Warcraft III

[Prometheus]

I wasn't overly thrilled with Warcraft III's single player missions either, Tage. They were good, but didn't feel quite so inspired I guess. Let me know when you're ready to try War3 bnet out, though. I've been waiting for a teammate to play with. As I said in my review, that's where the game really begins to shine.

I've got some other things to say, but I'm starting to get the feeling that World of Warcraft is going to become big enough that it's needing it's own thread.

Has anyone else watched the new Starcraft: Ghost gameplay trailer yet?

[Fellfrosch]

So I got Warcraft 3 as an early Christmas present the other day, and ever since I've been mercilessly critiquing it yet completely unable to stop playing. It has so many problems, and yet it's so freaking fun. How does Blizzard do that?

[Prometheus]

Heh. It goes right along with your current tagline. Let me know when you guys want to try it online. I've been waiting for some good Warcraft partners.  

[Fellfrosch]

Well keep waiting, sonny; it will be a long time before any of us catch up with your level of Warcraftery.

I have to say, though, that my love for all things undead holds up admirably in this game. Yay!

[Mr_Pleasington]

I've been saving up for a new computer and if Santa is good to me this year I'll have enough for one after the holidays.  Can you guess what my first game purchase will be?

God, I love Warcraft!

Did anyone besides me actually play the original?  It might just be nostalgia speaking, but in some aspects it outshone even its sequel. What a hoot!

It's  hard to deny that Blizzard just makes good, fun games.

[Tage]

I played the original when it first came out. I'd been hooked on the whole RTS thing by Dune 2, and when I saw a fantasy RTS I was pretty excited about it. Things have changed a lot since then, but WC3 does a nice job of bringing in some of the nostalgiac elements (and elementals) of the original.

[Prometheus]

I tried the original, but it was after I'd played Warcraft II for a bit, and it was too clunky to use...sort of like going back to II after playing III. And when I said good Warcraft III partners, I was referring to something far more than sheer playing skill. I meant that you guys would have a brain. Seriously, after playing a few hundred games with random partners pulled from somewhere or other off the Internet, it helps. A lot. I have an account called TraningAcademy other than my ClanWolf primary account I use to brush up my skills after not playing for a while so I don't mess up ClanWolf's record, so anytime you guys want to try a team game, I'm good for it.

[Mr_Pleasington]

I've got to second that, Prometheus.  There's no video game experience quite as fun as Battlenet with friends.  I was an RA (Residential Advisor) for a couple years back in undergrad.  That meant a few late nights a month where I would have to patrol the hall and make sure it wasn't burning, etc.  Anyway, when they finally got the whole campus networked a bunch of us RAs would play Starcraft all night long while on duty.  We'd take on all comers and man was it a good time.  

If there's one thing I learned by playing all those games online, its this:  Beware the Red Zerg.  

Seriously.

[Fellfrosch]

I've been having trouble with the Orcs--they're a lot harder to play, I think, than the defensive Humans or the efficient Undead. Can those of you with more experience offer some advice?

[Tage]

Just endure your way through the campaigns. They're not really that hard, if you just build a lot of guys, but they're not very exciting. And orcs were my least favorite race. Their ending cinematic, however, was the best one in the whole game.

[Fellfrosch]

Here's a tip I've found to be quite helpful: a full group of one raiders supported by a Kodo Beast can really tear towns apart. I'm still not certain that 12 raiders are better than 12 catapults for pure city-bashing, but they're more versatile and much faster.

[Prometheus]

Any advice we gave would be dependent on the units the given mission allows you to use, so it's hard to hand it out in any general sort of way. Feel free to ask if you get stuck, though. And don't panic at the beginning of that one Orc mission. (That was really helpful, huh?)

[Mr_Pleasington]

Here's a quickie... I'm on dial up (free through school) and I'm keen on playing WC3 on Bnet as I just ordered a new computer (yeah!).  Now Diablo 2 played extremely well over dial up, far beyond my expectations in fact.  Does anyone else play WC3 on dial up?  Is it worthwhile or an exercise in frustration?

[Fellfrosch]

I honestly can't say, since all I have is sweet, sweet broadband. Starcraft always worked great on dial-up, though, so maybe this is the same.

[Prometheus]

Blizzard is pretty good about keeping their games somewhat less connection intensive than most. I can't be sure either since I have a cable modem at home, but I seem to remember chatting with folks that claimed to be able to play Warcraft III fine over a 56K modem line. The big problem you'll run into is that getting thrown out of a game is a death sentence for your time in that game. There's no way back. It used to be, however, that getting disconnected always caused a loss, and I believe that a recent patch changed that so that if your team pulled through anyway you get a win instead. I haven't played WC3 enough since the patch to really know.

I'm getting back from Mexico tomorrow night, although I'm not entirely certain how we're going to get back to Provo from the airport yet. Is anyone almost ready for some light WC3 bnet action? I'd like to play soon.