Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (Mac/PC DVD-ROM)

As an on-and-off player of Real Time Strategy games, I hadn't really taken an interest in StarCraft II. However, after watching some multiplayer games just prior to launch, I decided it looked a lot of fun and picked it up.The part that actually stands out most for me is the single player campaign. There were obviously some concerns regarding the fact that this is only the first of three parts of the StarCraft II storyline, but Blizzard have more than justified this decision. Rather than the 10 missions of "Kill the other team" that I have come to expect from RTS games, there are 26 missions, all of which feel noticeably different. Without spoiling too much, they vary from an intense "defend the base against waves of enemies" to a train robbery, to saving settlements from enemy hit squads while trying to shut down the shields of an initially invulnerable spaceship that is also threatening you, to a prison breakout in which you control just a sniper, to a mission in which you must frequently move your base to avoid an oncoming danger.Interspersing these missions are beautiful cutscenes and sequences on your ship where you can chat to your crew and purchase upgrades and research to improve your units. These are also very well done, and accompanied by some excellent songs, both unique creations alongside fantastic covers of well-known songs in an appropriate "Space Western" style.Outside of the single player, there is the well-known aspect that has made StarCraft of past the "National Sport of Korea" - it's finely honed multiplayer. I was obviously very apprehensive about jumping in, but luckily the game offers a wide variety of AI skill levels to practice against, as well as the option to team up with a friend or a random player and play a team game against an AI level of your choice.Once I actually got into the multiplayer, I found it incredibly satisfying, from the tactical, chess-like battles of 1-on-1 to the manic nature of 4-on-4 and 4-8 player free-for-alls. When you start, you get up to 50 "Practice games" with beginner settings against other beginners if you want them, but I only played four. After that, you play five placement matches which determine which league you are put into. I have found the system thereafter, which adjusts your position based on results (which can include you changing leagues where appropriate), to be excellent. It achieves Blizzard's aim of players winning around 40-60% of their games perfectly, as almost every player I have looked up is in that ratio.The multiplayer gameplay itself feels incredibly well-balanced, and Blizzard have been updating and patching frequently since launch to ensure that any units or tactics which are overused are modified slightly to bring them in line with everything else. The game is incredibly easy to pick up, challenging to get to a high level, and near impossible to master. My only slight gripe is the lack of LAN play, but this isn't the end of the world and I wouldn't put it past Blizzard to patch it into the game in the future. If you haven't gotten into a Blizzard game yet, I highly recommend you do so with StarCraft II.

After purchasing this game, installing it and waiting approximately one hour for 14GB of data to update the game and then being asked to upgrade to the full game for only £16.99 or whatever it was I can only say to the software developers, Blizzard, stick it up your a***.I have looked everywhere on the internet for solutions, changed the password on battle net etc tried everything.After the installation the game reverts to the starter edition and prevents you from playing the full game, including online.Blizzard you are as much use as an handbrake on a canoe.This is definitely not the sellers fault. Some people have no problems whatsoever with the game.

I played the original when I was young and loved it. The sequel doesn't disappoint. You build buildings, produce units and attack the other team. Unlike Command and Conquer (C&C) where you don't have such tight unit control and the buildings tend to be tougher SC2 is all about micro control of units.Fun at first this is meant to differentiate the men from the boys in allowing it not simply to be a resource game i.e. whoever has the most units wins. I say men from boys because it is the boys who win hands down at this. I say fun at first because the men with day jobs die as is appropriate as they have jobs to go to in the morning. Unless of course playing computer games is your job which is not as uncommon as you might thing for SC2 with a big Korean/US and European gaming community.Honestly this is a really great game that rewards your skill and ability if you are prepared to put everything on hold but is still great for novices who just want to enjoy the great game play or the nostalgia like me. And the careful balancing means you will be playing people of your own ability - or you can play the single player campaign which is not an after thought but genuinely entertaining.Definitely try it you like this sort of thing. This and SC1 are probably one of the "great" games in the pantheon of game history - it was genuinely something new when it first came out.

I have been playing starcraft since I was introduced to it by a friend in 1999. Since the early 2000's, I have always said that starcraft was the most balanced RTS game I've ever played. So when I saw starcraft 2 was available for pre-order, I couldn't wait. As as I started playing the campaign I new I wasn't going to be hooked.The first thing that annoyed me was the hotkeys. Most of them have changed since the previous starcraft game, which makes it confusing when trying to build lot's of stuff fast. I never got used to them.The second thing that I didn't like was the lag. Because this game is very graphically heavy, you need a good graphics card to be able to play it without any stuttering. My old laptop didn't have a powerful enough graphics card to play it smoothly, however after buying a new £500 laptop, I managed to sort it.Apart from those minor discrepancies, I guess it's a good game. The campaign story line is good, the mechanics are good, the multiplayer UMS games are good. However, I much prefer starcraft 1. After completing the starcraft 2 campaign, and playing a few online games, I soon went back to starcraft 1. I feel much more comfortable with it, and I find it more enjoyable and playable.I'm sure lot's of people would disagree with me on this, but I'm afraid the hype didn't live up to it's expectations. If you're not a fan of the old starcraft game, I wouldn't even recommend this.