Starcraft 2 Brutally Beaten?

If your name is Marisse stop reading here.

When I got Starcraft 2 I wanted it to be a challenge.  I figured playing it on hard mode would be difficult… so I went with Brutal.  Holy fuck… it has been brutal (who didn’t see that one coming?!)

I had been trying strategy after strategy and took a week off from it because I was sick of dying.  It took forever just to get past 40% (on the timer) and then I was stuck around 95 – 98%.  I refined the strat and at 2 am…

I had expected to get the Sarah Kerrigan (human) portrait unlocked only to find out that beating the final mission put me at 28 / 29 completed missions.  I checked the achievement and found a mission called “Piercing The Shroud”.

It’s a SECRET FUCKING MISSION!

After a certain point in the game you can’t go back and pick up new missions (unless you have some old saves).  I don’t have some old saves.  My only saving grace is that you can choose the difficulty on each mission.  I’ll just start over on casual and play to the part where I get the secret mission activation or whatever and do it on brutal.  It really is a hassle though /le sigh.

I’ll probably take this opportunity to complete a bunch of the achievements in the single player.  See if I can get ‘em all knocked out but replaying the same missions over and over is the suck.

My 1v1 is at 65% win ratio though!  That’s pretty good for as sparring as I play.  I’m in the platinum league and I think I can hit Diamond if I put a little more effort into it.

Starcraft Zombie

I think it’s Thursday… I’m not sure.  I got SC2 at 12am on Tuesday (ie. late Monday night).  Since then I’ve had a crazy busy work schedule working almost 14 hrs on Tuesday and then 16 hrs on Wednesday.  You add in the fact I’m going to bed late from SC2 and I’ve had about 8 hrs of sleep since Monday.

It’s great.

On the plus side… SC2 single player is amazing.  Tons of people talked about how they have beaten it already but I’m struggling with it.

There’s 4 levels of difficulty, easy, normal, hard, and brutal.  I’m a decent SC2 player (was diamond league back in beta) so I figured I’d play it on brutal difficulty.  It’s tearing my ass up.  It’s taken me 3+ tries on most of the missions trying to figure out how best to beat it plus get the achievements.

That’s right Marisse… I’m going for nerd points in Starcraft 2!

I was gonna try to cook Tuesday but then I had a managers meeting that took all day (cuz of the drive to and from).  Then Wednesday I had to pull a double due to employee’s calling in and tonight Betsy is cooking so I’m relegated to Friday afternoon (I work Friday night at the other job OMG).

Back to the point though… SC2.

The single player has/is been more than I expected.  There’s only like 26 missions which I was kind of sad about but if you are playing on the appropriate difficulty level (one that doesn’t let you breeze through it) then it’ll take awhile to beat it.  The cut scenes and the storyline are great.  The AI has been intelligent enough to switch strategies and build the right counter units or to make timing attacks.  I’m very pleased with the game and I highly recommend it if you even mildly like RTS.

Starcraft 2

Starcraft 2 is currently being installed and is at 90%.  I wanted to post to let you know I might be taking a slight hibernation from posting but I’ll try to do it while I’m at work.  I got the collector’s edition and just finished oogling the art book and reading the user manual.  I have to be up for work in 8hrs which kind of sucks but that’s 8hrs of playtime!  If I wasn’t going to Blizzcon this year I would take a vacation day or two to try and get the SC2 out of my system.

I can totally hold off on the multiplayer since I’ve been doing it since beta started but it’s the first person campaign that has me jonesing for my SC love!  I’m glad my DVD drive is even holding up for the installation.  It’s been making a nice grinding noise lately like maybe it’s going to blow chunks and die.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed on it living just a weeeeeee bit longer.

Almost done installing so I gotta go.  I have to get some snacks and be ready for the session.  I have my bedpan and soda and Cheeto’s ready.

Xeonio over and out.

Starcraft 2 VODs [Update]

Since I quit playing WoW I’ve had time to *gasp* play other video games, namely Starcraft 2.  I’ve been scouring around looking for decent Starcraft 2 blogs and haven’t found any.  I guess… maybe… its not something people write about except when they are doing an article on strategy or something stupid.  Oh well.

I have found several commentators though that upload videos to Youtube and it has been really awesome.  Here’s the list of commentators I’ve found and a link to their youtube channel.  If you know of any decent SC2 blogs or other commentators let me know and I’ll add ‘em to the list.

Update:  Beta phase 2 has recently started and we are only 12 days from the actual release of the game.  I’ve found several more commentators since then and watched some of them quite (or migrate to other places).  I wanted to update the list and share it with you all.

VOD = Video On Demand

Commentators
1.  Starcraft Legacy:  Commenting is done mainly by Crota and SaharaDrac, both members of the SCLegacy website.  They have recently moved to a new youtube channel and the link has been updated.  They also upload the random videos that get released by Blizzard so it’s a good way to keep up with what’s going on.  I highly recommend their website.

2.  Husky Starcraft:  My personal favorite of all the commentators I’ve found.  Great voice that carries the action well and keeps it moving.  Offers decent advice and explains what is going on.  Most of the games posted are of pro quality and it really helps to give you an insight on what you should be doing.  Often does dual commentaries with HD Starcraft.  Update:  Got approved for Google Ads so now you get to deal with those wonderful popups or watch commercials when you startup his videos.

3.  HD Starcraft:  A decent commentator that can get on your nerves a bit if you are easily annoyed by improper english (eg. more better).  He does keep the pace moving decently and like Husky offers insight into what is going on and possible alternatives to what they should have done.  Most games posted are of pro quality and often does dual commentaries with Husky Starcraft.  Update:  Got approved for Google Ads so now you get to deal with those wonderful popups or watch commercials when you startup his videos.

4.  Mancatcher:  I’m hesitant to even list this one.  His commentating is… colorful and often not safe for work or children.  He’s easily distracted and goes off into rants.  If you are desperate for commentating on SC2 video’s then you might check him out, just know you’ve been warned about the language.  Update:  I deleted him from my list quite some time ago.  The language was just too much for me.  I just checked and he does still upload videos.

5.  BlizShouter:  This is the channel for Crota one of the content staff members for SCLegacy.com.  Good, decent commentator.
“Crota is probably one of the most knowledgeable of the SC YT commentators IMO.” – Gradius

6.  SaharaDrac:  This is the channel for, dun dun dun, SaharaDrac.  He is another of the content staff members for SCLegacy and a lot of his videos are uploaded to their that channel as well.  His opening commentary is usually a bit dry but it’s overall pretty good.
“Sahara probably has the most entertaining commentaries when it comes to SC2.” – Gradius

7.  Day[9]:  Day[9] is not only a progamer but he’s also a procommentator.  The link for him is to his page on Team Liquid’s website.  He does commentaries, strategy, teaching… you name it he does it.  Tons of great information to be found here.

8.  AskJoshy:  I found him more recently and it was a great find.  He has a very calm and relaxed voice but it’s not so laid back you fall asleep.  He’s less frantic than HD or Husky.  Highly recommended.  I also just found out he does a gaming blog that might be worth a good read.

9.  iCCup TV:  iCCup TV is a popular series of tournies ran by… I’m not sure who.  The VODs on this site are the live commentaries done on their games.  Some of them are good (the ones with AskJoshy or Makh) and some of them are not so good (the ones that have multiple commentators).

10.  Makh Starcraft:  I recently found his channel (read: as in literally just now when I’m writing this post) but I’ve heard several of his commentaries via the iCCup TV channel.  Decent voice, not overly exuberant, definitely recommended watching.  Makh has his own website and uses some of his VODs to explain different strategies and such.  They aren’t labeled but the fact they exist is always a good thing.

11.  PsyStarcraft:  His are the games that I watch when I don’t have anyone else to watch.  If you like ManCatcher you will probably like PsyStarcraft because he reminds me of a semi censored version of him.  He does post often though and it’s always nice to have more SC2 to watch!

Retired: Adding a retired section for youtube channels that have videos but are no longer adding new ones.

1.  Perfectionist Emblem:  He did quite a bit of Warcraft 3 commentary and moved to Starcraft 2 when it came out.  His VODs for SC2 though have no actual commentary, they are just him playing.  He disappeared and haven’t seen him in quite some time.

2.  Diggity:  I really like his voice for commentating.  He has been on a hiatus for about two months due to IRL and said he’d be back in August.

3.  Starcraft Scientist:  I checked it out and its mainly little bits of things you can do and such.  The “science” behind it.  Some useful stuff for those looking for a bit more specific information.  Hasn’t posted anything in quite some time and I don’t expect him back anytime soon.  Especially with the nature of his video’s being a bit off the track of what most of us are looking for (which is SC2 VODs).

4.  Total Halibut and theEmperor:  Has a great british voice that casts very well.  He got into World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta and hasn’t posted anything SC2 related in quite some time.  Does have some decent videos though that are highly recommended.
“They do this sports style commentating. I love how they mix together. And the British character applied is just awesome.” -GnaReffotsirk

5.  SC2GG Rise:  Gets easily excited and often causes me to turn my speakers up or down.  His voice is a bit nasal and offsetting to me personally but he is quite popular.  He hasn’t posted anything since beta phase 1 went down so waiting on an update from him.

Quotes are from people on the Starcraft Legacy forums that helped me compile this list.

Hope you find this info helpful and get to eat up some more Starcraft 2 info!

Originally posted 4.16.10
Updated on 7.15.10

SC2 – Immortals, true to their name

If you haven’t played Starcraft then you might not know some basics about it.  Most important it is a type of game known as an RTS or Real Time Strategy game.  RTS’ take you out of the one among many and put you in the seat of the general (read: you become Arthas).  Through a balance of defense and offense you kill your opponents forces and eventually destroy him.  Very… chess like… easy to learn, hard to master.

Well… I say easy to learn but it can be difficult when you are going up against people that wipe your nOOb smear off the face of the galaxy.  Up until recently I had been playing Zerg (alien race, hive mind, think borg like) and getting somewhat owned.  I switched to the Protoss (alien race, but technologically advanced… units are expensive but pack more of a punch) because they are essentially, easier to learn.

The games units are balanced on a rock / paper / scissors mentality.  For example the Protoss have a base unit known as a zealot, simply an infantry unit while the Zerg have a counter unit known as the Roach that eats them up pretty well.  The Protoss counter to Roachs could be a unit known as a Stalker OR they can tech up and get Immortals.

• Teching / Tech Up: Making buildings that allow you to construct the next tier of units.  Zealot tier 1, Stalker tier 2, Immortal tier 3.

This post is about the Immortal though so let me get back on track.  Immortals are relatively expensive but they are a beast of a unit.  Their base attack is 20 BUT the kicker is that they do an ADDITIONAL 30 damage to armored units.  This makes them a counter (any unit that trumps another unit for one reason or another) to any unit that has the armor type, armored.  Most units are armored (including themselves).

They get even stronger when you find out they have a special type of shielding known as hardened shields.  Hardened shields reduce any damage done to them to 10.  That means that any unit that might hit them back for 10+… is reduced to 10 damage (as long as the Immortal has shields up).  This can be… devastating.  The counter to a unit like this would be any unit that doesn’t have the armored type or has low damage and fast attack (hydralisks, zerlings, marines).  The problem being that the bread and butter units of the races are armored (protoss: stalkers, zerg: roaches, terrans: marauders).

I’m just saying the Immortals are powerful as fuck.  Sadly, I’m a mediocre player at best so I don’t know how the top end players are doing versus them.  I know they have a weakness to air but so far I’ve won every match that I’ve played as Protoss just by massing Immortals and Zealots.

Side Note:  Anyone playing Starcraft or SC2 beta needs to understand the game is about mixing units and countering the units your opponent makes.  You don’t mass one unit and use them to win victory.  You mix one unit say Immortals and another unit that helps against their weakness which would be Stalkers (for the anti air support) and Zealots (to tank while the Immortals eat them).

I’m just bitching because Immortals seem so powerful with their bonus damage to armored units.  I was in the same place a few days ago when Marauders were eating my Roaches, cuz Marauders have a bonus damage to armored (just not as big).  Now I’m playing with Immortals who eat Marauders!

Here’s a final screenshot of some Colossi eating some stuff.