannons, lots, all around my base. As mine was the base closest to the enemy I felt we needed good solid defense, and didn't think a thing of him marching all his units into my base. Then they started attacking my units. I tried to fight back in vain, it transpires that the peace we brokered was broken on one side, and in my panic I had not backed out of it, so all my units were blissfully staring at their allies, destroying my base
Still, photon cannons are pretty sweet, right? Protoss have style if nothing else.
I've always enjoyed Starcraft, but rarely got the chance to play it, as a result I actually forgot the quality of the graphics, and though the leap from BW to SC2 was a lot less than it was.
Those that say BW graphics are ugly are rather !@#$%^&*() people. It is timeless, like those classic cars or antique stuff or like classical music. Both sc and sc2 graphics are pretty.
On July 20 2011 21:42 Black[CAT] wrote: Those that say BW graphics are ugly are rather !@#$%^&*() people. It is timeless, like those classic cars or antique stuff or like classical music. Both sc and sc2 graphics are pretty.
Yes, like Deus Ex, bad graphics, good game. I don't mind BW, I just find it insanely hard to play now (BW is popular at school right now). I'm so spoiled, thank you sc2
LOL he backstabbed you hahahaha Laser blades are indeed awesome. I remember reading somewhere they were powered by their rage/anger or something (might be wrong) and then i remember that short clip where that zealot's psi blade runs out of powers
On July 20 2011 21:42 Black[CAT] wrote: Those that say BW graphics are ugly are rather !@#$%^&*() people. It is timeless, like those classic cars or antique stuff or like classical music. Both sc and sc2 graphics are pretty.
I'd never call them ugly, actually the opposite, my imagination filled in the missing details. I remember Carriers looking as detailed as they look in SC2 in BW. Was shocked to see the screenshot comparisons, such an upgrade, but love the older style too
On July 20 2011 21:45 Hyde wrote: LOL he backstabbed you hahahaha Laser blades are indeed awesome. I remember reading somewhere they were powered by their rage/anger or something (might be wrong) and then i remember that short clip where that zealot's psi blade runs out of powers
Hahaha, I started BW as Protoss coz i liked Dragoons O.O! Their blades are powered by their psi. That clip was Fenix in the BW campaign.
On July 20 2011 21:42 Black[CAT] wrote: Those that say BW graphics are ugly are rather !@#$%^&*() people. It is timeless, like those classic cars or antique stuff or like classical music. Both sc and sc2 graphics are pretty.
Yes, like Deus Ex, bad graphics, good game. I don't mind BW, I just find it insanely hard to play now (BW is popular at school right now). I'm so spoiled, thank you sc2
I've the same difficulty, just been spoiled by SC2's extra bits. No automining, or displaying which control-groups are assigned threw me completely, loved watching Day[9]'s Funday Monday on SC2 BW though
BW and WC2 graphics made a call to our imagination. Everyone saw portraits or units in different ways and that's what made these graphics so great. It brings nostalgia when you remember how wrong you were looking at certain units when you were young and I think this is a big reason why I'll always love BW <3.
On July 20 2011 22:19 gameguard wrote: back in 1996 or whatever my partner and i thought our dual 2gate rush was invincible. Thats all we did for god knows how long lol.
I actually regret not having replays from the old days, if only to be able to see if I ever, even accidentally, looked like I knew what a build order might be
On July 21 2011 06:00 Atom Cannister wrote: We'll go retro soon man. SC2 soon by the way, sorry for my wretched unavailability of late.
Oh, I'm semi-prepared, I got the Starcraft battlechest when I was in the US, with a guide! I'll be a pro in no time! No worries on the unavailability, just means you haven't noticed how busy I've been
On July 20 2011 21:45 Hyde wrote: LOL he backstabbed you hahahaha
I find the back is the best place to stab people; knives rest right in there
I sometimes miss the old days of utter ineptitude. Nostalgia, perhaps, but sometimes it seemed like such a voyage of discovery to just feel out tech trees in RTS games I wasn't used to.
Though I play Protoss in SC2 because of the lasers, I prefer Terran when I play Brood War because it looks so cool. Protoss looks so... uncool in Brood War, you know? But other than that, good blog.
On July 20 2011 21:45 Hyde wrote: LOL he backstabbed you hahahaha
I find the back is the best place to stab people; knives rest right in there
I sometimes miss the old days of utter ineptitude. Nostalgia, perhaps, but sometimes it seemed like such a voyage of discovery to just feel out tech trees in RTS games I wasn't used to.
TF2 has taught me nothing else Have sort of saved Company of Heroes for times when I want to experience exactly that tech-tree discovery, pained me to hear every Red Alert after 2 was exponentially less cool
On July 21 2011 10:53 edc wrote: Though I play Protoss in SC2 because of the lasers, I prefer Terran when I play Brood War because it looks so cool. Protoss looks so... uncool in Brood War, you know? But other than that, good blog.
As Essbee says the imagination involved means everyone sees the a little differently, Terrans always had a solid chunky look to me, but they were just humans!
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