I can say unequivocally that the Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty singleplayer campaign is the best solo realtime strategy experience I’ve ever played. The issue with RTS games is that because you play the game from a distance, zoomed out from any one particular character, it’s very hard to pull off character development with the game’s storyline. Most games try to build character relations by showing the player story elements between missions, usually through cutscenes, but when you get to gameplay you’re unattached as a result of the top-down gameplay. Units are just cannon fodder you send into battle to take a base or complete an objective. For the most part SC2’s gameplay is the same way, but Blizzard has gone above-and-beyond during the interstitial segments to ensure that you’re well-informed about what’s happening in the game’s universe and what the purpose of the current mission is. Sure you get cinematics, but you can also move around and talk to different characters to learn their backstories and motivations as well as watch news feeds to see some of the impact your latest mission had on the world around you. On top of that there are multiple missions where you’re actually controlling JUST main characters from the story while they interact via voice dialogue. Through this combination I was able to stay well-informed and actually cared about the characters in the game’s campaign.

It should also be noted that Wings of Liberty is the first of 3 Starcraft 2 campaigns, this one is focused on the Terran race’s plight and the next two will focus on Zerg and Protoss respectively. I feel like Wings of Liberty really wrapped up a lot of the main conflict in the storyline so I’m interested to see how the other two campaigns work. Will they show the same conflict but from a different point-of-view, or will they show the outcome of what happened in Wings of Liberty? We shall see.

Of course the singleplayer aspect of Starcraft 2 is probably the lesser component in most people’s eyes, with the bulk of the focus landing on multiplayer via Battle.net. I’ve had some time to play a few co-op “comp stomps” as well as some 3 on 3 ranked play so I feel comfortable sharing a little bit about my experiences with that portion of the game. I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to structure this part of the post as there are a TON of different elements to talk about, but here goes.

I must first preface my Starcraft 2 multiplayer discussion by saying that, in certain parts of the world, Starcraft multiplayer is not a game or hobby, it is a sport. Korea is well-known for their love of the game and they’ve elevated it to a spectator sport. Us Americans watch football, they watch Starcraft 2 competitive tournaments (as well as many other sports, I’m sure). I always sort of mocked this idea but lately I’ve actually started watching some of the tournaments and I have to say they’re pretty entertaining. I’ll still take my Buffalo Bills and the NFL overall but given the choice between watching hockey or a Starcraft 2 tournament I’d probably take Starcraft 2.

Anyways, now that you can see that there is an ever-growing community of folks that take their Starcraft 2 multiplayer very seriously, I must address the concern that most new players have when approaching the multiplayer component of Starcraft: competitive difficulty. Can someone completely new to SC2 compete in multiplayer? To be honest, not really. You’re going to lose. In fact, you’re probably going to lose a lot. However, Blizzard has created a robust system on Battle.net to match players based on skill level which mitigates the pain a little, and at least you’ll learn from your failed attempts as with any aspect of life.

Let me also say that back in the day I used to play a lot of competitive Starcraft: Brood War. I was never awesome at it but I felt that I had a reasonable skill set that served me well enough to at least be reasonably imposing. The same is not true for Starcraft 2. It could very well be that I’m simply out of practice or more likely that strategies for online multiplayer have evolved significantly since I last played the original Starcraft, but to say I’m not a big threat online would be an understatement.

The good news is that some of the folks who I played the original Starcraft multiplayer with are now playing Starcraft 2, and not only has Blizzard made an exceptional friends system (it even includes Facebook integration, so you can find your real-life friends that play Starcraft 2 and add them to your list), but said friends from the glory days are much better than I am. What that means is that when I play with them in a 3v3 skirmish I can learn by watching (as well as pick up strategies from the official tournament play I’ve seen) and they’ll usually pick up the slack for my ineptitude. With that huge list of caveats and warnings out of the way I can state that, even in defeat, I find Starcraft 2 multiplayer extremely fun.

It might just be my love of all realtime strategy games but there are few more-exciting experiences in gaming (to me) than the rush of trying to build up a defensive base and army faster than my competitors and beating them with strategy. There’s a thrill associated with knowing you’re about to be attacked at any moment and you need to ward off the offenders but you’re running out of resources so you need to meet their army halfway (etc.). It’s actually very hard to describe other than to say, like all realtime strategy multiplayer, Starcraft 2’s is thrilling. SC2 has the added benefit of being extremely well-balanced. All three of the playable races from the game (Terran, Zerg, Protoss) vary greatly in their play style but at the same time no one of the three has a great advantage over the other 2. A great Zerg player can beat a great Protoss player, a great Terran player can beat a great Zerg player and so on and so forth.

Additionally, there’s an added element of fun I find with improving my game. Sure I might play 2 games back to back and get beaten both times, but maybe I improved in some way the second time around so that my skill set continues to advance. Ultimately I might become proficient at the game, who knows, but for the time being I’m having fun being cannon fodder for my friends while they bare the bulk of the enemy’s burden. Again, it’s hard to quantify exactly why I am enjoying Starcraft 2’s multiplayer, and the joy I’m experiencing may be fleeting, but at the moment I can say that I can’t wait to finish this post so that I can go play some more.

To wrap up this epic post I’m going to jump on the bandwagon and say that Starcraft 2 is the greatest realtime strategy game I’ve ever played. Company of Heroes is a close competitor that brought many new ideas to the table, and I still love that game quite a bit, but SC2 is where it’s at. A lot of folks have criticized it for being a modified and enhanced version of Starcraft that is fundamentally unchanged and yes, I’d agree. However, where this game shines is in the polish. Every aspect of the game has been improved in some way. In some cases the enhancements are minor, but in others they are grandiose. I dare any naysayer to go back and play the original Starcraft singleplayer campaign and tell me Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty isn’t much better.

There is another group of folks criticizing the game for being only 1/3rd of the Starcraft 2 story (as I mentioned, Wings of Liberty is the first of three campaigns) and that the game is an incomplete product. I feel that it is certainly a complete experience. The story and gameplay found in Wings of Liberty land in an extremely satisfying way and it took me well over 10 hours to complete. I will say that I hope the other two campaigns are cheaper, as Wings of Liberty provided both the singleplayer and multiplayer experiences for $60 while the other two games will probably only have singleplayer components. With that said I have no problems recommending Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty to anyone with an interest in the realtime strategy genre. I’ll see you on Battle.net!

My initial idea is to try and put out a text-based blog post everyday. The topics will generally regard tech or gaming as the blog is billed in this site’s header, and hopefully I can spur some discussion in the form of comments from time to time. To say that this is an idealistic goal would be putting it lightly, but if I keep the posts brief I don’t think it’s entirely out of the realm of possibility. If all goes to plan my first post will appear this coming Sunday and you can check back daily after that.

See you soon!

The shows are genuinely funny even if you’re not a fan of web comics, and I find that the series, as an uncompleted whole, is a great example of how to run a budding business while maintaining the respect of your customers and keeping your employees happy.

Unfortunately they don’t allow embeds of the show but you can check it out for yourself at this link. Feel free to check out one of the “Blamimations” created by Scott Kurtz of PVP and Kris Straub of Starslip while you’re there. My favorites are the ones that include Night Driver, so I’d recommend episodes 1 and 4.

Believe it or not I’d say that I’ve used my iPad as much or more that my laptop or desktop for daily computing. Since it’s small and light enough to literally take everywhere, I find it’s just easier to browse the web, check my email and even do things like IM with the iPad. The display is awesome for all applications so I always have a great viewing experience, and much to my surprise typing with the virtual keyboard is a breeze (I’m using it to write this post in the iPad WordPress app). In fact, when the device is in landscape mode I can basically touch-type, and even if I do make a mistake it gets corrected automatically 9 times out of 10.

Watching movies, reading books and listening to music on the ipad are all great experiences. In fact I’d have to say that the iPad is the ultimate content consumption device on the market. One of the biggest surprises I had while first using it was the quality of the built-in speakers. They’re totally listenable and I never felt the need to plug in headphones while listening to music, playing games or watching video.

Another happy surprise was the battery life. When Steve Jobs said you could get 10 hours out of this thing most people expected that would be a best-case scenario and actually expected more like 8. That’s not the case though, the iPad lasts a very long time and if you’re only using it lightly it could easily last multiple days.

All that being said the iPad isn’t perfect. First off I think the pricing for apps has been inflated a little too much. I came from the iPhone app store where I was used to paying 5 dollars at most for applications, but on the iPad 10 or 15 dollars is the norm. I think the higher prices are somewhat a result of apple themselves pricing the iWork apps at $10 each, and I’d even say the iWork apps are worth that, but there are several apps that were mostly ported from the iPhone priced just as high. I’m hoping that the marketplace will somewhat self-regulate over time, but as of right now the pricing is unrealistic.

I also wish the app store in general had an official trial system. As I mentioned on twitter, spending 0.99 cents on a bad iPhone app is one thing, spending $15 for a bad iPad app is another. If I could preview apps, even if just for a matter of hours, my experience with buying apps would be much more pleasant.

Additionally, The iBook store doesn’t have nearly as many titles as I wish it did. I’ve already searched for 3 different titles that weren’t available yet. I’m sure this will be remedied in the future, and there are alternatives like the Amazon Kindle app, but it’s still slightly annoying.

In the end I think the iPad does signal a change, or as Steve Wozniak put it a reboot of computing devices. Using this thing is fun, easy and it just makes sense for 90% of my daily computing tasks. It’s the perfect device for any casual user and would probably serve well as their primary computer, and it’s an excellent netbook or even laptop replacement for power users. I am a total geek and I use it for several hours a day everyday, and aside from being able to do development work it meets all of my needs. Plus, as developers get a better handle on creating iPad applications in the future it’ll only get better and become even more useful.

When I started this whole experiment I assumed that giving up Facebook would be the hardest part.  Cutting ties with all of the people I know in real life?  That has to be worse than giving up people I’ve probably never met.  That said, I have to say, keeping away from Twitter was as struggle!  Everyone has a twitter page these days and that tends to be what they want to plug 9 out of 10 times.  Do you want to hear what “so-and-so” is up to these days?  You better be on Twitter!

Personally I’m shocked by this development.  I  never would have thought I’d be more secure with folks on Twitter than I would be with others, whom I know, on Facebook.

It’s hard to recommend Hunger unless you’re interested in the conflict in Northern Ireland in the early 80’s, and to be honest it’s probably one of those movies that I’ve seen once but won’t watch again.  It’s not a pleasant movie to watch (for a reason), but it does make you appreciate what those men went through a whole lot more.  I also appreciate that the movie is presented matter-of-factly, and tries its best to stay out of the way with rhetoric.  When you watch Hunger you see a series of events and an occasional conversation, capped by white-on-black text explaining the situation both before and after the movie.

If you’re interested in Hunger please make sure you have a strong stomach going into it.  The last half hour or so you’re basically watching someone starve to death, which isn’t at all pleasant.  That being said if you want to know more about The Maze and prison treatment during “The Troubles” feel free to give it a look.

If you purchase the “Live at the Greek” box set you get 2 CD’s including the entire performance as well as a DVD with the video from the concert, including some bonus material.  All this can be had for only $13.  Because I’m a fan of theirs and tend to check their website every now-and-then I was able to get in early with a pre-order which included a Flogging Molly t-shirt.  So I got a shirt, a DVD and a whole live album for only $13.  Not a bad deal in my opinion!

That’s only the start though.  Their performance is a great mix of new and old material played to a loyal crowd of Flogging Molly fans, and if you’re a fan you’d love it.  However, in the same week as I received my copy, two Flogging Molly songs became available on the new “Rock Band Network” initiative for the Rock Band game platform.  The songs are “Requiem for a Dying Song” from Flogging Molly’s latest album titled “Float,” and a live performance of “Drunken Lullabies” taken from the “Live at the Greek Theatre” performance itself.  If you’re a fan of the Rock Band games and especially if you’re a fan of Flogging Molly or Irish music in general, you MUST purchase these songs.

I’ve been playing Rock Band for some time and I always somewhat joked about there being a “Folk Band” or “Folk Hero” game which included some of my favorite Irish songs.  Sure, there has been the occasional foray into the genre previously with music from the likes of Dropkick Murphys and Bob Dylan, but I’d love to get a full game dedicated to one of my favorite musical styles.  That may be a pipe-dream, but I’m hoping that if Flogging Molly gets enough love via Rock Band Network they’ll release more songs in the future, and possibly other folk acts will see a potential in the medium.

So please, if only to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, pick up the two Flogging Molly songs on Rock Band Network and have fun with them!  They’re both a good time and you’ll be supporting a worthy cause.