{"id":1455,"date":"2010-07-28T00:06:08","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T13:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vectorstorm.org\/?p=1455"},"modified":"2010-07-28T00:12:53","modified_gmt":"2010-07-27T13:12:53","slug":"starcraft-ii-the-heart-of-the-tiger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/2010\/07\/28\/starcraft-ii-the-heart-of-the-tiger\/","title":{"rendered":"StarCraft II: The Heart of the Tiger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Is it just me, or is there a whiff of the Wing Commander 3<\/a> around StarCraft 2’s single player campaign mode? \u00a0 I mean, Mission -> Cutscene -> Awkwardly composed interactive GUI with actors uncomfortably standing in front of a low-resolution static CG backdrop, where you click on the actors to talk to them until you get bored, then click on a computer to get your next mission -> Cutscene -> Mission, repeat. \u00a0(Side note: \u00a0it must take an awful lot of effort from the artists to make realtime CG look so much like poorly composited green-screen FMV from sixteen years ago.)<\/p>\n

Anyhow. \u00a0Folks who know me will not be surprised to hear that I’ve purchased StarCraft II. \u00a0 I’ve only spent about an hour with it thus far, which basically equates to running a couple of tutorials (before deciding that I didn’t really need to run those tutorials), and then doing the first three single-player missions. \u00a0This means that I’m not yet ready to pass judgement.<\/p>\n

I have a thing about RTS games. \u00a0They are games that I really, desperately want to like and be good at. \u00a0They have that “strategy” word in the genre name, which in my head translates into “games for people who are good at thinking”. \u00a0Yes, I know in my head that the RTS genre really has far more in common with Diner Dash<\/a> than with any true “thinking man’s game” (apologies to anybody who hadn’t already noticed that, and for whom I’ve now ruined RTS games forever). \u00a0But that knowledge doesn’t sway my heart. \u00a0In my heart of hearts, I yearn to be awesome at RTS games, to prove that I’m a smart person (despite all evidence to the contrary).<\/p>\n

So I always fall into this insidious little trap when a new RTS game comes out. \u00a0I hear about the game and think “gosh, that RTS game sounds really interesting, I should play that. \u00a0I bet it’ll be really interesting and lots of fun, and I’d be good at it! \u00a0I could impress my friends\/workmates\/random strangers on the Internet!” \u00a0I purchase the game, play the first five or six single-player levels, and then remember that I don’t enjoy playing RTS games, and immediately uninstall it. \u00a0You don’t want to know how many RTS games I own for which I’ve played through the first five missions and then no further. \u00a0But if you were to count up every single RTS game which has come out since the original StarCraft, you’d probably be pretty close.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned before, I’ve only played the first three missions of StarCraft 2, so I haven’t yet hit that magical fifth or sixth mission yet, where the increasing micromanagement and complexity might cause me to suddenly remember that I don’t like this type of game and ragequit. \u00a0But to be fair, the original StarCraft is the only RTS which I’ve ever played right through to the end — I even played through to the end of its Brood War expansion, although that one felt like a slog (I just wanted to know how the plot ended). \u00a0So I’m interested to see whether I stick with this sequel, which is very much the same game, only prettier.<\/p>\n

I do keep expecting to see Mark Hamill wander into those interactive screens between missions, though. \u00a0Or maybe somebody in a silly lion suit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it just me, or is there a whiff of the Wing Commander 3 around StarCraft 2’s single player campaign mode? \u00a0 I mean, Mission -> Cutscene -> Awkwardly composed interactive GUI with actors uncomfortably standing in front of a low-resolution static CG backdrop, where you click on the actors to talk to them until…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/po9WK-nt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vectorstorm.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}